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What this play is + why should you care

In this play, you’ll clean your Profit & Loss statement so you can see the real profit of your business. Most founders mix personal or one-time expenses into their books, which hides how the business actually performs. This step gives you financial truth—the clean baseline you need before making any smart decisions.

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By the time you’re done:

You’ll have a clear, adjusted P&L that reflects your true operating profit and margin—no fluff, no founder distortion.

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How to get started

Start by downloading the Financial Diagnostics Worksheet.

Open the first sheet called “>>Start Here – Initial Information<<” and review the sample data. Then, begin entering your customer and order information to get a clean snapshot of your revenue inputs.
Move to the second sheet, Profit and Loss Cleanup. Here, copy and paste the main sections of your P&L from QuickBooks (Income, Cost of Goods Sold, and Overhead).
Don’t paste everything at once — copy section by section so you can clearly see where adjustments are needed.
Finally, clean your data: remove personal expenses, tax write-offs, or one-time costs that don’t reflect the true profitability of the business.

By the end, you’ll have a real, accurate baseline of your business’s financial performance — not just what your accountant shows for taxes.

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Time Required:

60-90 minutes

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Who Participates:

Founder + CFO/Accountant/Bookkeeper

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Refresh Every:

Year

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Workspace:

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Download Spreadsheet

Duplicate the Financial Diagnostics Worksheet so you can use it on your own data.

You will use this sheet for all plays in the Financial Diagnostics stage.

Download here

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Spreadsheet preview:

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gUyk_Y6eal3VE76d72nu4QvxPBVZ_GEspBsxDuVdq4U/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gUyk_Y6eal3VE76d72nu4QvxPBVZ_GEspBsxDuVdq4U/preview?usp=sharing)