#Setting up a company

Everything in this chapter lives under Settings (the gear at the bottom of the left rail). Most of it is set once, by an administrator, in the first hour with Tamra — and then rarely touched. Work through the sections in the order below; each one makes the next one easier.

#Finding your way around Settings

Settings opens on its home page, All Settings (the keyboard shortcut ⌘, or Ctrl+, opens it too). At the top, Find a setting: type a word such as VAT, logo or lock date and Tamra lists the pages, and the fields inside pages, that match — use ↑ and ↓ to move, Enter to open, Esc to clear. Press / on any Settings page to jump straight to it. Under the search, five quick links to what people look for most, and Worth a look: up to three plain sentences about what still needs setting up (no tax number, no books lock date, accounts not yet mapped, no logo), each with a link to the page. On every Settings page, the (i) beside a section's title says what the section is for (hover over it, or tap it); warnings, such as what the lock date stops or what deleting someone means, stay written out.

Every page sits in one of six groups, in the menu on the left and on the home page:

Each group in the menu folds away with the arrow beside its name, and Tamra remembers which you folded. Platform (the platform owner only) and Sign Out are at the end. Every page has the same layout: what a section is for on the left, its fields on the right. When you change something, a bar appears at the bottom of the page saying how many changes aren't saved yet and where: Save changes keeps them, Discard puts the page back as it was.

Only Admins and Super Admins can change company settings. Everyone else can open Settings and read; the fields are locked and the page says so.

#Company Profile

The identity of the company as it appears on every document you send.

Archiving a company (at the bottom of the page) hides it from the company switcher; nothing is deleted and it can be restored. The base currency, financial year and books lock date used to be on this page; since 1.98 they are in Accounting Basics.

#Accounting Basics

The settings your books are kept by, in Settings → Accounting → Accounting Basics.

#Branding and Templates

Branding sets the logo, the letterhead, the colour and the wording used on printed documents, emails and the customer-facing payment page, in plain sections on one page: Company logo, Letterhead, Stamps and signatures, Brand colour, Documents (a header, a footer and status watermarks) and Email (the from name and the signature). The logo and the letterhead save the moment you add or remove them (a new logo replaces the old file only once it is stored, so leaving the page can't lose it); everything else saves with the Save bar at the foot of the page, which says what isn't saved yet — Brand colour, Document footer, Letterhead writing area — and Discard puts it back. Only people with Company Profile edit can change Branding; everyone else can read it. Branding opens on a phone too. Templates lets you choose and preview the layout of each printed document — invoice, quotation, purchase order, statement — and adjust what appears (bank details, terms, a signature line, a "Less advance" block when an advance was applied). A change in Templates applies to every document printed or emailed from then on, not to PDFs already sent.

Templates is laid out in five tabs beside a live preview — exactly what prints:

• Styles — your saved templates for the document type, once you have saved some (open one, Set default, delete), then the built-in looks, each drawn as it prints: Stylish, for shops — Atelier, Noir, Blush, Luxe, Market, Organic, Gallery, Street and Souk — and Business, the ten classic layouts. A business look keeps your accent colour; a stylish look brings its own fonts, colours and paper.
• Fonts — 101 fonts (modern, elegant serif, script, display, Arabic, typewriter, and the classic Georgia, Arial and Times New Roman) for three parts of the page: the Brand name (your company name at the top), the Headings and the Body text. Each font is shown in its own face; search by name, or pick a ready-made pair. Script fonts are for the brand name, the headings and a thank-you line — never the small print — and are never set in capitals. The fonts travel with the document, so it prints the same on any computer.
• Colours — a palette (accent, text, grey text and paper together), or each colour on its own; Use company branding takes the accent from Branding again. The paper can be white or a tint — ivory, cream, sand, blush, mint, mist, or any colour.
• Sections — show, hide and reorder the parts of the document, or drag them on the preview; a click on the preview opens that part's options. Headers come as Split, Banner, Centered, Stacked, Boutique (your name centred between fine rules), Monogram (your logo, or your initials in a ring) and Minimal (a large title). Cards, the items table, the totals and the notes each have their styles. Product photos puts each product's own picture (from Products) beside its line; a Thank-you note is written in your brand font; Shop handles prints your Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, website and email at the foot, each with a small icon.
• Page — the Paper (Plain paper or On the letterhead), size, margins, rounded or square corners, a Frame round the page and your Logo behind every page, faint (your initials when there is no logo). The tint, the frame and the logo behind print on every page, edge to edge; on the letterhead they stay off, and a document sent by email goes without them.

