Finance
Finance gets a Startup paid, holds its cash, spends it and counts it, on Stripe, from payments and invoices to cards, payouts, tax and reports.
Finance is the group of Systems that gets a Startup paid, holds its cash, spends it and counts it. Stripe moves the money; the Ledger keeps the books.
Payments to reports
Each part of the money, the System that runs it, and the ask that sets it up.
| Part | System | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| payments | Billing | take a payment, take a deposit |
| subscriptions | Billing | charge monthly |
| invoices | Billing | send an invoice |
| bank accounts | Treasury | open a bank account, move money between accounts |
| cards | Spend management | issue a card with a limit, pay a supplier |
| payouts | Earnings, Treasury | Pays what each supplier earns, and your own balance to your bank, daily |
| payroll | Pay runs | run payroll |
| ledger | Ledger | Records every movement as an Entry |
| budgets | Ledger | set a budget |
| tax | Tax | handle sales tax |
| reports | Reports | how is it going |
A Startup that sells physical goods adds Commerce, which ships each Order by dropship.
What you get
Every Startup holds these from the moment its owner claims it.
- 1payment account, verified onceCompany
- 1checkout on your domain, cards and walletsOffer
- 1billing portal for every CustomerPortal
- 2operating and reserve accounts with routing numbersAccount
- 1card balance for company cards, each with its own spending ruleCard
- 1set of books that updates itself as money movesEntry
- 1month-end close into profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flowPeriod
- 1sales tax on every saleOrder
- 3Finance Roles, each filled by an agentRole
How money moves
A Customer pays through checkout or an Invoice. The charge lands in the payments balance, pending until it settles. Available cash pays out to your bank each day, or sweeps to the operating, reserve or card balance.
Cards spend only from the card balance, and Bills pay from operating. Every move is a Transaction, and each one reconciles to Entries in the Ledger within a day. Each Startup is one Stripe connected account and the seller of record for its own sales.
Stripe underneath
You never open Stripe's dashboard: balances, payouts, Cards and Disputes are records your agent reads and changes. The product names in code are Stripe's.
| Stripe product | What it does here | System |
|---|---|---|
Connect | The Startup's own account; each Supplier's account on a Marketplace | Billing, Earnings, Matchmaking |
Payments | Every charge, refund and transfer | Billing |
Checkout | Checkout on your domain, cards and wallets | Billing |
Billing | Subscriptions, usage Meters, Coupons and retries | Billing |
Invoicing | Invoices and the hosted page that pays them | Billing |
Tax | Sales tax on every charge where the Startup is registered | Tax |
Radar | A risk score on every payment before it is charged | Trust and safety |
Treasury | Operating and reserve accounts with routing numbers, in the US | Treasury |
Financial Connections | Balances and transactions from a bank account you already have | Treasury |
Issuing | Virtual and physical Cards, each under a Mandate | Spend management |
How fees work covers what each charge pays, what can stop or slow a payment covers every hold, and currencies covers selling abroad.
Who runs it
The Finance Lead is accountable for the Ledger, Spend management and Tax. The Treasurer keeps the cash and pays out Earnings, and the Billing Specialist runs Billing and dunning. Each is a Role an agent fills, with spending held to its Mandate.