Start setting up your business

Right after you create the first account on a new Spine, you land on the welcome screen. The first stage, Business, puts your name, logo and address on every quote, invoice and email from the first one, and picks a template that sets Spine up for your kind of work.

Who can do this

Only the Owner who created the account. Staff and Field users never see the wizard.

1. Choose how to start — The welcome screen says “Four short stages, about 6 minutes.” Press Set up my business to begin. Just show me around (use defaults) loads a demo business instead (Explore Spine with a demo business), and Skip to dashboard skips setup (Skip setup and come back later).

2. Enter your details — On Tell us about your business, fill in Business name (required), Address, Business email, Business phone and Industry. Industry is free text, in your own words — the next step picks the template.

3. Add your logo — Click the logo square and pick an image up to 10 MB. When it’s done the square shows “Logo uploaded”. If it shows “Could not upload logo.”, try again; the rest of the step still saves.

4. Press Continue — The step is saved and ticked in the rail on the left.

5. Pick an industry template — Choose one of Construction / Contracting, Interior design & fit-out, Trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC), IT services & agency, Professional services, General Services or Generic. Each card says what it sets up. Press Continue.

What the template does

A template only sets things up for you. It never takes anything away.

• Construction / Contracting shows milestones and retention on jobs by default. It and the next four templates add the cost categories and expense accounts that kind of business uses, such as “Plant & equipment hire” (5300) for construction.
• General Services and Generic start the milestones and retention sections collapsed on jobs; you can still open them on any job.
• Generic and Professional services switch off Jobs & field. The step says “Jobs are switched off — turn them on in Settings › Modules if you need them.”

If an account code or category name you need already exists, Spine keeps yours and doesn’t add a second one.

Moving around the wizard

• The rail lists the four stages and their steps, and “About 4 min left” counts down as you go. On a narrow window it becomes a bar at the top.
• Back opens the previous step with what you saved.
• Under each form, a tip says why the step matters and where to change it later.
• From the Business stage on, a preview shows the start of your first invoice and updates as you type. Until you’ve typed a name it says “Your business”.
• If you refresh part-way, setup picks up at the first step you haven’t saved.

Tip

Everything here can be changed later in Settings › Business profile and Settings › Industry template. See Settings and data export.

Next: Set your currency, tax and numbering.