At the top sit the document types, then the template's name with Undo and Redo (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z) and Start again from Classic, and under it Save as new (up to 12 per document type) and Use on…, which copies the design to the other document types you tick and makes it their default — the templates they have stay in their lists. The Save bar at the foot of the settings column does the saving, and saving makes the template the default for that document type: it reads Save template, with Not saved yet in front of it, until the template has been saved once, and Save changes after that, naming what isn't saved (Design, Name); Discard puts the design back to what was last saved. Above the preview: a Shop order or Business order sample, Fit or 100%, and Print sample to check the design on paper. Templates made before keep printing as they did; the Accent panel total now also lists advances and the balance due, and on bills and purchase orders Ship To is your company.

Your letterhead lives in Branding too: upload your designed letterhead once (an image, or a PDF — its first page is used) and mark the writing area it leaves free, in millimetres from each edge; the dashed box on the page shows where a letter's text will go. Letters written in Scribe go on it in the PDF module (⋯ → Open in PDF, then the Letterhead panel — ⋯ More → Letterhead…) — see Working together — and so can any PDF opened there, a scan or a file from elsewhere: Fit it in shrinks its pages to sit between the letterhead's header and footer. The letterhead stays a layer on the document until it is saved: change the pages, the fit, or the content's size and position at any time, take it off, or undo a change. The stamp and signatures used to sign them are kept, locked, under Stamps & signatures (below). Invoices, quotations, orders, bills and purchase orders can print on the letterhead too, once they have a template: Templates → Page → Paper sets each one to Plain paper (the default) or On the letterhead, and the preview shows it as it prints — the artwork around the page, the document in the writing area. A document emailed as a message goes without the letterhead (an email is not paper), with your logo and details back at the top.

#Email — sending from your own domain

Emails Tamra sends — invoices, quotations, statements, invitations, signature requests — come from Tamra's own address, with your company's name on them and replies going to your company email. To send from your own domain instead (billing@yourcompany.com), someone with Company Profile edit in this company (an Admin or Super Admin) opens Settings → Email:

1. Enter your domain — rahbot.com, without https:// or www — and the name before the @ (noreply, billing…).
2. Tamra shows a few DNS records. Copy each into your domain's DNS settings, wherever the domain is managed (Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap…).
3. Press Verify now. DNS changes take anywhere from five minutes to a day; press it again later if it isn't verified yet. The line under the page title says where you are: Not configured, Pending verification, Verification failed or Verified, and each DNS record has its own Verified, Pending or Failed.

Once verified, what Tamra sends for this company comes from your domain. Until then nothing changes — mail keeps going from Tamra's address. Remove takes the domain away again.

#Tax

Tax rates are the building blocks of every line on every document. In Settings → Tax the rates are listed one to a line (Show archived brings back the old ones); Add rate and Edit open the rate on its own page, with a Save bar at the bottom. A rate has a name, a percentage and a code, Applies to (sales, purchases or both) and a VAT treatment, which decides the box of the VAT return each line goes in. A company in the UAE that has applied the country pack already has these:

A rate of your own can keep a share of its VAT as not recoverable, and Book it to an account of your choice (empty: the line's own account). Once a rate is on posted bills or approved claims, its share, that account and its reverse charge stay as they are, since debit notes and the VAT return read the rate as it is now: add a new rate and archive the old one. Your default sales rate can't become a purchases-only rate. A rate whose treatment is Not set is read by its percentage, and the VAT return names it until you set one.

Set the default sales tax and default purchase tax; new lines inherit them, each line's tax list shows the rates for its side, and the Tax quick-set in the invoice and bill editors can switch every line in one go. A quarterly filer sets VAT quarter starts in to match the tax period the FTA gave it, so the VAT return's quarter buttons line up. The return follows the document date (accrual); a cash-basis setting is kept but not applied to it. Angola's IVA and other countries' rates arrive with their packs.

