This is the checklist we used to find $100k hidden in Steveo's business

If your business is grossing over $1 million a year but you're confused about your books, there could be many thousands of dollars of profit or cash hidden in your business. This is the exact checklist that found six figures for Steveo — run your own books through it below.

Start the checklist ↓

Minutes

Questions

Parts

$100K

Found for Steveo

1 2 3

Understand Your Statements 0/9

Pull up your Profit & Loss (year-to-date), your Balance Sheet (year-to-date), and your last three months of bank statements. Go section by section, check every box that’s true, and tally your score at the end — the last page tells you what it means.

Part 1

Understand Your Statements

Where messy books hide cash

Check every box below that's true for your business right now. Each one is a spot where your numbers could be overstated or understated.

Negative accounts — A number on your P&L or Balance Sheet is negative. The only accounts that should be negative are Discounts/Refunds on your P&L or Accumulated Depreciation, Owner's Draws, and possibly Retained Earnings and Net Income on your Balance Sheet. No idea what this account means — There's at least one line item on those two reports you couldn't explain clearly to a stranger. “I know this customer already paid!” — You're not fully confident every customer payment has been matched to its invoice. Mixin' biz and personal — Personal expenses are showing up on your P&L. Unreconciled processors — Stripe, PayPal, Shopify Payments, or other merchant processor accounts haven't been reconciled in the last month. Expenses that aren't really expenses — Loan payments, credit card payments, sales tax, or employee benefit contributions are showing up on your P&L.

Flags checked in Part One: 0 / 6

Part 2

Master Your Cash Flow

Where profit and cash part ways

Profit and cash are not the same number. This worksheet shows you the gap between them. For this exercise, grab last month's numbers.

Step 1 · Last month's profit

Net Profit shown on your P&L

Step 2 · Cash that left, but isn't an "expense"

Loan payments $

Credit card payments $

Owner's draws $

Equipment purchases $

Total cash drains $ 0

Net Profit − Total Cash Drains = Actual cash you can spend $ 0

If that result is a lot smaller than your profit — or negative — that's usually exactly where "we're profitable, so where did the money go" starts.

Bonus — Your Runway:

Cash on hand $ $ ÷ Avg. monthly burn $ $ = — mo

Part 3

Cash vs. Accrual

Why timing makes your numbers lie

A fast gut-check on whether cash-basis accounting is distorting your numbers.

You record a sale the moment cash hits the bank, rather than when you actually delivered the product or service.

A large prepaid expense — like an annual insurance premium — hits your books all at once, in the month you paid it.

You'd struggle to say which specific month(s) actually drove last quarter's real profit.

Any "yes" above is a sign your books are running on cash-basis timing past the point where it still tells you the truth, a common scenario once a business clears roughly $1M in annual revenue.

Cash vs. accrual, in one line: cash accounting counts money when it hits the bank; accrual counts it when it's actually earned or actually used. The gap between those two moments is where "hidden" money tends to collect.

Score

What Your Score Means

Add up the checked boxes and "yes" answers from Parts One & Three

Your combined score

0 /9

you are

CLEAN

0/6

Flags · Part One

0/3

"Yes" · Part Three

0/9

Combined score

0–2

Clean Your books are largely doing their job. Keep a quarterly checkup habit and revisit this list every few months.

3–5

Cluttered There's a real chance you're sitting on cash you can't see. Worth a professional cleanup pass before your next big decision.

6–9

Confused This is the range Steveo was in before his cleanup turned up six figures. High odds there's meaningful hidden cash and misinformed decisions being made without it.

Want a Second Set of Eyes on This?

Rigits works with profitable, $1M+ businesses to use this checklist to do a full cleanup: untangled books, a clear cash flow picture, and a move to accrual done right. If you'd rather not run this DIY, book a free consultation and we'll tell you exactly what it'll take to have this done professionally.

julia@rigits.com|760.443.4598
rigits.com/umm-strategy

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