The Business space is where your company's finances live, separate from your personal finances. That's where you'll find the company's accounts, income and expenses, receipts and invoices, payroll, taxes, loans and reports such as the income statement. This article takes you from creating the company to a first month with reliable numbers.
The Business space is part of the Enterprise plan and is also available during the trial.
For the example we'll follow Marina, who already uses Finances for her personal finances and is about to register Estúdio Aurora, her design studio.
Create the company
While you don't have a company yet, the sidebar shows a New business button at the bottom. After that, new companies are created under Settings › Companies › Add New Company.
The wizard has four steps:
- Add New Company: choose between Brazilian Company and Foreign Company and enter the trade name, legal name and CNPJ (or the tax ID, if foreign). With the CNPJ filled in, the Lookup button queries the Brazilian Federal Revenue and fills in the rest for you.
- Company Details: tax regime (Simples Nacional, presumed profit, real profit or MEI), state registration, municipal registration, address, email, phone and main currency.
- Segment and Size: the segment (Commerce, Services, Industry, Technology or Other) and the size (Micro, Small, Medium or Large).
- Summary and Confirmation: check everything and create it.
Marina typed Estúdio Aurora's CNPJ, clicked Lookup and only had to check the address and pick Services and Micro.
The plan includes one company. If you create another, Finances shows the additional seat price and asks for confirmation before charging.
Switch between personal and business
At the top of the sidebar, the Active account selector switches between your personal finances and your companies. When you enter the company, the menu changes: the Tax group (Invoices, NFS-e, Fiscal Groups, Automations, Taxes) and the Management group (Employees, Loans) appear, and reports gain Cash Flow, Income Statement, Financial and Taxes.
Nothing mixes between the two sides. If you pay a company bill out of your own pocket, record it in the company and register the reimbursement. Don't record it in your personal space.
The real first step: the company account
Every entry leaves from or lands in an account. So, before any income or expense, go to Records › Accounts and register the company's bank account with today's balance. If the company has a credit card, register it too.
Marina registered Conta PJ Inter with R$ 38,000, a tax reserve account and the Cartão Inter Empresas credit card, with a R$ 15,000 limit, due on the 15th and closing 8 days before.
The detail of each field is in the company accounts and transfers article.
Set up the rest, in this order
Each step below unlocks something in the reports. Doing them in order saves rework.
- Taxes, under Settings › Taxes: register the company's tax types (ISS, DAS, IRPJ, INSS…) with rate and income statement classification. Without them, the income statement deducts no tax at all and payroll doesn't calculate INSS or IRRF.
- Clients and suppliers, under Records: who pays you and whom you pay. Receipts, NFS-e and loans use this list.
- Categories: review the default categories and create the missing ones. The category decides which income statement line each entry lands on.
- Employees, under Management › Employees: if the company has a team, register the people with their salary so you can generate the month's payroll.
- Customization, in Settings: the logo and color printed on PDF receipts. It applies to generated documents, not to the system's screens.
- Users, in Settings: invite your partner, whoever handles finance and your accountant, each with the right role.
- Notifications, under Account › Notifications: choose where due-date reminders arrive. Only the owner sets this up.
Start recording
With the account and records ready, the day-to-day looks like this:
- Transactions › Expenses and Revenue: what the company pays and receives, with due date, accrual month and category. Marina recorded Imobiliária Centro's R$ 3,200 rent as a monthly recurring expense.
- Tax › Invoices: to bill a client and record the payment. Café Serra Azul's R$ 9,000 project became an invoice in 3 installments.
- Tax › NFS-e: to issue the service invoice, if the company needs it.
- Imports › Import OFX: to bring in the bank statement instead of typing everything.
Where to keep track
- Dashboard: the company dashboard brings together balance, inflows and outflows, upcoming bills, upcoming taxes, payroll, loans and receivables by client.
- Reports › Cash Flow: the money that came in and went out, and the forecast of what's coming.
- Reports › Income Statement: whether the company made a profit in the month.
- Wisebot: ask in plain language, such as "how much tax did I pay this year?".
Where to go next
- Company accounts and transfers: the account fields and how to move money between accounts.
- Company expenses and income: day-to-day recording in detail.
- Taxes: tax types and tax bills.
- Multi-company, users and permissions: inviting the team and understanding roles.
In short: create the company with the wizard (the CNPJ fills in almost everything), switch to it in the Active account selector, register the bank account with today's balance, set up taxes, records, categories, team and customization, and start recording.