This post is sponsored by RUN Powered by ADP® Platform. All opinions expressed are my own.

You might think that having to manage business finances feels overwhelming.

But what if I told you that you only need one hour a week to keep your books in order, track your cash flow, and ensure your business is financially healthy? That’s exactly what I do with my Money Monday Routine, and today, I’m breaking it all down for you.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through how I manage my business finances, from reviewing cash flow to running payroll and paying myself. Plus, I’ll share the best tools I use to make it all seamless.

If you’ve ever struggled with keeping up with bookkeeping, tracking expenses, or figuring out how to pay yourself as a business owner, this post is for you!

Why You Need a Weekly Small Business Finances Routine

Many small business owners wait until tax time to review their finances, only to realize they’ve been flying blind all year. That’s stressful—and avoidable! Having a dedicated weekly finance check-in helps you:

✔ Stay on top of cash flow so you never run into surprise expenses
✔ Plan ahead for taxes and payroll instead of scrambling at the last minute
✔ Make informed decisions based on real financial data

The good news? You don’t need to spend hours every week on this. Just one dedicated hour can keep you financially on track.

Step 1: Start with Your Accounting Software

Before looking at my bank balance, I start with my accounting software—because a bank balance doesn’t give you the full picture of your business’s financial health.

Why I Switched to Xero

I recently made the switch to Xero and I love how easy it is to use! Here’s my process:

1️⃣ Reconcile transactions to ensure all income and expenses are categorized correctly
2️⃣ Run a Profit & Loss Statement to see if my business was profitable last month
3️⃣ Compare financial reports to track trends in revenue and expenses

Looking at your profit and loss statement regularly helps you make better business decisions. It’s not just about what’s in your bank account today—it’s about understanding the overall health of your business.

➡️ Want to try Xero? Grab it here and save with my partner link!

Step 2: Check Cash Flow & Plan for Expenses

After reviewing my books, I check my cash flow to make sure I have enough money for upcoming expenses.

I use Relay, a Profit First-certified banking platform, to separate my money into different accounts for taxes, payroll, and operating expenses.

Here’s what I do:

✔ Check my account balances in Relay
✔ Update my cash flow spreadsheet with income and expenses
✔ Adjust my budget if needed to ensure I can cover upcoming costs

If I see a potential cash shortfall in the next few months, I can adjust spending or boost revenue before it becomes a problem.

➡️ Want to try Relay? Sign up and get a free $50 when you open an account!

Step 3: Run Payroll & Pay Myself

Payroll is one of the biggest expenses for small businesses, so it’s crucial to plan ahead. I use RUN Powered by ADP Platform to handle payroll for my team.

Here’s my Money Monday payroll process:

✔ Log into my payroll system to check upcoming payroll amounts
✔ Run payroll and process any reimbursements for my team
✔ Make sure my own salary is included in payroll planning

Even if you’re a solopreneur, it’s important to have a system in place for how to pay yourself as a business owner.

➡️ Need a payroll system? Get 3 months of free payroll with RUN by ADP Platform!

Step 4: Allocate Profit & Plan for Taxes

One of my favorite Money Monday tasks is profit planning—making sure I set aside money for taxes, savings, and business growth.

How I Allocate My Profits:

✔ Move money into separate accounts (operating expenses, taxes, profit, and owner’s pay)
✔ Decide if I can take an owner’s draw
✔ Ensure I’m saving for upcoming tax payments

By doing this every week, I never have to scramble for cash when tax season rolls around.

➡️ Want my free PROFFIT Plan™ template? Click here to grab it!

Why This Routine Works

Since implementing Money Mondays, I’ve felt less stress, more control, and more confidence in my business finances. Here’s why it works:

✅ It’s fast and efficient – One hour a week keeps everything in check.
✅ It prevents cash flow surprises – I always know where my money is going.
✅ It helps me make better decisions – With real financial data at my fingertips, I can confidently plan for growth.

Ready to Take Control of Your Business Finances?

If you’re tired of feeling lost in your business finances, start your own weekly finance routine! And if you need the right tools, here are my top recommendations:

✔Try Xero – My go-to accounting software
✔ Open a Relay account – Get $50 free when you sign up
✔ Get 3 months of free payroll – Run payroll easily with ADP

📺 Want to see my full Money Monday routine in action? Watch the YouTube video here!