#Country Packs

A country pack is everything Tamra knows about doing business in one country, applied in one click: a chart of accounts in the local shape, the tax treatments, the advance and deposit accounts, payroll rules where they exist, and the e-invoicing regime. Apply the pack for your country once, before the first transaction. Applying it again is safe — it only adds what's missing, never overwrites your changes.

The E-Invoicing page (Settings → E-Invoicing) shows where each regime stands: the UAE regime is implemented; Angola's is planned pending the tax authority's technical specification; Saudi Arabia's is on the roadmap. For the UAE it has your deadline (pick your annual turnover), a readiness list that names every rate, unit or customer an Accredited Service Provider would reject (a customer's TRN can be filled in on the line), your seller details and the transmission settings. The seller details and the transmission settings share one Save bar; the turnover, a rate's VAT category, a unit's UNECE code and a customer's TRN save as soon as you change them.

#Users & Roles

Every person who uses Tamra has a user record with a Full Name, Email, Role, optional Designation and Department, and a Status (active or inactive). Inviting someone sends them an email to set a password; deactivating someone keeps every document they touched but stops them signing in.

#The built-in roles

#Fine-grained permissions

Roles are a starting point. The permission editor lets you shape what each role can see and do, area by area — Sales (quotations, orders, invoices, customers, reports), Purchase (RFQs, orders, bills, vendors), Accounting (journal, chart of accounts, reconciliation, fixed assets, budgets, financial reports, period close, tax returns), Inventory, Manufacturing, MRO, HR, POS, CRM, Projects, Expenses, Helpdesk, Scribe, Documents & Sign and Settings. Each permission has view, create, edit, post and approve levels where they apply. A user who tries something their role doesn't allow sees a plain message saying so — nothing silently fails. The database checks the same permission as the screen, so a role can't do another way what the screen doesn't let it. That includes the documents themselves: invoices, quotations, sales and purchase orders, RFQs, recurring templates, bills, products and till sales are added, changed or deleted only by a role with the matching right (a document's create or edit, or delete; a till sale POS Terminal — use), so a Viewer changes none of them, whichever way it is tried. A posted invoice, bill or till sale, and a new purchase order, records who was signed in. A switch nothing checks yet is marked not used yet in the editor. Saving a role writes one line to the Audit Trail: what was added and what was taken away.

#Stamps and signatures

The company stamp and the signatures of the people who sign for the company are company assets, so they are kept locked in Settings → Branding → Stamps & signatures — not readable by every member, and managed only by a super admin:

• Add the stamp (an image, PNG with a transparent background prints best) and each signature (drawn or uploaded), with whose it is and the title under it. A signature's owner may use it from the start. A big picture — a phone photo of the stamp, say — is made smaller to print size as it is added (a PNG keeps its transparent background), so it stays quick to place and light in every document.
• Allow the people who may use each one — until an end date if you like — and stop anyone at any time. Nobody else even sees the image.
• Take one out of use when it should not be placed any more; it is never deleted once used.
• The log: every placement — who, which stamp or signature, on which document, which page, when. Nobody can change it.

They are placed in the PDF viewer only: open a document, Mark up, then Stamps or Signatures — only those you are allowed appear. Each placement is checked and recorded before the mark goes on. A signature carries the name and the date under it (switchable per signature); a stamp goes on as it is. Moving into the vault the stamp and signatures kept on the company before is one click, and nobody may use them until a super admin allows someone.

#Numbering

Every document type has its own numbering sequence (the list shows each one's prefix and next number; Edit opens it, with the next number shown as you type): a Prefix, the Next Number, and Padding (how many digits). Quotations QT-, sales orders SO-, invoices INV-, credit notes CN-, advance invoices ADV-, RFQs RFQ-, purchase orders PO-, bills BILL-, debit notes DN-, payments PAY- (and PAY-OUT- for money out), journal entries JE-, expenses EXP-, stock adjustments ADJ-, deliveries and receipts PICK-, manufacturing orders MO-.

A document takes its number when it is posted or confirmed, not when it is saved as a draft — so numbers never have gaps from abandoned drafts. Change a prefix or the next number before the first posting of that type; once numbers exist, moving the counter backwards is refused.

