Basics·DE
The setup assistant: company, logo or template, numbers, bank account
After signing in, an assistant walks you to your first invoice in four steps - company details, invoice layout with a logo or your own Word template, invoice numbers and a bank account via FinTS.
What the assistant is for
A new Accountix account comes with one company carrying a placeholder address, but no logo, no number series and no bank account yet. The setup assistant collects these four things in a fixed order so that the first invoice looks complete and correct:
- Company - name, address, tax numbers, bank details for the invoice
- Invoice layout - a logo for the built-in layout or your own Word template
- Invoice numbers - the format of the number series
- Bank account - a FinTS connection or a manually kept account
A new account lands in the assistant right after signing in - on every sign-in, as long as the setup is not finished and a step is still open. If you leave it via Do this later or the menu, the overview shows a Setup card with the progress until the setup is finished. Every step can be skipped; the assistant stays available under Admin › Master data › Setup, also for companies created later. It is open to administrators only, because it creates master data and bank connections.
Progress is not read from a checklist but from the real data: a step counts as done when the placeholder address has been replaced, a logo or an invoice template exists, a number series has been created, or an active bank account is present.
Step 1: Company
An example: Nordwind Beratung GmbH signs up. The assistant shows the automatically created company with empty address fields. You enter:
| Field | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Company name, legal form | Nordwind Beratung, GmbH | letterhead and sender line |
| Short code | NORDWIND | wordmark top left as long as there is no logo |
| Address | Hafenstraße 12, 20457 Hamburg | sender block and footer |
| VAT ID / tax number | DE123456789 / 46/123/45678 | mandatory under § 14 UStG |
| Bank details | IBAN, BIC, bank | payment details on the invoice |
The checkbox Small business under § 19 UStG switches every invoice of this company to 0 % VAT with the statutory note. Register, managing directors and an extra footer line sit under Further details.
The bank details in this step are the account your customers pay into. The access to the account Accountix fetches transactions from follows in step 4 - both can be the same account, but need not be.
Step 2: Invoice layout
Here you decide what the PDF looks like. Two ways, which can also be combined:
A - Logo for the built-in layout. Accountix ships a finished invoice layout (letterhead, line-item table, totals block, footer with tax and bank details). Upload your logo as PNG or JPG - a PNG with a transparent background works best. It is embedded top left and scaled down to at most 180 × 60 points, so a landscape logo looks best. Without a logo the company's short code is printed there.
B - Your own Word template. If your invoice should keep looking the way it does today, upload your Word document (.docx). It contains placeholders in curly braces, such as {invoiceNumber}, {customer.name} or {total}, and a loop {#lineItems} … {/lineItems} for the line items. The assistant renders the template immediately with sample data as a PDF preview before you save it. It is stored as this company's default invoice template; further template types (reminders, letters) live under Templates.
The assistant lists the available placeholders right under the upload, grouped and with sample values - one click copies a placeholder to the clipboard. Important: the placeholders are plain text in the document, not Word fields or bookmarks. If a value is missing, the spot stays empty.
| Group | Placeholders |
|---|---|
| Invoice | {invoiceNumber}, {title}, {issueDate}, {dueDate}, {reference}, {today}, {customFields.projekt} (a custom field from the invoice preset; the part after the dot is your own name for it) |
| Amounts | {subtotal}, {subtotalGross} (net before discount), {discountAmount}, {discountPercent}, {taxRate}, {taxAmount}, {total}, {currency} |
| Customer | {customer.name}, {customer.firstName}, {customer.lastName}, {customer.companyName}, {customer.salutation}, {customer.email}, {customer.street}, {customer.postalCode}, {customer.city}, {customer.country}, {customer.vatId} |
| Issuer | {issuer.name}, {issuer.street}, {issuer.postalCode}, {issuer.city}, {issuer.email}, {issuer.phone}, {issuer.website}, {issuer.vatId}, {issuer.taxNumber}, {issuer.bankName}, {issuer.iban}, {issuer.bic}, {issuer.directors} |
| Line items | {#lineItems} … {/lineItems} around one table row, containing {position}, {description}, {quantity}, {unitPrice}, {lineTotal} |
An example: the line-item table of Nordwind Beratung GmbH has a header row and a single data row. The first cell of the data row holds {#lineItems}{position}, the next ones {description}, {quantity} and {unitPrice}, the last one {lineTotal}{/lineItems}. When rendering, this row is written once per line item; the totals row below it holds {subtotal}, {taxAmount} and {total}.
If you set up both, the Word template is used for invoices and the logo, for example, for reminders in the built-in layout. How templates with fixed amounts become invoice presets is described in Invoice presets.
Step 3: Invoice numbers
Invoice numbers must be sequential and unique per company. The assistant creates the company's number series (or edits the existing one) and shows live what the next number looks like. The quick pick offers four common formats:
| Quick pick | Next number |
|---|---|
RE-2026-0001 | prefix RE, four-digit year in front, 4 digits |
2026-0001 | four-digit year, 4 digits |
1/26 | running number, two-digit year after it |
INV-0001 | prefix without a year |
If you are switching from another program, enter your last invoice number under Last number issued - if that was 2026-0147, enter 147, and Accountix issues 2026-0148 next. For a fresh start the 0 stays. If the series has already issued numbers, the assistant says so; format changes then apply to future invoices only. Everything else about counters, gap fillers and several series is under Number series.
Step 4: Bank account
With a connected account Accountix recognises incoming payments automatically and can pay incoming invoices directly.
FinTS access (recommended): Enter the IBAN or bank code - Accountix derives the bank and the FinTS address from the directory of the German banking industry (over 1,700 institutions). Add your online banking login (the VR-NetKey at Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken) and the PIN. When connecting, the bank asks for its approval once, by TAN or app confirmation, and then reports the accounts of this login. You choose the account to connect with Accountix. From then on transactions are fetched automatically.
Without bank access: For banks without FinTS, or if you prefer not to store a login, create the account manually with IBAN and BIC. You then import transactions from your bank's CSV export under Manage bank accounts → Import CSV.
Credentials are stored encrypted and used exclusively for the FinTS connection to your bank; every transfer needs the approval through your bank's TAN method. Details on account types, assignment and transfers are under Bank accounts.
Step 5: Done
The summary shows what is done and offers finish now for open steps. Finish setup removes the card from the overview and takes you there. From there you carry on: create the first customer, write the first invoice, add colleagues as users or receive incoming invoices by email.
Frequently asked questions
I have several companies. The assistant always sets up the company selected at the top. Use the selector in the assistant's header to switch to the next one and run through the steps again; progress is calculated per company.
The card is in the way, but I am not done yet. Hide conceals it for this browser session. Do not show again is the same as finishing - the assistant stays in the menu regardless. Under Setup › Done, Show the setup card on the overview again brings it back.
Can I change something later? Everything. Company details under Companies, the logo there as well, templates under Templates, number formats under Number series, accounts under Manage bank accounts. The assistant is only the shortest path through these pages.