First of all, welcome! 👋

We're grateful that you've decided to explore Bonsai! You might be coming to Bonsai for any number of features or tools- maybe you need to get a contract out to your client today, or perhaps you need a way to accept digital payments. Whatever you're looking to do, we're here to help put your business on auto-pilot.

If you haven't already, your first step should be making an account with Bonsai. If you haven't done so already, you can click here to create your account!

Once your account is up and running, the next step is to decide which type of subscription you need for your work! We do have a free "limited" plan you can use to access certain features, but to use the wide array of tools Bonsai has to offer, we recommend started a free trial for our paid plans. You can start a trial or purchase a subscription from your Subscriptions page!

Now that your account is up and running, it's time to bring in your data. If you're moving over to Bonsai from another service, you can upload your data as a CSV file! This means you can bring over your clients, invoices, expenses, and time tracking entries without needing to start over. If you don't have any data, or this is your first time using a platform like Bonsai for your business, no action is necessary!

It's also a great idea to fill out some information about your business from your account settings page, and also to add your branding if you want to use our white-label features.

One of the best parts about Bonsai is that there is no "right" or "wrong" way to use it. Some users take advantage of all of our tools, such as proposals, invoices, contracts, forms, accounting, and more, while some just use the few that they need for their work. Even if you just use one tool today, like contracts, the rest of Bonsai's suite is ready to support you as your business grows.

You can create and send your clients Invoices through Bonsai, and get paid through integrated payment options such as Bonsai Payments, Stripe, and PayPal.

You can create and send your clients Proposals through Bonsai, which are a great way to pitch new projects to prospective clients or offer options and packages for your existing clients.

You can create and send your clients Contracts through Bonsai to lock in the terms of your work. You can use our templates, or create your own!

You can track your expenses and income to keep your freelance books in good shape. Visit the "accounting" tab to get started.

Users in the US can leverage our Bonsai Tax addon to get tax estimates, keep on top of deadlines, and more.