The Friday Close

The wrap and the product

Documents for them. Coach the Friday.

1. 01

   The transition I made

   A practice of one had to close its own books before it could close anyone else’s. Same trades. Same Texas. That is the specialist claim — not a mill, not a course.

2. 02

   Do the documents

   Chart of accounts, field cutoff, Friday snapshot, catch-up sequence, engagement. Produced for their file. They do not start from a blank page.

3. 03

   Coach the performance

   One hour a week. They read the snapshot. They name the cutoff owner. They walk one job’s margin. We do not do the QBO for them in this bundle.

4. 04

   Bundle — $1,000

   Four weeks. Documents plus four sessions. Ten seats. Then the Friday Close if the file needs a human on the books.

• The Transition$1,000Start. Documents + four weekly hours. Ten seats. They keep the books.
• Founding Five — Friday Close$6,500We take the books. Catch-up to 8 months. Ninety-day close.
• Full Friday Close$9,500After five founding seats. Same scope.
• Ongoing close$1,500Per month after day 90. Cancel with 30 days.
• Kitchen Start$1,000Restaurants. Documents + four hours. Then $1,200 / week-month.
• Extension File$8501040 on extension. Drop-dead 29 Sep. Wall 15 Oct 2026.
• Estate File$1,500Inventory, basis, attorney packet. Not a will. Not law.

Four weeks · The Transition

They perform. We coach. QBO stays theirs.

1. Week 1 · 1 hour coaching

   Architecture

   Jobs vs classes. Who owns QBO. Last clean month. They leave with a job list started.

   Produce: Chart of accounts + field cutoff SOP.

2. Week 2 · 1 hour coaching

   The documents land

   They walk the catch-up sequence. What they will not migrate. Feeds connected as homework.

   Produce: Catch-up workplan. Unknowns flagged.

3. Week 3 · 1 hour coaching

   First Friday — they read it

   Performance: owner reads the snapshot aloud. We fix labels. One job’s margin.

   Produce: First snapshot with sample figures replaced.

4. Week 4 · 1 hour coaching

   Lock, or upsell

   Cutoff honored once. If the file still needs a human on the books, that is the Friday Close — $6,500 founding.

   Produce: Period lock note — or the Founding Five engagement.

Open the file

Once. Before the first Friday.

1. 1

   Take the deposit

   Invoice is paid before the pack leaves. No start on a promise. Transition is $1,000. The wrap is $6,500 only if the file is trade, 3–8 months dark, one entity, and not inside a rush.

2. 2

   Name the last clean month

   The month that was reconciled and locked. The next month is where work starts. If nobody can name it, the file is not open.

3. 3

   One axis for jobs

   Jobs are the work. Classes stay off until Friday has tied. Do not turn both on to look thorough.

4. 4

   Chart and cutoff, in writing

   Twelve job-cost accounts is enough. The cutoff names a weekday, a time, and one person. Tickets after that date wait for the next Friday.

5. 5

   Banks, then jobs, then retainage

   Tie each bank and card through the last clean month before you touch job tags. Then reclass owner-held retainage to a receivable. It is not income, and it is not a liability.

Every Friday

Ten steps. Then the lock.

1. 1

   Cutoff

   Say the date and the owner’s name. Anything dated after it is listed and not entered.

2. 2

   Cash

   Reconcile operating cash to the cutoff. The deposit is what cleared, not what was billed.

3. 3

   Draws

   Match each deposit to a pay app. A $90,000 check on a $100,000 application is not a $90,000 invoice.

4. 4

   Retainage receivable

   The held 10% debits Retainage Receivable. Do not credit income again when it is later released. Do not net it into revenue.

5. 5

   Retainage payable

   Only if we held a sub’s money. Debit job cost for the full bill. Credit AP for the net. Credit Retainage Payable for the hold. Paying only the net is not the cost.

6. 6

   Jobs

   Labor, materials, and subs hit a job. No tag means Untagged. Do not park it in Supplies to make the job list look clean.

7. 7

   Unbilled

   Work done and not yet on a pay app is unbilled. It is not retainage. It is not cash.

8. 8

   One margin

   Pick one job. Billed, cost, retainage, cash in. If retainage is still inside profit, the margin is wrong.

9. 9

   The page

   Five lines only: cash, open AR, unbilled draws, retainage, job margin. The owner reads them aloud. We do not narrate.

10. 10

    Lock

    Close the period through the cutoff. Write the lock note. Next Friday starts at this date.

• No bonding capacity, no surety WIP, and no SBA form on this pass. A WIP for an agent comes later, only after this page has tied.
• No tax election, no §179, no payroll correction, no sales-tax filing.
• No second host for the books. QBO Plus unless the file already bills AIA.
• Transition seats: they perform these steps. We do not log into QBO. Friday Close seats: we perform them for ninety days.

