Books is your back office. It turns everything you already log in Bar Cop into the files your accountant or bookkeeper needs, and tracks the permits and expenses that keep the doors open. Nothing here asks you to re-enter a number you have already captured. It runs as a monthly close: log your bills, check your numbers, and hand the books off. Here is how it fits together.

1. Log this month's expenses and outflows

Add the bills that are not product or labor so your operating income is real, and record the cash that leaves the business outside of a cost, like owner draws and loan payments. See Log Operating Expenses and Log Cash Outflows.

2. Pull your weekly brief

A one-page profit and loss for any week range, the light, frequent companion you keep for yourself or hand to a bookkeeper. See Generate the Weekly P&L Brief.

3. Close the month

Build the full workbook and one-page owner summary for your accountant, everything you logged, formatted and ready. See Close Month-End Books.

4. Close the year

At tax time, the Annual Review rolls the full year into one place, with the current year so far for a read on how things are going. See Run the Annual Review.

5. Know your break-even and stay compliant

Two tools that keep you out of trouble: your Break-Even, the weekly sales you need to cover your costs, and Permits and Licenses, so a renewal never lapses on you.

Bar Cop is a tool, not a CPA. Everything in Books is built to hand to your accountant, who should review and verify it before you file anything. The outputs are worksheets, not filed statements.