Getting Started

First 30 Days: Setting Up Your Company

A week-by-week Fintra onboarding plan: company profile, chart of accounts, banking, AR/AP, inviting your team, activating payroll, and your first budget.

Updated July 7, 202611 min read2 labsOwner / FounderAccountant

The difference between a system your team trusts and one they quietly work around is the first month. This page turns Fintra onboarding into a four-week plan with a clear gate at the end of each week, so you never build week 3 on top of an unverified week 1.

The plan assumes a business like our running example - Acme Services, 12 employees, invoicing customers monthly, paying 15–20 vendor bills a month, and switching from a spreadsheet-plus-legacy-tools stack. Scale the volumes to your business; keep the order.

Week 1: Company, chart of accounts, and banking

Week 1 is pure foundation: get the company record right, adopt a chart of accounts you will still like in two years, and connect the bank so reconciliation starts accumulating history immediately.

Week 1 checklist

Complete the company profile: legal name, address, fiscal year start, and base currency
Choose a chart of accounts template and prune it - delete accounts you will never use rather than leaving 200 empty rows
Add the handful of accounts your business genuinely needs that the template lacks (e.g., "Commission expense", "Subcontractor costs")
Connect business bank accounts and credit cards to the banking feed
Set your books start date and enter opening balances per account as an opening journal entry
Confirm sales tax settings if you collect tax (the sales tax add-on handles rates and filings data)

Week 2: Customers, vendors, and open items

With the foundation set, load the open world: every unpaid customer invoice and every unpaid vendor bill as of the start date. This is what makes your first AR and AP aging reports true on day one.

1Import or enter customers and vendors (contacts carry payment terms, so set terms now - net 15, net 30 - rather than per invoice later).
2Enter every open (unpaid or partially paid) customer invoice with its original date and number.
3Enter every open vendor bill the same way.
4Run the AR aging and AP aging reports and tie the totals to your old system or spreadsheet to the cent.
5Record your first live transactions - new invoices and bills - in Fintra only. The old system is now read-only history.

Week 3: Invite the team and activate payroll

Now bring in people - both as users of the system and as employees paid by it. Payroll is a licensed module: activate the license, then set up employees before touching a pay run.

Week 3 checklist

Invite users with deliberate roles: who drafts pay runs (clerk), who approves them (approver), who administers settings (admin)
Activate the payroll license for your organization
Enter employees: legal name, SSN, W-4 elections, pay type (salary or hourly), pay schedule, and bank details for direct deposit
Configure employer settings: pay schedules, state unemployment (SUTA) rate, and PTO accrual policy
Set the payroll GL account map so pay runs export journals to the right expense and liability accounts
Send employee portal invites so people can verify their own W-4 and bank details before the first run

Week 4: First budget and your first mini-close

Finish the month by proving the loop works end to end: build a starter budget so budget vs. actuals has something to compare, then run a lightweight close on your first partial month.

1Create your first budget using an auto-budget method - prior-year actuals with a growth assumption is the fastest credible start (see Build Your First Budget).
2Reconcile every bank and credit card account for the stub period since go-live.
3Post obvious accruals (e.g., a large received-but-not-billed vendor invoice) and run depreciation if you track fixed assets.
4Run the month-end close workflow: work the checklist, review the P&L and balance sheet, and close the period.
5Review budget vs. actuals for the month with whoever owns spending - even on a stub month, the habit matters more than the numbers.

Week	Gate - do not proceed until true
1	Bank connected; opening balance sheet ties to your prior records
2	AR and AP aging match the old system to the cent
3	Every employee has a valid SSN, W-4, and bank details; roles assigned for draft vs. approve
4	First reconciliation complete and first period closed; budget exists for next month

The four weekly gates

Hands-on labs

Practice against a realistic scenario. Each lab lists the steps, what you should see, and the checkpoints that confirm you got the same result.

