Firm onboarding and sign-in
Complete the first-run onboarding wizard, understand the sign-in screens, and authorize an agent or API client to reach your firm.
Onboarding is the one-time setup that turns a new LedgerHQ login into a working firm. It happens once, before you manage any companies, and it exists so your firm has a name, a country, a package, and a payment method on file before the first company is created. This article covers the onboarding wizard, the sign-in screens that surround it, and the authorize screen that lets an agent or API client reach your firm's data.
Create Your Account And Sign In
New users start at Create your account. Enter your name, email, and a password of at least eight characters, or continue with Google or Apple when those options are shown. Creating an account signs you in and sends you into onboarding.
Returning users land on Welcome back and sign in with the same email and password, or the same social provider. If your firm restricts new accounts, sign-up may be invitation-only or limited to specific email domains, and the sign-up screen says so.
If you forget your password, select Forgot password? on the sign-in screen, enter your email, and choose Send reset link. LedgerHQ emails a link that expires in one hour. Opening it brings you to Choose a new password, where you enter and confirm a new password and are returned to sign-in. For your protection, the confirmation message is the same whether or not an account exists for that address, so a wrong email will not reveal who has an account.
The Onboarding Wizard
Once you are signed in without a completed firm, LedgerHQ opens the onboarding wizard at /onboarding. The wizard has five steps, shown as labeled pills across the top: Firm, Country, Referral, Package, and Billing. Move forward with Next and back with Back. The green button in the corner advances each step.
Firm
The first step, Name your firm, asks for your firm name in the Firm name field. This is the workspace your whole team will use in LedgerHQ. You can refine it later in Settings, so enter your real firm name and continue.
Country
Where is your business based? sets your firm country. Search the list and select your country; the United States is marked as the default. This step only records where the firm operates. Books default to USD regardless of the country you pick.
Referral
How did you hear about us? is optional. Pick a source, or select Other and use the Please specify field to tell us more. Because this step is optional, it shows a Skip button next to Next — use either one to continue. Nothing here affects your books or billing.
Package
Choose your firm package sets one plan for the whole firm and every active company. There are two choices:
- LedgerHQ Core — the firm bookkeeping workspace, billed per active company each month.
- LedgerHQ + Tally — the same workspace plus Tally, your AI bookkeeper, across your active companies, billed at the higher per-active-company rate.
One package applies firm-wide; there is no per-company package switch. You can see current pricing on this step.
Billing
The final step, Billing setup, explains that you add a card now and your first active company starts the selected package charge. Select Set up billing to be sent to Stripe's secure card setup. No company is created and no subscription starts at this point — you are only putting a payment method on file. When the card is saved, the wizard finishes and drops you at your Companies list, ready to create your first company.
LedgerHQ never handles your card number directly. Card entry happens on Stripe's hosted page, and only a saved payment method returns to LedgerHQ.
The Wizard Skips What You Finished
Onboarding is resumable. Each time it opens, it checks what your firm already has and drops you at the first unfinished step instead of starting over. If your firm name and country are already saved but no card is on file, the wizard jumps straight to the Package step. If a payment method is already complete, the wizard does not appear at all and you go directly to your Companies list.
This means you can safely close the browser mid-setup. Nothing is lost, and you will not be asked again for anything you already provided.
Onboarding sets up the firm workspace, not a company's books. Creating the first company, choosing its starting chart, and adding owners happen after onboarding — see Create a company and add owners.
Authorize An Agent Or API Client
LedgerHQ can be connected to an outside agent or API client — for example, a desktop AI tool that works your books through the API. When such a client asks to connect, LedgerHQ shows the Connect LedgerHQ authorize screen. It names the requesting client and asks you to grant it access to your firm account.
The screen lists exactly what the connection will be able to do, which for the supported accounting surface includes:
- listing the LedgerHQ companies your firm manages;
- reading and managing your chart of accounts;
- reading Plaid-connected bank activity;
- reclassifying, reconciling, and excluding bank transactions;
- generating financial report packets.
If your login belongs to more than one firm, pick the Firm account to grant before continuing. The connection is authorized once at the firm level, then maps to the individual companies that firm manages. Select Authorize to grant access or Deny to refuse. The connection uses OAuth 2.1 with PKCE and is scoped to the firm account you choose.
Only authorize clients you recognize and intend to use. Authorizing grants the listed access to your firm's accounting data. If you did not start a connection, choose Deny.