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Hard to produce financial statement of the startup?

1 points by xster ↗ HN
Hi,

Hoping to draw from the wealth of experience from hacker news again.

I requested for the previous financial records and the current financial states of a startup before joining as a partner and the founder seem to be hesitating and taking a long time to produce it. When I became firm that I need to see it before getting to work, it took him a week to tell me that it'll take another week to get an 'official' version.

I personally feel pretty sketch about this since his accountant should keep track of where the money is anyway and he just has to take it from his cabinet and give it to me but am I mistaken here? Is it in fact a complicated document to compile? I'm in Canada and tax day is ... today. Shouldn't it be pretty easy to come up with the numbers?

Thanks guys!

3 comments

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hga
If you're truly proposing to join as a partner, it sure sounds like something's wrong.

Although ... how complicated is your tax system? Trying to get anything like this out of US accountants in the run up to our equivalent April 15th is hard, since they are trying to satisfy the maximum demand for their services.

How long has he been trying to hold you off (when did you first ask)?

xster
I believe taxes are due to be done today, so likely, I'm not asking the accountant for more work than that already done.

I first asked 2 months ago which he sort of brushed off. Since I was serious that I need to see it before working, it has been a week and he's saying it'll take another week

hga
But I'd assume they're just too busy to do any additional work. Especially since, at least in the US, tax bookkeeping is different than the normal "give you a picture of the company" bookkeeping that is what you need (I read long ago (before it all got computerized) that some companies legally keep two sets of books because of this).

I wouldn't be at all concerned about him needing a delay right now, but brushing you off 2 months ago? That's not a good sign, although it might not be too bad of a sign.

Are you proposing to put any money into this venture, or just sweat? If the latter, what's your opportunity cost?