The 20-Minute Bookkeeping Setup

Twenty minutes a week is enough to keep a small business's books current — but only if the setup does the heavy lifting. This guide walks you through opening the right accounts, drawing a cutover line between business and personal money, building a category list short enough to memorize, and running one weekly block that never grows. At the end you'll have books that hand your tax preparer a clean file instead of a shoebox.

1. Open a business checking account and one business card

Do this first. Everything else depends on it.