Set up your company - the first-day checklist

A clean start saves weeks of corrections later. Each step below relies on the one before it: a warehouse needs a branch, an item needs a category, a user needs a group. Work through the list in order before anyone records a real invoice.

Before you start

• You need a user in a group with full administration rights. The first administrator of your workspace has one.

• Collect your data: branches and their addresses, warehouses, the currency you keep your books in, tax rates, the chart of accounts you want, your items, suppliers and customers, and their opening balances.

1. Build the structure

1. Create your branches. Each branch is an accounting unit with its own copy of the chart of accounts.

2. Set each branch's default GL accounts. Sales, purchases and cash post to them automatically.

3. Create your warehouses and link each one to its branch and stock account.

4. Set the base currency and add any foreign currencies you trade in. Load your exchange rates if you do.

5. Define your taxes and review the payment terms.

2. Prepare the books

1. Open Accounting › Fiscal Years and make sure the current year is open and active for each branch.

2. Review the chart of accounts under Accounting › Accounts › Chart of Accounts. Accounts you post to must be detail accounts at the lowest level, and each must belong to a branch.

3. Set the defaults people work with

1. Set the default paper and footer message in print settings.

2. Set each branch's sales invoice defaults: the warehouse, the customer and the payment terms new invoices start with.

3. Arrange the main menu so the modules your team uses most sit on the top bar.

4. Add your people

1. Create groups for each role, such as cashier, storekeeper and accountant. Start from a role template and remove what the role does not need.

2. Create a user for each person and place them in a group and a branch.

3. Give each person the workspace address, their email and their first password. Point them to Sign in and Find your way around.

5. Load your master data

Load the data in this order, by hand or with the import screens:

1. Item categories and brands, then units of measure.

2. Items, or import them from Excel.

3. Suppliers, or import them.

4. Customers, or import them.

5. Price lists for your selling prices.

6. Enter opening balances

1. Opening stock quantities in each warehouse.

2. Opening balances of customers and suppliers. The customer and supplier imports can carry them.

3. The opening journal entry for the remaining accounts.

Then check the result: the trial balance must balance, the inventory valuation must match your old stock value, and aged receivables and payables must match your old balances.

7. Run a test cycle

Record one full cycle on clearly marked test data: a purchase order, its purchase invoice, a sales invoice and the customer receipt. Check the journal entries each step creates. Then delete or reverse the test documents before you go live.

Go-live checklist