Setting up your books

Creatures keeps proper books for your operation behind the simple dashboard. Usually a book is created for you the first time you add money, so you can start tracking without any setup. It still helps to understand what a book is and the few choices that shape it.

What a book is, and the one created for you

A book (your business records) holds the money, animals, deposits, bills, and reports that belong together for one operation. The first time you record an entry and you do not already have a book, Creatures creates a default one for you, named after you and set to the Mixed operation type so every category is available. From then on:

• If you have exactly one book, new entries go into it automatically.
• If you have several books, Creatures asks which one to use rather than guessing, so money never lands in the wrong set of records.

If you want to set a book up deliberately instead of letting the default appear, you can create one and record its starting details yourself.

Whose books are these?

When you create a book, you first choose the owner: the person or organization whose money and animals belong together. This controls ownership inside Creatures; it does not decide your legal or tax classification. Use your personal profile for your own operation, or an organization when you want the records branded to that org or kept under a separate legal or tax entity with its own bank account or filings. If you are unsure, start with whichever profile or org actually receives and pays the money, and review the structure with your accountant later.

Operation type

A book's operation type seeds the right account categories and lines up your income and expenses with the correct tax form:

• Farm / ranch livestock operation: for a farm or ranch, mapping categories toward Schedule F.
• Companion-animal breeder or service business: for a companion-animal or service business, mapping toward Schedule C.
• Mixed or not sure yet: when you do both, or are not sure. This makes every category available and is the safe default.

Picking the closest type means the categories you see while recording money already match how your taxes are organized. As the setup screen notes, this is setup guidance, not tax advice; your accountant can refine Schedule F or C treatment later, and "Mixed" never boxes you in because it includes everything.

The filing method

Creatures launch reports use the cash method: money is counted when it is received or paid, which is how most farms and breeders file. If your accountant files on the accrual method (counting income when earned and expenses when incurred), keep those invoice and bill adjustments in their workpapers for now.

Start tracking from, and your opening balances

When you set up a book you pick a cutover date ("Start tracking from"). Records before that date can stay in your old system or last year's tax return; Creatures begins from that date forward.

Then you record opening balances, what the business already had on the cutover date, so your books are accurate from day one. You enter only what applies and skip the rest:

• Checking balance and Savings balance: money in the accounts used for this business.
• Money owed to you: sales or invoices from before the cutover that customers still need to pay.
• Equipment and improvements: trailers, equipment, kennels, barns, or fencing.
• Land: only if you track land as part of the business.
• Bills you owe: unpaid feed, vet, transport, or supply bills from before the cutover.
• Customer deposits: money customers already paid for animals or services you still owe them.
• Loans you owe: business loans, equipment loans, or lines of credit still outstanding.
• Past profit or loss: optional; an accumulated profit or loss figure from prior years if your accountant gives you one. Negative numbers are allowed.
• Starting balance paperwork: optional; attach bank statements, prior tax summaries, or the spreadsheet behind these numbers.

Creatures also captures any Creatures wallet and credit balances you hold at the cutover, so your platform money is reflected too; those balances grow as your sales are released into your wallet (see How seller payout works). You set opening balances once per book; after that, your day-to-day income and expenses keep the picture current, and the book moves from setup to active. Because every report builds forward from these numbers, getting them right at the start saves correcting entries later. Leaving everything at zero is fine for a brand-new operation; the book simply activates with an empty starting position.

More than one book

If you run genuinely separate operations, you can keep more than one book and switch between them, so each operation's numbers and taxes stay separate. Each book has its own operation type, categories, opening balances, and reports, and you choose which book an entry belongs to. This is for distinct operations with their own tax picture, not for splitting one business in two.

Related information

• The accountant view and reports
• Understanding your finance dashboard

Updated on: 23/06/2026