Plenty of business owners do their own books — no accountant, no accounting background, just learning as they go. AccountEdge is built to be run that way, and you don't need to set up everything before you begin. Start with the work your business already needs to do — for many solo owners, that's sending an invoice. If your business runs more on expenses or in-person sales, your first task will be different, but the setup below works the same way.
One thing worth knowing early: Pro is the starting point for every business, big or small — there's no separate "lite" version to look for. You keep costs down by only adding the services you use.
One quick check before you start
A few situations are worth handling early rather than later:
If you already have employees, payroll has its own setup path, and it's easier to include it from the beginning — Setting Up Payroll for the First Time is where that lives.
If customers already pay you by card, it's worth starting the merchant account application now, because approval can take a little time.
If you work from more than one computer or location, AccountEdge Hosted is worth a look before you settle in on one machine.
If none of those apply, you can add any of them later.
Getting to your first invoice
A few pieces need to exist before AccountEdge can bill someone for you, and they go quickly:
Your company file — you'll answer a few questions about your business; the one worth having ready is your fiscal year.
Your accounts list — choose your industry and AccountEdge starts you with a sensible list. Most solo businesses trim it down rather than build it up, and renaming things later is easy.
Your tax codes — a few minutes here means the right tax lands on every invoice automatically, instead of being something you think about each time.
The customers you'll bill this month — each one becomes a card, and the rest of your customer list can join as they come up.
If you're bringing balances over from another program and something lands in an account called "Historical Balancing," that's normal — Entering Your Opening Balances explains what it is and what to do with it.
From there, your first invoice is ready to go out the door. (Setting Up AccountEdge in the Right Order is the fuller version of this same sequence — worth the read when you have twenty minutes, since a couple of the steps are easier to do in order than to redo.)
After things are flowing
Once real transactions are moving through, Bank Feeds can bring your bank activity in automatically instead of you typing it — for a lot of people that's when the daily work gets lighter.
With no one double-checking your entries, two habits do that job for you: a monthly bank reconciliation (How to Reconcile Your Bank Account) catches small things while they're still small, and a regular backup (Backing Up Your Company File) protects the file that holds your whole business.
If a question comes up while you're setting up
And they do, for everyone — this help center is open to you from your first day, trial included. And once you enroll, your first 60 days add Introductory Support by phone, with a real person. Wanting to check you've set something up right is one of the most common reasons new owners reach out.
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