This guide takes you from a brand-new Aicountly Smart Books account to your first sales invoice. You will create a company, add a customer, and post an invoice.
Step 1: Create your company
Open the Create Company page. Only two things are required: the Company name and the Constitution type, which means the legal form of your business. Everything else can be filled in later.
- PAN and GSTIN are optional. Smart Books checks the PAN format to help prevent duplicate registrations.
- Add Industry, Nature of work and the Stock valuation method if you keep stock. The valuation method can be changed later in company settings.
- Under Contact, you can add an email, mobile, telephone and WhatsApp number. These are used for statements and GST correspondence.
- Check the FY start and FY end dates under Financial year. They are filled in with the usual Indian financial year, April to March.
- Add the Registered office address: address lines, city, pincode, state and country.
Save the form. If the company is already registered, Smart Books tells you to ask its owner for access instead. If a company with the same name exists, you are asked to confirm that yours is a different business.
Step 2: Add a customer
Open Masters and choose Accounts (the shortcut is Alt+L). An account is a named ledger for a customer, supplier, bank or expense. Create an account for your first customer and place it under the right account group. Account Groups, in the same Company column of the Masters menu, decide where the account appears in reports.
Step 3: Add stock items (optional)
If you sell goods, open Masters and then Items (Alt+I) and add each product. If you sell services only, you can skip this step and use a sales invoice without items.
Step 4: Make your first sales invoice
Open Transactions, then Sales. Choose Without item (shortcut F8) for a simple invoice, or With item if you sell stock items. Fill in the date, choose the customer and enter the amounts.
You have two choices at the bottom of the screen. Save draft keeps the invoice without adding it to your books, and you can come back to it later. Post records it in your books. In some companies the button reads Submit for approval instead, because a team member must approve before posting.
Step 5: Check the result
Open Reports and look at the Day Book to see your new invoice, or the Account Ledger to see the customer's balance. When you have more entries, the Trial Balance and Profit & Loss are available in the same menu.
What to do next
Record a Receipt from Transactions when the customer pays, and a Payment when you pay a supplier.