Help Center / Getting Started

Setting up your organization

This article walks you through creating your company and configuring the initial organizational structure. This is a critical step that defines how Light will organize your financial data across entities and currencies.

Create your company

When you complete your profile, you'll be prompted to create your first company:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Entities (or follow the onboarding prompt)

  2. Click + Create company

  3. Enter the following information:

    • Company name - Your legal company name
    • Base currency - Your primary operating currency (e.g., USD, EUR, GBP)
    • Logo (optional) - Upload your company logo for branded reports and communications
    • Invoice email - A dedicated inbox for receiving vendor invoices (Light monitors this)
    • Receipt email (optional) - For receiving transaction receipts
    • Contract email (optional) - For receiving contracts

  4. Click Create company

Your company is now set up. Light uses the base currency you select as the default for financial reporting and consolidation.

Good to know: You can change most company settings later, but the base currency cannot be modified once set. Choose carefully if you operate in multiple currencies.

Most multinational organizations need multiple legal entities for tax, regulatory, or operational reasons. Light handles multi-entity operations natively.

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Entities

  2. Click + Create entity

  3. Enter the following details:

    • Display name - How the entity appears in reports and dropdowns
    • Legal name - The registered legal name for compliance
    • Local currency - The operating currency for this entity
    • Country - Where the entity is registered
    • Address - Full legal address including street, city, zip/postal code
    • VAT number (optional) - For compliance and reporting
    • Business registration number (optional) - e.g., company registration number

  4. Click Create entity

Light automatically assigns each entity a sequential entity code when it is created.

Repeat for each legal entity you need to manage in Light.

Configure currency support

Light supports unlimited currencies for international operations. There is no separate currency list to maintain — currency support follows from your setup:

  • Your company's base currency (set at company creation) is used for reporting and consolidation
  • Each entity's local currency is set when you create the entity

You can:

  • Create bank accounts in any currency
  • Record transactions in any currency with automatic FX conversion
  • Run consolidated reports across all currencies

Tip: Choose each entity's local currency carefully when you create it, based on where that entity operates.

Set up chart of accounts

Light comes with a default chart of accounts template, but you'll likely customize it for your organization:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Chart of accounts (Open in Light →)

  2. Review the default accounts (Assets, Liabilities, Equity, Revenue, Expenses)

  3. Add custom accounts by clicking + Create account and entering:

    • Account code - Unique identifier (e.g., "1000", "4010")
    • Account name - Display name
    • Account type - Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, or Expense
    • Currency - The account currency (required for bank and cash accounts)
    • Company entities - Which entities the account is available for
    • Description - Notes on account usage

  4. Organize your chart with header and sum accounts to group related accounts in reports

You can import accounts from a CSV if you're migrating from a legacy system. Contact support for templates.

Create expense categories

Expense categories map receipts and card transactions to GL accounts:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Reimbursement category

  2. Click + Create category

  3. Enter:

    • Category name - e.g., "Office Supplies", "Travel", "Marketing"
    • GL account - Which GL account to post to when expenses are categorized here
    • Tax code (optional) - Default tax code for expenses in this category
    • Company entities - Which entities can use this category

  4. Click Create

Good to know: Light's AI automatically categorizes receipts based on your categories. The more detailed your category structure, the more accurate AI categorization becomes.

Define approval workflows

Set up how expenses and bills are approved:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Workflows

  2. Click + Create workflow

  3. Configure:

    • Workflow name - e.g., "Standard Expense Approval"
    • Trigger - When does this workflow start (e.g., expense amount over $500)
    • Approvers - Who approves (specific people or roles)
    • Order - Sequential or parallel approvals
    • Escalation - What happens if no response in X days

  4. Click Create

Assign workflows to specific:

  • Expense categories
  • Cost centers
  • Company entities
  • User roles

Enable integrations

Connect your existing tools during setup:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon) → Integrations
  2. Click Connect next to each tool you want to integrate:
    • Slack - For approvals and notifications
    • Salesforce - Sync customers, opportunities, and revenue
    • HubSpot - Sync customer data and activities
    • Stripe - Connect payment processing
    • Airwallex - Connect business payment accounts
    • Plaid - Connect bank accounts
    • Auth0 - SSO setup (if applicable)

Follow the authentication prompts for each integration. Most take just a few minutes to set up.

Next steps

Your organization is now configured. Next:

  1. Add team members and define their roles
  2. Connect your first bank account
  3. Start creating invoices, bills, and expenses

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