Target: the MRR ladder in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The on-plan result is $5k MRR at ~15 hrs/week and $10k full-time by month 24. $20k (Tier B) is a stretch.
Rule: nothing in a later phase starts until the current phase's gate is hit. Gates and pivot rules are in WHAT-TO-DO-AND-AVOID.md. The detail for days 1–90 is in 08-90-day-plan.md.
Phase 1: Prove the pain (Months 0–3) → Gates G1, G2
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Customers | 12–15 practice calls. 3–5 paid hands-on cleanups. |
| Product | Web v1: Sign in with Xero, practice dashboard, bulk recode, bulk void/delete (payments removed first), invoice and bill import with line items, preview, snapshot, reverse, change log. |
| Platform | Xero developer account, demo company test suite for every reverse path, certification submitted. |
| Distribution | 4 guides, 2 videos, honest replies on the Xero product-ideas threads. |
| Pricing | Bookkeeper $49, Practice $129, Firm $249, single-org pass $39. Hands-on customers get founding pricing locked for 12 months. |
| Exit | 3 paying practices (~15 hrs/week) / 6 (full-time), zero broken client files |
Phase 2: Make it stick (Months 4–6) → Gate G3
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Scheduled monthly import (CSV drop by email or cloud folder). Month-end checks (read-only). Auto-disconnect of idle orgs. Pause-and-resume for large jobs. |
| Platform | Certified and listed on the Xero App Store (Plus tier, AUD 245/month). |
| Distribution | 12 guides total. Review requests after the third job. One practice-community post a week. |
| Metrics | Monthly active practices, reversed jobs, failed jobs per 1,000, trial source. |
| Exit | $700 MRR / $1.2k, ≥25% trial-to-paid, ≥50% of paying practices active monthly |
Phase 3: Practices and firms (Months 7–12) → Gate G4
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Firm tier: users, roles, approval step. Import of payments applied to invoices and journals with tracking. Client-facing "what we fixed" report. |
| Distribution | Referral offer (1 month free per paying practice). 2–3 partnerships with bookkeeping trainers or Xero-focused communities. |
| Ops | Help centre, templated replies, a churn-reason survey, pause option. |
| Exit | $2k MRR / $4k, ≤5% monthly logo churn, 10+ / 20+ reviews |
Phase 4: Scale what works (Months 13–24) → Gate G5
| Track | Work |
|---|
| Product | Only what paying practices ask for most. Consider a preview-and-log layer for AI agents writing to Xero, if Xero's MCP server gains bulk actions. |
| Distribution | Double down on the single best trial source from months 1–12. Consider the second country (UK ↔ Australia). |
| Platform | Stay on Plus. Move to Advanced (AUD 1,445/month plus annual security assessment) only when connections force it and MRR is above $8k. |
| Checkpoint | Month 18: $3.5k MRR / $7k. Missing it means concentrating on the single best channel. |
| Decision at month 24 | At or above the on-plan result with churn ≤4%: aim for the $20k rung in year 3, or a second ledger. $1k to on-plan: run it as a profitable app, or sell it. Below $1k: stop or sell. |
| Exit | $5k MRR (~15 hrs/week) / $10k (full-time), profitable |
Revenue path (illustrative, not a forecast)
| Month | Paying practices (~15 hrs/week) | MRR (~15 hrs/week) | Paying practices (full-time) | MRR (full-time) |
|---|
| 3 | 3 | ~$150 | 6 | ~$350 |
| 6 | 10 | ~$700 | 16 | ~$1.2k |
| 12 | 25 | ~$2k | 48 | ~$4k |
| 18 | 42 | ~$3.5k | 82 | ~$7k |
| 24 | 58 | ~$5k | 115 | ~$10k |
Blended revenue per practice rises from ~$50 to ~$88 as Practice and Firm plans take a bigger share. This assumes monthly logo churn of 4–5% after month 6, and 40–60% of trials from the App Store and search. If churn runs above 8%, this path doesn't work. Fix the monthly job before spending on growth. The $20k Tier B path needs ~222 practices at ~$90, which means roughly doubling the full-time line from month 12.
Budget guardrails (bootstrapped)
- Xero developer tier plus hosting plus tools below 10% of revenue once past $2k MRR. Before that, a fixed ~US$250/month.
- Zero paid acquisition before the month-6 checkpoint. After it, only channels with CAC payback under 3 months.
- Keep 12 months of costs in reserve. If it falls below 6 months, cut to the core actions and the best channel.