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By dedicating just one hour a week, you’ll feel more in control of your finances, reduce stress, and set your business up for success. Let’s make financial clarity part of your weekly routine!

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase through these links at no additional cost to you (in fact, using our links can typically SAVE you money). We appreciate you supporting our small business by using our links!

This transcript is a direct representation of spoken words from the original video and has not been edited for content. However, it has been formatted for readability. Please excuse any grammatical errors, repetition, or informal language, as these are natural elements of conversational speech.

Ready to Manage Small Business Finances?

What if I told you that you could manage your business finances in just one hour a week?

Well, that’s what I do and today I’m going to walk you through exactly how I do it.

From reviewing my cash flow to paying myself and my team, that’s really important, I have it down to a science and I’m going to walk you through my entire routine.

Hi, everyone. I’m Jamie Trull I’m a CPA, but I also am a small business owner just like you.

So that means that I have dealt with the same challenges you have around managing cash flow, paying my team, and doing all those little things you need to do in your business to manage your money.

Which is why I created my money Monday routine.

And I’m going to show you exactly what I do from start to finish. Now, of course you don’t need to do this on Mondays, but I love Mondays because it is my fresh start to the week.

I try to protect my Mondays and I know if I walk into a week, if I start by looking at my finances, it’s going to be a good week.

Why Small Business Owners Need “Money Mondays”

I know that I can prepare for what is coming and nothing is going to catch me by surprise. So I love money Mondays.

If you can swing it, Definitely, definitely do money Mondays, or maybe it’s money Wednesdays. I don’t know. Come up with something cute.

And not only am I going to tell you what I do, but I’m also going to show you the tools that I use.

The Financial Tools That Keep My Business Running Smoothly

So for example, I’m going to show you the payroll I use, which is the run powered by ADP platform. I’m going to show you the banking platform that I use.

I’m going to show you the spreadsheets that I use, and I’m going to show you the accounting software that I just started to use, but really love.

And all of these tools help me stay on top of all the money things in my business and make sure that it runs like a well oiled machine.

And stick around to the end of this video because I’m also going to show you my secret weapon to keeping my cash flow in the green week in and week out.

So here you go. Here is my full money Monday.

From School Drop-Off to Business Kickoff: How My Day Begins

So, because I’m a mom and not just a business owner, that means my day starts with dropping my kids off at school in the sweet Honda Odyssey.

And then I come in the door and I’m always greeted by my work pal. This is the best coworker ever, Skip. He is always there to cheer me up and follows me around pretty much everywhere I go.

With coffee, of course.

And so today I think I’m going to pick my ADP mug, because I’m going to be doing a little bit of payroll, so it feels like it fits.

Sunshine, Coffee, and My Money Monday Ritual

Now that my coffee is just the way I like it, it’s time to head outside, especially if it’s a nice, sunny day like today.

And I’m going to write down my priorities for the morning.

I like to get a little bit of sunshine and vitamin D in.

And, of course, my work buddy is there to distract me as I try to think about what I need to get done today and really make my list of priorities.

Setting the Mood for a Productive Money Monday

So now that I’ve cleared my head a little bit, I know what my priorities are today. I am heading over to start my Money Monday, and of course my buddy has followed me right on in as he always does.

And of course, because I’m always freezing in my house, it’s time to start my electric blanket, and then I am ready for Money Mondays.

Oh, and I almost forgot, it’s time to light my candle to officially kick off Money Mondays.

Today, my candle is from Thistle Farms, which is one of my favorite locally owned, mission driven small businesses.

Diving Into the Numbers: Why I’m Loving Xero

And the first step in Money Mondays is always to start with my accounting software. So I’m going to log in to Xero.

I just recently moved my books into Xero, and I’ve been trying it out and loving it so far.

So I’m going to log in to pull some reports.

So I try to make it a habit to look at my profit and loss and my financial statements before I even look at the cash side of my business.

That helps me to stay on top of my bookkeeping all year round.

So I have just logged into Xero. I’ve really been loving Xero. This is the first year I’ve been using it.

