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Owner Pay & Dividend Planning

Decide how much to take, in what form and when: a personal budget, salary and dividend plans agreed with your accountant, dividend paperwork, director's loan control and a tax pot for owner income.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for Owner Pay & Dividend Planning, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

Before you start: this plan is general information to help you organise your own money decisions. It is not financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Check decisions that matter with a qualified, licensed adviser in your country, and remember that investing and trading can lose money.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

202

Starter tasks

🧾 Finance & Accounting

Owner Pay & Dividend Planning

Deciding how and when business owners pay themselves through salary, drawings or dividends, balancing tax, cash needs and what the company can afford.

  1. Personal budget for what you need to take home
  2. How your business structure lets you pay yourself
  3. Separate owner pay account and transfer route
  4. Two-year history of what you took from the business
  5. Distributable reserves check before any dividend
  6. Director's loan account opening balance
  7. Personal tax pot for owner income
  8. Minimum cash buffer before owner payments
  9. First written owner pay plan with your accountant
  10. Monthly owner pay day routine
  11. Quarterly dividend declaration cycle
  12. Board minute and dividend voucher templates
  13. Owner pay log
  14. Monthly director's loan account review
  15. Personal tax payment calendar for owners
  16. Running income tally against personal tax bands
  17. Quarterly owner pay versus profit check
  18. Annual owner pay review before the company year end
  19. How salary, dividends and drawings are taxed
  20. Reading the balance sheet for what you can safely take
  21. Director's loan rules and overdrawn balance traps
  22. State pension and social security credits on a low salary
  23. Reasonable salary rules for owner-employees
  24. Owner benefits and costs the company can pay
  25. Salary versus dividend mix for the next tax year
  26. Monthly, quarterly or annual dividend rhythm
  27. Company pension contribution versus extra dividend
  28. Clearing an overdrawn director's loan before year end
  29. Fixed monthly pay for a freelancer instead of ad hoc drawings
  30. Income smoothing buffer for lumpy freelance earnings
  31. Home office charge to the company
  32. Lending to your company or putting in share capital
  33. Sole trader or limited company for owner pay
  34. Final dividend after the annual accounts are approved
  35. Personal tax year-end owner pay checklist
  36. Personal tax return with salary and dividend records
  37. Mortgage or loan application on owner income
  38. Special dividend or bonus after an exceptional year
  39. Paying yourself in a new company's first year
  40. Founder salary after raising outside investment
  41. Family members as shareholders or employees
  42. Co-founder pay and drawings policy
  43. Owner pay during parental leave or long illness
  44. Planned owner pay holiday in a cash squeeze
  45. Multi-year extraction plan towards exit or retirement
  46. Holding company for receiving dividends
  47. Separate share classes for different dividend rates
  48. Owner pay when you live in another country
  49. Extracting retained profits when closing the company
  50. Normalising owner pay for a business valuation

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Personal budget for what you need to take home

Before any talk of salary or dividends, an owner needs one number: what the household needs each month to cover rent or mortgage, bills, food, debt repayments and savings. Without it, owners either take too little and run up personal debt, or take whatever is in the account and starve the business. A written personal budget turns owner pay into a target the business can plan around.

First tasks

  • Download the last three months of personal bank statements
  • List every fixed personal cost with its monthly amount
  • Average the variable spending across the three months
  • Write down your take-home target and your survival minimum
  • Revisit the personal budget figures before each new tax year @recurring(yearly)

How your business structure lets you pay yourself

The legal form of the business decides which pay routes are even open. A sole trader or partner takes drawings and is taxed on the profit, not the drawings; a company director can take a salary, dividends as a shareholder, or borrow through a director's loan account; some countries add variants of their own, such as the S corporation in the US.

First tasks

  • Find your business registration record and note the legal form
  • List the pay routes your structure allows, from drawings to dividends
  • Note the paperwork and reporting each route needs
  • Send the note to your accountant and ask them to correct it

Separate owner pay account and transfer route

Paying personal bills straight from the business account blurs the books, makes the director's loan account impossible to follow and looks poor to lenders and tax inspectors. One named transfer from the business account to a personal account, on a set day, with a reference saying what it is (salary, dividend or drawings), keeps every owner payment visible and easy to code.

First tasks

  • Choose the personal account that will receive owner pay
  • Save the personal account as a payee in business banking
  • Agree payment references for salary, dividends and drawings with your bookkeeper
  • Remove the business card from personal shopping apps and wallets

Make it yours.

Install Owner Pay & Dividend Planning, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.