This article describes the initial set up wizard of Tradebox One, which is the first step after installing the program.

When you open Tradebox One for the first time you will be presented with a Tradebox Logon box which will prompt you for a User Email and Password (unlike earlier versions of Tradebox One which used a generic logon called TBUSER). 

To obtain logon credentials for Tradebox One you will need to create an online user account with Tradebox by selecting the Register here link, which will open a registration form at https://portal.tradebox.co.uk/account/register.

The email provided on the registration form will automatically become the admin email for your Tradebox customer account. Upon completion of the form select Register. This will send a confirmation email to the address provided. Click on the confirmation link to complete the process.

If you are assessing the software on a trial the licence will automatically provide you with a 5 channel, 14 day licence. 

If you have already purchased the software your online user account will be amended to reflect your licence and expiry date.

Once registration is complete, return to the login box in the Tradebox One program and log in. You'll be given the choice to set Tradebox up for the first time or to use existing data.

Install Tradebox for the first time will create a blank company in Tradebox One for you to set up from scratch. 
Install Tradebox and connect to an existing database should only be used if you already have Tradebox One set up somewhere on your local network and are currently connecting an additional PC to that data. 
Install Tradebox and upgrade the data from an existing Finance Manager installation is for users migrating from our old software Tradebox Finance Manager and will preserve settings, preferences and the last 60 days of order numbers to minimise the risk of duplicate orders being downloaded.
If you are an existing user who is upgrading, make sure you follow the Upgrading from Finance Manager guide which contains important information relevant to your process.
Restore from an existing backup will restore the database and all settings from an existing Tradebox One backup. This only applies to backups taken in Tradebox One, not Tradebox Finance Manager.

The next screen asks you to fill out your contact details. The UK country that you choose here has an impact on how Tradebox will handle VAT on EU sales if you are a VAT registered business. If you select England, Scotland or Wales, Tradebox will automatically treat sales shipped to the EU as zero rated. If you select Northern Ireland, Tradebox will treat sales shipped to the EU as subject to VAT. These preferences can be altered after set up, and can be further refined with channel, country, and product-specific preferences. 

The next screen establishes important preferences on how the software will operate:

• Accounts:
  • If you're integrating with a Sage 50 package (any variation of Line 50, Sage 50C, Sage 50cloud, Sage Instant Accounts, Sage 50 Essentials), choose Sage 50.
  • If you're integrating with Xero, choose Xero.
  • If you're not integrating an accounts package or you're planning on using Tradebox to export financials to spreadsheet and import those to any other accounts package, choose None.
• Accounts Posting: If you've chosen Sage 50 or Xero, choose how you want Tradebox to post orders. Manual requires a user to click a button in the Orders screen to send any orders to your accounts package. Automatic assigns that task to the Tradebox Data Service, so new orders will just appear in your accounts package as soon as they're able to. With either setting you'll be able to specify that orders are only eligible to post to your accounts package based on their date, their channel of origin, or their status.
  The default is manual, it's generally better to have more control over the system while you're getting used to it, and you can change this later if required.
• Tax Rate: A default tax treatment for new products, new customers etc. This treatment will be overridden wherever there is more specific information available, such as the tax code on a product record, or a non-UK shipping address. Choose whatever describes your average UK sale, for most users this is Standard Rated at 20%.
  If you're not VAT-registered, make sure this is set to Non Vatable.
• Stock Control: Determines whether the program should use a list of product record. This is intrinsic to the way order values are calculated, especially with regards to VAT. It also determines whether you'll have access to any per-product reporting and the opportunity to upload free stock levels back to your marketplaces to keep their inventory in sync. The options are Tradebox, Accounts Software and None, click here for an explanation of the types and guidance to help you choose.
• VAT Number: If you have chosen an option other than Non-vatable in the Tax Rate drop down, you will also be required to enter your VAT number here.

The final screen of the wizard provides a description of how the Tradebox Data Service works and requires an acknowledgement of understanding and accepting the statement to finish the wizard. You'll also need to set a contact preference in line with GDPR regulations. This refers purely to marketing contact, we'll still be in touch with operational contact (such as when your licence is due for renewal) if you opt out of marketing contact.

Click Finish to continue.

Tradebox One is now just about ready to open. First, you'll see a prompt, asking if you want to designate this machine as the Service PC.

If you only run Tradebox on one computer click Yes.

If you're going to run Tradebox on more than one computer, you'll need to designate one machine on your network to run the Tradebox Data Service.

• The data service is a secondary application that runs from your Windows System Tray. It's the engine that drives all the automated processes within Tradebox. On a network, only one instance of that application runs, even if you've got multiple instances of the main Tradebox One UI open on different PC's.
• The data service is part of the normal Tradebox One program files, there's no separate installer.
• The Service PC needs to be a computer that'll be powered on whenever you expect to use Tradebox.
• It should also be the computer that's going to hold the Tradebox database.
• If you don't designate a service PC now, Tradebox One will prompt you to do this next time you open the program from any PC. No orders can download from your marketplace until the data service is running, but you can still set up channels, check settings etc.
• You can choose to designate a different PC as the service PC at any time.

The Tradebox applications

At this point you'll have a few new processes running on your computer. The Tradebox Application Service  will launch and should hide itself automatically. This background process should always be running on any computer where Tradebox is installed, it controls the closing and re-opening of the data service.

If you've set the Tradebox Data Service  to run it'll also launch and should hide itself to your system tray. The data service will close and reopen itself at the end of every download cycle. If you open it to the full view, it shows the processes that are running - this is just a mirror of the Logs screen from within the main Tradebox One UI; it's normally easier to keep the data service minimised and do all your work including checking the logs within the main UI.

And finally, you'll have the main Tradebox One UI (user interface) . We don't create a shortcut by default, though you can always reopen the program from your Start menu in Windows > Applications/Programs > Tradebox >  Tradebox. You may wish to pin the program to your taskbar by right-clicking the icon there. If you'd rather have a desktop shortcut, go to Support within the program and click on the Program Folder; right-click Tradebox.exe  in that folder and choose Create Shortcut. You can then drag and drop the shortcut to wherever you like.

Next steps

Once you've completed the setup wizard, you'll be dropped at the Channels screen, which will be empty. If you need to check or amend any of the settings you chose during the setup wizard, you can get to them by clicking Configuration in the top right of the main Tradebox One UI.

The next stage in the setup process is to create your sales channels, which are the integrations with the online marketplaces. If you're connecting to Sage or Xero, you'll do that within each sales channel's accounts link once you've created the channel.

Click here for the Integration Guides section and choose the relevant setup article for your marketplace.