Small Business Books in a Box gives freelancers, home businesses and shop owners a complete plain-language bookkeeping system: one e-book, two smart workbooks and every template you need to invoice, get paid, price properly and stay ready for tax. No accounting software and no accounting degree.
Small Business Books in a Box · Bodhih Pro Kits · 25 by Bodhih Training, trainers to 2,000+ companies since 2008.
Record every movement of money in two lists, income and expenses, keep business and personal money in separate accounts, log every invoice with a due date, move a share of each payment into a tax pot and check the books against the bank statement monthly. Small Business Books in a Box from Bodhih Training gives you the spreadsheets and templates to do it.
Want the full free guide first? Read How to Do Bookkeeping for a Small Business Without Software.
The bank balance goes up and down and you judge the business by how tired you are. You have never seen your profit for a single month written down.
You know roughly who owes you, but not exactly how much or for how long. Each week you find a reason not to send the awkward email.
The money was in your account, so you spent it. Then the bill comes, and it is for a sum you no longer have.
You set your rate by looking sideways at others and going a little lower. You have never worked out what you actually need to charge to pay yourself properly.
Receipts in pockets, statements in emails, a spreadsheet you abandoned in March. Every year-end costs you a weekend and a bigger fee than it should.
Imagine the first Monday of next month. You make a drink, open the Business Books workbook and download your bank statement. Line by line you tick money in and money out, and because you entered most of it as it happened, the matching takes fifteen minutes. As you open the Who Owes Me dashboard, you can see exactly which two invoices are overdue and by how many days, and the right reminder is already written for you. You change the name and press send.
Now picture the moment a customer pays. Before you feel rich, you move the sales tax and your set-aside percentage into the pot labelled tax, not mine. What is left in the account is genuinely yours to spend, and you notice that the small cold feeling you used to get when you looked at your banking app has gone.
When a new enquiry arrives, you already know your minimum hourly rate and your break-even, so you quote with a steady voice. When someone asks for 20% off, you open the scenario lab and see that you would need to sell twice as much to stand still, and you find a better answer than yes.
And at year-end, when your accountant asks for the figures, you send one tidy folder the same afternoon. Whether you begin with the 14-Day Shoebox Rescue tonight or the Settings sheet tomorrow morning, the first line you enter is the point at which your books start working for you.
The e-book shows you how. The tools make it happen. Here is exactly what you download.
The guide: methods, worked examples, scripts and exercises
Invoice register, income and expense ledgers, monthly profit, 12-week cash flow forecast, tax set-aside calculator, client list and three dashboards, driven by one Settings sheet.
Works out your minimum hourly rate from the income you need, true product margins, break-even sales, a discount and price-rise scenario lab and a job quote builder.
A clean, complete invoice with every part customers and tax offices expect, plus a credit note layout and a pre-send checklist.
A one-page quote that sets scope, price, deposit, payment terms and expiry before the work starts, with wording for estimates and options.
Nine ready-to-send messages and scripts for the whole chasing sequence, from a pre-due nudge to a final notice, including a phone script and a payment-plan offer.
A plain-language outline of the twelve clauses a small service business should agree before starting work, with example wording to adapt.
A fillable, timed checklist for the five-block monthly close: collect, match, chase, tax and pay, review.
A fillable checklist of everything to gather for your accountant in one tidy folder, with space for your questions and key dates.
A 20-statement self-check that scores your bookkeeping habits out of 20, shows your weakest area and points you to the right chapter and tool.
A two-page cheat sheet: the 24 terms you will actually meet, the five monthly questions, and the formulas behind profit, margin, markup and break-even.
The set-aside method on one page, with dated country notes for India, the UK and the US and where to check the current rules.
A one-page guide to which records to keep, how to file them in sixty seconds and how long to hold on to them, with a folder map.
Imports the 14-Day Shoebox Rescue, twelve month-end closes, mid-month money moments, quarterly tax checks and two price reviews into Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar.
The kit's categories as a simple numbered chart of accounts you can import or copy into accounting software when you outgrow the spreadsheet.
Each chapter opens with a real situation, gives you a method and ends with something to do today, using the tools in your kit.
The five questions every owner must answer monthly, and how the kit answers them.
Bookkeeping reduced to two lists, six words and a two-minute daily habit, on the cash basis.
How to separate business and personal money with three accounts and a fixed owner payday.
The nine parts of a complete invoice, gap-free numbering, terms, deposits and late fees.
A fixed reminder schedule with friendly, firm and final wording, so chasing is never personal.
Fifteen categories, what is not a business cost, and the sixty-second receipt habit.
Why profitable businesses run out of money, and how a 12-week forecast shows the gap early.
Your minimum hourly rate, true product margins, break-even and the discount trap.
Setting aside sales tax and income tax the day you are paid, with a monthly check.
Five timed blocks that keep your books true: collect, match, chase, tax and pay, review.
The twelve-item accountant pack, the questions to ask and the signs it is time for software.
Why regular, imperfect books beat perfect books kept never.
A day-by-day plan from shoebox to working books.
Eighteen bookkeeping terms in everyday language.
Every outcome is practised with a worked example and a tool, not just described.
People who measure before and after improve faster and can show it. AssessAll, our sister assessment platform, has AI-graded assessments that pair with this kit. Take one now, work through the kit, then re-take it.