Lab 1

Cut over Acme Services in one sitting (sandbox)

Scenario

Acme Services (12 employees, ~$1.8M annual revenue) is moving to Fintra on the 1st. You have their trial company and one hour. The goal is a compressed dry run of weeks 1–2 so the real cutover holds no surprises.

Steps

1
Set the company profile: Acme Services LLC, fiscal year starting January, USD.
Expected: The company header shows the legal name and fiscal year everywhere in Finance.
2
Pick the services-business chart of accounts template and delete the inventory-related accounts Acme will never use.
Expected: The chart of accounts drops to a manageable list (roughly 60–80 accounts).
3
Add one custom account: "Commission expense" under operating expenses.
Expected: The account appears in the chart with the code you assigned.
4
Post an opening journal entry dated the day before go-live: debit Checking $42,000, debit AR $23,400, credit AP $8,150, credit Opening balance equity $57,250.
Expected: The journal balances (debits = credits = $65,400) and posts without error.
5
Enter two open invoices (Brightline Dental $4,800 net 30; Corner Market $2,600 net 15) and one open bill (CleanCo Supplies $1,375 net 30).
Expected: AR aging shows the two invoices in the correct buckets; AP aging shows the bill.
6
Run the balance sheet as of go-live.
Expected: Checking $42,000 and the AR/AP figures appear; the report balances.

Checkpoints - you got it right if…

Opening journal entry posted and balanced at $65,400 each side
Chart of accounts pruned and includes a Commission expense account
AR aging total reads $30,800 ($23,400 opening + $7,400 entered) or your chosen equivalent
Balance sheet as of go-live balances with no unassigned amounts

Lab 2

Assign roles the way an auditor would want

Scenario

Acme has four system users: Priya (owner), Marco (bookkeeper), Jordan (office manager), and an outside CPA. Design the role assignment so no one can both draft and approve a payroll run.

Steps

1
List the four users and decide: who drafts pay runs, who approves, who administers settings.
Expected: A workable answer: Marco = clerk (drafts), Priya = admin (approves and administers), Jordan = viewer, CPA = viewer or approver.
2
Invite each user with that role and have each accept.
Expected: All four appear in the user list with distinct roles.
3
As Marco (clerk), attempt to open payroll Settings.
Expected: Blocked - settings are admin-only.
4
Confirm the org setting that forbids self-approval of pay runs is left at its default (off - self-approval not allowed).
Expected: The submitter of a run will not be able to approve it.

Checkpoints - you got it right if…

No single user can both submit and approve a pay run
Settings access is limited to exactly one or two admins
Every user accepted their invite and appears with the intended role

Frequently asked questions

Should I migrate historical transactions or start fresh with opening balances?

For most SMBs: opening balances plus open AR/AP items. Full history migration doubles the work and rarely changes decisions - keep the old system available read-only for lookups, and let Fintra history build from your start date.

When is the right time in the month to cut over?

The first day of a month, ideally the first day of a quarter. Mid-month cutovers force you to split a single month across two systems, which makes the first reconciliation and the first close far harder than they need to be.

Can I run my first payroll in week 3, or should I wait?

Wait until every employee passes the SSN gate and has verified bank details, and until your GL account map is set. Most teams run their first real pay run in week 4 or the following cycle, after a draft run has been reviewed line by line.

What if my bank is not supported by the feed?

You can import bank activity from CSV and reconcile against imported lines. The reconciliation workflow is the same - create a session for the statement period, match or add cleared items, and complete the session.

How long before budget vs. actuals is actually useful?

One full closed month. Build the budget in week 4 so the comparison starts immediately; by month three the variance review becomes the fastest management meeting you run.

Previous in Getting StartedPlatform Tour: One Login, Every Module

Keep going

Getting StartedPlatform Tour: One Login, Every ModuleRead doc Finance & AccountingBank Reconciliation: Tie the Books to the BankRead doc PayrollPayroll Setup & Your First Pay RunRead doc

Go deeper in the guides

SMB FinanceThe Small Business Finance PlaybookRead guide Month-End CloseThe Month-End Close Checklist: Every Step, Day by DayRead guide

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