Counting Beans

A place for practical advice, encouragement and inspiration, helping you track your finances one magic bean at a time

Today, I find myself surrounded by receipts and letters, invoices and forms. Deadlines are looming, tax returns must be filed. Documents and receipts await, tucked behind my alcohol markers, slipped inside notebooks, folded into those nice clear plastic envelopes for keeping them safe. They’re on the shelf under my desk, among scissors, glue sticks, and rolls of washi tape. Somewhere between the yarn and crochet hooks, amidst the modelling tools and jars of paintbrushes, the beans wait to be counted.

For weeks, months, they’ve lingered quietly, pushed aside in favour of sketching, painting, crafting, and creating. But today, they will wait no longer.

Open on my computer are spreadsheets and documents, alongside countless browser tabs, online banking, payment portals, cloud accounting pages, all ready and waiting for me to bring order to the numbers. To meticulously pull together the strands, categorise payments and receipts, update cashflow forecasts, review profit and loss statements and balance sheet reports.

It may not be exciting, but it is necessary.

In my day job, I navigate spreadsheets, invoices, and cashflows, budgeting and forecasting, making sure the bills get paid on time, keep the wheels of business turning.

But when I’m home, when the chores are done and the day has quieted, all I want to do is surrender to the ever-wonderful flow of creativity.

Dear creatives, how do you feel when it’s time to manage your finances?

Does the thought of budgeting, tracking expenses, and dealing with taxes make you feel slightly nauseous? Is it something you put off until the very last minute?

I understand. You just want to write, to draw, to paint, to make things. Me too.

But as Benjamin Franklin said, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

We put it off as long as we can, the receipts pile up, the forms gather dust, but sooner or later, it has to be done. And while I do let it wait longer than I should, it holds no fear for me.

What if that could be true for you too?

What if that little F word didn’t feel quite so daunting?

What if there were a way to make sense of it all, to untangle the threads and see the story your numbers are telling? What if tackling your finances became less of a chore and more of an extension of your creative journey, a way to support and sustain the work you love?

To all the creative adventurers, whether you’re a painter or potter, knitter or novelist, crafter or composer, I would like to share with you what I’ve learned from over two decades in finance and running a creative business of my own.

As part of exploring and celebrating creativity in all its forms, I’m bringing Counting Beans¹ together with While I Was Drawing.

Counting Beans is where my accounting knowledge meets my creative soul. It's a place for practical advice, encouragement, and inspiration, helping you track your finances one bean at a time, find the magic in your numbers, and plant them where they can help your creativity flourish.

Each month, I’ll share tips, tools, and some fun, to make balancing the books feel less like a chore and more like a natural part of your creative journey. Here’s what you can expect:

• Friendly, jargon-free advice on managing expenses, navigating taxes, and staying organised without all the complexity.

• Templates and tools (available to paid subscribers) to help make the numbery stuff feel less overwhelming and more actionable.

• A light-hearted approach to serious topics, complete with illustrations, a sprinkle of humour, and the occasional bad joke.

Each post will begin with a free section full of insights and practical ideas. For those ready to go deeper, paid subscribers will unlock even more detailed advice and resources, including spreadsheet templates to help turn your plans into action.

Paid subscribers will also have access to The Magic Bean Exchange, a monthly chat thread where you can ask questions and share thoughts about managing creative finances. A cosy space for us to grow your financial understanding, one bean at a time.

To celebrate the relaunch of Counting Beans, I’m offering 30% off paid subscriptions to While I Was Drawing for the rest of the month. This discount will last as long as you stay subscribed, so now’s a great time to upgrade.

Bye for now,

P.S. If you’re a small business or sole trader looking for an accountant, or want to check the credentials of the accountant you already have, here are some tips from me✨

1. In 2023, I launched a new publication called Counting Beans, to help make finance and accounting feel less intimidating for creatives. To explain in plain English with no jargon, no complicated formulas, just straightforward advice to stop it all from being as scary and complicated as we accountants can make it seem. Now, I’m bringing it together with While I Was Drawing, so everything you need to manage your magic beans is right here, in one place.