The Scenarios sheet is the part of this kit people play with longest. It shows what a price change does to the volume you need. Take a product priced at 100 with a variable cost of 60. Contribution: 40. Offer 20% off and the price drops to 80, but the cost is still 60, so contribution halves to 20. You now need to sell twice as many just to stand still. A 20% discount is rarely what it looks like. Now go the other way. Raise the price 10%, to 110. Contribution rises to 50. You could lose a fifth of your customers and bank the same contribution, with less work. That is why a small price rise is often the kindest thing an overworked owner can do for themselves.
| Free templates and typical advice | This kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | A blank tracker with no explanation of what to enter or why | A 10-chapter method, a Start here sheet in each workbook and a 14-day plan |
| Invoices | A list of amounts you colour in by hand | Live status, balance, days overdue, part payments and an aged chase list |
| Country and currency | Built for one country, one currency and one tax | Any currency; your own tax rate, registration status and financial year in Settings |
| Tax | Ignored, or a fixed percentage hidden in a formula | A set-aside calculator that separates sales tax from income tax and shows the gap in your pot |
| Cash flow | Not included | A 12-week forecast that pulls unpaid invoices by due date and flags weeks below your buffer |
| Pricing | Sold separately, if at all | Hourly rate, product margin, break-even and a discount scenario lab |
| Getting paid | Left to you | Invoice, quote and agreement templates plus nine reminder messages and scripts, including a phone script |
| Sample data | Empty cells or broken formulas | A complete worked example business so you can see every formula before you start |
Bodhih Training has designed and delivered corporate programmes since 2008. Bodhih Pro Kits package what works in those workshops into a guide plus the exact tools we use, so you can apply it the same day without a facilitator in the room.
Name, email and country. UPI, card or netbanking in India; international cards everywhere else. No account to create.
Your download page opens at once, with every file and a one-click ZIP. A permanent link lands in your inbox too.
Start with the quick-start chapter, then the main spreadsheet or planner. Most buyers use something from the kit the same day.
You already do the hard part, which is the work. Download the kit, open the Settings sheet and type your business name, and your books have begun. Whether you start with tonight's unpaid invoices or next Monday's month-end close, you will know your numbers sooner than you think.
Personal licence for the buyer's own use (and use with your own team or clients where the kit says so). Please don't share or resell the files. Team and company licences: solutions@bodhih.com.
Projects, habits, HR, careers, communication and more.
Five Professional Playbooks for the AI-era workplace.
250+ AI-graded assessments to measure skills and earn verified credentials.
Individual development plans that start from evidence and stay yours.
Run this topic as a live workshop for your team, in person or online.
Book a vetted coach for career, leadership or communication. Pay per session.
Certification pathways in Applied AI, Workplace English and management.
No. The kit is designed for businesses that do not yet need software. Everything runs in Excel, Google Sheets or LibreOffice, plus Word and a PDF reader. Chapter 10 explains the signs that it is time to move on, and the Chart of Accounts starter file makes that move easier.
Yes. Amounts carry no currency symbol, and you set your own sales tax rate, registration status, income tax set-aside percentage and financial year on the Settings sheet. The e-book teaches principles that travel, and the Tax Set-Aside Card adds dated notes for India, the UK and the US with pointers to official sources.
No. The kit is educational. It teaches general bookkeeping habits and gives planning estimates based on flat percentages you choose. Tax rules differ by country and change every year, so check your tax authority's website and a qualified accountant before making decisions about registration, deductions, rates or deadlines.
It depends on your country, your total income and your structure, so ask an accountant for a planning figure. Many owners start with somewhere between a fifth and a third of profit, plus all of any sales tax they collect, and adjust after their first real bill. The Tax Set-Aside sheet shows what should be in your pot at any moment.
Give every invoice a unique number and a real due date, and log it the day you send it. In the Invoices sheet you type the date and amount; the sheet works out tax, due date, balance, status and days overdue, and the Who Owes Me dashboard sorts what is outstanding by age.
If you can type into a cell and choose from a dropdown, yes. You only type in white cells; grey cells calculate themselves. Each workbook opens with a Start here sheet, and the sample business shows what a filled-in version looks like.
Profit is income minus business costs over a period. Cash flow is the timing of money arriving and leaving. You can be profitable and still run out of cash if customers pay late, which is why the kit includes both a monthly profit summary and a 12-week cash forecast.
Start with the Books Health Scorecard in the kit. For a measured view of your business and financial judgement, AssessAll offers the Small Business Operating Decision Assessment for Shop, Service and Studio Owners, Four Quarters: Financial Judgement for Managers Who Are Not in Finance, and a Business Arithmetic assessment covering percentages, profit and loss and interest.
Import the Books Routine calendar so the 14-day rescue and the monthly close appear in your diary. If you want to build your finance skills further, Jobulary's individual development plan lets you turn what you learn into a measured development plan with goals and dates.
Yes, for your own business: send the invoices, quotes and reminders to your customers and share the workbook with your bookkeeper or accountant. Please do not resell or redistribute the files. For team or company licences, email solutions@bodhih.com.
Digital kits are non-refundable once downloaded, except where a file is corrupted and not fixed within 3 working days, you were charged twice, or delivery failed. If anything does not open, contact us and we will put it right.
₹999 including 18% GST for buyers in India, or $29 for buyers outside India. One-time payment, no subscription, with an automatic invoice.
Instantly. Your download page opens the moment payment succeeds, and a permanent download link is emailed to you. Download each file separately or everything in one ZIP.
Any of the usual tools: Excel or Google Sheets for spreadsheets, Word or Google Docs for templates, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Preview, Xodo or GoodNotes for the fillable PDFs, and Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar for the calendar plan.
Because it is a digital download, kits are not refundable once downloaded. We always refund a duplicate charge or a failed delivery, and if a file is corrupted and we cannot fix it within 3 working days. Full terms: bodhih.org/refunds.
Yes. Team and company licences, and workshops on this topic run by Bodhih Training, are available. Write to solutions@bodhih.com or call +91 99000 11601.
