Streamlined onboarding

Create a workspace, choose document storage, organise investments, and connect everyday tools

If your setup page shows Workspace, Tax details or Entities, Subscription, Storage, Investments, Review data, Categories, Tags, Integrations, Team, and Email, this is the guide for you. The streamlined flow lets you upload investment documents, bring in files from SharePoint or OneDrive, or open an empty workspace and add data later.

When you choose New organisation from the home page or Add organisation from the organisation switcher in the workspace sidebar, InvestSync opens this streamlined setup. An unfinished organisation also returns to the stage where you left it when you open it again.

When setup opens, a loading outline appears immediately while InvestSync checks your access and restores your saved progress. Your workspace details replace the outline as soon as they are ready.

Before you start

Have these details ready:

• Your organisation’s name, country, and reporting currency.
• Whether the workspace will use one entity or several nested entities.
• The legal name, structure, and financial year-end for each nested entity that owns investments.
• IRD numbers for New Zealand entities or ABNs for Australian entities, if you want to record them during setup.
• Recent statements, or access to the SharePoint or OneDrive folders that hold your investment documents.

You do not need to have every team member ready, connect accounting tools, or build a detailed reporting structure before you begin. Have a payment method available for Stripe to confirm the workspace subscription. Billing starts only after the 30-day trial unless you cancel first.

If you already started setting up a workspace in the earlier guided flow, the streamlined flow reuses the organisation details and other progress you saved. You can review those details from the Workspace stage before continuing.

The progress indicator shows your current step. On larger screens, each stage expands to make document lists, investment reviews, and category assignments easier to scan. On very wide screens, the setup summary also keeps the workspace name, investment source, entity count, and save status in view. The setup uses the same type style as the dashboard for a consistent experience. Once your workspace has been created, InvestSync saves your changes as you continue. You can use Save and exit at any time, then return to the same stage without losing the decisions you have already made.

The setup header also keeps help close by. Choose Docs to open this guide, or choose Need help to book onboarding time with Finn. Both open in a new tab, so your setup and saved progress stay in place.

If setup cannot continue, a dialog explains what needs attention. Close the dialog, make the requested change, then try the action again. Missing or invalid field details remain shown beside the field that needs correcting.

1. Workspace

Enter the organisation name, country, and reporting currency. You can search the country list by name or code to find yours quickly. Choosing a country also fills in its usual reporting currency when that currency is available. You can change the reporting currency before continuing.

Choose how entities will work in the workspace:

• One workspace entity creates one entity using the workspace name as a starting point. You can change the entity name in the next stage before confirming its tax and reporting information.
• Nested entities lets you add several companies, trusts, individuals, or other entities underneath the workspace.

Use the legal organisation name your finance team recognises. The reporting currency is the currency used for portfolio totals and reports.

2. Entities

If you chose One workspace entity, this stage is shown as Tax details. The entity name starts with the workspace name. Keep it if both names are the same, or change it to the legal owner’s name before confirming its structure, financial year-end, and relevant tax details.

If you chose Nested entities, add the legal entities that sit underneath the workspace. An entity can be a company, estate, individual, partnership, trust, or another structure. The first entity is marked as the primary entity, but its investments and tax work remain separate from every other entity.

For each entity, enter:

• The legal entity name and structure.
• Its financial year-end.
• For New Zealand entities, an IRD number, taxpayer type, PIR rate, and FIF method where relevant.
• For Australian entities, an ABN, state or territory, and taxpayer type where relevant.

Tax numbers and the more specialised tax choices are optional during setup. Enter only information you are comfortable confirming from your records. You can update the entity’s taxpayer profile later in its tax workspace.

For nested entities, choose Add another entity for each additional legal owner. InvestSync can keep several companies, trusts, individuals, and other entities inside one workspace without combining their investment or tax records. You can also add more entities later from Investment settings.

3. Subscription

Start the workspace’s 30-day InvestSync Pro trial before importing documents or connecting external services. The subscription belongs to this workspace and confirms that it is authorised to use paid InvestSync features.

