The one-page money calendar
Most small business money problems are really scheduling problems. Set-asides, reconciliations, and tax payments that live "in your head" get skipped; the same tasks on a calendar get done. Build a simple calendar for the coming year with four quarterly milestones and a handful of recurring dates. One page — paper or digital — is plenty.
Quarterly milestones
- Quarter-end close (4× per year). Reconcile every account, review the quarter's profit and loss, and confirm receivables are current. A mini version of Guides 1 and 2, every three months instead of once in December.
- Tax set-aside review. Check that the money you're setting aside for taxes still matches your actual income. Good quarters mean bigger set-asides; slow quarters mean you can ease off. Ask your accountant what set-aside approach fits your situation.
- Estimated/installment payment dates. If your tax system requires periodic payments toward next year's bill, put every date on the calendar now — missed installments often carry interest or penalties. Confirm the actual dates with your accountant.
- Salary and draw planning. Review how much you're paying yourself versus leaving in the business, and whether that still makes sense for the year ahead.
The recurring dates
Quarterly milestones handle the big jobs. These smaller recurring dates keep things from piling up between quarters:
- Weekly (10 minutes): photograph or file new receipts; glance at cash position.
- Monthly (30–45 minutes): full bank reconciliation; review unpaid invoices and send reminders for anything crossing its due date; categorize expenses while they're fresh.
- Quarterly (half day): the milestone review above, plus a look at whether your prices still cover your costs.
- Annually (one focused weekend): the full year-end routine from Guides 1–4, followed by building next year's calendar.
Protect the dates. The entire system fails if money admin always loses to client work. Treat these blocks like client appointments — same calendar, same seriousness.
Tax set-asides without the panic
The classic small-business shock is the first big tax bill — income that felt like spending money turns out to be partly the tax authority's. The fix is a set-aside habit: each time money comes in, move a portion into a separate account earmarked for taxes. How much depends on your jurisdiction, structure, and income level, so get a figure from your accountant rather than guessing. What matters most is the habit: money that's never in your spending account never gets accidentally spent.
A simple budgeting routine
Small business budgets don't need to be elaborate. Try this three-line version, reviewed monthly:
- Expected income this month — based on confirmed work, not hope. Be conservative.
- Fixed costs — rent, subscriptions, insurance, payroll: the bills that arrive regardless.
- Everything else — the discretionary spending that flexes with income.
If expected income minus fixed costs leaves less room than you'd like, you have a month's warning to adjust — cut discretionary spending, chase receivables (Guide 4), or push for new work. A budget that warns you early is doing its job; a perfect budget you never check isn't.
Build the calendar today
Don't close this guide without putting the first dates on an actual calendar: next month's reconciliation, the first quarter-end milestone, and one weekly receipt slot. Everything else on this site was about cleaning up this year — this page is about making sure you never have to clean up this hard again.