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Getting Started

Creating Your Account

Sign Up

Visit flowlance.io and click Get started for free. You can sign up in two ways:

  • Email and password — Enter your full name, email address, and a password (minimum 8 characters)
  • Google OAuth — Click "Continue with Google" to sign up instantly with your Google account

Your account comes with a 28-day free trial — no credit card required. You'll have full access to every feature during the trial period.

If someone referred you, their referral code will be captured automatically from the sign-up link. You can also enter a referral code manually.

Email Verification

If you sign up with email and password, you'll receive a verification email. Click the link in the email to verify your account before signing in.

Signing In

Return to flowlance.io/sign-in and enter your email and password, or click "Continue with Google". If you've forgotten your password, click "Forgot password?" to receive a reset link by email.

Onboarding Wizard

After your first sign-in, you'll be guided through a 5-step onboarding wizard. This takes about 2 minutes and sets up the core configuration for your business. You can skip any step and come back to it later from Settings.

Step 1: Welcome

A brief introduction to FlowLance. You'll choose to either start the guided setup or skip straight to the dashboard to explore on your own.

Step 2: Business Basics

Configure the fundamentals of your business:

  • Entity Type — Sole Trader, Limited Company, or Partnership. This determines how tax is calculated in your cashflow forecast.
  • Business Name — Your trading name (appears on invoices and contracts)
  • Default Currency — GBP, USD, or EUR (GBP is the default for UK freelancers)

Sensible tax defaults are applied based on your entity type selection.

Step 3: Import Data (Optional)

If you're migrating from another tool or spreadsheet, you can import existing data via CSV:

  • Clients — Import your client list with names, companies, emails, and phone numbers
  • Projects — Import projects linked to your clients with budgets and dates
  • Invoices — Import invoice history with amounts and statuses

The import wizard uses AI to automatically map your CSV columns to the right fields. You can review and edit the data before confirming the import. Duplicate detection warns you if records already exist.

You can skip this step and run imports later from Settings > Import Data.

Step 4: Your Profile

Set up your professional profile, which powers AI proposal generation and opportunity fit scoring:

  • Tagline — A one-line professional pitch (e.g., "Full-stack developer specialising in React & Node.js")
  • Expertise Areas — Up to 5 domains with proficiency levels (Learning, Proficient, Expert, Thought Leader)
  • Work Style — Remote, Hybrid, or On-site preference

Step 5: Your Rates

Configure your pricing defaults:

  • Default Hourly Rate — Your standard hourly rate (auto-calculates a day rate as 8x hourly)
  • Target Day Rate — Your ideal day rate for project work

These rates are used for opportunity scoring (to match you with appropriately priced work) and are pre-filled when creating new projects.

Completion

After completing the wizard, you're taken to the dashboard. A setup checklist appears showing additional steps you can take to get the most out of FlowLance:

  • Set up financial projections (salary, expenses, pension)
  • Configure invoice payment details (bank account for invoices)
  • Add your first client
  • Subscribe to opportunity feeds
  • Create a day template for time tracking
  • Connect your bank account

Each checklist item links to the relevant page. The checklist automatically hides once all items are done.

Your First Steps

Add a Client

Go to Clients in the sidebar and click Add Client. Enter at least a name — you can add company, email, phone, industry, and notes later.

Create a Project

Go to Projects and click New Project. Select your client, give the project a name, set a budget, and choose start/end dates. The project status starts as "Draft" — change it to "Active" when work begins.

Log Time

Go to Time in the sidebar. Use the Quick Log form to enter a time entry: select a project, enter the duration in hours, add a description, and toggle whether it's billable. You can also start the timer for real-time tracking.

Create an Invoice

Go to Invoices and click New Invoice. Select a client and optionally a project. If you've logged billable time, you'll see an option to import unbilled time entries as line items. Review the invoice, then send it directly via email or share a link.

Check Your Forecast

Go to Cashflow to see your 12-month financial forecast. The chart shows expected income and expenses month by month, with your projected bank balance as a line. AI-generated insights highlight risks and recommendations.

The sidebar (or bottom navigation on mobile) gives you access to all areas:

  • Dashboard — Overview stats and quick actions
  • Clients — Client management
  • Projects — Project tracking
  • Invoices — Invoice creation and tracking
  • Proposals — Proposal generation and pipeline
  • Time — Time tracking and templates
  • Cashflow — Financial forecasting
  • Opportunities — Work discovery and fit scoring
  • Profile — Professional profile builder
  • Settings — Business configuration

The active page is highlighted with a coloured accent bar in the sidebar.