Set up a new business in 30 minutes

This is the hands-on walkthrough — install Solid, create a file, set up the chart of accounts, post a few transactions, and run your first reports — all in about half an hour. By the end you'll have a working file with real (test) data and the muscle memory to do it again on a real business.

We'll use a fictional business: Acme Consulting LLC, a single-member-LLC consulting firm. Pick a different example if you'd rather; the steps generalize.

Before you start (2 min)

You need:

Solid Accounting installed — see Installation if you haven't yet
A license activated (any tier; Standard is fine for the tutorial)
30 minutes of uninterrupted attention

Part 1 — Create the file (3 min)

Open Solid Accounting.
Welcome screen → New Company File.
Save location: pick somewhere sensible — your Documents folder works. The file will be acme-consulting.solid.
Set a strong password. Use your password manager. You can't recover this password — write it down or save it now.
Pick the company-information template: Service Business → Consulting. Solid pre-fills a sensible chart of accounts you can customize.
Fill the company info:
- Name: Acme Consulting LLC
- Fiscal year start: January 1
- Base currency: USD
- Tax structure: Single-member LLC (Schedule C)
Click Create File.

Solid creates the file, opens it, and shows the dashboard. Empty for now.

Part 2 — Set up the chart of accounts (5 min)

The pre-filled chart-of-accounts template has ~40 accounts that cover most service businesses. Look it over: Lists → Chart of Accounts.

You'll see accounts grouped by category:

Assets
  1010  Operating Checking
  1020  Savings
  1300  Accounts Receivable
  1400  Office Equipment
  1410  Accumulated Depreciation — Office Equipment

Liabilities
  2010  Accounts Payable
  2200  Credit Card

Equity
  3000  Owner's Capital
  3100  Retained Earnings
  3900  Owner's Draw

Income
  4000  Service Income
  4100  Consulting Income
  4200  Other Income

Expenses
  5100  Rent
  5200  Utilities
  5300  Software & Subscriptions
  5400  Office Supplies
  5500  Travel
  ...

For Acme, we'll add one and rename one:

Add: a Revenue — Strategy account under Income. Click + New Account, type Revenue — Strategy, type Income, parent: Service Income. Save.
Rename: Service Income → Revenue — Implementation. Click the account, edit, save.

Your chart now distinguishes Strategy revenue from Implementation revenue — useful later for margin analysis.

Part 3 — Add your first customer and item (3 min)

Customer

Lists → Customers → New. Fill in:

Display name: Beta Corp
Company name: Beta Corp Inc.
Email: accounts@beta.example.com
Default payment terms: Net 30
Currency: USD

Save.

Service item

We'll define a Strategy Hour item that always posts to the Revenue — Strategy account:

Lists → Items → New. Fill in:

Type: Service
Name: Strategy Hour
Sales price: $300.00
Income account: Revenue — Strategy

Save. You'll use this on the invoice in a moment.

Part 4 — Post your first invoice (5 min)

New → Invoice. Fill in:

Customer: Beta Corp (pick from dropdown)
Date: today
Due date: 30 days from today (auto-fills from Net 30)
Line 1:
- Item: Strategy Hour
- Description: auto-fills from item
- Quantity: 8
- Unit price: $300 (from the item's default)
- Amount: $2,400 (auto-computed)

Total at the bottom: $2,400.00.

Click Post. The invoice posts to the GL. Solid auto-creates the journal entry:

DR  Accounts Receivable                  2,400.00
CR  Revenue — Strategy                   2,400.00

You'll see the invoice in Lists → Invoices. Beta Corp's open balance is now $2,400.

Part 5 — Receive a payment (3 min)

A few weeks later (in real time; right now in the tutorial), Beta Corp pays. New → Receive Payment:

Customer: Beta Corp
Date: today (or whenever)
Bank account: Operating Checking
Amount: $2,400.00
Apply to: Invoice 1001 (the invoice you just created — Solid auto-suggests it)

Save.

The journal entry:

DR  Operating Checking                    2,400.00
CR  Accounts Receivable                   2,400.00

Beta Corp's open balance is now $0. Operating Checking is up $2,400.

