Plan company setup for your business model
Choose setup dependencies for all 33 starter business models
Choose a setup route for what your company actually does. Every company needs an accounting and access foundation; stock, production, POS and payroll depend on activities, not merely on its industry name. Use this map with the authorised administrator and accountant before the first transactions.
Understand what the starter choice does
The Starter chart of accounts selection during company creation is used once to prepare accounts. The selected business model is not stored as a company property and is not a module-enablement or subscription setting. The accounts remain saved and customisable afterwards. There is no saved business-model field to change in Company View or Edit.
This guide is a planning map, not a wizard that saves configuration. Reading or searching a model does not change the company. A recommended module can still be unavailable because of subscription features, country, role or company/location access; ask the authorised administrator to confirm availability.
Start with the shared foundation
- Agree company identity, country, functional currency and primary location before creating the company. Currency is locked after creation. Review the starter preview and retain protected system-maintained accounts.
- Review reporting groups, reporting accounts, posting sub-accounts and Chart of Account combinations. Starter reporting accounts receive a sub-account numbered 1000; do not assume every later custom account is ready for posting without its full combination.
- Review GL Setup precision and all seven mappings, the accounting dates and dated FX rates where needed. Agree manual journal approval policy before journal entry.
- Assign least-privilege user/company/location access, cash/bank mappings and applicable tax defaults. Decide purchasing and journal approval responsibilities before operations begin.
- Establish reporting cutoffs, source-to-ledger reconciliation and the opening-balance plan. Load each opening balance once and retain an agreed cutover trial balance.
All routes below include this foundation. Use the module setup checklist for the owner, sequence, outcome and recovery of each area, and approval setup for groups, rules and membership. Do not configure every optional module just because the starter includes an account for it.
Follow the service route
After the foundation, prepare customers/vendors, service items and posting groups, tax and company cash/bank accounts. Agree purchasing policy for supplier spending before using it, then enter service invoices and receipts or vendor invoices and payments as appropriate.
Add inventory only when the company owns and tracks physical stock. Add POS only for supported counter checkout, assets for an asset register, and HR/payroll only when those processes are in scope. A service item is not a reason to create fictitious stock or use a warehouse as a project ledger.
Follow the stock trading route
After the foundation, prepare inventory mappings and policies, warehouses/bins and items/UOM/tracking. Prepare customer/vendor defaults, purchasing policy and PO approvals, then use orders and receipts, vendor invoices and stocked sales.
Agree opening quantities, stock values, lot/serial identities and cutoff together before loading stock. Reconcile inventory valuation to its GL destination. POS is an additional counter-sales route, not a requirement for every wholesaler or online merchant.
Follow the production route
Complete the stock trading route first: inventory mappings and policies, warehouses and bins, items and tracking, customer/vendor defaults, purchasing policy and PO approvals. Then prepare Production Setup, overheads and formulas, followed by the supported production transaction sequence. Agree WIP, output allocation, abnormal-loss/gain treatment, finished warehouse and traceability before a batch.
Purchasing materials, transferring stock and completing production are different events. Do not select manufacturing solely because the chart contains WIP. For food or regulated output, supplement accounting setup with the applicable operational and compliance procedures.
Find the route for all available starter models
The following names match the company creation choices. Service, Stock and Production refer to the routes above; Mixed means combine the applicable activities without duplicating shared setup. The final column identifies additional design questions, not extra modules automatically supplied by the starter.
| Starter business model | Starting route | Review for your activities |
|---|---|---|
| Professional and business services | Service | Stock only if you sell physical goods; review retainers and unbilled work separately. |
| Software, SaaS and IT services | Service | Subscription billing, usage metering and deferred-revenue schedules need separate design; the chart does not create them. |
| Marketing, media and creative production | Service | Use cost centres where suitable for assignments; this is not a full production-project or rights-management system. |
| Cleaning and facilities management | Service | Add stock for controlled consumables and assets for equipment; site rostering is a separate operational requirement. |
| Security and guarding services | Service | Review payroll, attendance and equipment custody; do not assume a guarding or incident-management module. |
| Recruitment and staffing | Service | Separate placement income from staffing payroll and pass-through amounts; check principal versus agent treatment. |
| Retail and POS | Stock | Add POS when staff take counter payments; choose terminal, warehouse and tender mappings before checkout. |
| E-commerce and online marketplaces | Stock | Add POS only for counter sales. Marketplace settlements, fees and principal versus agent presentation need reconciliation; no automatic storefront integration is implied. |
| Wholesale and distribution | Stock | Use customer credit, sales orders and warehouse controls; POS is optional for counter trade. |
| Import and export trading | Stock | Add dated FX rates and trade references; plan goods in transit, duty and landed-cost allocation without assuming automatic customs processing. |
| Manufacturing and assembly | Production | Review materials, WIP, finished goods, overheads, output allocation and production variances before the first batch. |
| Food and beverage manufacturing | Production | Add lot and expiry controls where applicable, units and traceability; a chart is not food-safety certification. |
| Agriculture, farming and livestock | Stock | Add manufacturing only for processing batches. Biological assets, harvest measurement and farm records need specialist accounting and operational review. |
| Construction and contracting | Service | Add stock for owned materials and assets for plant. Contract stages, retention, guarantees, cost allocation and revenue recognition need a separate design. |
| Property development | Stock | Development inventory and project costs need reviewed mappings; inventory masters are not a property-development or contract-progress engine. |