#Account Mapping

The accounts Tamra posts to automatically, so that users never have to choose one: Accounts Receivable and Payable, default revenue and expense, sales and purchase discounts, customer and supplier advances, freight income, cost of goods sold, tax output and input, inventory asset and adjustments, default cash and bank, the parent under which new bank accounts are created, and opening-balance equity. The country pack fills these in; change them only with your accountant, because every posting from then on follows the change.

The receivable, payable, customer-advance, supplier-advance and stock accounts hold what is still open. Changing one of them while it holds something offers Move the balance: Tamra shows what moves (each customer's or vendor's balance in its own currency, or the value of the stock whose account changes), you pick the date (on or after the last entry on the old account, no later than today, after the lock date) and add a note, and one journal entry brings it across before the setting changes. The change is recorded with what moved. Afterwards, anything booked on the old account before the move is corrected with a credit or debit note, not by unposting it. A balance in another currency that can't be carried as it stands (an open credit note and an open invoice at different rates) is named; set the note against the invoice first.

#Exchange Rates

Add or update a rate sits above the saved rates, which show each rate with its inverse. If you invoice or buy in currencies other than your base, keep the rate table current: a rate per currency per date. When a document is created in a foreign currency it takes the rate of its date; the user can override it on the document. Reports show foreign amounts converted at each document's own rate — never at today's.

#Data Sharing

Companies that belong to the same group can share customers, vendors and products with each other, so a partner is created once and appears everywhere in the group. A shared record shows a small badge saying who shares it; the owning company edits, the others use.

#Integrations

Where you switch on online payments (the enrolment guide is on the page itself, with where your Stripe account stands — see Getting paid), connect WhatsApp, generate API keys for external systems, and register webhooks that notify other systems when something happens in Tamra — a bill posted, a purchase order submitted, payroll computed. They sit on one page in that order, and Recent deliveries at the foot lists every attempt and how it ended, with Redeliver for anything that failed. Keys and webhooks are made, paused and deleted by someone whose role in this company has Integrations edit (the built-in Super Admin does; the built-in Admin doesn't, unless it is switched on in Users & Roles); online payments and WhatsApp are set up with Company Profile edit. Everyone in the company sees the list. Each webhook call is signed with the webhook's own secret (an HMAC-SHA256 of the body, in the X-SmartBook-Signature header): the key button on the webhook's line shows it with a Copy button, for people with Integrations edit only; nobody else can read it. A revoke, pause, delete or redeliver that your role isn't allowed to make says so; it no longer looks as if it worked. Integrations opens on a phone too.

The API. A key with the Read scope reads invoices, bills, customers and vendors, products, stock, the trial balance and your tax rates through Tamra's API at /api/v1; one with Write adds customers, vendors and products and makes draft invoices. An invoice made through the API is a draft with no number: posting it in Tamra gives it the next number, so a draft deleted leaves no gap, and posting stays with the people in Tamra. Each line carries VAT — the rate the line names (tax_id, one of your sales rates; /api/v1/tax-rates lists them), else the product's own sales rate, else your default sales rate — the totals add up from the lines to the fils, and the invoice falls due on the date sent, else by the customer's payment terms (30 days when they have none). A bill is read with its vendor as partner_id. A product is counted in Units unless a uom_id is sent, a customer or vendor is in your company's currency unless a currency_id is sent, and a revenue account from another company is refused.

#Preferences (My Settings)

Personal choices that follow you to any device, not the company's: changing them affects nobody else.

• Appearance and Accent colour — the theme, and the colour that tints buttons, links and highlights. They switch at once across the whole app and are saved to your profile as you pick them. Pick the colour you are using again, or press Reset beside the colours, to go back to the theme's own.
• Language for account names — the language of account names in lists, journals and reports (official names, English, Português, Français, Español or Arabic). It applies as soon as you pick it; printed documents always keep the official names.
• Notifications — which events put a notification in your bell: a mention, a message, an invoice approved, a payment received, a purchase order submitted, a bill posted, an expense or leave request submitted or decided, payroll computed, a deal moved or closed, a ticket assigned or answered, a manufacturing order completed, a product to reorder. The groups fold away, and each shows how many of its events are on. A new event is on until you switch it off. The switches are saved with the Save bar at the foot of the page, which names what isn't saved: Save changes keeps them, Discard puts them back.
• About Tamra — the version you are using; What's new opens what the last two releases changed.

