BusinessSolvency User Manual · Alpha Testing · October 2026
Part One — Foundation
Chapter 3B

Training — Practise First, Then a Real Client

BusinessSolvency links the Income Statement, the Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow across your business’s past years and the years ahead, so one change moves many figures. That is what makes it useful, and it is why nobody should rely on it untrained: not the accountant, not the bookkeeper, not the owner, and not its builder. This chapter is the hands-on guide: how to make your own training copy, the habits to learn on it, what to practise, and how to move from practice to a real client.

AccountantsBookkeepersBusiness Owners
The point of this chapter (for your learning)

Learn on practice figures, where mistakes cost nothing. Then set up a real client.

Practise

Make your own training copy of a demo business. Change anything, read every report, and see what moves.

Learn the habits

Save before you read or print. Check which year you are on. Fix a slip and save again.

Then a real client

“Set up a new client like this” starts a real business with the setup and forecast assumptions you have practised, and none of the demo’s dollars.

“I built it, and I still had to train. It is hard work, but it is the only way to understand these statements.” — Stephen Fairbairn, Founder
Show me how to make a training copy ↓
In This Chapter
  1. 3B.1 — Learn first, then a real client
  2. 3B.2 — Make your own training copy
  3. 3B.3 — Three habits from the first training session
  4. 3B.4 — What to practise
  5. 3B.5 — Practise building reserves
  6. 3B.6 — From practice to a real client: Set up a new client like this
  7. 3B.7 — Who does what
  8. 3B.8 — Training never really stops
Section 3B.1
Learn first, then a real client

Most business software asks you to type in figures and press a button. BusinessSolvency is different. Change a drawing, a price or a tax payment in one year, and the cash, the equity and the next year’s figures all follow. Used well, that shows early whether your business can keep paying its way. Used without training, it can mislead.

Everyone who enters or reads the figures needs training, and each brings different strengths. Accountants know historical accounts well and learn the forecast years. Bookkeepers learn to enter each quarter accurately and to spot when something does not look right. Owners learn to read what the figures say about their own decisions.

The rule

Learn first, on practice figures. Then use BusinessSolvency for a real business, with its accountant involved. Training: why training comes first →

Section 3B.2
Make your own training copy

The demo businesses are locked, so everyone sees the same story. To practise, the accountant makes a training copy: a full copy of a demo that only they can see, and that they can change freely.

1
Open any demo business
If you are the Accountant, a yellow “Practise on this demo” box sits above the three statements.
2
Choose your current financial year
This financial year or next. If the copy is moved on a year, a READ FIRST box lists the settings that depend on the year (tax rates, inflation, super, wage rises, interest rates, the ATO’s interest charge). Check each one: it is also the checklist for setting up a real client.
3
Press “Make my own training copy”
Every page and every printout of the copy carries a brown “Training copy — not real figures” banner. The demo itself never changes.
4
Add colleagues if you wish
Menu → Business Access. Owners practise alongside their accountant, who makes the copy and adds them to it.
5
Start again whenever you like
You have one training copy of each demo at a time. To start fresh, delete your copy (the Delete button at its top), then make a new one from the demo.
Section 3B.3
Three habits from the first training session

One morning while BusinessSolvency was being tested, its founder practised on a training copy of the coffee van demo. He wanted to see what happens when the tax bill is not paid on time. Two things went wrong, and both are easy to do. Each one taught a habit.

1. Press Save All Data before you read, print or leave a page. Some figures change as you type (the ATO’s interest charge, the ATO debt). Others are only worked out when you save: cash, equity, reserves, money the owners put in, next year’s figures and the dashboard. A printout made before saving mixes old and new figures. The yellow “Not saved yet” bar appears the moment anything changes. (Chapter 4, Section 4.6)

2. Check which year you are on before you tick or type. The year buttons (for example FY2028, FY2029, FY2030) show which year is open. One tick in the wrong year changes the whole picture: a box ticked in two years instead of one turned one year’s unpaid tax into two, and the ATO debt tripled. (Chapter 4, Section 4.4)

3. If something slips through and gets saved by mistake, that’s fine. It’s a training copy, so you can untick it and save again.

Before trusting any printout, also look at Last saved at the top of the page: it shows when the figures were last saved and by whom.

