ERP for startup. Books, payroll and compliance from day one, without hiring a back office.
A startup does not need a back office; it needs the books, payroll and filings to run without a founder awake at midnight. Kinnow has no ready-made setup for startups, so we pick the right applications and set the limits with you in the first two weeks. The United States edition opens from early 2027.
From early 2027How does Kinnow help a startup? You start with the finance core and add what you need: invoices, bills and expenses, bank reconciliation, payroll, sales-tax groundwork, and statements an investor or auditor can read. There is no ready-made startup setup in the product, so we set the approval limits, who signs off and the reports up with you instead of switching on a template. Nothing is filed, paid or posted until a person says so. Nothing is filed, paid or posted without a person.
Your company, in one paragraph.
There are a handful of people and no finance team. The founder sends invoices, matches the bank statement on a weekend, chases a customer who has not paid and asks the accountant what is due this month. Payroll runs from a spreadsheet, and every investor update means stitching a profit and loss together from three tools. Buying an ERP feels premature, so the books live in something you will outgrow in a year.
Three things keep the founder awake: a filing date nobody owns, cash that looks fine until payroll week, and a first audit or due diligence that finds the books were never closed properly.
What we set up with you, and what is not a template
We say this plainly because the other industry pages describe a ready-made setup and this one has none.
| Area | What we set up with you | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Applications | Which of the 49 you switch on for each company: typically Masters, Sell, Buy (bills and expenses), Account, People, Comply, Know and Vault | You switch applications on company by company |
| Starter data | Every company comes with a General item group and six payment terms (advance, due on receipt, 7, 15, 30 and 45 days) | Starter data that every company gets |
| United States setup | Seven limits (sales-tax return, invoice, sales order, purchase order, stock write-off, journal and payroll run), six sign-off routes, twelve starter questions for Ask Kinnow and nine report codes. The figures are plain numbers, and we go through them with you in dollars | Applies to every US company |
| Approval limits | Who approves a journal entry, an invoice or a credit limit, and from what amount. You decide the figures | Starter limits and the approvals designer |
| Industry setup | If you build software, the Tech Product Development setup fits; services firms can start from IT Services or Professional Services. Otherwise none is applied | Fifteen industry setups exist; none is called Startup |
| Opening position | Masters and opening balances brought in during the first week; you can run alongside your current books until a month matches | Moving your data over, with a trial balance that must match |
Tell us your stack and we will show which applications you would switch on first.
How your month runs on Kinnow
This is set up with you, not a template: you choose which steps you need.
| Step | Who | What Kinnow does | Where a person signs off |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Invoice and collect | Founder | You raise invoices in Sell, and overdue reminders are drafted based on how many days late the invoice is. The customer sees the invoice in the customer portal and can dispute it. | Invoices above the limit you set wait for approval. |
| 2. Capture bills and expenses | Founder, ops | The AI Invoice Extractor reads a supplier PDF into bill fields and checks that the amounts add up. Someone other than the person claiming approves expense claims. | The approver signs; the claimant cannot. |
| 3. Reconcile the bank | Founder | Bank Reconciler pre-matches statement lines to receipts and shows why it matched each one. A line it cannot match gets a draft journal entry based on your own history, which waits in the approval queue. | An accountant or the founder approves the draft. |
| 4. Run payroll | Founder, HR | Kinnow works out federal income tax withholding and FICA in a monthly payroll run, with a note on every payslip that state income tax is not included. | Someone other than the person who prepared the run approves it. |
| 5. Watch the filings | Founder, accountant | Each state where you are registered to collect sales tax gets a calendar line. The compliance calendar checks deadlines every night and alerts you 15, 7 and 1 day before each. Taxable sales and tax collected are added up by state for a person to file. | A person reviews and files. |
| 6. Close the month | Founder, accountant | Every journal entry must balance before it posts. The close runs twelve checks, and seven must pass; the Close Checklist fills in most of the list ahead of time and drafts notes on what changed. | A person confirms the close. |
| 7. Read the numbers | Founder, investors | Trial balance, profit and loss, balance sheet and cash-flow statement come straight from the books. A weekly digest sums up revenue, collections and alerts. | The founder reviews before anything is shared. |
| 8. Face the audit | Founder, auditor | An audit pack gathers the period status, the lists of customers and suppliers to confirm balances with, the fixed-asset schedule and bank accounts with their reconciled-up-to date. | The accountant reviews and signs off. |
Agents a startup would start with
Bank Reconciler
Matches bank lines to receipts ahead of time and shows why it matched each one. Lines it is unsure about come up as suggestions only and are never committed on their own.
