monthly review guide.md

Monthly Review Guide

Kick runs in the background automatically - but a quick monthly check-in keeps everything accurate, prevents small issues from compounding, and means there are no surprises at tax time. Done consistently, this takes about 15 minutes.

The goal isn't to do your accountant's job. It's to stay informed about your own business and make sure Kick has everything it needs to keep your books clean.

Build the habit: do this once a month

1. Clear uncategorized transactions

Kick categorizes ~97% of transactions automatically. The ones it leaves uncategorized are where your attention is needed most.

  1. Go to Transactions → Add filter → Status: Uncategorized
  2. Work through the list - assign a category to each one
  3. When Kick prompts you to apply the same change to similar transactions, say yes - this trains Kick and prevents the same transaction from coming back uncategorized next month

Speed tip: If you see the same merchant appearing uncategorized repeatedly, create a Rule. You'll never have to categorize it manually again.

2. Check for unmatched transfers

Unmatched transfers are one of the most common sources of inflated income or phantom expenses. A Stripe payout that isn't matched to the bank deposit looks like double revenue. A credit card payment that isn't matched looks like two expenses.

  1. Go to Transactions → filter by Category: Transfer
  2. Look for any transactions without a matched counterpart (the Match column will be empty)
  3. Match them manually, or create a Transfer Rule so it happens automatically going forward

3. Move personal business expenses across

If you connected personal accounts, this is the moment to review them.

  1. Go to Transactions → filter by Entity: Personal
  2. Move any business expenses to the right entity and assign the correct category

Don't leave this until the end of the year - catching expenses monthly means nothing gets missed, and your P&L reflects reality in real time.

4. Check your Profit & Loss

Open the P&L for the month and do a quick sanity check:

You don't need to analyze everything - just look for anything that seems off and dig into it. Click any line to see the individual transactions behind the number.

5. Respond to open tasks

Check Tasks for anything your accountant has sent you. Unanswered questions slow down their close process - a quick response now saves back-and-forth later.

6. Ask what the numbers mean

Once your books are clean, step back from the checklist. This is where the monthly review pays off - not just accurate books, but a clearer picture of how your business is actually doing.

Are you profitable this month?
Check net income on the P&L. If it's lower than expected, expand the expense categories to find what's running high.

Where is your cash actually going?
Open Insights and look at Cash Out by category. Expenses by Vendor shows which vendors you're paying the most - useful for spotting subscriptions or recurring costs worth renegotiating.

Is cash in the bank tracking with your P&L?
A healthy P&L with a shrinking bank balance usually means money is tied up in receivables, loan payments, or owner distributions. The Balance Sheet and Insights help explain the gap.

Are you growing compared to last month?
On the P&L, use the Compare dropdown to add a previous period column - a quick side-by-side shows whether income is up and whether expenses grew proportionally.

Make it faster over time

The first month takes the longest. As you build Rules for recurring transactions and Kick learns your patterns, uncategorized transactions drop. Most business owners find the monthly review gets meaningfully shorter after the first 2-3 months.

The fastest path to a 15-minute review:

Monthly review checklist