Richard Branson’s oft-repeated advice about going through every bill once a month survives because it is operationally true. Summaries hide sins. Line items confess.
In early companies the founder is the immune system. Later, managing directors need the same habit or the organisation grows antibodies against thrift—subscriptions nobody owns, retainers without briefs, freight upgrades that became “how we do things.”
How to run the ritual
- Export everything that left the accounts last month
- Sort by amount, then by vendor name
- Mark anything you cannot explain in one sentence
- Cancel, renegotiate, or assign an owner with a review date
Do it monthly. Celebrate nothing. Just keep the company alive long enough to do interesting work.
What good operators do with the findings
A bill review without follow-through is just anxiety with stationery. The useful version ends in three piles: keep, cancel, investigate. Keep needs no meeting. Cancel happens the same day. Investigate gets an owner and a date—otherwise it becomes wallpaper.
Share the habit with whoever signs POs. When two people expect the monthly list, zombie costs have fewer places to hide. If your accountant already sends a pack, demand the raw export too. Summaries are for boards. Line items are for operators.
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