AccountClose Checklist
Runs the twelve period-close checks, helps clear the ones holding up the close and drafts the commentary on variances. A person confirms the close.
Account / KnowCash-flow Forecaster
Builds a rolling cash forecast for the next 30, 60 and 90 days from post-dated cheques, bills due and how customers have paid in the past, with a range around each figure to show how sure it is.
Sell + AccountCollections
Drafts overdue reminders and steps them up according to how many days a payment is actually late. A person approves each reminder before it goes out.
ComplyFiling Prep
Builds the sales-tax return file from your books and lists every document it left out, with the reason, for a person to clear before filing.
AccountAI Invoice Extractor
Reads the text of a supplier invoice and fills in the bill for you, checking that the amounts add up before anything is saved.
AccountDouble-entry Validator
Stops any journal entry that does not balance, or that uses a ledger that is not valid, before it can be posted.
VaultAsk Kinnow
Answers questions from your documents and from the records of the applications you use, and only shows what the person asking is allowed to see.
Each agent is tested with each client before it touches their books, and everything it produces waits for a person.
Ask us to match one month of your bank statement and show the draft journal entries.
Tax and compliance for a US startup
The first release has basic support, not a full US tax calendar. Every date is one you or your accountant confirm.
| Filing | When it falls | What Kinnow prepares |
|---|---|---|
| State sales tax | Per state, monthly, quarterly or annual, as recorded for each registration (where no due day is set, Kinnow assumes the 20th of the following month) | A calendar line per state and period, and totals of taxable sales and tax collected by state. No input credit: tax on purchases is a cost |
| State sales-tax permit | When sales in a state pass its economic nexus threshold | A tracked registration. Kinnow does not decide nexus (whether you have enough sales or presence in a state to need a permit); your tax adviser does |
| State annual report, franchise tax, foreign qualification | Each state's own schedule | Tracked registrations; a due date appears only once you enter the state's schedule. The EIN (your federal employer ID number) is checked for format and never expires |
| Payroll | Monthly run | Federal income tax withholding and FICA worked out in a payroll run that a second person approves; state income tax is not included |
| Payroll deposits, quarterly payroll returns, W-2, 1099, income tax returns | Not tracked | Not built in the first release |
What the founder sees
| Ask Kinnow | Answer comes from |
|---|---|
| Give me the trial balance as of today | Trial balance |
| How did we do this year? | Profit and loss |
| What is our cash forecast for the next 90 days? | Cash-flow forecast |
| Which customers owe us the most and for how long? | Receivables aging |
| Which states am I registered to collect sales tax in? | Registrations in Comply |
| What filings are due in the next thirty days? | Compliance calendar |
Each answer shows its source and cost before it runs. Veil, our privacy layer, hides bank, tax and ID numbers and swaps names for stand-in codes before an AI call. It covers Ask Kinnow and most agents today; the rest are being added.
See your own first close on Kinnow before you commit to anything.
Questions
Is Kinnow overkill for a ten-person startup?
No, if you start small. There is no license fee for the ERP or any application, and nothing per user. Every business gets one fixed price, in writing, set with a Kinnow partner, and you switch on only the applications you need.
Is there a ready-made setup for startups?
No. Fifteen ready-made industry setups exist and none is for startups. A software company can use Tech Product Development, a services startup can start from IT Services or Professional Services, and we set up the rest with you. The United States setup applies to every US company.
Can I start with accounting and add the rest later?
Yes. Applications switch on per company when you need them. Sales, bills, payroll and compliance share one set of books from the first day, so nothing is moved twice.
Will it handle our first audit?
It prepares for one. Journal entries are checked to balance, the close runs checks before a period is locked, and the audit pack gathers the lists for confirming balances, the fixed-asset schedule and where each bank reconciliation stands. Your auditor still decides what they need.
Does Kinnow run US payroll for my team?
It works out federal income tax withholding and FICA (Social Security, Medicare and the Additional Medicare surcharge) in a payroll run that a second person approves. State income tax is not included and each payslip says so. Deposits, quarterly payroll returns, W-2 and 1099 are not built, so those stay with your provider for now.
Who files our sales tax?
Your team or your accountant. Kinnow adds up taxable sales and tax collected by state; someone types the figures into each state return and files. Kinnow does not decide whether you have nexus in a state.
How long does set-up take, and when does the US edition open?
About two weeks to first results for one company: masters and opening balances in the first week, agents switched on and a first close in the second. The United States edition is available from early 2027.
Show me Kinnow for startup.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.