Hey, there! Let's get the ball rolling for you.

You might have already been playing around in your Test company, but when you're ready to start using iCompleat to process real orders and invoices, this is the guide you need.

Here, we take you through the steps behind creating a live company, connecting it to your finance system, adding some users, and setting up workflows and layouts. By the time you've followed this guide, you'll be ready to start placing orders and processing invoices in iCompleat.

You can upgrade to a full iCompleat subscription any time during your free trial period. Go to Upgrade from your free trial to see how.

1. Add a live company

The first quick step is to add a live company.

If you intend to use iCompleat with multiple companies, you can add more later.

To add your first live company, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Company management.
Go to Add a New Company.
Enter the name of your company.

This will become your e-invoicing email address prefix. You need to share your e-invoicing email address with suppliers so that they can send invoices to your iCompleat company.
Select Create.

Great job!

You've set up a live company, and you're ready to start customising it. Continue to 2. Connect to a finance system.

Now that you've created a live company, we may need to email you from time to time. This could be for things like reminders to approve invoices, any daily reports you choose to receive, or a forgotten password email. To make sure these emails don't get blocked or go to your junk folder, add compleat.online@compleatsoftware.com to your list of safe senders.

2. Connect to a finance system

Now you've got a live company, you need to connect it to your finance system so that iCompleat can extract reference data such as supplier information, account codes, and tax codes, as well as post invoices to your finance system.

Connecting your live company to your finance system is the best way to make the most out of iCompeat's two-way integration abilities. iCompleat automatically caches every 24 hours, meaning it will always be up to date with the latest data from your finance system.

iCompleat can connect to many of the most popular finance systems. Select your finance system from the list below to see how to connect to it. We'll direct you back to this guide to continue setting up your company once you're connected.

Go to Which Sage connector should I use? if you need some help choosing a Sage connector.

Want to build your own custom integration? Find out about our API-powered connector.

Don't want to connect your iCompleat company to a finance system? You can connect to iCompleat's Universal Connector instead, which lets you manually upload all of your reference data codes, and then download invoices manually.

3. Add some users

Now your live company is set up and connected to a finance system, it needs some users.

Users can have different roles and permissions depending on what they need to use iCompleat for, like approving and denying invoices, processing invoices and creating orders, or accessing company configuration settings.

You need to add at least one user who has the Approver role. If you're going to use iCompleat Order, you'll also need to add at least one user who has the Can create orders permission.

To add a user, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Manage users.
Select Add user.
Enter the user's First name and Last name.
Enter the user's Email address, and Role (job title).
(Optional) If this user will be an approver, you can select a Nominee for them from the drop-down.
If you haven't created any other users yet, you can come back and add a nominee later.

A nominee can approve or deny transactions on the user's behalf when they're out of the office.
Ensure the user's default Language is correct, and select a different one from the drop-down if not.
(iCompleat Order only) Ensure the user's Preferred delivery site is correct, and select a different one from the drop-down if not.
The preferred delivery site will be used as the default delivery address if the user creates orders, but they can still select another address, or enter one manually, when they're creating an order if they like.
Select one of your iCompleat companies from the drop-down, and then switch the Has Access toggle on or off to control the user's access to each company.
As this is the first live company you're creating, you'll only see your Test Company in the drop-down.
Ensure the correct company is chosen in the Select company dropdown, then go to User Access, and switch on the toggles for the roles the user will have in the company.
Users can have one, multiple, or all roles assigned to them. Go to Roles and permissions explained to learn what each role means.
Go to Global Permissions, and switch on the toggles for any extra permissions you'd like the user to have.
Some permissions are only available to users with certain roles. Go to Customising users to learn what each permission means.
Go to Reporting, and switch on the toggles for the reports you'd like to give the user access to.
Go to About Reports to learn what each report is for.
Select Add user.
The user will now receive an email from iCompleat asking them to create a password so they can log in and start using iCompleat.

You just added your first user!

Repeat these steps to add the rest of your users, then continue to 4. Add workflows.

4. Add workflows

Now that you've got users up and running in your live company, you can create some workflows.

Workflows are sequences of users that can approve or deny invoices and orders, and you can tailor them to mirror the exact approval processes within your company.

