How to use Fulkrum

Fulkrum keeps all the money side of your business in one place, your bookkeeping, taxes, and more, and explains it in plain language. Here's how to get going, step by step. Most people are set up in about ten minutes.

1. Create your free account

Go to the sign-up page and enter your email. We'll send you a 6-digit code. Type it in and you're in. No password to remember, and creating an account is free.

2. Tell Fulkrum about your business

The first time you land on your Home page, Fulkrum walks you through a few short setup steps: your business name, what you do, and how you'd like to handle your books. Answer what you can; you can always change it later. When the steps are done, Home turns into your dashboard.

3. Get your transactions in

This is the heart of it. Fulkrum needs to see your income and spending. You have two easy options:

• Connect your bank (recommended). We connect securely through Stripe, and your transactions flow in automatically. Nothing is re-typed and your login stays with your bank.
• Upload a statement. Prefer not to connect an account? Download a statement from your bank and upload the file. Fulkrum reads it for you.

Either way, you don't sort anything by hand. That's the next step.

4. Let Fulkrum categorize, then confirm

Once your transactions are in, Fulkrum's assistant does the first pass automatically, sorting each one into the right category. Then it asks you simple questions about anything it isn't sure about, in plain English, like "Was this coffee shop charge a business expense?", one at a time.

• Tap to confirm, or pick a different answer.
• The assistant learns your preferences, so it asks less over time.
• When a statement is reviewed, it's marked done.

You never need to know accounting terms. If you can answer a yes/no question, you can keep your books current.

5. See how your business is doing

Your Home dashboard answers the questions that actually matter, in numbers you can read at a glance:

• Cash on hand: what's in your accounts right now.
• Are you making money? money in, money out, and what's left.
• Will you run out of cash? roughly how many months of runway you have.

For a deeper look, open the Health & Forecast view for a monthly profit-and-loss summary and simple forecasts. Every report is written to teach you something, not to confuse you.

6. Add more when you're ready

Fulkrum is one hub, so you can turn on more services whenever you need them. Each one plugs into the same books you already have:

• Taxes: hand your bookkeeping and year-end filing to our accountants.
• Payroll: pay your team, with filings handled automatically.
• Invoicing: send branded invoices and get paid by card; paid/unpaid tracking flows straight into your books.
• Things: keep track of assets, loans, and custom tags so your reports can slice by what matters to you.
• Documents: a tidy place for receipts and paperwork.

Some services show a "Coming soon" label until they're switched on for your account. That just means they're on the way.

Getting help

• Ask the assistant. The bookkeeping assistant is right there in the app. Ask it anything about your numbers.
• Read the guides. This Education section has plain-language articles on bookkeeping, taxes, hiring, and growing your business.
• Reach a human. If you're stuck, get in touch and we'll help.

That's really it

Connect or upload, answer a few simple questions, and read your dashboard. Fulkrum handles the rest, so you can get back to running your business.