Part 6 — Add a vendor and a bill (3 min)

Acme rents office space. Add the landlord:

Lists → Vendors → New. Fill in:

Display name: Property Management Co.
Default payment terms: Net 15
Default expense account: Rent (5100)

Save.

Now add the rent bill:

New → Bill. Fill in:

Vendor: Property Management Co.
Date: today
Due date: 15 days
Line 1:
- Account: Rent
- Description: Office rent — current month
- Amount: $2,000.00

Post. The journal entry:

DR  Rent                                  2,000.00
CR  Accounts Payable                      2,000.00

The bill is in Lists → Bills; Property Management Co.'s open balance is $2,000.

Part 7 — Pay the bill (2 min)

New → Pay Bill:

Vendor: Property Management Co.
Date: today
Bank account: Operating Checking
Amount: $2,000.00
Apply to: Bill 0001

Save.

The journal entry:

DR  Accounts Payable                     2,000.00
CR  Operating Checking                   2,000.00

The bill is paid; Operating Checking is now at $400 ($2,400 in − $2,000 out).

Part 8 — Run your first reports (4 min)

Trial Balance

Reports → Trial Balance → today.

Account                              Debit      Credit
Operating Checking                  400.00         —
Accounts Receivable                   0.00         —
Accounts Payable                       —         0.00
Owner's Capital                        —      [opening balance — 0 if you didn't set one]
Revenue — Strategy                     —     2,400.00
Rent                              2,000.00         —
                                  ────────  ──────────
Totals                            2,400.00   2,400.00

Debits = Credits. The books balance. (Welcome to working accounting.)

Income Statement

Reports → Income Statement → today.

Revenue
  Revenue — Strategy            2,400.00
  Revenue — Implementation          0.00
  Total Revenue                 2,400.00

Expenses
  Rent                          2,000.00
  Total Expenses                2,000.00

Net Income                        400.00

Acme made $400 today. (In the abstract, this represents one month — the date stamps don't actually matter for the tutorial.)

Balance Sheet

Reports → Balance Sheet → today.

ASSETS
  Operating Checking               400.00
  Accounts Receivable                0.00
  Total Assets                     400.00

LIABILITIES
  Accounts Payable                   0.00
  Total Liabilities                  0.00

EQUITY
  Owner's Capital                    0.00
  Net Income (current period)      400.00
  Total Equity                     400.00

Total Liabilities + Equity         400.00

Total Assets = Total Liabilities + Equity. The fundamental accounting equation holds.

Part 9 — Set up Cloud Backup (optional, 5 min)

Before this gets to be real money, set up offsite backup:

Settings → Cloud Backup → Set up
Destination: pick Managed B2 (simplest)
Backup password: same as your file password is fine
Recovery phrase: Solid shows 24 words. Write them on paper. Now. Without these, if you lose the password, you've lost the books.
Confirm a few words, click Save

Cloud Backup is now running. The first backup will run within 15 minutes. After that, daily snapshots with GFS retention keep ~28 historical snapshots.

See Cloud Backup module for the full architecture.

Part 10 — Where to next (a few minutes of reading)

You've now done the core loop. To go further:

Set up your real business — repeat with your actual data
Daily bookkeeping flow — what a normal workday looks like
Migrate from QuickBooks if you have an existing book to bring over
Set up multi-user if your bookkeeper or accountant needs access too
Period close walkthrough when month-end comes
REST API if you want to wire Solid into your stack programmatically

What you learned

A .solid file holds everything; it's encrypted with your password and you own it
Every transaction is a journal entry; the GL underneath is real double-entry
Invoices, bills, receive-payment, pay-bill — these are the four daily-work transaction types you'll use most
Reports always reflect the current state of the GL — no "lock and report" step
Cloud Backup is a one-time setup that gives you offsite protection forever

The whole accounting concept fits in those five points. Everything else in the docs builds on them.

Cross-references

Daily bookkeeping flow — what to do once your real file is set up
General Ledger module — the foundation everything builds on
Cloud Backup — full backup architecture
Glossary — definitions of every accounting term used here