When you create a set of books based on a starter template, the setup process involves customizing the books to meet your specific accounting requirements (e.g. changing account names to match your naming conventions, adding new accounts that are required, deleting accounts that are not needed, rearranging existing reports or adding new ones, adjusting report arithmetic to provide additional detail,, etc.). However, you do not have to complete the setup for the books before you can start entering transactions. Setting up the books can be completed - or modified - at any time.
When you create a set of books from scratch, the setup process is much more complex. You have to add all the accounts and reports that you require, as well as put all the report arithmetic in place. You still don't have to finish setting up the books before you can start adding transactions, and the setup can still be modified at any time, but you have to make sure you have enough structure in place (e.g. all the posting accounts you will be using) before you can proceed.
In this section, some basic aspects of setting up your books are described: