Getting started

This guide walks you through what using Financica actually looks like in practice. It assumes you have already set up your organization. If not, start there.

Your first week

1. Connect your bank

Go to Data Sources > Bank Accounts and connect your primary business bank account. Financica pulls in your transaction history automatically. This is the foundation -- once your bank is connected, you have a live feed of everything coming in and going out.

If your bank is not supported for automatic syncing, you can import statements manually as CSV, OFX, or MT940 files.

2. Upload your existing invoices

If you have outstanding supplier invoices (bills you have received but not yet paid), upload them to Accounting > Expenses. Financica's OCR engine reads the PDF and extracts the details -- supplier name, amounts, line items, VAT. Review the result and save.

Do the same for any outbound invoices you have sent to customers: upload them to Accounting > Revenue.

This gives you a starting picture of what you owe and what is owed to you.

3. Categorize your first transactions

Open Accounting > Transactions. You will see your imported bank transactions. Each one needs to be assigned to a ledger account -- this is called categorization, and it is the core of bookkeeping.

For each transaction, click it and assign it to the right account (e.g. "Office supplies", "Professional services", "Sales revenue"). If you are not sure which account to use, your accountant can help, or you can use the AI assistant (Cmd+J / Ctrl+J) to ask.

After you categorize a few transactions, Financica starts learning your patterns and will suggest accounts for similar transactions in the future.

4. Invite your accountant

Go to Settings > Organization > Members and invite your accountant. They get access to the same data you see -- no more emailing spreadsheets back and forth. They can review your categorizations, fix mistakes, and close the books alongside you.

The recurring workflow

Once set up, here is what using Financica looks like on a regular basis.

When transactions come in

Your bank transactions sync automatically. New transactions appear in Accounting > Transactions, uncategorized. Your job is to:

1. Categorize -- Assign each transaction to the right ledger account. Financica suggests accounts based on your history; accept or change the suggestion.
2. Attach documents -- If you have a receipt or contract for a transaction, attach it. Drag and drop a file onto the transaction, or upload from the detail page. This builds your audit trail.
3. Link to invoices -- If a transaction is a payment for an invoice you already have in the system, link them together. This updates the invoice's payment status and keeps your books consistent.

You do not need to do this every day. Many founders batch this weekly. The important thing is not to let it pile up too long -- a few weeks of uncategorized transactions is easy to clear; a few months is painful.

When you receive a supplier invoice

1. Upload the invoice to Accounting > Expenses (or drag it onto a bank transaction and click Convert to expense).
2. Review the OCR-extracted data.
3. Approve the expense to post it to your books.
4. When the corresponding bank transaction arrives, link it as payment.

If you receive invoices electronically via Peppol, they are imported automatically -- no upload needed. See the e-invoicing section below.

When you send a customer invoice

1. Create the invoice in Accounting > Revenue or upload one you made elsewhere.
2. Send it to the customer via email or Peppol.
3. When the customer pays, the bank transaction arrives and you link it to the invoice.

Month-end

At the end of each month (or quarter), you and your accountant review the books:

• Check that all transactions are categorized (filter by "uncategorized" in the transactions list).
• Verify that all invoices are linked to their payments.
• Review your Income statement and Balance sheet for anything unexpected.
• If you file VAT, generate your VAT return.

The more consistently you categorize during the month, the less work month-end requires.

E-invoicing (optional)

If your business is in a country where electronic invoicing is common or mandatory (Belgium, Netherlands, and other EU countries), you can register on the Peppol network from Settings > Company. Once registered:

• Invoices you send over Peppol are delivered directly to your customer's accounting system.
• Invoices your suppliers send over Peppol arrive automatically in your Expenses, fully structured with no OCR needed.

This is optional but significantly reduces manual work. See Electronic invoicing for the full setup guide.

Working with your accountant

Financica is designed for you and your accountant to share the same workspace. A common division of work:

You (the founder)	Your accountant
Connect bank accounts and integrations	Review and correct categorizations
Upload invoices and receipts	Configure the chart of accounts
Categorize day-to-day transactions	Handle complex entries and adjustments
Link payments to invoices	Prepare VAT returns and tax filings
Review reports for business decisions	Close the books at month/year-end

You do not need to get everything perfect. Your accountant can see what you have done, fix what needs fixing, and focus their time on the parts that require expertise rather than data entry.

Staying on top of things

• Weekly cash report -- Enable this in Settings > User > Notifications to get a Monday morning email with your cash balance, biggest transactions, and outstanding invoices. See Weekly cash report.
• AI assistant -- Press Cmd+J / Ctrl+J to ask questions about your books in plain language. "What is still unpaid?" or "Summarize this month's expenses" are good starting points. See Using the AI assistant.
• Command palette -- Press Cmd+K / Ctrl+K to quickly search and navigate to any transaction, invoice, or account.

Next steps

• Understanding transactions -- How transactions and categorization work in detail.
• Managing expenses -- The full guide to supplier invoice management.
• Managing revenue -- Creating and tracking outbound invoices.
• Invoice lifecycle -- Understanding invoice statuses and when you can edit, void, or delete.