Set up a new company

The order that works for setting up a company in Businessflo: the client and the company, its structure and shared masters, numbering, users and rights, then each area’s own masters and settings, then approvals and alerts. At the end users sign in and their first documents number, post and route correctly.

Phase

Setup

Who

The implementation consultant leads; the system administrator creates users; the finance, sales and purchasing leads supply their masters

How often

Once per company

Screens

Client, Company, Organizational Structure Setting, structure masters, Number Range, Process Number Range, System Administration Setting, Roles, User, then each area, then Approval and Notification Rule

What it is for

Most screens of Businessflo read something that has to exist first: a sales order reads the sales organization, its site and its number range; a user can only open screens in a company where they hold a role. Setting up in this order means nothing is typed twice.

The rule people get wrong: numbering and rights are per company. A new company has no number range lines of its own and no users with rights in it until you add them. A number range line with no company applies to every company.

Before you start

• The installation is ready and you can sign in as a consultant.
• The client has agreed its company names, its chart of accounts, its document number formats, who needs which screens, and who approves what.
• For digital invoicing with the tax authority (FBR in Pakistan): the token and test scenario.

The process at a glance

#	Screen	Who	What you do	What it creates
1	Client	Consultant	Languages, item-name rule	The client
2	Company	Consultant	Code, name, time zone, logo, head office	The company, with copied data formats
3	Organizational Structure Setting	Consultant	Address purposes, contact kinds, field defaults	The company’s setting
4	Structure masters	Consultant	Business units and areas, departments, responsibles, units	Shared masters
5	Sales and purchase structure	Consultant	Sales and purchase organizations, groups, takers	Per-company structure
6	Number Range, Process Number Range	Consultant	Number formats, tied to screens	Document numbering
7	System Administration Setting	Administrator	Password rule	The rule
8	Roles, User	Administrator	Company roles, logins	Users who can sign in
9	Each area’s masters and settings	Area leads	Ledger, tax, customers, vendors, items, warehouses…	Ready-to-use masters
10	Approval, Notification Rule	Consultant	Approvals and alerts	Workflow

Steps

1. Open Client (Organizational Structure › Enterprise Structure). List the languages on the Clients tab with one Default, and decide Allow Item Duplication before items are loaded.
2. Open Company while signed in to a company whose data formats the new one should copy. Type the code, Create, fill name, client, time zone, logo, and the head office address with Primary Address. Save.
   • The predefined data formats are copied in; check them on Application Data Format.
   • Leave the Integrations and AI tabs until the outside accounts exist.
3. Open Organizational Structure Setting for the company. Fill Required Address Type and Required Contact Type: they are the lists every address and contact grid offers. Add Default Parameters for fields that should start filled.
4. Fill the shared masters: Business Unit, Business Area, Functional Area and Department if the ledger is read by them; Responsible with the screens each person may be named on; Unit with its Rounding Precision; countries, cities and Reason codes as needed.
5. Fill the sales and purchase structure: Sales Organization and Purchase Organization with a default site, then Sales Group, Sales Taker and, for inter-company trade, Inter Unit Sales Organization.
   • Sites come from Inventory; create them first or come back to the Site tabs.
6. Set numbering. Build the formats on Number Range and tie each screen to one on Process Number Range. Include the Scheduler screen, which refuses to save without one.
7. Set the password rule on System Administration Setting.
8. Create rights and users. Clone the standard roles you need on Roles and adjust the copies; create each login on User with its role in this company and Default Legal Entity this company. Add Parameter Profile lines for roles that should start screens the same way.
9. Set up each area, in this order, each with its own masters and setting screen:
   • General ledger: fiscal year, chart of accounts, journals, currencies and tax (How do I…). See How do I set up the ledger?.
   • Cash and bank: banks and cash accounts. See How do I set up banks and bank accounts? and Cash Bank Setting.
   • Receivables and Payables: customers, vendors, payment terms. See How do I set up receivables? and How do I set up payables?.
   • Products and manufacturing and Inventory: items, sites, warehouses; then Warehouse if bins and picking are used. See How do I create an item?, How do I set up manufacturing?, How do I set up inventory for a company? and How do I set up storage locations?.
   • Sales and Purchasing: their settings and price lists. See How do I set up sales for a company?, How do I set up purchasing? and Procurement And Sourcing Setting.
   • Then, as the client uses them: Service and maintenance, CRM and expenses, Real estate and rental, Assets and projects. See How do I set up service management?, How do I set up expense claims?, How do I set up real estate?, How do I set up fixed assets? and How do I set up project accounting?.
   • For fixed assets and projects, after the general ledger (chart of accounts, fiscal calendar, journals, posting profile): Depreciation Profile, Asset Class, Asset Book, Asset Group with its Fixed Assets posting profile lines, then Fixed Assets Setting; Project Accounting Setting, then Project Group, then the categories marked for projects.
10. Switch on approvals and alerts: write templates on Notification Template, then Approval per screen that needs it, and Notification Rule for reminders.
11. Switch on optional features: digital invoicing on Company’s Integrations tab (How do I switch on digital invoicing?); barcode (Switch barcode on); file storage limits; announcements on Announcement.
12. Save a first document of each kind with a real user and check its number, its rights and its approval.

What posts

Nothing in this process posts to the accounts. Opening balances and the first postings are made on the screens of the areas.

What happens

• The company exists with its data formats, settings and structure.
• Documents of each screen are numbered from their range.
• Users sign in to the company and see their roles’ screens; passwords follow the rule.
• Documents that need approval go to their approvers; reminders go out on their schedule.

How the variants differ

	One company	A group of companies
Client	One	One, shared
Company	One record	One record per company; tick Required Company Name in Transactions Screen
Numbering	Lines with no company are enough	Lines per company where the formats differ
Users	Roles in one company	Roles per company on the same login
Trading between companies	Not needed	Inter-company customers and vendors, and the inter-unit mappings

Common mistakes

• Users get “Please define Default Legalentity Rights”. Their default company has no role. Add the role for that company on User.
• “No number range is assigned to …” on the first document. Step 6 skipped that screen.
• A new company has no address purposes in its grids. Organizational Structure Setting has no Required Address Type lines.
• Mail never arrives although Company’s SMTP fields are filled. Those fields are not used; mail is set on the server.
• Sales Team is empty on the sales order. The team is not placed under the order’s sales organization on Sales Structure.

Related screens

• Client - the installation’s languages and switches.
• Company - the legal entity.
• Organizational Structure Setting - the company’s setting and field defaults.
• Number Range and Process Number Range - numbering.
• User and Roles - who may do what.
• Approval - workflow.
• Once the company is set up, the daily processes are: Order to cash, Procure to pay, Plan to produce and, at the end of each month, Month-end close.