Business Management

Business Management is where advisory firms onboard client businesses — each fully isolated with its own books, connections, and reports. Add businesses, edit settings, and Open any client workspace from Settings > Businesses.

Key capabilities

• Per-business book isolation (separate ledgers, connections, invoices, and reports)
• Add Business to onboard a new client by name
• Editable per-business settings: name, logo URL, entries start date, currency, tax year-end month, accounting basis, mailbox prefix, inventory mode
• Default currency options: USD, CAD, AUD, EUR, GBP
• Accounting basis: accrual or cash
• Inventory mode: Finished goods (resale) or CPG (production, recipes, landed COGS)
• Mailbox prefix per business for AP email forwarding (unique per business)
• Businesses table showing name, assigned teams, accounting basis, and entries-start date, with refresh and saved column layout
• Select several businesses and use Set default basis to switch them all to Accrual or Cash in one step
• Notifications tab in Business Settings to set the email policy for everyone at that business
• Open link that jumps into the business's Books workspace
• Client count and plan limit shown when you add a business

How it works

Each business is a self-contained workspace; the firm sits above all of them and switches context per business.

flowchart TD
  firm["Advisory firm"] --> list["Businesses page"]
  list --> add["Add Business (name)"]
  list --> edit["Edit business settings"]
  list --> open["Open in Books"]
  open --> books["Books workspace"]
  add --> iso["Isolated books: ledger / connections / reports"]
  edit --> iso

How to use it

1. Open Settings > Businesses.
2. Click Add Business, enter the client's name, and click Create.
3. Click a row (or Edit) to open Business Settings (Details tab) and set logo URL, entries start date, default currency, tax year-end month, accounting basis, mailbox prefix, and inventory mode.
4. Click Save Changes — currency, basis, tax month, mailbox, and inventory mode save together; the entries-start date is applied separately. The Notifications tab sets the email policy for everyone at that business.
5. To change basis for many clients, tick their rows, choose Accrual or Cash in Default basis, click Set default basis, then Apply. Reports open on that basis by default and users can still switch per report.
6. Use Open to jump into that business's Books workspace.
7. Use the sidebar business switcher to move between clients without returning to settings.

Pro tips

• Set the inventory mode correctly during onboarding — CPG exposes Supply Chain, Production, and Landed COGS; Finished goods hides them.
• Configure the mailbox prefix before forwarding vendor bills so AP email extraction is directed to the right business.
• Confirm accounting basis (accrual vs cash) with the client up front — it changes how reports recognize revenue and expenses.
• Assign teams to businesses (on the Teams page) so staff access scales without per-person management.
• Use the table's refresh button after bulk onboarding to repopulate the rows and team chips.
• Watch the client count in Add Business ("3 of 5 clients used"): at your plan's client limit Create is disabled until you upgrade in Billing.

In-depth guide

Businesses table columns

Editable business settings

Isolation model

• A business owns its ledgers, bank/integration connections, customers, vendors, products, invoices, bills, and reports.
• The firm-to-business relationship is tracked separately and can be active or inactive — this is how a firm starts or ends management of a client without destroying data.

Solo vs advisory

This dedicated page is advisory-only. Solo accounts have a single business and edit the equivalent settings inline on the Profile page under Business Settings.

Access and assignment

Who can see a business is governed by staff roles and assignments:

• Owners and admins: see every business.
• Members: see only businesses assigned to them directly or through a team.

Manage those assignments on the Staff and Teams pages.

Data preservation

• Stopping management of a client does not destroy its records; the firm-to-business link is simply made inactive.
• Permanent deletion is a separate, deliberate step: a business owner or admin uses Data & Deletion in that business's settings. Deleting schedules removal after a grace period (30 days by default), during which an owner or admin can cancel, and a full data download is available first.

Edge cases

• The Add Business modal only collects a name; everything else is set afterward in Business Settings.
• Demo businesses appear in workflows but cannot manage billing.
• If no firm is selected, the page shows a "No firm selected." placeholder.