Free Tool · Mid-Year Business Scorecard

Can your books answer
these 5 questions?

Halfway through the year. Rate 5 areas of your business honestly, get an overall health grade, and a 90-day action plan for the two areas that need it most.

Built for contractors 5 questions Takes 5 minutes

How this works

These are the 5 questions a good set of books answers in seconds. Rate how well you can answer each one today, from 1 (no idea) to 10 (know it cold). Add your real number if you have it. You check this at halftime, not year-end, because you still have 6 months to change the answer.

The 5 questions

Your business health

C
Halfway there.
Rate the 5 questions above and your grade updates live.
Your strengths
Needs work
Want your report and 90-day plan?
Email yourself the branded scorecard PDF. The review workbook and meeting agenda are on the resources page.

Your 90-day action plan

Once you rate the 5 questions, your 3 highest-impact actions appear here, tied to your two weakest areas. Pick the one that scares you most and start there.

Methodology & sources

How this is scored

This is a self-assessment. Your grade is the average of your five 1-to-10 ratings, mapped to a letter (A is 8.5 and up, B is 7, C is 5.5, D is 4, F is below 4). Strengths are your two highest areas; the action plan is built from your two lowest. The optional numbers you enter are your own figures; nothing here is compared to an industry statistic.

The 30% job-margin reference in question 3 is the healthy-margin line we use across the show (30 percent is the floor for most trades), not an outside claim. No competitor or software price appears in this tool.

From Behind the Books · The show

The episode behind this scorecard.

Joe on the 5 questions your books should answer in 30 seconds, why most owners can only answer two of them, and what changes in the second half of the year when you can answer all five.

Watch on YouTube →
Behind the Books · 5 Questions Your Books Should Answer in 30 Seconds YouTube

Companion toolkit

The grade tells you where you stand. The toolkit runs the review.

This scorecard grades 5 areas in five minutes. The free Mid-Year Business Toolkit is what you use to actually sit down and do the review: the full scoring workbook plus the meeting agenda that walks the 30-minute conversation.

  • ■ Mid-Year Business Scorecard (Excel) — the full workbook: score all 5 areas, track your numbers, re-score at year end
  • ■ Mid-Year Review Agenda (PDF) — the 30-minute meeting agenda, question by question