Startup founders tend to be business visionaries or tech whizzes — not finance and accounting experts. While they’re naturally laser-focused on turning their ideas into products, they should not ignore the nitty-gritty details of how cash flows in and out of their companies. The tactical tips from founders and finance pros below will help you keep on top of your dollars and cents, and make the most of your startup funding.

As he stood on stage in New York next to former President Bill Clinton, Taylor Scobbie thought he had it made. His startup had just won the Hult Prize, which recognizes outstanding social enterprises. The $1 million in prize money came with only one stipulation: use it to build a for-profit-for-good business that contributes to solving one of the world’s toughest problems.

Scobbie was already working on a vision to buy, roast and sell direct origin coffee beans from farmers in fragile regions of the world, then send a sizeable percent of the sales proceeds back to them. Today his company, IMPCT, sells the high-end coffee to corporate clients in the Bay Area.

Unfortunately, the $1 million Hult grant came with no guidelines, no board, no shareholders and no accountant. And IMPCT’s untested team knew nothing about managing cash flow.

“As CEO of a startup, you are running around doing a million and one things, and some things suffer,” Scobbie says. He adds, “We spent a couple of years not running the business optimally because we didn’t have investors pushing us in the right direction.” IMPCT now has investors and a board — and positive cash flow, in part because they nailed their cash management.

No one said it’d be easy

While few entrepreneurs have the good fortune of landing $1 million with no strings attached, IMPCT’s challenges are by no means unique. “Cash management in the early stages is one of the hardest things,” says Amy Kux, who has held senior accounting and finance positions at Bay Area startups for nearly two decades and is now CFO of Unbabel.

As a startup, cash is your lifeblood. The longer you can make it last, the better. Yet we see many startups that seem to manage cash flow by the seat of their pants. The result can be chaotic, with startups running dangerously low on cash, forcing founders to go without pay, dip into their savings or draw on their personal credit cards.

Here are some ideas on how to manage your company’s cash more wisely.

Know where your cash goes every day

A good way to start is by keeping your books organized to get a sense of whether your company is hitting its …