The 60-Second Cheat Sheet
The whole library, compressed for keeps. Read this before a board meeting, an investor call, or a big decision.
2 min readAll levelsUpdated July 2026
Key takeaways
Three statements, three questions, all wired together.
Watch four numbers: gross margin, operating margin, net margin, and runway.
Compare everything against your industry, not a universal ideal.
Everything, in one screen
- Income Statement: “Are we making money?” A period of time. Revenue steps down to net income, and each step (gross profit, operating income) is its own health check.
- Balance Sheet: “What do we own vs. owe?” One frozen moment. Assets = liabilities + equity, always, like the house and its mortgage.
- Cash Flow Statement: “Will we run out of cash?” Real money through three doors: operations, investing, financing. Profit is an opinion. Cash is a fact.
- They’re wired together: profit flows into equity and cash, and the change in cash closes the loop back on the balance sheet.
- Watch four numbers: gross margin, operating margin, net margin, and runway. Compare against your industry, not a universal ideal.
The best way to learn it? Build one.
Nothing cements this faster than watching your own assumptions turn into linked statements, then nudging one number and seeing the ripple. That’s the moment it stops being accounting and starts being your business.
See it in a real model
The fastest way to make this stick is to build one and watch the numbers move.
Open the builderRelated reading
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The Three Statements
How the Three Statements Connect
The part most guides skip. The statements are plumbed into each other, so changing one number ripples through all three.
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