On a phone, Preferences is the phone's own Settings list (theme, colour, company, reminders and the version); see Settings on the phone.

#Move to Tamra

Settings → Move to Tamra walks you through bringing your books across from another system, one step at a time; nothing is saved until you confirm. Under Where you're coming from, pick the system you are leaving (QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho Books, TallyPrime, Odoo, Sage, or Excel or another system) and the first day Tamra keeps the books; the opening balances are taken as at the day before. Your checklist then lists the steps for that system, each showing what to export from the old system: your company, VAT and currency; the chart of accounts; customers and vendors; products; what customers owe and what you owe vendors; bank and cash balances; the rest of the trial balance; stock on hand; and the final check. Mark as done keeps your place for next time. The last step locks the books up to the day before the cut-over, so the opening position can't be changed by accident; it needs the period close right, and the lock can be moved later in Accounting Basics. Move to Tamra opens on a phone too.

#Setting up a second company

If you run more than one business, each is a separate company in Tamra with its own books, users, numbering and settings — created by a Super Admin from Platform. Users can belong to several companies and switch between them from the company picker; documents never cross from one company to another unless you use the intercompany features on purpose.

#Common questions

Can I change the base currency later? Not once there are entries in the books. Create the company with the right base currency; if you must change it, that's a new company.

Who can post an invoice? Anyone whose role has post on invoices — Managers and above by default. Operators create drafts; a Manager posts.

I changed the invoice prefix and existing invoices still show the old one. Correct — numbers already issued never change. Only new invoices take the new prefix.

Why can't I edit last month's entries? The Books Lock Date is set to the end of last month. An Admin can move it, but ask why it was set first.

A new user can't see the Purchase module. Their role has no Purchase permissions. Adjust the role in the permission editor, or move them to a role that has them.

#If something goes wrong

• Documents print with the wrong address or TRN → Company Profile; then reprint. PDFs already sent keep the old details.
• VAT shows 0 % on everything → the default sales tax isn't set, or the country pack hasn't been applied. Tax section first, then Country Packs.
• Postings go to the wrong revenue or expense account → Account Mapping; check the product's own accounts too, which override the company defaults.
• A rate looks wrong on a foreign-currency invoice → the rate table had no entry for that date and Tamra used the nearest earlier one. Add the rate; the invoice keeps whatever rate it was posted with, so correct the invoice if it's still a draft.

#People, roles and invitations

Settings → Users & Roles has three tabs. People lists everyone in the company — name, role, department, when they were last seen (Active now, Today, 09:52, 41 days ago; it comes from Tamra being open, and turns amber after 30 days) and whether the account is active. Search, sort, filter by role or status (Not seen for 30 days included), switch to cards, save a view, and open anyone. Above the list, Needs a look says in plain sentences what deserves attention: an invitation that expired, someone not seen for over 30 days who still holds a role, a company with only one Super Admin. Roles starts with Who can do this?: type a right in plain words (post journal entries, delete invoices, approve leave) and Tamra shows the roles that have it, the people who hold it and the roles without it. Below, each role on one line: who holds it, how many of the 178 rights it has, when it last changed, Duplicate and Open. Tick two or three roles and Compare shows them side by side, area by area, with only the rights where they differ (or all of them) and a sentence per pair (Manager has 27 rights that Operator doesn't). Invitations keeps every invitation with what happened to it — Waiting, Expired, Accepted, Revoked — who sent it and when: Copy link (the same sign-up link the email carries, to send another way), Resend, Renew (the old link stops working and a fresh 14-day invitation goes out with the same role), Revoke, and Open person for someone who joined. Access review is the fourth tab (see below).

Inviting people. Invite people takes one address or a whole list pasted from a spreadsheet (one per line, or separated by commas or spaces). Choose one role for everyone, or a different one for a person; add names if you like, and a department and designation for everyone. Anyone already in the company, or already waiting, is left out with the reason. The right-hand side shows what the chosen role can do in each area.

