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Getting started

This article takes you from a new account to your firm's first steps, and shows where things are.

Create your account

  1. On the sign-in page, select Create an account.
  2. Enter your first and last name, your email and a password (twice), then select Create account. You sign in with this email.
  3. Open the link we email you to confirm your address. It works for three days. Nothing arrived? Look in your junk folder, or select Send the link again.

Joining a firm that already uses Firmdesk? Ask its owner or admin for an invite link instead.

Set up your firm

Once your email is confirmed, Set up your firm asks for:

  • Firm name, as your clients know it.
  • Province or territory. New clients start there, and a client with no province is charged its sales tax.
  • Time zone: the province's unless you choose another. It decides what counts as today, and so what's overdue.
  • How many people work at the firm?
  • Logo (if you have one handy): PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 2 MB, for your client portal, invoices and emails.

Select Set up my firm. You're now the workspace's owner. Owners and admins sign in with a password and a code from their phone, so Firmdesk asks you to set up two-factor sign-in, then takes you to Today.

You can change the firm's name, province, time zone and logo later in Settings.

Explore a sample firm first

Not ready to bring your clients in? Select Explore a sample firm on Set up your firm. In a few seconds you get a separate workspace with a year of made-up clients, deadlines, requests and invoices, where you're the partner.

  • Nothing in a sample firm is emailed to anyone.
  • Importing clients, inviting your team, sending files to Firmdesk and choosing a portal address are kept for your own firm.
  • You're its owner: if you haven't set up two-factor sign-in yet, Firmdesk asks you to do that first.
  • A banner on every page gives the date it will be deleted: 30 days after it was made. Delete it deletes it now. You keep your login, and can make a new sample any time.

The same button is on Your workspaces, and in Getting started until your firm has clients.

Work through Getting started

Owners and admins see Getting started at the top of Today. Each step has a button to the page where it's done:

  1. Bring in your clients: Import clients from a spreadsheet, or Add one by hand.
  2. Set up their services: Set up services for many clients at once. Their deadlines are worked out for you.
  3. Invite your clients to the portal: with Invite clients, tick the clients and their main contacts are emailed a link to sign in.
  4. Send a request list: Send a request to one client, or Send to many clients.
  5. Invite your team: Invite someone. This step is left out if you answered Just me.
  6. Log your time: Open my timesheet, or start a timer from any page.
  7. Send an invoice: New invoice. Without a firm address, it first offers Add the address: it goes on the invoice.

A step ticks itself off once anyone at the firm has done it. Select Hide to put the list away. To bring it back, open More actions (⋯) on Today and select Show Getting started.

The list also offers Book a call, a 30-minute onboarding call with us.

Find your way around

The sidebar groups the pages:

  • Work: Today, My work, Deadlines
  • Clients: Clients, Contacts
  • Portal: Documents, Requests, Reminders
  • Money: Time, and Billing for managers, partners, admins and owners
  • Firm: Team, Settings

Search (Ctrl+K), at the top of the sidebar, finds clients, contacts, deadlines, documents, tasks and requests.

Today shows what's overdue, what's due in the next seven days and what clients sent you. Managers, partners, admins and owners switch between Whole firm and Mine. Everyone else sees their own tasks and the deadlines of the clients they're assigned to.

Get help in the app

Some pages show a short tip at the top until you select Got it. Help, near the bottom of the sidebar, has articles and a video about the page you're on, Send feedback, our email address and Show the page tips again. Owners and admins can also Book a call there.

Good to know

  • Only owners and admins see Getting started. When one of them hides it, it's hidden for all of them.
  • In more than one workspace? Switch from the menu with the firm's name, at the top of the sidebar.