Getting started: set up your Finye workspace

A step-by-step setup guide for Australian accounting firms: brand your workspace, invite staff, add clients and start managing work in Finye.

Setting up your Finye workspace properly at the start saves your practice hours of rework later. This guide walks you through the first configuration steps every Australian accounting or bookkeeping firm should complete, from branding your workspace to inviting staff and importing your client list. Allow about 30 minutes to work through it.

Before you begin

You will need administrator access to your Finye account and a few details on hand: your firm's logo, your team's email addresses, and either a client list or your Xero login if you plan to sync clients across. If you have not created an account yet, you can register here first.

Step 1: Brand your workspace

Your branding flows through to the client portal, invoices, engagement letters and outbound emails, so it is worth getting right early.

Open Settings and go to the Branding or theming section.
Upload your firm's logo. Use a transparent PNG where possible so it sits cleanly on both light and dark backgrounds.
Set your primary accent colour to match your firm's identity. This colour is used across buttons, links and the portal your clients see.
Confirm your firm name and trading details, which appear on invoices and client communications.

Save your changes and check the preview so you know clients will see a consistent, professional brand.

Step 2: Turn on security and enforce MFA

Because Finye holds client tax file information, financial records and lodgment data, securing access is a priority and supports your TPB obligations around protecting client data.

In Settings, open the Security section.
Enable enforced multi-factor authentication (MFA). With this on, any staff member who has not enrolled is held at the 2FA setup page until they do.
Enrol your own account first so you are not locked out, then communicate the change to your team before they next log in.

Step 3: Invite your team

Add the people who will work in Finye and set what each of them can access.

Go to the staff or team management area in Settings.
Invite each staff member by email. They will receive a link to set up their login and complete MFA enrolment.
Assign roles or permission groups so principals, accountants, bookkeepers and administrators each see what they need and no more. Permission groups let you grant module access, such as administration rights, to specific people.

Set up your team before adding clients, so you can assign work to real people from day one.

Step 4: Add your clients

Clients are the backbone of your workspace. A client can be an organisation or an individual, with entity types covering company, trust, partnership, sole trader and SMSF, and each client can hold multiple contacts.

Option A: Sync from Xero

If your practice already runs on Xero, connect the two-way sync to bring clients and contacts across automatically and keep them aligned over time.

Open the Integrations settings and connect your Xero organisation.
Authorise the connection and let Finye import your client and contact list.
Review the imported records and tidy up entity types where needed.

Option B: Add clients manually

Go to Clients and choose to add a new client.
Select whether the client is an organisation or an individual, then choose the correct entity type.
Record the key details, including ABN, entity type and primary contact, then add any additional contacts such as directors, partners or a bookkeeper.

Accurate entity types matter here because they feed the compliance engine, which tracks lodgment obligations like BAS, IAS, income tax returns and ASIC reviews.

Step 5: Set up your first board

Work in Finye is organised as work items, or tickets, on boards that you can view as a kanban or as a list. This is where client requests and jobs live.

Open Work items and review the default board, or create a board that suits how your team works, for example by service line or by client manager.
Check the status workflow, such as To do, In progress, Waiting on client and Done, and adjust the columns to match your process.
Create a test work item, set a priority and assignee, and add a checklist or subtasks so you can see how a job moves across the board.

Step 6: Connect your inbox

Email-to-ticket turns inbound client emails into work items automatically, so requests do not get lost in a shared inbox.

In Settings, find the email-to-ticket or inbound email option.
Follow the prompts to forward client email to your Finye address.
Send a test email and confirm it appears as a new work item on the right board.

What to do next

With branding, security, staff, clients and your first board in place, your workspace is ready for day-to-day practice work. From here, a natural next step is to set up recurring jobs such as quarterly BAS, and to invite clients to the portal so they can upload documents and approve work. Explore the rest of our help guides to go deeper, and review the compliance and work item guides to get the most out of Finye.