A small collection of things we've found useful, and a place where free guides will appear over time as we publish them.
A small library of practical tools for founder-led businesses, on the topics we get asked about most: cash flow, KPIs, pricing, and the questions to ask before hiring senior finance. Everything here is an Excel file or a document. No macros, no add-ins, nothing to sign up for, and every formula readable so you can adapt it to how your business actually runs. More will appear as we publish them.
Sixteen numbers, one page, twenty minutes once the books are closed. Profit, cash and stock, customers, and the cost of selling. Every row carries a direction and a threshold as well as a figure, so the page tells you where to look before anyone opens the meeting. Four tabs: set your targets once, enter one figure a month, read the dashboard. For a business selling physical products online, direct to consumer, through marketplaces, or both.
The same tool for a business that sells its people’s time. Identical structure and identical logic, with the metrics that fit a firm rather than a brand: lock-up days, chargeable utilisation, realisation, revenue per fee earner and the rest. Four tabs, no macros, and the same monthly rhythm.
A few tools, communities and services that we use, recommend, or believe make a real difference for founder-led brands and the finance professionals who serve them. Where a link is an affiliate or referral link, we've made that clear below.
A global community of CFOs, finance leaders and finance professionals focused on the practical application of AI in finance: workflows, reporting, analysis, and the everyday tooling that makes finance work better. Run by Nicolas Boucher. A long-running source of high-quality, real-world thinking on what AI can actually do inside finance functions today.
AI is transforming accounting. Most firms are overwhelmed by tools, noise and scattered advice. AI Academy gives accounting professionals and business owners a clear, structured path. Expert-led training across ChatGPT, Claude, and a curated prompt library, built around helping firms become more efficient, more profitable and more future-ready.
Modern UK business banking built for founders, sole traders and small companies. Fast online sign-up, integrated invoicing, expense management and accounting connections. A practical default for early-stage UK Ltd businesses that want banking that fits how the business runs, not the other way around.
Tide's company formation service makes setting up a UK Ltd company straightforward: registration with Companies House, business banking and the practical essentials in one process. A useful starting point for founders incorporating their business.
American Express's premium charge card for UK businesses. It earns Membership Rewards points on everyday business spending, supports employee cards with consolidated expense reporting, and carries a range of travel and purchase benefits useful to founders who travel for work. As a charge card it has no preset spending limit and is settled in full each month, which can suit businesses that want to organise and reward larger outgoings through a single account.
Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. That means we may receive a small commission, credit, or referral benefit if you sign up or make a purchase, at no extra cost to you. We only include partners and tools we use ourselves or believe in. Recommendations on this page are made on merit, not on commission rates, and we'll never recommend something solely because it pays.