Quick Start

Have you just installed Gestan on your PC? You’ve made a great choice!

You should be ready to create your first invoice in about 5 minutes. Shall we get started?

To help you get up and running quickly, this page outlines the standard settings for a new Gestan installation.

Follow the guide!

The startup wizard asked for some basic information about your company, so the essentials should already be correct.

However, let's refine the settings a bit further. To do this, open the general settings screen by pressing the F3 key or by going to Tools → Settings → General settings.

On the Identity sub-tab, ensure your company's identification details are correctly entered.

You can click the magic wand icon 1 to automatically fill in the text that will appear at the bottom of documents created in Gestan (customer lists, invoice lists, etc.).

On the Legal/Tax sub-tab, check that your currency 1 is correct. For the start date of the first fiscal year 2, use the start date of the first *full* fiscal year: for example, if you began operations on May 15, 2022, and close your accounts on December 31, enter 01/01/2022 (instead of 15/05/2022).

In the Miscellaneous sub-tab, verify that your business hours at 1 are correct.

More details on this tab: this page

Contacts include everyone you deal with: clients, prospects, partners, service providers, as well as general business contacts.

Choose the type of data 1 you want to manage: business addresses, personal addresses, or both.
Check the box 2 if you want to manage billing and delivery addresses that may differ from your business or personal addresses.

More details on contacts: this page

Sales documents include quotes, orders, invoices, credit notes, and delivery notes.

Purchase documents (supplier side) include requests for quotes, orders, invoices, credit notes, and goods receipt notes.

In the Footer sub-tab, click the magic wand 1 to populate the text that should appear at the bottom of your quotes, invoices, and other sales documents. You can edit it as you wish. More details on purchase and sales documents: this page

Products are the items you sell (and also those you buy).

If you have a large number of products, check box 1 to manage them using categories and sub-categories (instead of just categories).

Optionally, specify your stock management options 1

More details on products: this page

Go to Accounting → Bank accounts to open the list of bank accounts you will use for your business activities.

Open the “Business account” record created by the setup wizard with default data.

Enter an easy-to-understand label 1 (e.g., “Business Bank”)
Enter the IBAN 2
Enter the BIC 3

You can add more accounts if you have several.

More info on bank accounts: this page.

Go to the Products → Products menu, open the product list, and click the New button to register one of the products you sell.

Enter a code and a descriptive name 1 for your product
Specify a purchase and sales unit 2 (right-click to save new units).
Enter a purchase price 3 and a sales price
Specify whether you want to manage stock 4

You can optionally add a photo of your product via the Image tab, and a detailed description via the Description tab. This description will be used in quote and invoice line items.

Confirm the entry by clicking the OK button.

More iProduct information: this page.

Go to Contact → All contacts to open the contact list, then click the New button to register your first client.

On this screen, enter the standard details: name, address, etc.

More information on contacts: this page.

You are now ready to register your first invoice by clicking the Invoice button.

On this screen: * select the client using the magnifying glass icon 1 * click + 2 to add an item * optionally modify quantities or prices directly in the table 3 * optionally, enter an invoice type 4 to help with classification.

Click Validate to create your first invoice in Gestan!