Books keeps double-entry accounts for your company. Setting it up takes four steps, all on the Setup and Chart tabs of the Books app.
1. Enter your company details
Open Setup. The first section is Company details.
- Fill in Legal name, Country code and Base currency. Add the Company number, VAT number and Registered address if you have them. The address is printed on VAT invoices.
- Set the Year-end month and Year-end day.
- Select Save.
For a UK company (GB), the company and VAT numbers are checked and stored in their standard form, so a mistyped number is refused rather than saved. The base currency is the currency your books are kept in. It stays editable until the books hold postings, then it is fixed, so choose it first.
2. Create the chart of accounts
Open Chart. If the books have no accounts yet, you see No chart of accounts yet. Select Seed HK chart. Books creates the HKFRS for SMEs chart of accounts, and tells you how many accounts were added. This is the template the screen offers today. The chart lists each account's Code, Name and Kind. Once an account has postings its kind is fixed.
3. Check the account mappings
Open Setup and go to Account mappings. Other apps, such as Bills, post by role (for example Payables, Bank or Input tax) and never by account code. The seeded chart maps the roles for you. If any role shows under Not mapped yet, choose the role and its account, then select Map role. A role without an account refuses to post, so nothing is ever booked to a guess.
4. Set a lock date
Open Setup and go to Lock date, enter a date (for example 2026-12-31) and select Set lock date, then confirm. Nothing dated on or before that day can be posted, which keeps finished periods safe. Clear lock date removes it. The article "Close a month or year" explains how this fits with period and year-end close.
Setup changes are limited to owners and admins.