When you create a workflow, you can choose whether the workflow can be used for all transaction types, orders only, or invoices and credit notes only. If you plan on using Order in iCompleat to place orders with your suppliers, we recommend that you set up workflows for orders that reflect the approval process in your company for orders.

To create a workflow, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Manage workflow.
Select Add new workflow.
Give the workflow a Workflow name and an Abbreviated name.
The Workflow name identifies the workflow on your Manage workflow page. The Abbreviated name is what AP operators and order creators users will see when selecting a workflow to submit transactions for approval.
In the Transaction type drop-down, select whether this workflow will be available for: All transaction types, Invoices/Credit notes only, or Orders only.
(Optional) The Active toggle is switched on by default. Switch it off if you don't want this workfow to be used yet.
Select the green box to add a new approval group.
Approval groups contain at least one user. You can add multiple users so that invoices or orders reach multiple approvers at the same time, and whoever approves the transaction first moves it to the next stage of the approval chain.
Select a user to add to the group from the drop-down.
(Optional) Select the plus (+) icon to add more user to the approval group. When there are multiple approvers in an approval group
(Optional) Select Configure criteria, and enter an approval threshold for the approval group.
(Optional) Under Configure critera, select Add to create a condition for using the workflow.
(Optional) Select Edit Name to give the approval group a name.
Select OK to add the aproval group.
Select the green box with the plus (+) icon beside your approval group to add another approval group to the same position in the workflow.
When there are multiple approval groups in the same position of a workflow, all of those approval groups need approve the transaction for it to move to the next position in the workflow.
(Optional) Select the green box under the arrow to one or more approval groupa at a later position in the workflow.
Approvers at this position will only see transactions to approve once they've been fully approved at Position 1.
When you're happy with the layout of your workflow, select Save.

It's all coming together!

Follow the same steps to add more workflows that mirror the various approval processing within your company. Then, AP operators and order creators can submit transactions to the right people for approval.

5. Customise your layouts

Let's customise your layouts next.

Layouts determine what text fields and options you see when creating an order or processing an invoice, and whether those fields are at header or line level.

iCompleat comes with three default layouts: An invoice layout, an order layout, and a credit note layout. We recommend that you take a look at our default layouts and customise them to suit your company's needs.

Later, you can create new layouts for different scenarios, and set up rules so that those layouts come into effect only when they're needed. For instance, you might create a layout that comes into effect when you receive an invoice from your stationery supplier, and customise it to include the fields and values that apply to the way you company processes stationery invoices.

To customise your default layouts, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Manage layouts.
Select one of the default layouts from the list.
We're selecting the default invoices layout for this example, but we'll include steps for the order layout too.
(Invoice layout only) Switch the Post to Financials toggle on or off.
This determines whether invoices that use this layout can be posted to your connected finance system.
Select Save Layout.
Go to the Field Configuration tab, and choose which fields will appear on the invoice or order by switching the toggles on and off, and choosing options from the drop-downs.
The options you see will vary depending on any custom fields you've configured, as well as the type of layout you're creating.
(Invoice layout only) Go to the Variance tab, and switch the variance toggle on or off.
If you switch it on, use the arrows to adjust the price variance value you'd like to allow.

Switching this on will resolve slight price variances between an invoice and its matching order, allowing the invoice to continue to be automatically processed.
(Invoice layout only) Go to the Balance Lines tab, and switch the Balance Lines toggle on or off.
Switching this on will add balancing lines to an invoice to correct the sum of the lines if there's a slight discrepancy in tax between the lines and the overall invoice.
(Optional) For extra customisation, you can add a settings group to the layout.

This lets you configure the access that a certain group of users has to the fields on the layout.

i. Go to Settings Groups.

ii. Select New Settings Group.

iii. Enter a name for the settings group.

iv. Select a field to configure the settings group's access to it.

Some fields are mandatory and can't be configured for settings groups.

v. Select a Default value.

This decides which option is automatically selected for the field.

vi. Switch the Restrict values offered toggle on or off.

If you choose to switch it on, select the values you'd like to be offered for the field.

This means that a user will only be able to choose from those values when they're editing transactions that use this layout.

vii. Select Assign Users.

viii. To add a user to the settings group, select their name from the drop-down, then select the black cross (+) icon.

ix. When you've added all the relevant users to the settings group, select OK.

x. Select Save Settings Group.
To finish customising the layout, select Save Layout.