Several people at once. Tick people in the list and choose Change role…, Deactivate… or Reactivate…. The next page lists each person before and after (for a role: Viewer → Operator, +52 rights), says who is left as they are and why (Already Operator, You can't deactivate yourself), and changes them one by one when you confirm. The result says who changed and who couldn't, with the reason. Every rule below applies to each person, exactly as it does one at a time.

Building a role. Open a role, or Duplicate one to start a new role from it. Search the rights, show Only what's on, turn a whole area on or off, or Copy from another role. Changed switches are outlined, and the Save bar says what turns on and off and how many people it affects (+2 −0 · affects 1 person) before you save; Before you save lists them in words. Deleting a custom role names the people who move to Viewer first.

Checking who can do what. The Access review tab lists everyone with their role, what is worth knowing (Can manage users and every setting, Not seen for 41 days, still holds a seat, Custom role, no one else has it) and when they were last seen. Mark each person Looks right, or Change role or Deactivate them from there. Finish review writes one line to the Activity Log with how many people were checked and changed; the next review is due 90 days later.

One page per person. Open a person to see their role, status and when they were last seen, when they joined and who invited them. Profile (phone, department, designation), Role and Status share one Save bar at the bottom: change what you need, then Save changes or Discard. Choosing another role shows, before you save, what it gives and takes away (Moving Priya from Viewer to Operator gives 52 more rights and takes none away) and what that role can do in each area. Companies — tick each company they can work in and choose their role there; Make default marks the company they land in when they sign in. These save as you click, and removing a company asks first. A person always keeps at least one company, and a company always keeps at least one super admin. Recent activity shows the last things they did, with a link to all of it in the Activity Log (admins see this, as they see the log).

Inviting people and changing their roles are for the company's Admins and Super Admins, by the role they hold in this company, and for anyone whose role includes Users & Roles; changing what a role can do needs Users & Roles. A role that includes Users & Roles, Integrations or every right is given only by someone who holds that right. The invite form asks you to choose the role; an invitation names one of the original roles, and Payroll or a role you made is given once the person has joined, from their page under People. Only a Super Admin gives the Super Admin role, invites a Super Admin, or changes a Super Admin's role or access, and nobody changes their own role. Someone with Users & Roles adds to a role only rights they hold themselves; a Super Admin adds any. Invitations are made only here, and a Super Admin is Super Admin of their own company only. Nobody deactivates their own account or the last active Super Admin of a company, and only a Super Admin deactivates a Super Admin. A person's role, sign-in email and whether they are active change only here, and every change is in the Audit Trail.

Deleting an account. From a person's row menu or the bottom of their page, Delete account… asks you to type their email. The person loses access to every company you administer and can no longer sign in; the documents, entries and messages they created stay exactly as they were, with their name on them. You cannot delete your own account, anyone who belongs to a company you don't administer, or the last super admin of a company — promote someone else first. Only a Super Admin deletes a Super Admin's account. To take someone off one company but keep their account, use Deactivate or remove that company from their access instead.

#The Activity Log

Settings → People & Access → Activity Log is the company's record of what changed, newest first, in plain sentences: Aisha Rahman posted invoice INV-0248, Dave Haile changed the books lock date from 30 Jun 2026 to 30 Sep 2026, Dave Haile changed Omar Haddad's role from Viewer to Operator. Click a line with an arrow to see before and after, the rights a role gained or lost, the reason when one was recorded, and a link to the page it concerns.

• Tabs — All activity, Created, Changed, Posted, Deleted and Security (role and access changes, the lock date, tax and exchange rates, bank details, people's pay and IDs), each with how many lines it holds.
• Filters — search a document number or name, choose a person (or System), an area (Sales, Purchases, Banking, Contacts, Inventory, Accounting, Company, HR, People & Access) and the dates (today, 7, 30 or 90 days, all time). They search the whole log, not only the lines on screen; Load older shows more.
• Export CSV — downloads exactly what you filtered (up to 5,000 lines at a time, in the same words), and the download itself is written to the log.
• What never shows — salaries, IBANs and account numbers, Emirates ID, passport and visa numbers are shown as changed, never their values, on screen and in the export.
• Who can see it — the company's Admins and Super Admins, as before. A role edit that touched many rights reads as one line.