Choose Start 30-day trial to open Stripe’s secure checkout. Stripe shows the ongoing price, applicable taxes, and payment terms before you confirm. Your payment method is saved securely by Stripe, and billing begins after the trial unless you cancel before it ends.

After checkout, InvestSync returns to the Subscription stage and confirms that the trial is active. You can then continue to document storage. If you close checkout, your workspace setup remains saved and you can restart checkout from the same stage.

The 30-day trial is available the first time the workspace starts its subscription. You can manage payment details or cancel later from Settings → Organisation → Billing.

4. Storage

Choose where accepted documents will be kept after InvestSync has processed them. All three choices use secure temporary processing in InvestSync; the difference is who controls the long-term copy.

• InvestSync managed is the recommended, lowest-maintenance choice. InvestSync keeps the long-term copy and documents remain available from their InvestSync records. No Microsoft connection is required.
• InvestSync with SharePoint backup keeps the main copy in InvestSync and sends another copy to a SharePoint library. InvestSync document links do not depend on the backup copy remaining in the library.
• SharePoint managed keeps the long-term copy in your organisation’s SharePoint library. Your Microsoft 365 permissions, retention settings, version history, and audit activity apply. Your organisation is responsible for keeping the file available; moving or deleting it may prevent InvestSync from opening it.

For either SharePoint choice, connect the Microsoft account that can access the intended site. Select a site, document library, and folder, or create an InvestSync folder from the setup screen. Confirm the responsibility notice to save the location before continuing.

The choice applies to documents accepted during investment import and to future documents. You can change the operating model later from Document settings.

5. Investments

Add documents from one or more places:

Upload documents

Choose individual statements, transaction exports, contract notes, or a whole folder of investment documents from your device.

Choose from SharePoint

Connect Microsoft 365, then choose a SharePoint document library or folder.

Choose from OneDrive

Connect Microsoft 365, then choose a folder from the connected Microsoft work account’s OneDrive.

You can combine uploaded documents, SharePoint folders, and OneDrive folders in the same setup. Choose a source from the compact list, then switch sources if you want to add documents from another place. If you do not have documents ready, choose Start without data and add investments from your workspace later. When you choose or drop a folder from your device, InvestSync finds supported documents throughout its subfolders. Subfolders are also included when you choose a Microsoft folder. The source list shows which folders you selected and how many documents have been found.

There is no total document-count limit for an onboarding import. Each individual file can be up to 25 MB, and unsupported or empty files are identified without stopping the other documents from being added.

Excel, CSV, and similar transaction ledgers are read in manageable groups so a long sheet can include every dated transaction in the review. After processing, use View data to compare the number of transactions found with the source sheet before you continue.

Use Retry beside a document that was not added, such as after a temporary connection problem. Use Remove to discard a document you no longer want in the import. To remove several files together, select their checkboxes and choose Remove selected. Removing accepted documents also discards information found only in those documents, and InvestSync reads the remaining documents again. If other files are still being read, the selected documents show as waiting and are removed automatically when that work finishes.

Choose View data beside any file to inspect what InvestSync has read before you continue to Review data. The file expands in place to show its processing result, a summary of the data found, identified investments, transactions and updates. Open Source text when you also want to compare the results with the readable document text. Files that could not be added show the full reason beside the available next action. As documents finish processing, files marked Ready move to the top of the list while the order within each group stays the same. InvestSync checks each file again automatically while it is marked Reading, so its status changes as soon as the extracted information is ready.

For a file identified as a duplicate, choose Process anyway only when it contains separate records that should still be reviewed. For a failed or unreadable file, correct the issue shown and choose Retry extraction. InvestSync reads the documents again so the next review uses a consistent set of information.

If the document reader returns incomplete or incorrectly structured data, InvestSync automatically retries up to three times. If the file still cannot be read, open View data and choose Retry extraction to try again manually.

While documents are being read, choose Email me when ready if you want to leave the setup page. InvestSync sends one email to the address you use to sign in after every document in the current batch has finished and any selected Microsoft folder has been checked. Use Return to documents in the email to reopen the Investments step, where you can check the results, add more files, or continue to Review data.