I had previously been a QuickBooks Online user, but I’m really enjoying experimenting in Xero, and I really like the user interface.

And one of the things that I love about Xero the most is how easy it is to pull reports.

Effortless Financial Tracking: Why I Love Xero’s P&L Reports

Now, before I go and try to pull a P& L, of course, I need to go reconcile these items and make sure that they have all been added to my books.

So that’s the first thing that I’m going to do.

And then once I have done that, I’m going to go ahead and run an updated P& L. So I love in Xero how easy it is to get to my P& L.

Simple, Insightful, and Stress-Free: Reviewing My Income Statement

I don’t have to click on four different things and try to remember where it is. I just click accounting.

And there it is, my income statement. So I’m just going to go ahead and run that.

And typically, I’m going to be running this for the completed month prior.

So that’s often what I want to look at.

I find that weekly, when you’re looking at income statements, they don’t make a ton of sense.

But on a monthly basis, they’re a lot more helpful. And I also love to run comparatively.

So looking at my income from, let’s say, December versus December the year earlier. Or maybe December versus November to see how things are trending.

But I’m going to take a look at this and I’m going to see if anything looks strange.

Profit vs. Cash Flow: Why Looking Deeper Matters

Now, the first thing that I see that looks strange is I have a whole bunch of money in miscellaneous, so what I’m going to do first is drill into that.

And this will help give me a picture of what happened in December.

Was I profitable? Was I not profitable? What actually happened?

And just as a note, these are not my real numbers.

These are sample numbers, but this will give me an idea of how things actually went.

So I think that’s a really important thing is not just to be looking at cash. Cash is helpful. It tells you one part of the story, but your actual profit and loss is important to make it a habit to be looking at it.

To be making observations from it, how did things go, how did different parts of your business perform, and how are your operating expenses doing?

How I Keep My Finances Organized with Relay and Profit Planning

So only after I’ve jumped into my books, I’ve added transactions, and I’ve taken a look at my profit and loss for the previous completed month.

Do I then go into my bank account?

And this is where I’m going to look and see how am I actually doing.

So I use my own profit planning formula.

And I use Relay because it’s super easy to set up separate accounts.

But all within one system that you can easily transfer back and forth.

Profit Planning Made Simple: How I Use Relay and My Cash Flow Worksheet

Um, so it makes it really easy if you’re doing my profit planning or if you’re doing something like Profit First.

This is the only Profit First certified banking platform, so definitely make sure to check out Relay and check my description in the notes for special offers.

So the next thing that I’m going to do is jump into this template, which is my cash flow worksheet.

It is my favorite template that I have. I have it open on my computer at all times, and I’m using it daily. But on Mondays is when I’m really doing all of my updates.

Keeping My Business Finances in Check (With Skip, of Course!)

And just in case you’re wondering, yep, my sidekick is still at my feet. It would not be a Money Monday without Skip the Dog.

So in this case, we just logged in to see our bank account balance for January the 27th.

So I’m going to go ahead and enter that in here. And then that’s going to tell me if I’m going to have enough money to pay all of my bills or if I need to move some things around.

So in this case, you can see that I have already entered in what I expect my revenue to be in the future. I can make some changes if anything has changed with my forecast.

Same thing with my expenses. Those are already in here, but I can update whatever I think I need to update. And down here at the bottom, green means we’re good to go.

So at least for the next several weeks, we are in good shape.

We’re not going to have a cash shortfall.

However, once we get to the beginning of March, we have a different story.

Staying Proactive: How I Plan for Financial Changes

So we can go back and make some different decisions now. How can we increase our income or bring our income forward? How can we reduce our expenses?

That’s all what I’m doing when I’m entering all this in, but it helps to make these observations, um, and that also could impact the amount of money that I’m able to pay myself as an owner draw.

So the earlier I’m aware we could run into a situation like this, the better, because I can make some changes. And then the next thing I’m going to do is the same thing on the personal side.

I’m going to go enter in my personal cash balance in here, and then I’m going to check and make sure that we’re all good.

Savings, Salary, and Payroll: Making Sure It All Adds Up [Even Personal Finances]

So again, I’m going to look at the income that I’m expecting to have on the personal side.

