Your first week in Books
An ordered setup path: entity, chart of accounts, opening balances, bank accounts, then people and documents. Doing it in this order avoids most of the rework.
QuickstartFor Business owners, Bookkeepers
Why the order matters
Accounting setup has a dependency graph. The chart of accounts has to exist before opening balances can be entered; bank accounts have to exist before statements can be imported; the fiscal calendar has to be right before anything gets locked. Working out of order is the single most common cause of a painful first close.
The setup path
Work top to bottom. Each step assumes the one above it is done.
- 1
Confirm the legal entity and fiscal calendar.
Name, tax identity, and fiscal year start. If you run more than one company, add each as its own legal entity now rather than later — moving history between entities afterwards is real work.
- 2
Establish the chart of accounts.
Either import your existing chart or start from the default structure and adapt it. Resist the urge to create a new account for every question you might one day ask; that is what classes, locations, and dimensions are for.
- 3
Set up classes, locations, and any dimensions you need.
Settings › Classes & Locations. These let one account answer many questions — by department, site, program, or fund — without multiplying account codes.
- 4
Enter opening balances as of the cutover date.
A single balanced journal entry per entity is the cleanest approach. It should reproduce your prior system's trial balance exactly as of the day before your cutover date.
- 5
Create bank and card accounts.
Banking. Each account pairs one-to-one with an asset account in the chart, so the register and the ledger cannot drift apart.
- 6
Import a statement and reconcile the cutover period.
Reconciling immediately proves your opening balances are right while the setup is still fresh, instead of discovering a problem three months in.
- 7
Add vendors and customers.
You can let these accumulate naturally from documents, but seeding the ones you transact with weekly makes automated coding much more accurate from day one.
- 8
Invite your people and set roles.
Settings › Users. Give each person the narrowest role that lets them do their job, then widen if it pinches.
- 9
Set approval policy.
Settings › Approval Matrix. Decide what dollar thresholds require a second pair of eyes before anything is in flight.
- 10
Turn on document intake.
Start forwarding bills and receipts. Automation gets measurably better once it has seen a few weeks of your actual documents.
Verifying the setup
Before you call setup done, run three reports and check them against your prior system as of the cutover date. If all three tie, your foundation is sound.
- Trial Balance — total debits equal total credits, and the account balances match your prior system line for line.
- Balance Sheet — assets equal liabilities plus equity, and cash matches the bank statement balance you started from.
- Profit & Loss for a period that spans the cutover — should show no revenue or expense before the cutover date unless you deliberately imported history.
Common questions
Opening balances alone are enough to run correct books going forward. Bring one or two prior fiscal years of detail if you want comparative reporting inside Books, and bring more only if you have a specific reason — an audit, a lender, a diligence process.
Historical detail is not free: every imported year is a year you may need to reconcile if someone questions a number.
Yes, within reason. Adding accounts later is routine. Renaming or merging accounts after months of posted activity is not — the history follows the account, so plan the structure even if you add leaves to it over time.
No. Reports are projections over the journal and will run at any time. But an unreconciled bank account means the ledger's cash figure has not been proven against the bank, so treat pre-reconciliation reports as provisional.
See alsoReconciling a bank account
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