# Finance playbook

URL: /workflows/finance/playbook · Id: `page:workflows/finance/playbook`

> How the Finance Team keeps one true ledger, gets a Startup paid, governs every dollar going out, closes each month, and reads runway weekly.

Finance keeps one true ledger, gets the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) paid, governs every dollar going out, and says each week whether the business survives. The [Finance Team](/agents/finance) does all four with three [Roles](/business/nouns/role) and no sign-offs.

Finance in three places: [Finance Nouns](/business/nouns-and-verbs#area-finance) (the records money leaves behind) · [Finance Systems](/systems/finance) (the software that moves and counts it) · Finance Processes (the work the Finance Team runs on it, here).

## One ledger, many projections
Every [Action](/business/nouns/action) that moves money posts [Entries](/business/nouns/entry) to one double-entry ledger. Revenue, margin, MRR, and runway are projections of those Entries, never numbers someone types in.

Stripe is the rail. Each charge, fee, refund, and payout arrives as a [Transaction](/business/nouns/transaction) and counts once it reconciles to the Entries already posted. [The funds flow](/systems/finance/funds-flow) follows one dollar from card to bank.

The unit of profit and loss is the Startup, even when one [Company](/business/nouns/company) holds many. Each keeps its own books, so it can graduate to its own Company or be sold whole. Every number cites the [Policy](/business/nouns/policy) it was computed under, as [Policies](/systems/finance/policies) explains.

## Who wakes first
A new Startup runs on about four Roles, and none of them sits on the Finance Team. Until the first paid [Order](/business/nouns/order), the [Founder](/agents/founding/founder) reads cash and [Cost](/business/nouns/cost) in the weekly loop.

The first paid Order wakes the [Billing Specialist](/agents/finance/billing-specialist). The first month with revenue wakes the [Finance Lead](/agents/finance/finance-lead) to close it. The first funded [Demand Budget](/business/nouns/demand-budget) or [Supplier](/business/nouns/supplier) bill wakes the [Treasurer](/agents/finance/treasurer).

## Money coming in
[Getting paid](/systems/finance/getting-paid) covers the inbound side: charging by Order, [Subscription](/business/nouns/subscription), [Meter](/business/nouns/meter), or accepted outcome. Two rules shape it. An outcome bills only after the [Customer](/business/nouns/customer) accepts it, and access pauses only after [Dunning](/workflows/processes/billing/dunning) has run its last retry.

[Revenue recognition](/systems/finance/revenue-counting) decides which of those dollars count, and where. Outside revenue and captive revenue never share a total.

## Money going out
Every dollar out runs under three controls, and none of them is a sign-off.

| Lever | What it bounds | Who sets it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Budget](/business/nouns/budget) | How much each [Team](/business/nouns/team) may spend this month | Finance Lead, from the Founder's plan |
| [Limit](/business/nouns/limit) | How much one Role or [Mandate](/business/nouns/mandate) may move at once | Finance Lead, recorded as a [Decision](/business/nouns/decision) |
| Spend state | Which spending is allowed at all | Tripwires on runway, moved by the Treasurer |

In `FREE`, spend runs inside its budget and Limits. In `TIGHT`, only spend against a signed Mandate with an amount and an expiry goes out. In `HOLD`, only committed obligations go out: payroll, tax, and bills already owed.

Tripwires move the state on their own. By default, default alive below 1 moves a Startup to `TIGHT`, and runway under three months moves it to `HOLD`. Each move is a Decision on the record, and [the brakes](/agents/autonomy-levels/brakes) show how a state binds every Action at once.

An Action above its Limit becomes an [Approval](/business/nouns/approval) for the next Role up. Refunds, payouts, price changes, and ad spend are one-way decisions, so each also waits out a [delay window](/agents/autonomy-levels/delay-windows). Any watcher can pause, redirect, or cancel it; untouched, it proceeds.

## The finance rhythm
Most of the Finance Team's work runs on a schedule, and every Action ends in a record.

| Cadence | Work |
| --- | --- |
| Daily | [Dunning](/workflows/processes/billing/dunning) retries; [Tax filing](/workflows/processes/books/tax-filing) totals sales per jurisdiction |
| Weekly | [Default-alive check](/workflows/processes/runway/default-alive-check); spend against each budget |
| Monthly | [Monthly close](/workflows/processes/books/monthly-close) by working day 5; the unit-economics review; the investor and Founder report |
| Per deadline | Each tax return, signed by an officer of the Company |

The close reconciles every Transaction, recognizes revenue, and locks the [Period](/business/nouns/period). A locked Period never changes; a later correction posts to the open Period with a reference to the original. Each [Process](/business/nouns/process) and its [Workflows](/business/nouns/workflow) are listed under [the Finance Team's processes](/workflows/finance/processes).

Sales tax attaches to the seller, and the seller is the Company, so tax totals run across every Startup it holds. A Startup selling $40,000 into one state may owe nothing alone and owe tax beside three siblings. The [Sales tax](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor/nexus) row holds the rules.

## Default alive
Every week the Default-alive check reads cash, net burn, and growth. Cash is the Startup's own balance or the budget its [Studio](/business/nouns/studio) allocated; burn is fully loaded Cost, human minutes included.

The answer is a number. [Default alive](/agents/founding#default-alive) at 1 or more means profit arrives before the cash runs out. A Startup below 1 learns it while there is still time to cut spend, raise, or change course.

## Example
A [Dataset API](/products/templates/dataset-api) that sells verified business addresses closes its month on working day 3. Finn, its Finance Lead, reconciles 1,214 Transactions, locks the Period, and finds one [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) at minus 4% contribution. The Decision raises that Offer's per-call [Price](/business/nouns/price) from $0.004 to $0.006.

## Next
- [Unit economics](/systems/finance/unit-economics): what each sale costs, and when paid [Plays](/business/nouns/play) open.
- [Finance Team](/agents/finance): Roles, Processes, and [Metrics](/business/nouns/metric).
- [Legal floor](/systems/legal-and-corporate/floor): the obligations the Finance Team meets.