Wait until at least one document has been added or found before continuing. If you do not want to bring in documents now, choose Start without data to open an empty workspace and add investments or documents later.

Follow the preparation progress

InvestSync shows what it is working on instead of using one general processing message. Depending on the documents, you may see:

1. Reading documents — checking each source and capturing the investment information it contains.
2. Finding investments — identifying investment names and related activity.
3. Grouping results — bringing together references to the same investment across different statements.
4. Checking matches — looking for possible duplicates and preparing items that need your decision.
5. Ready to review — the information is prepared for the Review data stage.

The document count updates while files are being read. The later phases may not have a percentage because the amount of work depends on what was found. You can use Save and exit while this continues and return when the review is ready.

6. Review data

What you see here depends on whether you added documents:

• Your document information is ready: review every investment InvestSync found across your uploads and connected folders, then decide whether to approve it for import or exclude it.
• Your documents are still processing: the current preparation phase and document counts remain visible. You can wait on the page or use Save and exit and return later.
• You started without data: there is no imported information to review, so you can continue to Categories.

Nothing is approved automatically. Each investment needs one clear outcome:

• Choose Approve when the investment belongs in the new workspace and the information is ready to import.
• For a data gap that needs more supporting information, select it and choose Save as draft. The affected investment is created in an Awaiting information state.
• Choose Exclude when the item is a duplicate, does not belong to the organisation, or should not be imported.

The progress panel shows how many investment decisions are complete and points you to the most useful next action. Use the status filters to switch between Needs attention, Ready, and Reviewed investments. Approve all ready completes the straightforward items together, leaving only the exceptions that need a closer look.

For a faster pass, choose Rapid review. Each decision shows whether it will import the investment and its transactions, keep only a draft investment, or import nothing. Choose Show transactions to check the extracted dates, amounts, currencies, and source details. The decision buttons stay above the transaction list so you can act without scrolling past the details. Leave the transaction details open to review the same information for each investment as you move through the queue.

Each investment summary shows what will happen if it is approved. Check whether InvestSync will create a new investment or add activity to an existing one, along with the linked ticker and exchange, transaction currency, number of transactions, activity dates, and source-document count. If a document does not state a transaction currency, the summary identifies that the workspace reporting currency will be used for that activity.

When a ticker identifies a listed investment, InvestSync uses the recognised market-listed name in the review and for the new investment. The name printed in the source document remains available in the extracted evidence. Broker labels that combine an exchange, ticker, and company name are cleaned before the investment is created; for example, an ASX label becomes the recognised company name rather than the full broker-formatted line.

If the same listed investment appears elsewhere with a longer printed share description, InvestSync groups those references into one review item. Its transactions and source documents stay together rather than appearing as a second empty investment.

For fund notices, InvestSync keeps activity with the fund you hold. An underlying company mentioned only to explain a distribution, capital call, or other fund activity does not appear as a separate investment in your review. General partners, fund managers, administrators, accountants, custodians, and advisers named only because of their role are also left out.

When the source document also identifies the exchange, InvestSync uses the ticker and exchange together. This prevents the same ticker on another market from being linked automatically. If the document does not state an exchange and the ticker could refer to more than one existing investment, the review asks you to choose the correct investment instead.

Before saving a new listed investment, InvestSync confirms that market data is available for the selected ticker and exchange. If that check is temporarily unavailable, the investment remains in review so you can retry rather than saving an unverified ticker.

Hover over a listed investment’s ticker to see its company name, exchange, currency, country, security type, and the latest available market price. Select the ticker, or Change ticker in the preview, to search for the correct listed investment. Choosing a replacement updates the investment to the recognised listed name and checks again whether it belongs with an existing investment in the workspace. Review and approve the investment again after making a change.

Expand an investment when you need more evidence. The expanded view shows the source documents linked to it and the transactions InvestSync found, including dates, amounts, currencies, units, prices, and fees where available. Items that may be duplicates, have lower-confidence information, or are missing important financial details are marked for a closer look and are not included in bulk approval.

