Hello,
When thinking about where to start, as with most new software, it can sometimes be quite daunting. Fear not, it's far simpler than you think.
I'm here to provide you with some super-simple steps to help you get up and running so you're able to get the absolute most out of your Crunch account in rapid-time.
While we do have a complete Getting Started guide available on our Help Centre, I'll try to really simplify the steps here and will include links to specific articles if you'd like to know more and want additional support.
Let's take a look at the super-simple steps together 😀
1. Add your business bank account(s) and credit card(s) details to your Crunch account.
This is your starting block. In order to fully utilise the other features of your account, such as creating invoices and recording your expenses, you must include the details of all business bank and credit card accounts that you hold.
- If you're a limited company, you must include every bank account that has your company name on it
- If you're a sole trader, this simply means any account that you're using for business purposes (including your own personal account if you're paying out or receiving money into it on behalf of your business).
2. Once you've added your business bank accounts, check if there's an Open Banking feed available.
It's completely free, so why not, eh?
- Your bank statements will be automatically uploaded into your Crunch account each month. This may sound like a small thing, but I can't even begin to explain how much time you will save by having an integration set up between your bank and your Crunch account.
3. Next, set up your suppliers for expenses.
This isn't the most fun task you'll do... but, it can really save you time when recording your expenses later.
Essentially, you need a supplier to record expenses against and a supplier can be a person or a company that you buy goods and/or services from. You can even set a 'Default Expense Type' against them to make the process of recording expenses even faster!
- The best advice I can give when setting up new suppliers is to keep it simple, they're just references for you when you record your expenses. Think of all the places where you may pay for expenses, and add them now.
- There's no need to set up individual suppliers for everyday, regular expenses. For example, you could set up a generic supplier for food or public transport expenses, simply name the supplier "Food" or "Travel" and then record all expenses under just one supplier.
- If you do want to be more specific then there's absolutely no problem with that whatsoever. In some cases, it actually does make sense to create a unique supplier for some expenses, such as "Adobe" for specific software, "Amazon" for equipment costs, or "Business Mileage" for mileage allowance claims.
4. Now that you've got your suppliers set up, you can go ahead with recording your expenses!
It's worth checking whether you're able to claim the expense for your business. If you're happy that you can, get cracking!
5. In order to start creating and sending your invoices, you'll need to set up your clients.
In some ways, it's very similar to setting up your suppliers for expenses. In order to invoice through Crunch, you need to add the details of your clients to start using the invoicing features.
- You should always try to include as much information as possible when setting your clients up.
- Be sure to include their name (company or individual), their trading address, contact information, and set a default bank account you want to be paid into.
6. Once you've got your clients set up, you can now begin invoicing through your Crunch account!
You have a few options when it comes to creating invoices. I won't explain them in huge detail here, but I'll highlight some of the interesting features below and will provide links for more context.
- You can save the invoice as a draft, which can then be used to create a quote/estimate for a potential new client.
- You can simply issue it, which you can use if you're purely raising it for bookkeeping purposes and have provided them with an invoice already (or use your own invoice template)
- Lastly, you can issue and email it directly through your Crunch account to your client, meaning you don't have to download it and email it manually from your own email account.
- When you receive payments for your invoices, simply record a client payment directly against the invoice in question to keep everything nice and tidy.
These are the basic steps to take with setting up your Crunch account and being able to use some of the features as soon as possible. I hope this has helped some of you 🙂
I'd be happy to explain our more advanced features, such as Bank Reconciliation, however, I'm conscious that this post could get very, very long...
If you have any questions or would like to see the advanced features included in this post, please let me know and I'll squeeze them in 🙂
