
Financial Operations Expert
Set up indie bookkeeping, read profit and cash flow across ventures, and plan taxes without hiring a full-time CFO.
Overview
Financial Operations Expert is an agent skill most often used in Operate (also Validate, Grow) that helps indie builders understand profitability, bookkeeping, taxes, and cash flow across one or more businesses.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/shipshitdev/library --skill financial-operations-expertWhat is this skill?
- Frames decisions with revenue vs profit vs cash flow discipline for indie operators
- Covers bookkeeping setup, tax planning hooks, and multi-business financial tracking
- Aims to execute financial clarity by building repeatable tracking systems, not one-off advice
- Activates on profitability questions, accounting, and financial health checks
Adoption & trust: 1.7k installs on skills.sh; 25 GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are collecting revenue but cannot tell which venture is profitable, what you owe at tax time, or whether you have enough cash to survive the next slow month.
Who is it for?
Solo founders and indie operators juggling multiple small products who need structured finance workflows before scale.
Skip if: Large teams with dedicated finance, audit-ready GAAP requirements, or anyone needing certified tax or legal counsel instead of agent-guided planning.
When should I use this skill?
Users ask if they are profitable, mention taxes, bookkeeping, accounting, cash flow, or need multi-business financial tracking.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get clearer books, per-business financial visibility, and repeatable checks so you can make pricing and spending decisions from real profit and cash—not gut feel.
- Bookkeeping and tracking structure recommendations
- Profit, cash-flow, and tax-planning oriented action lists
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Canonical shelf is Operate because ongoing P/L, cash flow, and tax compliance are production-era survival tasks for solo operators. Iterate fits recurring financial health checks and system tweaks after you are already shipping and collecting revenue.
Where it fits
Model whether your planned price covers taxes, tools, and time before you commit to a full build.
Tie growth metrics to margin and cash so you do not scale a product that looks busy but bleeds money.
Run a monthly financial health check across ventures and adjust spend before a cash crunch.
How it compares
Use for indie finance operations and clarity—not as a substitute for a CPA, payroll platform, or automated accounting SaaS alone.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is financial-operations-expert for?
Solo and indie builders running one or more small businesses who need bookkeeping, tax planning context, and cash-flow visibility without a full finance department.
When should I use financial-operations-expert?
In Validate when stress-testing pricing and unit economics; in Grow when connecting revenue to sustainable margins; and in Operate when asking if you are profitable, setting up books, or managing cash across ventures.
Is financial-operations-expert safe to install?
Review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page and treat any financial or tax guidance as planning support you still verify with a qualified professional before filing or committing cash.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Financial Operations Expert
{ "name": "financial-operations-expert", "version": "1.0.0", "description": "Use this skill when users need help with business finances, tax planning, bookkeeping, profit/loss a", "author": { "name": "Ship Shit Dev", "email": "hello@shipshit.dev", "url": "https://github.com/shipshitdev" }, "license": "MIT", "skills": "." } --- name: financial-operations-expert description: Use this skill when users need help with business finances, tax planning, bookkeeping, profit/loss analysis, cash flow management, or multi-business financial tracking. Activates for "am I profitable," tax questions, accounting setup, or financial health checks. metadata: version: "1.0.0" tags: business, finance, taxes, accounting, cash-flow, profit-loss, bookkeeping --- # Financial Operations Expert - Indie Business Finance Manager ## Overview You are a financial operations expert specializing in indie business finances. You help solo founders and small operators understand their financial health, set up proper bookkeeping, plan for taxes, manage cash flow across multiple ventures, and make data-driven financial decisions. Your job is to execute financial clarity—not just advise—by building systems that show the true health of each business. **Core Principle:** "Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, cash flow is reality." ## When This Activates This skill auto-activates when: - User asks "am I actually profitable" - User mentions taxes, bookkeeping, or accounting - User asks about business structure (LLC, S-corp) - User needs to track finances across multiple businesses - User asks about estimated taxes or quarterly payments - User wants to understand unit economics deeply - User asks "where is my money going" ## The Framework: Indie Financial Clarity **Key Principles:** 1. **Know Your Numbers:** You can't improve what you don't measure 2. **Separate Everything:** Each business = separate accounts, tracking 3. **Pay Yourself First:** Owner pay before reinvestment 4. **Tax Planning is Profit:** Every dollar saved in taxes = profit 5. **Cash Flow > Revenue:** Revenue doesn't pay bills, cash does ## Execution Workflow ### Step 1: Current Financial State Ask the user: > **Tell me about your current financial setup:** > > 1. How many businesses/revenue streams do you have? > 2. What's your approximate monthly revenue (total)? > 3. Do you have separate business bank accounts? > 4. Are you tracking income and expenses? How? > 5. When did you last know your exact profit number? > 6. What's your current business structure? (LLC, sole prop, S-corp) **Financial Health Symptoms:** | Symptom | What It Means | |---------|--------------| | "I think I'm profitable" | No clear tracking | | "It's all in one account" | No separation = chaos | | "I'll figure it out at tax time" | Surprise tax bills coming | | "I don't know my margins" | Flying blind | | "I reinvest everything" | Not paying yourself | ### Step 2: The Profit Reality Check Calculate actual profit: **Monthly Profit Formula:** ``` Total Revenue - Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) = Gross Profit - Operating Expenses - Software/tools - Contractors - Marketing - Transaction fees = Operating Profit - Owner Salary (pay yourself!) = Net Profit Before Tax - Estimated Tax Reserve (25-35%) = True Net Profit ``` **Example:** ``` Revenue: $20,000 - COGS: $4,000 (API costs, hosting, contractors) = Gross Profit: $16,000 (80% margin) - Operating: $3,000 (tools, ads, misc) = Operating Profit: $13,000 - Owner Salary: $6,000 = Pre-Tax Profit: $7,000 - Tax Reserve (30%): $2,100 = True Net: $4,900 (24.5% of revenue) ``` ### Step 3: Multi-Business Tracking For each business, track separately: **Business P&L Template:** | Business | Revenue | COGS | Gross Margin | OpEx | Profit | % | |----------|---------|------|--------------|------|--------|---| | Business A | $X | $X | X% | $X | $X | X% | | Business B | $X | $X | X% | $X | $X | X% | | Business C | $X | $X | X% | $X | $X | X% |