Plain-English guides, tools and checklists for UK business owners
Understand your business money before it controls your business.
Run the numbers without becoming an accountant.
You started the business to do the work, not to forecast cash or reserve for tax. This site explains the money side in plain English, one decision at a time, with the sources shown and the limits stated.
General information, not regulated financial, tax or legal advice. Some links are affiliate links and are always labelled. How we make money.
Written by Daniel, Peer-Reviewed by Experts
Daniel Mercer
I ran a small business, got the money side wrong for years, and fixed it. Every guide here is written from experience and peer-reviewed by qualified accountants and advisors.
Daniel’s storyStart where you are
Pick the sentence that sounds most like your situation.
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Full qualifying terms, exclusions and risksSound familiar?
Every guide on this site begins from a sentence a real owner would actually say.
Your accountant sends a document once a year and it may as well be in another language.
Where to startYour balance includes money that already belongs to HMRC, suppliers and next month's payroll.
Where to startIt is legal for sole traders and still a bad idea. Here is the clean-up sequence.
Where to startUseful for timing and control. Expensive if you carry a balance.
Where to startA defined chase sequence recovers most of it without confrontation.
Where to startHigh volume can hide low margins until the tax bill or a quiet month arrives.
Where to startTopic hubs
Each hub has a starting guide, the common problems in that area, a tool and a checklist.
The handful of figures that actually tell you how the business is doing.
ExploreProfit is an opinion. Cash is a fact with a date on it.
ExploreClean separation, clean records, fewer surprises at year end.
ExploreControl what leaves the account, and know why it left.
ExploreInvoicing is a system, not a favour you ask for.
ExplorePrice for the business you want, not the one you have.
ExploreHMRC is your most patient creditor, and your most expensive.
ExploreFund the opportunity, don't just borrow the money.
ExploreNeed the whole money picture?
Use the broad guide when the next decision crosses bookkeeping, cash, tax, pricing, spending, hiring or funding. It turns the eight hubs into a practical first-month sequence rather than another list of articles.
Read the UK small business finance guideFree tools
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Ten areas of financial control, scored in about five minutes.
Open toolA requirements profile, not a league table.
Open toolAn educational walkthrough. Not an approval prediction, and not advice.
Open toolFind the week your balance dips lowest, before it happens.
Open toolWork out what to move into the tax pot every time you get paid.
Open toolHow much buffer is actually enough for your business?
Open toolHow this site works
Daniel Mercer
The person behind every guide here — a business owner who learned this the hard way, not a regulated adviser.
Meet Daniel
