Your first company

When no company file is open, Solid Accounting shows the Welcome to Solid Accounting screen. Every way of getting your books in starts here: create a new company, restore a backup, import, migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop, or open a company file you already have.

A company file is a .solid folder. You can drag one onto the Welcome window to open it.

The Welcome screen

The left column lists your Recent files, or the demo companies to try when you have none yet. The right column, Start fresh (Or start fresh once you've opened a company), has these cards:

Card	What it does
Create New Company	Opens the New Company Setup wizard (below).
Restore from cloud backup	Recovers a company file from an encrypted cloud backup. See Cloud Backup.
Import from other software	Opens Import Transactions for QuickBooks Desktop, CSV, OFX/QFX and PDF statements. See Import & Export.
Migrate from QuickBooks® Desktop	Pick your QuickBooks company; it becomes a new company file here. See Migrate from QuickBooks Desktop.
Connect to a company on another computer	Works in a company file another computer shares on your network (Professional and Accountant). See Setting up multi-user.
Open Existing Company	Browses for a `.solid` folder. Shows as Open Other File… once you have recent files.

Demo companies are editable sandboxes: changes stay on your computer, and Reset restores the sample data. They're prepared in the background; if you click one that isn't ready yet, it opens as soon as it is. Try a demo company shows them once you have recent files of your own.

Create a new company

Create New Company (or File → New Company..., Ctrl+N) walks through six steps: Goal, Admin Account, Source, Start Date, Review Plan, Complete.

Goal. Pick where you are starting from: Start a new business, Move all my books, Start from opening balances, or Add to existing books.
Admin Account. Every company starts with one Admin. This username and password open the company file on any computer. Keep the password safe: without it, or another Admin, the file cannot be opened.
Source. A new business starts from a business chart-of-accounts template.
Start Date. Not needed for a new business. For opening balances, the balances are dated the day before your start date.
Review Plan. Check your choices, enter the Company name, and optionally Change save folder. Click Create company and choose where to save the company file.
Recovery phrase. The wizard offers to Create recovery phrase (recommended). The phrase can reset a forgotten Admin password and open the file, so store it like a key. You can also create one later in Settings → Recovery Phrase.

The wizard creates the company file. Start a new business also fills in a starter chart of accounts. For the other goals the wizard does not import anything itself; bring your data in afterwards:

Move all my books from QuickBooks Desktop: use File → Import → QuickBooks® Migration... (details in Migrate from QuickBooks Desktop).
Start from opening balances: enter them in Company → Opening Balances....
Add to existing books: open the existing company file, then use File → Import → Import Transactions... or the spreadsheet import below.

Bring in a spreadsheet

Bring in a Spreadsheet is a guided import for a single file. Open it from Search (View → Search…, Ctrl+K) by typing "Bring in a Spreadsheet".

Choose file. Pick what the file holds: Bank or credit card transactions (CSV, bank .qbo / OFX / QFX, or IIF), Customers, or Vendors. The format and columns are detected for you.
Review & import. Check the detected destination and the records, then import.
Results. See what was created and skipped. Imported entries can be corrected in Review Imported Entries.

For more control over column mapping, use File → Import → Import Transactions... — see CSV format.

What it needs

Creating, opening, restoring and importing company files works on every tier (Standard, Professional, Accountant) and during the 30-day free trial.
Restore from cloud backup needs an encrypted cloud backup, which comes with Updates & Cloud Services. Existing backups stay restorable after Updates & Cloud Services lapses.
Migrating from QuickBooks Desktop does not need Updates & Cloud Services.