| Property rental and management | Service | Review rent, deposits, owner balances and property assets; tenancy administration and lease schedules are separate requirements. |
| Equipment and vehicle rental | Service | Prioritise asset categories and custody; rental bookings, utilisation and lease accounting are not created by an asset master. |
| Restaurants, cafes and catering | Stock | Add POS for counter sales and manufacturing only for supported preparation batches; table reservations and recipe service are not implied. |
| Hotels and accommodation | Service | Add stock and POS for food or merchandise, assets for property/equipment; room booking and hotel operations require separate arrangements. |
| Travel agencies and tour operators | Service | Review customer deposits, supplier commitments and principal versus agent income; no booking or ticketing integration is implied. |
| Events and entertainment | Service | Review deposits, event costs and rented/owned equipment; scheduling and ticketing are separate processes. |
| Transport, logistics and courier | Service | Prioritise fleet assets, fuel/cost allocation and payroll where applicable; dispatch and route optimisation are not implied. |
| Automotive sales and repair | Stock | Separate vehicle/parts trading from repair services; add serial tracking where applicable and review owned workshop assets. |
| Repair, maintenance and technical workshops | Service | Add stock for owned parts and service items for labour; distinguish customer-owned goods from company inventory. |
| Healthcare, clinics and diagnostics | Service | Add stock for medicines/consumables and assets for equipment. Do not use ordinary accounting descriptions to store clinical patient records. |
| Pharmacy and medical retail | Stock | Review lot/expiry, UOM and stock custody; dispensing, prescriptions and regulated-product compliance are separate requirements. |
| Education and training | Service | Review fee advances, refunds, payroll and fixed assets; a chart does not provide student information or learning management. |
| Beauty, salon and personal care | Service | Add POS for counter payments and stock for products; appointment scheduling is separate. |
| Fitness, sports and membership clubs | Service | Review membership advances, refunds and equipment assets; access control and membership scheduling are separate. |
| Nonprofit, charities and associations | Service | Agree restricted-fund, grant, donation and cost-centre reporting with the accountant; the starter does not enforce donor restrictions. |
| Telecommunications and internet services | Service | Review advances, recurring income and network assets; usage rating, provisioning and subscriber billing need separate design. |
| Energy supply and renewable installations | Service | Add stock for traded equipment and manufacturing for actual supported assembly; metering and utility billing are not implied. |
| General and mixed operations | Mixed | Combine the applicable activity routes and remove duplicate setup tasks; do not recreate the company or overwrite its chart to add an activity. |
Add shared functions only when needed
| Activity or responsibility | Add before using it |
|---|---|
| Multiple branches or operating sites | Secondary locations and company/location access; warehouses/bins only where stock is held |
| Foreign-currency documents | GL foreign-currency settings, valid dated rates, bank currency and reviewed gain/loss mappings |
| Counter sales | POS terminal, session responsibilities, tender destinations, stock/tax/tracking and any country fiscal requirements |
| Employees and payroll | HRMS policies, statutory definitions, employee inputs, payroll mappings and private approval/payment responsibilities |
| Long-lived assets | Asset setup, categories, life/method/rate and a single acquisition/opening route |
| Regulated tax or electronic invoices | Applicable tax design and country profiles/connections/classification; these are independent of business-model choice |
| Opening migration or bulk masters | Current import template, row validation, duplicate review and approved commit plan |
| Month-end and management oversight | Reporting filters, bank/subledger reconciliation, Balance Sheet Review, FX revaluation and period-close responsibilities |
| External customer/vendor statements | Partner portal availability and authorised relationship-specific access, only when offered |
Combine activities without duplicating setup
A manufacturer with a shop follows Production plus POS. A consultant selling spare parts follows Service plus Stock. A hotel can combine Service, Stock, POS, Assets and HR. Complete the shared foundation once, then join the dependency routes at the existing item, location and mapping records.
For an existing company, review its actual activities and saved configuration; you do not need the original starter selection to use this map. Add approved missing accounts and module setup through their ordinary forms. Do not recreate a company, overwrite its chart, reimport old balances or infer the original model from an account name.
Agree the first transaction checks
Use an approved training environment and named ordinary roles. For each activity, agree an example, expected amount/currency/tax, approval path, posting result, correction path and reconciliation report. Check excluded company/location examples as well as allowed ones. Do not use live fiscal requests or bank payments as unattended setup tests.
Start with one complete supported journey rather than many disconnected masters: supplier order/receipt/invoice/payment for stock purchasing; customer invoice/receipt/application for receivables; material issue/completion for production. Keep approval, posting, bank settlement and authority acceptance as separate checks.
Prepare opening balances and cutover
Agree the cutover date and reconciled source balances before entry. Customer/vendor open documents, stock quantities/values, assets and bank items need their module identities as well as GL totals. A manual journal alone does not create those subledgers. Follow opening balances and period control and the relevant module instructions.
Pause if the same opening cost or balance appears through two routes. Compare the trial balance, receivables/payables, inventory valuation, asset register and bank reconciliation on the same cutoff before normal processing. Resolve differences at source instead of using an unexplained balancing account.
Use the setup checklist and approval procedures
Use the 20-area setup checklist as the working handoff between the Tenant Administrator, accountant and operational owners. The journal and PO approval procedures explain switches, groups, limits and memberships explicitly. The workflow handbook then routes users to everyday transaction and correction tasks.
Keep your company's implementation record outside this public guide: owner, applicable/not applicable reason, approved settings, completion date, representative result and unresolved issue. A printed checklist is not itself evidence that the application was configured.