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Setup wizard

When an organization opens SolaBooks for the first time, the books are empty. The setup wizard establishes four things in order: the organization profile, the tax regime, the tax codes, and the chart of accounts. Once Finish is pressed, SolaBooks unlocks the rest of the app for that organization.

Until setup is finished, every other SolaBooks page redirects you back into the wizard — this is by design, because invoices, bills, banking and reports all depend on the answers you give here.

Only an Owner (or another user your organization has allowed) can save and finish the wizard; everyone else can read it but not change anything.

Step by step

Step 1 — Organization basics

Capture the legal name, registration / tax number, business email, business phone, address, city, postal code, country, and timezone. These print on every PDF document later; you can change them in Settings afterwards, but the country choice drives the later steps.

Step 2 — Tax regime

Pick the tax regime that matches your country: VAT (most common), GST, sales tax, or "no tax". The wizard shows the predefined regimes for your selected country.

If you are not in a VAT/GST country, choose "No tax". You can still create transactions; they simply won't carry tax lines.

Step 3 — Tax codes

Solavel ships per-country tax-code defaults (for example: Standard 5%, Zero-rated 0%, Exempt). On this step you can:

  • Preview taxes to see what would be created.
  • Apply defaults to install the predefined codes.
  • Edit each rate before saving.

You can change tax codes and rates later under Taxes & VAT.

Step 4 — Chart of Accounts

Choose a starter chart from the country-appropriate templates (Service business, Trading, Construction, and so on) or bring your own. The wizard previews each account before saving. After saving you have a complete chart of accounts; you can still add, edit, or archive accounts later.

Finish

Pressing Finish marks setup as complete, checks the books are consistent, and takes you to the Dashboard. From this moment on, the rest of SolaBooks is open.

Opening balances

If you're moving to SolaBooks from another system (or from spreadsheets), you'll want your accounts, customers, suppliers and items to start with the balances they really have.

You don't have to type them in one by one:

  1. Download the opening-balances Excel template from the wizard. It's a styled, multi-sheet workbook that already lists your real accounts, customers, suppliers and items — you only fill in the amounts.
  2. Enter each opening balance in the workbook.
  3. Import the file. The wizard fills in from the workbook, and you can review and adjust everything on screen before saving.

You can also use Export Balances at any time to download the current opening balances — useful for review, or for handing to your accountant.

Opening balances lock once you start trading. As soon as posted activity exists on or after the opening date, the opening balances can no longer be edited directly — you'll see an "Adjustment required" banner instead. From that point, corrections are made with an adjusting journal entry rather than by rewriting history. If you're unsure how to adjust, ask your accountant.

Behaviour and rules

  • Order matters. You cannot skip a step — the wizard moves linearly through steps 1 to 4.
  • You can pause. If you re-enter the wizard after partial completion, it picks up where you left off; nothing is duplicated.
  • Setup is per organization. If you join a second organization, its setup has to be completed separately.
  • Country defaults. When you pick a country, the wizard suggests the matching currency, tax regime and formats automatically — you can still change them.
  • Setup cannot be undone from the app. To "redo" setup you would have to clear the organization's books — talk to support before doing that.

Common problems

  • "I can't save anything in the wizard." Your role doesn't allow completing setup. Ask your organization Owner to finish it.
  • "Every page sends me back to setup." Setup isn't finished yet — all four steps plus Finish must be done.
  • "I need to change an opening balance but it's locked." Posted activity now exists on or after the opening date. Post an adjusting journal entry instead, or ask your accountant.

Related

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