The doubts, answered here.

Your accounts are held at Dream First Bank, Member FDIC, and every connection is secured with bank-grade encryption. Profit First moves money between your own accounts. It never spends or invests on your behalf.

Yes. You can set weekly, biweekly, monthly, or a cadence that matches your payroll or deposits. The 10th and 25th is the default because a steady, predictable rhythm is what builds the habit and gives you a clear read on your cash flow.

Your Operating Expenses account. Card charges are day-to-day running costs, so paying them from OpEx keeps your spending in one place and leaves Profit, Tax, and Owner’s Comp untouched.

No. Taking profit first forces your business to run efficiently on what is left, which is what makes growth sustainable. You fund expansion from real profit and a stable cash position, not from hoping something trickles down.

Set one up when you take retainers, deposits, or prepayments for work you will deliver over time, or when you want a cushion for seasonal swings. The money sits in the drip account and moves into Income only as you earn it, so you allocate against revenue you have actually delivered.

Because the account fills faster than you draw from it. Every 10th and 25th, a percentage of revenue lands in Owner’s Comp, but you only pay yourself your set salary. The surplus builds a buffer, so your pay stays steady even in a slow month.

It is a strong signal. If the balance keeps growing quarter after quarter beyond what you draw, your business can likely support a raise. Confirm it against your rolling revenue average and overall profitability before you bump your salary, so the higher pay holds through a slow stretch.

A separate Sales Tax account. Sales tax is not your money; you are holding it for the government. Move it into that account the moment it comes in, before you run your Profit First allocations, so it is never mistaken for revenue.

From Operating Expenses in most cases. If subcontractor and materials costs run above roughly 20% of revenue, open a dedicated Materials and Subcontractors account and fund it before your other accounts. That protects your ability to deliver the work and gives you a cleaner view of your real revenue.

First confirm the surplus with your accountant against your actual tax liability. If it is genuinely over-reserved, lower your Tax percentage going forward, then move the excess to your Profit account as an extra distribution or into a Vault account for reserves. Do not leave it sitting where you might read it as spendable.

Show her it does not replace her work. Profit First is a cash-management system that sits alongside your books in QuickBooks or Xero, not a substitute for them. Bring her into the setup and let her shape how allocations map to your existing process. The resistance usually eases once she sees it is additive.

Spending profit down to shrink your tax bill defeats the point of the system. Your Profit account is your reward and your buffer for a hard year. Ask your accountant for a tax strategy that keeps the profit habit intact, follow their guidance on how to record and file, and keep taking your distribution.

Yes, and it is built for it. Add a Debt Repayment account and direct a percentage of revenue at your debt while keeping your core allocations running. You still take a small profit distribution, even 1%, so the habit and the reward stay alive while you dig out.

Freeze new debt first: cut unnecessary costs and stop adding to the balance. Then attack it smallest debt first, for the momentum of clearing one completely, paying minimums on the rest. Route most of your profit allocation at the target debt and keep a sliver to celebrate progress. Paying by highest interest rate first is the alternative if the numbers strongly favor it.

Yes. The quarterly distribution is the habit-forming core of Profit First; rewarding yourself on a schedule is what keeps you putting profit first. Resist skipping it or plowing it back into the business.

You can, but quarterly is recommended. The gap between distributions is what makes each one feel like a real reward and keeps the discipline sharp. Monthly tends to dilute that.

That still fits. Allocate a fixed percentage of revenue into an Owner’s Compensation account each period and label those distributions clearly so they stay separate from your Profit distribution. Profit First manages the cash; your accountant governs how it is recorded and taxed, so follow their treatment while keeping the allocation consistent.

Take 50% of the Profit account balance at the end of each quarter, and leave the other 50% to keep the account growing. The one exception is while you are clearing debt, when most of that balance goes to the debt instead.

If you bank with Dream First Bank, your accounts are already connected and sync automatically. To add an outside bank, open your dashboard, select Link near your accounts, and follow the Plaid prompts. Plaid connections are read-only, so your balances update for planning but transfers stay manual.

Yes. There are dedicated iOS and Android apps, and the web version is fully mobile-responsive in any modern phone browser. You can check balances, review allocations, and approve them from anywhere.

There is a Starter Plan for business owners who open accounts at Dream First Bank, plus paid tiers that add deeper reporting, insights, and automation as your needs grow. See the pricing page for current plans and what each includes.

Through Plaid, the app currently connects US and Canadian banks, with more countries added over time. Dream First Bank accounts are US-based. If your bank is not supported yet, check back as coverage expands.

Go to Settings, then Bank Accounts, and choose edit or remove. You can change an account’s name, its CAP and TAP percentages, and its minimum balance. The five core Profit First accounts have to stay in place, since the method depends on them.

Invite clients with your affiliate link. Once a client sets up their account, they add you as a user on their company profile with the right permissions to help with allocations, reporting, and guidance. If you run several clients, Enterprise Licensing offers bulk pricing in bundles of five licenses.

Dream First Bank is the app’s official banking partner. It is a business banking platform built around the Profit First method, with multiple FDIC-insured accounts, automatic allocations, and real-time cash visibility.

Your Dream First Bank accounts, Income, Profit, Owner’s Pay, Taxes, Operating Expenses, and any others, sync directly with the app. On your chosen schedule, deposits are split into those accounts automatically by your percentages, with no manual transfers. That is Profit First running on autopilot.

No. You can connect an existing bank through Plaid and use the app’s allocation tools, tracking, and insights. The difference is automation: without Dream First Bank, Plaid connections are read-only, so you move money between accounts yourself. With ProfitFirst.bank, the allocations happen automatically.

Multiple FDIC-insured accounts with no minimums or fees, automatic allocation by the percentages you set, and a direct sync with the app so your numbers are always current. It is banking structured for the way Profit First actually works.

Accounting software records what already happened. The Profit First App directs your money as it comes in, splitting each deposit so profit is set aside first, then expenses. It sits alongside QuickBooks or Xero rather than replacing them.

When you bank with Dream First Bank, automated allocation splits every deposit into your accounts by your Current Allocation Percentages, on your schedule, with no manual math. Your profit, tax, pay, and expenses are set aside consistently, which is what turns the method into a habit you do not have to think about.

Yes. They can be added as users on a client’s account to help with allocations, reporting, and rolling out Profit First. Professionals managing several clients can use Enterprise Licensing for bulk access.