Section 3B.4
What to practise

Change one thing at a time, press Save All Data, then read the Breakeven page, the Annual Solvency Report and the Solvency Forecast to see what moved, and why.

Try thisWhat to look forRead more
Change the owners’ drawings in one forecast yearHow the cash, the equity and the Breakeven test move, in that year and the years after.7.4
Tick “Tax not paid on time” in one yearThe ATO debt, the ATO’s interest charge, and why an ATO debt is not spare cash.4.7 · 9.6
Change revenue growth or cost of sales %How a small change in margin moves Breakeven more than a big change in sales.3.3
Plan a year to BreakevenThe revenue the business needs for all cash in to cover all cash out.7.11
Set the reserve targetsHow much buffer each year builds, and where the money comes from (3B.5).7.5

Then explain what you found in plain words, as you would to an owner. If you can tell the story, you have understood the figures.

Section 3B.5
Practise building reserves

Reserves are the buffer that keeps your business trading through a downturn. They have to be saved and built: they are very hard to borrow when they are needed. The bank’s overdraft and suppliers’ credit give only short headroom for the unexpected, and in hard times they shorten it, because nobody has spare credit then. Reserves also keep the tax paid when it is due, which limits trouble with the ATO.

Watch out: a solvency crunch can come slowly at first, then very quickly. A business without reserves has no time to act. On your training copy, set the reserve targets, save, and watch how the buffer builds year by year, and what it costs the owners in drawings to build it.

Building Reserves → · Training: the buffer that keeps you trading →

Section 3B.6
From practice to a real client: Set up a new client like this

Once you are confident on a training copy, start the real client. On any business you can see, the demos included, the Accountant has a blue box: “Set up a new client like this”. It opens the New Business form already filled in with that business’s setup, so a client like one you have practised on starts from the assumptions you know.

CopiedNot copied
How the business is set up: structure, sector, tax rate, number of partners.
The forecast assumptions for forecast years 1, 2 and 3, in order: revenue growth, cost of sales %, wages to cost of sales %, cost growth, inflation, overheads contingency, the reserve targets, and the Breakeven reserve %.		Any dollar figure. The name, contact details, ABN and address. The years. Debtor and creditor days (set by the accounting software, or agreed by the owners with customers and suppliers). Interest rates and loan years (settled by the accountant and owners: there may be several loans). The story, scenarios, and the people on the access list.

The new client is a real business, owned by the accountant who set it up. Then work in this order:

1
Import the last three years
From the accounting software (MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks): menu → Import Data. The import sets the years. (Chapter 4, Section 4.4)
2
Add the reserves and provisions
The accounts the accounting software does not hold. (Chapter 7, Section 7.5)
3
Import the first quarter
Menu → Import Quarterly Data, then the quarterly review. (Chapter 3A, Section 3A.2)
4
Add every owner and director
Menu → Business Access. A yellow reminder bar shows on the business until they are added (for a partnership, until every partner is). The first owner added becomes the business’s Admin. (Chapter 5, Section 5.4)

Remember: the forecast assumptions fill in the first time the forecast is made, and the forecast needs at least one full real year of figures. A brand-new business with no full year yet needs a different start: talk it through with the accountant, and BusinessSolvency Admin can help with the setup if needed.

Section 3B.7
Who does what
WhoTheir partRead more
AccountantLeads the setup, makes the training copies, holds data entry and year-end authority, and explains the forecast to the owners in plain words.4.2 · 7.8
BookkeeperListed as Accountant and given data entry authority: enters each quarter, saves and checks, under the accountant’s supervision.5.4 · 7A
Business ownersMake the decisions: what you draw, what you charge, what you spend, and how much reserve to build. Practise alongside the accountant.2 · 2A · 3
Section 3B.8
Training never really stops

A habit, not a course

Inflation, interest rates, drawings, margins and tax rates move every quarter. Training carries on as a habit of reviewing what has changed, and trying it first on the training copy before changing a real client’s figures.

Chapter 3A: making it a habit, your quarterly review → · Training never really stops →

Inside BusinessSolvency, How It Works has the same steps, click by click: How It Works: Practise First → (log in first).

← Chapter 3A · Making It a Habit
↑