Nice work!

See how easy it is to customise iCompleat's automation capabilities? When you're happy with your default layouts, you might like to go to Customising layouts for more detailed guidance on creating and editing layouts.

Then, continue to 6. Set up Order.

6. Set up Order

Nearly there!

If you're ready and raring to use iCompleat to place orders, submit them for approval, and benefit from automatic submission to suppliers and invoice matching, then there are just a few steps you need to take to finishing setting it up.

If you're not going to use iCompleat Order, you simply need to disable invoice matching. Then, head to Set up iCompleatBuy to continue configuring your company.

If you've followed the steps in this guide, you should have already set up some order workflows and layouts, as well as given all the right users the permission to create orders, and set a preferred delivery site in their user profiles.

All that's left to do now is customise your purchase order template, and choose your preferred invoice matching criteria.

To finish setting up Order, follow these steps.

Choose your matching criteria

Your matching criteria is the information iCompleat looks for when it's matching invoices to orders. You have three choices of matching criteria:

Do not match (iCompleat won't try to match invoices to orders in the system)
Match supplier and purchase order number
Match supplier, purchase order number and amount

To choose your matching criteria, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Company management.
Go to Matching.
From the drop-down, select the criteria you'd like iCompleat to look for when matching invoices to orders.
Switch on the Copy header details from order toggle if you'd like iCompleat to apply the header coding from orders to their matching invoices.
Switch on the Copy line details from order toggle if you'd like iCompleat to apply the line coding from orders to the lines on matching invoices.
If you choose to switch it on, you'll see an additional toggle. Switch that toggle on if you'd only like iCompleat to copy line details if the invoice has the same number of lines as its matching order.

Great job!

That's your matching criteria set. Unless you chose Do not match, you'll now begin see matching statuses next to your invoices and orders. Check out Matching statuses explained to find out more about what these statuses mean.

Customise your purchase order template

Time to smarten up your orders.

Your purchase order template dictates the look and feel of the PDF generated and sent to suppliers with your orders, as well as the fields that appear on it. You can easily customise the colour scheme, logo, numeric fields, and other information in keeping with your company's branding.

To customise your company's order template, follow these steps.

On the homepage, select Configuration.
Select Company Management.
Go to Ordering.
Select Change.
A preview of your company’s current order template appears on the left of the screen.
Options to customise various default fields appear on the right.

Any changes you make will save automatically.
In the Lines drop-down, select the lines you want to add to the order template.
In the Total Summary drop-down, select the total summary lines you'd like to add to the order template.
Select Update to save your changes.
To change the accent colour on the order template, select Change.
The accent colour appears in the background of the Purchase Details Banner, and the order total box. It lets you add your company's unique branding colours to orders.
Select the arrow next to your accent colour, and then select a shade from the colour palette.
Drag the colour slider to select a new colour. Or, enter the hex code of your company's brand colour to select it. For example: #808080.
Select Save.
To add your company's logo to the order template select Upload, then find the find on your computer.
This can be in .jpg or .png format, and must be no larger than 300 x 300px.
To add terms and conditions to the order template, select Upload, and then find your company's terms and conditions on your computer.
The terms and conditions should be in PDF format. This PDF will be sent to suppliers as an accompanying document with orders.
To add footer text , select Change.
Enter the footer text in the box, and select Save.
(Optional) Download a PDF sample of your order template by selecting Download PDF at the bottom of the editing panel.

Looking good!

Just one final step to get Order up and running...

Set a preferred delivery site

Here's a handy little trick.

You can set a preferred delivery site so that every time you create an order, the delivery site field is already coded. You can still select a different address when you're editing the order if you need to, but otherwise, this nifty features saves you that extra bit of legwork.

To set a preferred delivery site, go to your user menu in the top-right of the iCompleat homepage, and select My Profile.

Just choose a delivery site from the drop-down, and hit Save.

Phew!

You're nearly ready to start using iCompleat to create orders, process invoices, and watch the automation happen. Take a well-deserved comfort break, then head to our next guide.

Next: Set up iCompleatBuy >>