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Getting Started Guide

Ten easy steps from a bank statement to CRA-ready books. Follow them in order the first time — after that, steps 5 to 8 are your monthly routine of a few minutes. You can’t break anything: the app takes automatic restore points, and nothing the AI suggests enters your books until you approve it.
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Set up — once, about 15 minutes

1Create your free account

Five minutes, no credit card.

  1. Go to the plans page and pick Start free — the Free plan is the complete bookkeeping app; paid plans only add more AI.
  2. Enter your email and, if you have one, a promo code.Code JMTRIAL30 gives 30 days of the full AI (Standard) free — when it ends you simply land back on Free.
  3. Type the 8-digit code from the email you receive.It can take a minute — check your junk folder. If you click Resend, only the code in the newest email works.
TIP — There is no password to forget or to steal: every sign-in uses a fresh one-time code.

2Set up the company

One screen powers the tax math, deadlines and reports.

  1. Open Settings — the ⚙ button at the top right of any screen.
  2. Company name & details — they flow onto your invoices and reports automatically.
  3. Fiscal year — pick the start date; the end fills in 12 months later by itself.Every CRA deadline (T2, HST, T4, T5) is computed from this.
  4. HST / GST — registered or not, Traditional or Quick Method, filing frequency.Not registered yet? Choose “Not registered” and no tax is collected or claimed anywhere.
  5. How customers pay you — your e-Transfer email and/or card link, shown in a “How to pay” box on every unpaid invoice.
TIP — Unsure about the HST method? The HST screen shows both methods side by side with your real numbers.

3Connect a company folder

Give the books a real home on your computer (Chrome or Edge).

  1. In Settings, find “Where the books are kept” and click Connect a company folder. Create a new empty folder when asked.
  2. Allow access when the browser asks — the app can only ever see the one folder you picked.
  3. Done. Inside you’ll find books.json (the books), history/ (automatic restore points) and documents/ (statements & receipts).
Why this matters — your books live in this folder on your computer, never on our servers. Put it inside OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive and it backs itself up and follows you between computers.

4Opening balances

Only for companies with prior-year history — a brand-new corporation skips this.

  1. Open Opening Trial Balance (sidebar → Assets & Year-End).
  2. Type last year-end’s closing balances — or paste the whole trial balance from Excel.Your accountant’s year-end package has these numbers.
  3. Check the difference line reads $0.00 before moving on.
Your routine — minutes a week

5Import a bank statement

The heart of the routine — do this monthly.

  1. Download last month’s statement from your bank — CSV or Excel is best; PDF works too.
  2. Click Import Bank / Card Statement (sidebar, or on the Transactions screen).
  3. Check the column preview and press Import.The app finds the date, description and amount columns by itself; duplicates from overlapping statements are caught automatically.
  4. Repeat for the credit card — same steps, signs handled for you. You can also copy rows in Excel and use Paste from Excel.

6Categorize — AI drafts, you approve

This is where transactions become books.

  1. Click AI Categorize on the Transactions screen — every uncategorized transaction gets a suggestion.
  2. Review right on the list — fix any suggestion with the dropdown; nothing is final until you approve.
  3. Or use ✦ Ask AI (bottom right) in plain English: “categorize the Rogers bills as Telephone”.
The golden rule — the AI can only ever prepare drafts. It cannot post, change or delete anything. Every entry in your books was approved by a human: you.

7Send invoices & record payments

Branded invoices with payment links built in.

  1. Invoices → New Invoice — customer, description, amount; HST adds itself.
  2. Send it by email, WhatsApp or print-to-PDF — every unpaid invoice carries your “How to pay” box.
  3. When money arrives, link the deposit to the invoice — paid / part-paid / overdue then track themselves.
  4. Check A/R aging any time to see who owes you, by age, with printable customer statements.

8Reconcile the month with AI

Five minutes that catches every mistake.

  1. Open AI Reconciliation and drop in the month’s bank statement — matched, missing and extra items are named line by line.
  2. Fix the differences — missing entries arrive as ready-made drafts; approve them and the books tie to the bank to the penny.
  3. Do the same with CRA statements of account — HST, payroll or corporate tax — and see exactly where your balance and CRA’s differ.
TIP — A reconciled month is a closed month: year-end becomes a formality instead of an archaeology dig.
Filing season — mostly automatic

9Reports, HST & CRA deadlines

Everything computed live from one engine — reports can never disagree.

  1. Reports tab — P&L, Balance Sheet, Trial Balance, General Ledger, HST; export the whole package to Excel in one click.
  2. HST screen — your return figures with the full calculation trail, Traditional or Quick Method.
  3. Dashboard deadlines — T2, tax balance, HST, T4, T5, counting down from your fiscal year.
  4. AI Review — a second pair of eyes that flags anomalies; advisory only, it changes nothing.

10Year-end handoff

The folder is the deliverable.

  1. Reconcile the final month and glance at the built-in control checks.
  2. Zip your company folder and send it — books, restore history and every receipt in one place.
  3. Your accountant gets GIFI-ready books — the T2 mapping is already done. Clean books in, smaller year-end bill out.
  4. Or let J & M take it from there — corporate tax is what we do.
If you get stuck: the ? button in the app has a guide for every screen and a full tour; ✦ Ask AI answers questions from your own books; and Settings → Restore Points rewinds to any earlier moment. A human is one email away: jandmtaxsolutions@gmail.com · (647) 877-8637.

Ready? Start free — no card, ever →