From sign-up to your first printed invoice.

Give your company name, pick a handle, and choose a password of at least 10 characters. The handle is your sign-in name — acme, say — so keep it short and memorable.

Nothing is created yet. We email you a confirmation link, and your company is set up the moment you open it. The link is good for 24 hours; if it does not arrive, use Resend the link on the same page.

Opening the link provisions your company, your head-office branch, your owner account and a 14-day trial, then hands you a Sign in button with your handle and email already filled in.

From then on, the sign-in page asks for three things: your handle, your email and your password. The handle is the one people forget, so keep it somewhere.

This is who you are on paper, and it prints on every invoice, quotation, receipt and delivery note. Set your legal name (the registered entity) and display name (what appears at the top of documents), then your address, phone, email and TIN.

Upload your logo and set your primary colour here too — both feed straight into your documents, so it is worth doing before you design one.

Currency is used for every amount shown, printed or exported. It starts as UGX, so change it now if that is not yours — it is far easier than restating figures later. The same screen sets your default tax rate and how many days an invoice is due in, both of which pre-fill every new invoice.

Invoice lines are products, so you need at least one before you can bill anything. Products need a category, so that comes first: open Categories & tags, stay on the Products tab, and add one — Services is a fine start if you do not sell goods.

Now go to Products and choose New product, with a name, that category and a selling price. Until a category exists the New product button stays disabled, which is the usual reason this step feels stuck.

Choose New customer and add at least a name; an email lets you send the invoice straight from gitobiz later. Customers are shared across all your branches, so you only ever add one once.

Document style is the built-in look every document falls back to. Pick a style (Classic, Modern or Minimal), a paper size, an accent colour, and whether to show your logo. The preview beside it updates as you go. Press Save.

For a layout of your own, open the Layout designer and choose Create a template, then arrange the blocks you want. Two things to know:

• Saving a design does not make it print. Press Use this on the design you want — the active one prints, the rest wait — then Save changes.
• Even with a custom design active, the accent colour, footer and default terms still come from Document style.
• A custom design only shows what you put on it. If you want the verification QR code, add a QR block — the built-in styles place one for you.

Pick your customer, then add lines — product, quantity and unit price. Adjust the tax rate, discount and notes if you need to; they pre-fill from your settings. Save, and the invoice is numbered automatically. It starts as a draft, so you can still edit it.

Open the invoice and press PDF. It downloads rendered with your active design, your logo and your colours — print it from there.

Email sends the same document to the customer, and Send moves it out of draft so payments can be recorded against it. The printed invoice carries a QR code anyone can scan to check it is genuine.