First Week Setup for a New Company

New company drawer showing account fields and accounting edit permissions

Use this first-week setup workflow to move from a new company record to a usable accounting file with core defaults, lists, bank accounts, opening balances, and review reports.

When To Use This

Use this page when you have just created or imported a company and want a practical setup path before day-to-day bookkeeping begins.

Before You Start

  • You know whether the company is starting fresh or being migrated from another accounting system.
  • You know the preferred chart of accounts approach.
  • You know the bank and credit card accounts that need to be tracked.
  • You know whether the company needs invoices, bills, checks, or all three.

Steps

  1. Create the company or import the company data.
  2. Confirm the active company in the sidebar before continuing.
  3. Review company-level setup fields.
  • Confirm company name, country, currency, fiscal year, and posting cutoff date.
  • Confirm required account fields and account display preferences.
  1. Review the Chart of Accounts.
  • Confirm cash, bank, credit card, receivable, payable, income, expense, and equity accounts.
  • Add or clean up accounts before entering daily activity.
  • Confirm default AR and AP accounts if you plan to use invoices and bills.
  1. Set up customers before entering invoices.
  • Review payment terms.
  • Add customer records needed for open invoices or new billing.
  1. Set up vendors before entering bills or checks.
  • Add vendor records needed for open bills or common payments.
  • Add default expense accounts where repeated vendor coding will help.
  1. Set up items before invoicing if the company uses item or SKU-based invoice lines.
  2. Add or review bank and credit card accounts.
  3. Enter opening balances only when you understand the opening date and account balances being carried forward.
  4. Import or enter open AR and AP items if the company is moving from another system.
  5. Run setup review reports.
  • Trial Balance
  • Balance Sheet
  • Income Statement, if there is beginning-period activity
  • Aging reports, if open AR or AP is entered
  1. Review one sample workflow before broad entry begins.
  • Create a test invoice path if sales will be used.
  • Create a test bill or check path if payables will be used.
  • Import and confirm a small set of banking activity if bank feeds/imports are part of the process.

What Happens Next

The company should be ready for normal bookkeeping with fewer surprises around missing accounts, default AR/AP settings, uncategorized bank activity, or incomplete customer/vendor lists.

If Something Looks Wrong

What You See What To Check What To Do Next
Current-month work is starting Whether the intended company is active Confirm the active company before entering transactions
Source data is ready to import Whether the chart of accounts and setup choices are correct Fix setup before importing source data
Invoices or bills will be used soon Whether default AR/AP accounts have been reviewed Set or review defaults before entering documents
Opening balances are being created Whether the cutoff date is clear Confirm the cutoff date before posting setup balances
A transaction is being entered as a journal entry Whether a source workflow is the better home Use the source workflow when it better explains the transaction