Setting up a new company
Applies to : Office Accounting Express, Professional

The first step to using Office Accounting is to setup a new company.

Start page in Microsoft Office Accounting

On the start page, click Start a new company to start the company setup wizard. If you have already started Office Accounting, you can set up a new company by selecting File, New Company from the main menu as shown below.

Setting up a New Company from within Office Accounting

This action will close your current company before proceeding to the next step.

Office Accounting provides a company setup wizard to help you set up your initial company and establish some of the defaults and preferences in your new system.

Company Details

Add your company name and contact details. As a minimum you must provide the company name and legal name.

Add company details

Click Next.

Select VAT preferences

Office Accounting is fully equipped to handle the most common VAT accounting schemes in the UK.

Select VAT preferences

Select your VAT preference and click  Next.

Select VAT preferences (Continued)

If you chose to enter your VAT information, please provide your VAT registration number (9 digits in the UK), your VAT reporting period as well as if you use the cash or the accrual accounting scheme for VAT. Click   Next.

Select a business type

Office Accounting allows you to pick one of 18 preconfigured business types to help you set your nominal accounts and other company preferences. If you cannot find your line of business, pick the Basic business type.

Office Accounting provides 18 different business templates to help you get started

Click Next.

Saving Your New Company File

Upon completing the Company and Preferences section, Office Accounting will ask you to save your company file. Click   Finish to save your file.

Create company file

The default name for your company will be the name you gave the company in the first step (without spacing) and with a .sbc file extension. The file extension enables Windows to start Office Accounting when you double-click the icon of the company file.

Note : The company files are by default placed in Documents\Small Business Accounting\Companies folder, but you can place them anywhere you want.

When you click Finish Office Accounting will save the company file and create the SQL database that will contain all your company data. This may take a few minutes.

Creating the company database
Technical note:
The Office Accounting company file does not contain any data in itself. Rather it is a shortcut to a Microsoft SQL Express database (based on Microsoft SQL server 2005), which is stored under the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Data folder of the computer where Office Accounting was installed).

After the company has been created, Office Accounting will open in the Resource Centre:

Quick Start setup completed

Quick Start

The quick start page will open every time you open a company in Office Accounting. It helps you to quickly navigate to the most popular tasks.
Quick Start

Click any of the links on the page as a quick way to get to the appropriate form or wizard.

Updates to Office Accounting

Microsoft continuously provides service packs and add-ins to Office Accounting. Office Online has a list of all the updates, and you can find the latest updates from the resource centre:

Check for updates