If a source does not provide a unit count for a transaction, InvestSync assumes 1 unit so the transaction can still be prepared. The transaction is marked for a closer look during Review data. Check the source and edit the units when a different figure is available, or keep 1 and continue with the import.

For dividends, distributions, and interest, related tax lines are kept with the income they belong to. Expand the investment to see withholding tax, supplementary dividends, and tax credits nested under the income transaction, along with the gross income and net amount received. This prevents separate tax lines from appearing as unrelated transactions.

You can correct an investment name or extracted transaction without leaving the review. Select Edit, make the correction, then select Save changes. Check the source document and source excerpt shown beside the item before changing it. The evidence remains visible so your team can distinguish the document information from a correction made during review.

You can also correct the transaction list itself. Select Remove beside a transaction that should not be imported; it moves to Removed from import, where you can restore it if needed. Select Add transaction to enter activity that appears in a source document but was not extracted. Choose the source document, enter the date, transaction type and available financial details, then save it. InvestSync checks the investment again so issues such as a missing opening buy or transfer can clear before you approve it.

Some gaps prevent an investment from being imported safely. For example, InvestSync may find a dividend but no earlier buy, transfer-in, or other opening transaction. The gap explains what was found, what is missing, and why the missing information matters. Expand the investment to check the source document and excerpt. Correct the extracted data only when the source supports the correction. Otherwise, save the investment as a draft.

If InvestSync finds a possible duplicate, choose the verified existing investment or confirm that the item should be created as new before approving it. Approving an investment also approves the extracted transactions shown under it.

Select one or more unresolved gaps, then choose Save as draft. InvestSync creates an investment shell that keeps the name, source review, and missing-data notes together. Drafts appear in Investment Management as Awaiting information, but they do not contribute to portfolio values, performance, or reports.

Saving a draft does not mark the gap as resolved. Add and review the supporting information before activating that investment later. Excluded and draft investments are not used when category suggestions are prepared.

You can search by investment name, ticker, currency, or existing match, reveal more investments in larger portfolios, and change an earlier outcome before continuing. Approved, draft, and excluded investments remain grouped by their outcome so you can confirm exactly what will and will not be added.

7. Categories

After you finish reviewing the data, InvestSync prepares category and subcategory suggestions using only the investments you approved. The screen shows when suggestions are being prepared and lets you review the result before anything is saved.

When an uploaded Excel, CSV, or similar workbook already associates investments with categories or subcategories, InvestSync uses those source labels as the starting point. A Categories found in source documents notice shows how many labels and approved investments were recognised. Review these labels carefully when the workbook uses internal or abbreviated terminology.

Check:

• The proposed category and subcategory names.
• The distinct colour for each main category and the related shades used for its subcategories.
• Which approved investments are assigned to each category.
• Any investment that still needs a category decision.

You can rename, add, or remove categories and subcategories, and move an investment to a different category. You can also deliberately leave an investment uncategorised. Subcategories appear beneath each main category as colour-coded labels, so you can understand the reporting structure at a glance. Choose Manage when you want to inspect descriptions or change those subcategories. For larger portfolios, search the assignments and use the bulk option to place unresolved investments into a suitable category. These changes remain suggestions until you explicitly approve the category structure.

Use Regenerate with AI when you want a fresh category and subcategory structure based on the approved investments and source information. This replaces the current draft. Use Extend with AI to keep the categories and subcategories already shown and add useful gaps. Existing investment assignments are kept when you extend the structure.

If you started without data, you can choose a standard category starting point or set up categories later.

The category confirmation shows what will be created and imported. Nothing from the documents, and no AI category suggestion, is added to the workspace until you finish setup.

8. Tags

Tagging is optional. Categories provide the main reporting structure, while tags add extra details that can be used to filter the dashboard and refine reports. For example, a Liquidity field could use Liquid, Semi-liquid, and Illiquid values. Other useful fields include investment strategy, mandate, region, or risk profile.

Choose one of the suggested fields or create your own. A field can allow one value per investment, or several values when more than one description may apply. If you approved investments during Review data, select one or more of them, choose a tag field and value, then choose Apply to selected. Applied values appear beside each investment and can be removed before you continue.

