Every net worth app can add up your checking account, your brokerage, your 401(k) and your house. None of them know what to do with the LLC. Either the business is missing from the number entirely, or it appears as a manual line you typed once and never updated, or the business bank account is sitting in the list as if it were another savings account, which makes you look richer than you are and hides the loan the business took out to buy the truck.
This guide is for the owner of one business who wants one honest number: what counts, how to value the business without a formal appraisal, how to keep business and personal money separate while still seeing both, and how to update the number without a spreadsheet ritual.
Missing. The app tracks personal accounts; the business is elsewhere. Your net worth excludes the thing you spend most of your week building.
Typed once. The app has a "manual asset" line where you entered "My LLC: $50,000" in 2024. It has been $50,000 ever since, through a good year and a bad one.
Flattened. The app connected to the business checking account and shows it next to your personal checking. The $30,000 in that account looks like your cash. It is the company's cash, some of it owed to the IRS as your next estimated payment, some of it the deposit a customer paid for work not done yet, and none of it accounts for the $40,000 equipment loan the business owes.
Your business is worth what it owns minus what it owes to outsiders. That is its book value, and it is the conservative, defensible number for a net worth statement. For a small LLC the components are short: cash in the business accounts; receivables (money customers owe you); equipment and vehicles at a realistic value; inventory if you have it; minus loans, credit lines, credit card balances, unpaid payroll and sales tax, and customer deposits you have not earned yet.
Book value ignores the value of the business as a going concern (your customer list, your brand, the profit it will make next year). That is deliberate for this purpose. A net worth figure is a statement of what you could realize; if you would not sell the business for a multiple of earnings this month, do not count the multiple. Keep it as a separate line if you want to see it, labelled as an estimate.
| Component | How to value it | Update |
|---|---|---|
| Business cash | Bank balance minus deposits held for customers and taxes already accrued | Live |
| Receivables | Invoices outstanding, minus anything older than 90 days you doubt | Monthly |
| Equipment and vehicles | What you could sell them for (trade-in for vehicles), not what you paid or the depreciated tax value | Twice a year |
| Inventory | Cost of what you have, minus what will not sell | Monthly if it matters, else quarterly |
| Loans and lines | Current balance from the lender, principal only | Every payment |
| Payroll and sales tax owed | Accrued but unpaid | Monthly |
| Going-concern value (optional, separate line) | A multiple of profit only if you have a real basis for the multiple | Annually |
The business has its own bank account and card, and it should stay that way; mixing them is how the liability shield of an LLC is lost and how the books become unusable. Separate does not mean invisible. The right structure is one view that shows personal accounts and the business side by side, with the business represented as its net value rather than as a pile of accounts, and with the money between them (draws, contributions, reimbursements) labelled for what it is. Our guide to owner draws, salary and distributions covers the labels; the point here is that a transfer from the business to you reduces the business's value and increases your cash by the same amount, so net worth does not move. An app that counts the business account as yours shows it moving, which is the tell that the picture is wrong.
Money you take from the business is where personal and business finance meet, and it is where the personal-only apps lose the thread. In a single-member LLC it is a draw; in an S-Corp it is a salary or a distribution; in a partnership it is a distribution or a guaranteed payment. On your personal side, each deposit from the business should carry that label, not "transfer", because your tax forecast depends on it (salary was withheld; distributions were not; draws are not income at all since the profit is), and because your lender will ask for it.
Maya runs a consulting LLC. Personally she has $18,400 in checking and savings, $86,500 in a brokerage account, $214,000 in retirement accounts, a home worth $485,000 with a $318,000 mortgage, a car worth $34,000, and $3,120 on credit cards. The LLC has $22,000 in its account, $14,600 in receivables, a laptop and equipment worth $6,000, and owes $0 in loans but $4,800 in payroll tax for the quarter and holds a $5,000 client retainer for work not started.
| Line | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Personal cash and brokerage | $104,900 | Liquid |
| Retirement | $214,000 | Illiquid, pre-tax |
| Home less mortgage | $167,000 | Illiquid |
| Car | $34,000 | Illiquid |
| Credit cards | ($3,120) | Liability |
| Business: cash | $22,000 | Inside the LLC |
| Business: receivables | $14,600 | Inside the LLC |
| Business: equipment | $6,000 | Inside the LLC |
| Business: payroll tax owed | ($4,800) | Inside the LLC |
| Business: client retainer held | ($5,000) | Inside the LLC, not earned yet |
| Business net value | $32,800 | What the LLC is worth on the statement |
| Net worth | $549,580 | Liquid share: $104,900, about 19% |
A personal-only app says $516,780 and calls the business "other". A flattened app that counts the business account as cash says $538,780 and never sees the retainer or the payroll tax. Neither is a number you would give a lender.
The first question on a mortgage or a business line of credit is not your net worth; it is how much of it you can reach. Cash and brokerage are liquid. The house, the retirement accounts and the business are not. Keep the liquid share as its own number, because it decides whether next quarter's estimated tax, a slow month for the business, or a down payment gets funded from cash or from selling something. In the example, $104,900 of liquid assets against a business that holds $22,000 of its own cash is a healthy position; the same net worth with $12,000 liquid would not be.
HaraPro keeps your personal accounts and your business in one login, with the business represented by its own books rather than by a bank balance, draws and distributions labelled by entity, and net worth split into liquid and illiquid; the personal finance page shows the owner's view, and one business is free forever.
Yes, as its net value: what the business owns minus what it owes to outsiders. Do not count the business bank account as personal cash, and do not count a multiple of earnings unless you would actually sell at it.
Book value: cash, receivables, equipment at resale value and inventory, minus loans, unpaid taxes and customer deposits. Add a going-concern estimate as a separate, labelled line if you want to see it.
Not as a personal account. It belongs inside the business's own figure, alongside the business's debts. Listing it next to your checking overstates your cash and hides what the business owes.
No. A draw or distribution moves value from the business to you; the business is worth less and you have more cash by the same amount. If your app shows net worth rising when you pay yourself, it is counting the business account as yours.
Cash, brokerage and anything you can sell within about a week at its stated value. The house, retirement accounts and the business are illiquid. Lenders and your own cash planning care about the liquid share.