Ninety days · Friday Close

When the file still needs a human on the books

1. Start$1,000Ten seats. Documents this week. One hour a week for four weeks. Cash today.
2. InstallWeeks 1–4They perform. We coach. QBO stays theirs. Upsell only if the file needs catch-up done-for-you.
3. Friday Close$6,500Five founding seats. We take the books for ninety days. Then $1,500 / month.
4. AnnuityDay 90+The close is the product. The $1,000 was the wrap.

Deliverables

• D00 · Transition one-pager · Day 0 · document
• D01 · Offer one-pager · Day 0 · document
• D02 · Engagement outline · Day 0 · document
• D03 · 14-day install calendar · Day 0 · document
• D04 · Job-cost chart of accounts · Week 1 · document
• D05 · Field cutoff SOP · Week 1 · document
• D06 · Friday snapshot template · Week 2 · document
• D07 · Catch-up workplan · Week 2 · document
• D08 · 90-day coaching syllabus · Day 0 · coaching

Template D00 · The $1,000 start. Documents we do. Performance they coach through.

Transition one-pager

THE TRANSITION — [START]
Fieldstone Advisory · Montgomery County, Texas

For: [COMPANY] ([TRADE], [CITY])
Owner: [OWNER]

The transition I made
A practice of one had to close its own books before it could close anyone else’s. Same trades. Same Texas. That is the specialist claim.

What you get for [START]
• The documents, produced for your file this week: chart of accounts, field cutoff, Friday snapshot, catch-up sequence, engagement outline.
• Four weekly hours. You perform. We coach. You read the snapshot. You name the cutoff owner. You walk one job’s margin.
• QBO stays yours. We are not on the books in this bundle.

What you do not get
Catch-up done-for-you. Ninety days of close. That is The Friday Close at [FOUNDING], five founding seats.

Situation we heard
[SITUATION]

Cadence
One hour a week, four weeks, Central Time. Ten seats. After week four, you run Friday without us — or you buy the close.

We do not
Law. Wills. Investments. Filing from an unreviewed AI draft. We are not a CPA firm.

Template D05 · The close is slow when the field is late. One page for the superintendent.

Field cutoff SOP

FIELD CUTOFF — [COMPANY]
Tape this in the shop.

Hard date
Last business day of the month, 5 p.m. local. No exceptions dressed up as “the sub was late.”

In by cutoff
• Timecards approved
• Receipts and delivery tickets
• Change orders that are real (not a text thread)
• Sub invoices you actually have

After cutoff
It hits next period. The Friday snapshot will look wrong if we pretend otherwise.

Owner
[OWNER] names one field person who owns the cutoff. [TO CONFIRM]

Firm
We close in five to ten business days after cutoff. Snapshot on Friday of the second week, unless the file is still in catch-up.

Texas
Sales tax, if you sell taxable, is the 20th — kitchen rules do not apply here unless you also sell materials retail. Franchise / margin is an entity date, not a vibe.

Template D06 · One page the owner can run the week from.

Friday snapshot template

FRIDAY SNAPSHOT — [COMPANY]
Week ending [TO CONFIRM]

Cash                 [sample — replace on close]
AR                   [sample — replace on close]
Unbilled draws       [sample — replace on close]
Retainage            [sample — replace on close]

Jobs this week
Job                  Contract     Cost to date     Margin     Note
[job A]              [sample]     [sample]         [sample]   [TO CONFIRM]
[job B]              [sample]     [sample]         [sample]   [TO CONFIRM]
[job C]              [sample]     [sample]         [sample]   [TO CONFIRM]

What changed
• [one line]
• [one line]

What we need from the field by cutoff
• [one line]

This is not a tax position. Nothing is filed from this page.

Template D07 · Quoteable sequence. Unknowns flagged. No invented fee.

Catch-up workplan

CATCH-UP WORKPLAN — [COMPANY]

Situation
[SITUATION]

Sequence
1. Last clean month: [TO CONFIRM]
2. Connect bank, card, and processor feeds. Read-only.
3. Job list from the owner — names the work, not the software.
4. Recode from last clean month forward. Direct vs overhead split.
5. Retainage and progress billing true-up.
6. Personal mix on cards flagged, not moralized.
7. Reconcile. Opening balances as [TO CONFIRM].
8. First Friday snapshot. Then the 90-day close.

Cap
Up to eight months inside the Founding Five prepaid [PRICE]. Longer is a defined addendum, quoted after we see the file. We may decline if October 15 (or any named wall) cannot be made true.

Done means
The bank matches. Jobs have costs. The owner can read one page on Friday.