To begin working with your accounts production process, the very first requirement is to create clients and accounts for which you can produce accounts. A staff member with the adequate privilege can create new clients and accounts.

The business owner may also add their business to BrightBooks and then allow their accountant to use the same business in Bright AP. 

This article will guide you through the process of creating a new client or adding an existing one from BrightBooks, as per your requirement.

Prerequisites

To create new clients and accounts, the staff member must have the permission Add new Practice Business which can be assigned from Staff > Practice Permissions.

Detailed steps to assign Practice permissions

1. Navigate to Staff from the left side bar menu.
2. On the Staff page, select the drop-down arrow to the right of the staff members’ name and from the list, select Practice Permissions.
3. From the Practice Permissions window, select the option Add new Practice Business and click Save.
4. You now have access to create Clients and Accounts.

Creating a new Client and Account

1. On the Clients and Accounts page, click Add Client.
2. A confirmation message window appears querying whether you would like to add a new client or add an existing client from Brightbooks.
3. Click New Client in this scenario. If you wish to add an existing client from Brightbooks, the procedure is mentioned below.
4. The New Client page appears. Enter the details as required for the new client.
   

   FIELD	STEP
   NAME	Name of the client/business.
   CLIENT CODE	Enter a unique code you wish to assign to each client. This is generally client initials followed by numeric digits. For example, CA001
   COUNTRY OF INCORPORATION	Choose the country where the entity is incorporated. This selection will have an impact on the legislation available and the type of financial statements which you can prepare. Based on your selection of country of incorporation, the Entity types field will be populated. The available options for country of incorporation are: Ireland Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland Scotland Wales England United Kingdom Malta Guernsey Jersey Isle of Man
   ENTITY TYPE	Once you select the country of incorporation, based on the same, this field will be populated. As not all types of entities are available for all region, here is a list of available entities for Republic of Ireland as this region covers all the available entity types. Company Sole Trader Partnership Farmer Farmer Partnership LLP Charity Credit Union Club School Select the required entity type from the drop-down list.
   START DATE	Start date of the financial period.
   END DATE	Press the tab on the keyboard and the financial period end date is automatically populated which is 1 year ahead of the start date.
   ACCOUNTS DESCRIPTION	When you press tab, a default description is automatically populated. You can customise it as per your requirement.
   PASSWORD	If you wish to add a password for your datasets, enter the same in this field. Your password can be alphanumeric and can contain special characters. If you forget the password, it can be reset after adding a dataset. In order to reset the password, you must have the Reset Dataset Password Practice permission. If you do not have the sufficient privilege, contact the administrator of the relevant Practice who posses the same permission and can help reset your password. How to reset the password: Click Change or remove password icon next to the dataset of the newly created client account. Enter the existing password and click Reset Password. Remove password: If you have the above mentioned Practice permission, just click Reset Password without entering the existing password. A confirmation message will be displayed confirming that your password is removed and you may set new password. If you do not wish to set any new password, click Cancel. In the Set New Password window, enter the new password and click OK. You have successfully reset the password for your client account.
   CONFIRM PASSWORD	Re-enter the password to confirm the same.

   All the fields are mandatory except for Password and Confirm Password.

5. Select the Bookkeeping Client checkbox if it is applicable for the client you are adding.
   NOTE: The Bookkeeping clients will have access to the Sales and Purchase Ledgers with all the available functionalities of these module. If you do not select this checkbox for the new client you are adding, they will be counted as Non-Bookkeeping clients. These clients will not have any access to the Sales and Purchase Ledgers and can only make Non-customer and Non-supplier receipt payments from the Bank module.
6. Click Save. There can be multiple scenarios which you may come across which are described below:
   • Scenario 1: If you have entered all the required information correctly, you will be redirected to the Staff Access window.
   • Scenario 2: If you have missed entering data in a mandatory field, an alert message will pop-up at the top of the page mentioning the empty field.
   • Scenario 3: If you exceed adding the number of clients which you are registered for, click Go to BrightHub. You will be redirected to BrightHub Products page from where you can manage your account and registration details. Bright has now consolidated all its products under a single roof, BrightHub. You will find the detailed help here.
7. Click Save. The Staff Access window appears from where you can select a single or multiple staff members who can access this business. 
   • To select all the staff members, tick the Select All Staff checkbox.
   • Click Save. You have successfully added a new client and will be redirected to the Dashboard page.