Ask HN: How to write a business plan for an Internet startup?

Re:Ask HN: How to write a business plan for an Internet star... by Skeletor on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:03PM (#425630)

What if you rebate the cost of your software to customers for a trial period? Do you think that counts as revenue or as nill?

What if you prepay for a year of office space before the end of your fiscal year to show no profit in a year? Did you make a profit or not? These are different ways to interpret the same numbers.

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Re:Ask HN: How to write a business plan for an Internet star... by brk on Thursday January 08, 2009 @04:21PM (#425666)

Try (as much as possible) to stick to GAAP standards and you'll be fine.

Choosing how/when you depreciate certain assets, or if you use a FIFO or LIFO inventory process is all well and good. But you would still have 1 single set of accounting books/data.

I never enjoyed the accounting part of the companies I've started, but I've learned there are things you could do, things you should do and things that you shouldn't do. There is not a whole lot of room for interpretation, especially if you want to try to raise money or sell the company at any point.

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