That’s going to be my salary from the business. That’s going to be my draws. These are sample numbers.

And then I’m going to be looking at the cash payments to make sure that all of those are correct.

Maybe I might need to tweak some of these a little bit, and then I’m gonna come down here and see how we’re looking.

I can put my 6, 500 that I wanted to put into savings. That’s fabulous. I don’t have to make any changes. So we are good to go.

Now one of the things you’ll notice on here is payroll. That’s one of the big expenses that I have in my business.

Managing Payroll Like a Pro: Staying on Top of Business Expenses

And that may be one of the big expenses you have in your business.

And so what I’m usually doing too on Monday Mondays is going in to my payroll. I’m going to go check how much is going to be coming out.

Especially if you have variable payroll, that’s really important to make sure that you’re checking what those amounts are going to be.

And then I can run payroll directly from that.

So in this case, we’re nearing the end of the month, it’s time to run our month end payroll.

And I also run my reimbursements. as well. So we’re gonna go on in and we are gonna do just that.

So now it’s time to run payroll.

Payday Prep: How I’ve Streamlined Payroll With One Powerful Tool

So this is an important Money Monday task as well.

I use the fabulous Run Powered by ADP platform. It is built specifically for small business owners, which is great.

Let’s log on in.

And when we’re in it, we’re going to see when our next payroll is coming up and we’re going to have lots of options.

We can go ahead and run payroll. We can run an off cycle payroll.

We can calculate manual checks. Um, there are lots of things that we can do, uh, directly from this page. And the interface is super easy to use.

So I’m going to hit run payroll.

And when I do that, it’s going to take me to where my employees payroll is.

And I can check through those balances and make sure that we have enough money to pay payroll.

Off-Cycle Payroll & Reimbursements: Keeping Things Flexible

And then similarly, we can do an off cycle payroll.

So if you’re trying to do something like a pay a bonus, or you forgot to pay an employee. In fact, I use off pay cycle payroll sometimes for reimbursements.

So if I want to give them a reimbursement outside of their normal check, I’m going to go to off cycle payroll to do that.

So I went ahead and ran my payroll and ran my reimbursements.

And then made sure that all of the money that was coming out, I had also put into my cashflow worksheet.

And it took. Just a couple of minutes.

It was super fast and easy and then the last thing.

How I Pay Myself: A Peek Into My Profit Planning Process

And the thing that I look forward to the most because this is where I get to actually pay myself!

I make my profit plan allocations.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about I have a whole video talking about how I do profit planning and that’s really all about taking the money that you make in your business.

And actually apportioning a percentage to various different things.

These are going to change. These are very personal to your situation and what your goals are.

And so I show you how to do that within profit planning.

So definitely check the link below to get your free profit plan template. So in this case, I’m going to put in my revenue and my expenses.

And I’m getting more owner salary for right now.

We’re just going to do a simple example, but in this case, let’s say I made 10, 000 in the month.

Making My Money Work: Cash Flow & Profit Allocations

You can also, if it’s easier, do cash in and cash out if you’d rather do that.

Versus revenue expenses. Especially if you have some timing differences, that’s up to you.

But let’s say you had 10,000, then you would have set up your profit plan to tell you how much to move into each of your accounts.

So remember in relay, I had all those separate accounts.

Well, this is what I’m going to move out of my operating account. into those separate accounts.

And I don’t have a pay yourself account in Relay, and that’s because I don’t need it.

As soon as I have an amount that I can pay myself whenever I do these allocations, I just go ahead and take it out as a draw.

So I’ll take this 5,000 out as a draw.

And then I will move from my operating account into all of these different accounts.

The amount that my profit plan calculates.

So that means my reward for finishing Money Mondays is to be transferring money into my personal account.

So now I’m going to celebrate.

CFO Mode: Checked Off and Moving Forward

It’s time to take a break. It is time to put on my CFO hat and feel good about the fact that I did the most important task relating to my money at the very beginning of the week.

And that means I am ready to go for whatever this week throws at me.

So thanks for coming along with me on my money Monday!

If you’re interested in any of the tools or favorite things I mentioned in this video, then definitely check the link down below for some special offers.

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