Just raised your first cheque? The 30-day finance setup checklist for UK startups
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- 1.First-cheque compliance: the UK registrations and deadlines a funded startup can't miss
- 2.Just raised your first cheque? The 30-day finance setup checklist for UK startups
You've graduated the accelerator and the money's landed. Here's exactly what to set up in your first 30 days — bank account, accounting software, registrations and records — so your finances are right from day one.
The money's landed. Now the boring part that quietly decides everything
You closed the round. The accelerator's over, the SAFE or the share subscription is signed, and there's a real balance sitting in an account for the first time. It feels like the hard part is done.
It isn't — but the next part is easy if you do it now and expensive if you don't. The founders who look organised eighteen months later, when an investor asks for their numbers or HMRC asks for a return, aren't smarter. They just spent one focused fortnight at the start setting the plumbing up properly, so the books kept themselves after that. The ones who look chaotic skipped it, ran everything through a personal card and a spreadsheet, and paid an accountant a small fortune to reconstruct the mess.
This is that fortnight, laid out as a checklist. It's written for a newly funded UK startup — a limited company that's just taken its first real money — and it's deliberately in order, because the order is the whole trick. Do these things in sequence and each one makes the next easier.
Week 1: separate the money and open the accounts
1. Open a dedicated business bank account. This is the single most important first move, and it's the one with a lead time, so start it on day one. Every pound the company spends and receives should flow through an account in the company's name — never your personal one. Mixing personal and business money is the root cause of almost every messy set of startup books, and it's the thing investors and accountants notice first. UK options range from app-first providers like Tide, Starling and Mercury (fast to open, built for feeds) to the high-street banks (slower, but some founders want the relationship). We break down the choice, the documents you'll need, and the realistic timelines in Opening your startup's business bank account →.
2. Get a company card for spending. As soon as the account is live, order the debit or expense card and make it the only way the company pays for things. One card, one account, one source of truth. This alone removes most future reconciliation pain.
3. Stop using your personal account for the business. If you've already spent personal money getting to this point — incorporation fees, a domain, a laptop — that's fine and reclaimable, but from now on the rule is simple: company money through the company account. Log the personal spend you want to reclaim as a director's loan (more on that in the compliance article).
Week 1–2: set up the system that keeps your books
4. Choose and set up accounting software. Do this before the transactions pile up, not after. The right tool for a funded startup isn't automatically the one your freelancer friend uses — you have things they don't (investors to report to, SEIS/EIS records to keep, runway to watch, possibly co-founders who need access). We cover the timing question in When should a startup set up accounting software → and the buyer's criteria in What to look for in accounting software as a funded UK startup →. If you want the short version of the market, our honest software landscape is here →.
5. Connect the bank feed and set your opening balances. Once the software's chosen, link the business account so transactions flow in automatically, and enter your starting position — the cash that landed, the share capital, anything already spent. Getting this sequence right is what makes your very first month reconcile cleanly instead of being a guess. The full setup order is in Align your bank account with your books from day one →, and the mechanics of the feed itself are in How to connect your bank to your accounting →.
6. Decide who does the bookkeeping — and how little of it that can be. Be honest about this now. You did not raise money to spend evenings categorising card payments. Either you commit to a light weekly rhythm, you hire a bookkeeper, or you use software that does the categorising and reconciling for you. Whatever you choose, decide it deliberately rather than letting it default to "I'll deal with it later" — because later is when it becomes a project. Background on the realistic options: Run your books without becoming a bookkeeper →.
Week 2–3: the registrations HMRC and Companies House expect
7. Register for Corporation Tax. Every active UK limited company pays Corporation Tax on its profits, and you must tell HMRC the company is active within three months of starting to trade. Even pre-revenue startups usually count as trading once they're spending on the business. See What is Corporation Tax and when do I pay it →.
8. Sort payroll if you're paying yourselves. The moment the company pays a founder a salary, it needs a PAYE scheme and has to report to HMRC in real time. Many founders take a small salary from day one for tax reasons — if that's you, register now. See How to run payroll for one employee (or just yourself) → and What is RTI and how do I report it →.
9. Check whether VAT applies yet. Most freshly funded startups are below the registration threshold and don't need to register on day one — but some choose to voluntarily to reclaim VAT on their spend, and fast-growing ones cross the threshold sooner than they expect. Know where you stand: When do I have to register for VAT →.
10. Diary your Companies House dates. Your confirmation statement and annual accounts have fixed deadlines from your incorporation date, and any share issue from the round needs an SH01 filed. Put them in a calendar now while you remember. See Companies House filing: what's due and when →.
The full, sequenced registration walkthrough — with the "must not miss" items specific to a company that's just raised — is in First-cheque compliance →.
Week 3–4: protect the round and your next one
11. Handle your SEIS/EIS obligations. If your investors are claiming SEIS or EIS relief — and for UK angels they very often are — the company has to issue the shares correctly and submit compliance statements (SEIS1/EIS1) so HMRC can issue the certificates investors need. Get this wrong and you can cost your backers their relief, which is not a conversation you want to have. See SEIS and EIS explained for founders → and SEIS/EIS compliance after you raise →.
12. Start your cap table properly. You now have shareholders. Keep an accurate, clean record of who owns what from the first issue — it's far easier to maintain than to reconstruct, and it's the first thing diligence asks for next time. See What is a cap table and how do I keep mine clean →.
13. Set up your records so they stay diligence-ready. The books you keep from day one are the books your next investor will inspect. Keeping them clean as you go costs nothing; cleaning them up under time pressure before a raise costs weeks. See Set up your books to stay investor-ready from day one →.
14. Know your runway — and watch it. The number that matters most now is how long the money lasts. Work it out once, then let your accounting keep it current. See What is runway and how do I work out mine →.
The one-page version
If you do nothing else, do these four in this order: open a business bank account, set up accounting software and connect the feed, register with HMRC, and keep clean share and spend records. Everything else on this list hangs off those four. The founders who nail the first month rarely think about their finances again until they choose to. The ones who skip it think about little else the week before their next raise.
You just did the hard thing and raised the money. Spend one fortnight making sure it's looked after properly, and then go build.
Setting up your startup's finances shouldn't eat your first month. Ledgers opens the books for you — connect your business account and it categorises, reconciles and files (VAT, payroll, Companies House reminders) in plain English, so your records are investor-ready from the first transaction. Start your books the right way → free to try.
Next in this guide: When should a startup set up accounting software? →
Frequently asked questions
What should I set up first after raising my first round?
Open a dedicated business bank account, then set up accounting software and connect the bank feed to it, then handle your HMRC and Companies House registrations. Doing it in that order means every pound the round pays out is recorded from the first transaction, so you never have to reconstruct months of history later.
Do I really need accounting software this early?
Yes. The cheapest time to set up your books is before there are many transactions to sort out. Waiting until you are "bigger" means paying someone to untangle a year of mixed-up spending — far more expensive than starting clean on day one.
How long does the finance setup actually take?
The active work is a few hours spread across a couple of weeks; the waiting is mostly the bank account (a few days to two weeks) and HMRC letters. If you follow the order in this checklist you can be fully set up well inside 30 days.
See your numbers without learning accounting
Ledgers does the bookkeeping — bank feeds, VAT, year-end — and keeps your accountant in the loop. Free for pre-revenue founders.
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