Leave the step blank and choose Skip to integrations if you do not need tags yet. You can create fields and apply values later from Investment settings.

9. Integrations

The Integrations stage is optional. It gives you one place to connect Xero and Microsoft, then shows the related workflows in a useful order. You can skip this stage and return to Settings → Integrations later.

Xero

Connect the Xero organisation that belongs to this InvestSync workspace. If your Xero account can access several organisations, choose the correct one before continuing.

The Xero workflow then shows these next steps:

1. Set up bank syncing — choose the bank accounts that should appear as cash investments, then map each one to an existing reporting entity and an investment category. If there is no cash or bank category, InvestSync suggests creating a Cash category while still allowing another category to be selected.
2. Prepare tax workflows — review the tax engine prepared from the entity details entered earlier in setup.
3. Automate Xero invoices — optionally create payable or receivable invoices from investment activity and use your chosen Xero tax account.

Detailed Xero workflow pages open separately so your place in onboarding is kept. Complete only the workflows your organisation uses.

Microsoft

Connect Microsoft 365 to support Outlook calendars, follow-up meetings, Microsoft Teams links, and SharePoint document workflows.

The Microsoft workflow includes:

• Calendars and meetings for investment date reminders and follow-up meeting invitations. Calendar access is granted by each connected user.
• Document workflows for SharePoint-managed storage or SharePoint backup. If you configured SharePoint during the Storage stage, its status is already shown here.

Connecting a provider does not activate every workflow automatically. Review the nested workflow you want, confirm its permissions and choices, and leave the others unchanged.

10. Team

The Team stage lets you invite colleagues, advisers, accountants, and family members before the workspace opens. This step is optional, and invitations are only sent when you continue.

For each person:

1. Enter their email address.
2. Choose Admin, Member, or Owner.
3. Open Specific permissions and turn on only the areas they need.

The permission list covers tasks such as approving investments, managing members, changing billing, reviewing email automation, viewing full report history, and bulk-deleting transactions. Owners always have every permission; choose Admin or Member when you need to limit access more closely.

Each person receives an email invitation and only gains access after accepting it. You can return to Organisation Settings later to change their permissions, invite more people, or cancel a pending invitation.

11. Email correspondence

After setting up your team, you can create an InvestSync receiving address for statements, notices, and other investment correspondence. If your organisation already has an active receiving address, you can use that address instead or create another one. For a new address, InvestSync fills in an available name based on your organisation name. You can keep this name or change it before creating the address.

InvestSync prepares an email you can send to custodians, advisers, brokers, and administrators. The message asks them to keep your usual contacts in the To field and add the InvestSync address to CC for future correspondence. You can copy the full message or open it in your usual email app.

Messages and attachments copied to the address appear in your organisation’s Email inbox for review. The address is for records and documents; continue to use your normal communication channels for urgent requests and trade instructions.

This step is optional. You can finish setup without creating an address and add one later from Email settings. Choose Open workspace when you are ready to activate the workspace and open the dashboard. The full workspace navigation is ready as soon as the dashboard opens. If you approved an import, the dashboard opens while InvestSync finishes adding the confirmed investments in the background. A preparation screen shows which stage is underway and the number of investment and activity records added so far. It updates automatically and opens the populated dashboard when the import is complete. You can leave the page while this continues without interrupting the import. If an item needs attention, the preparation screen links you back to the remaining review.

The workspace cannot be activated without an active trial or subscription. Once Stripe confirms the trial, you do not need to revisit billing during the remaining setup stages.

After onboarding

The dashboard’s Getting started list shows useful next actions for your organisation. Depending on how you began, these may include:

• Connect accounting or document tools.
• Refine tag fields and apply more values.
• Choose document storage.
• Invite team members.

If setup created draft investments, every Dashboard view shows how many are awaiting information. Choose Review drafts to open Investment Management. The confirmed portfolio figures remain separate from these drafts.

If only part of a confirmed import succeeds, use Finish your import to return to the items that need attention. Your approved and excluded decisions remain available so you do not need to repeat the review.

Need help?

Contact [e-mail] if you are unsure which starting option suits your organisation.