Getting started

PulseBooks keeps real double-entry books for freelancers and small teams. This page takes you from an empty account to a working set of books.

Create your account

Sign up at /register with an email address and password, or continue with Google. Email sign-ups need to be verified before you can sign in — check your inbox for the verification link.

Every account starts on the Free plan. It is a real plan, not a trial: see Plans & billing for what it includes.

Set up your organisation

Your books belong to an organisation, and the first thing PulseBooks asks for is yours:

• Name — how your business appears on invoices, statements and reports.
• Base currency — the currency your books are kept in. Foreign-currency invoices and expenses are converted into it for reporting; see Multi-currency.
• Financial year start — the month your reporting year begins. Reports, budgets and the year-end close all follow it.
• Tax — whether you charge tax on sales, what it is called (VAT, GST, sales tax), and the default rate. You can change all of this later in Settings → Tax.

You can belong to more than one organisation — an accountant, for example, is usually a member of several. The organisation switcher lives in the sidebar.

Record your first transactions

The fastest way to see PulseBooks work is to put something real in it:

1. An expense — go to Expenses → New, pick a category, enter the amount and date, and attach the receipt if you have one. On paid plans you can photograph a receipt and let receipt OCR fill the form in.
2. Income — go to Income → New for money received outside an invoice, or raise an invoice (next step) for money you are owed.

Every transaction posts a balanced journal entry behind the scenes. You never have to touch the ledger for day-to-day work, but it is always there — see Journals and Reports.

Send your first invoice

Go to Invoices → New, pick or create a client, add line items, and save. The invoice starts life as a draft — nothing has touched your books yet. When it is right, send it: PulseBooks emails it to your client with a secure portal link where they can view and download it. The full lifecycle is on the Invoices page.

Where things live

• Dashboard — cash position, income vs expenses, outstanding invoices, and recent activity.
• Sales — invoices, credit notes, clients, products, agreements.
• Purchases — bills, suppliers, expenses.
• Banking — bank accounts, statement imports, reconciliation.
• Accounting — journals, VAT, period close, fixed assets.
• Reports — from profit & loss to trial balance; see Reports.
• Settings — organisation, tax, team, categories, chart of accounts, and the Developer page for AI connections.

Optional: connect your AI assistant

PulseBooks speaks the Model Context Protocol, so Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client can work in your books — drafting invoices, filing receipts, running reports — within the permissions you approve. It is included on every plan. See Connect your AI assistant.