The Setup Assistant
When you create an Iraca account, the setup assistant opens before anything else. Its job is to set Iraca up around your business so you don't start in an empty app full of parts you'll never use. Iris, Iraca's guide, walks you through it.
It takes a few minutes. You can skip any step, or the whole thing, and come back to it later. To have everything to hand before you begin, see Before you start: what to have ready.
Only the account owner and admins run the setup assistant. A teammate you invite goes straight to the app.
The steps
1. Hello
Choose the language for Iraca. It starts in your browser's language; you can change it here or later from the profile menu.
2. Your business
Your business name, website, country, currency and time zone. The website is optional. If you add one, Iris starts reading it in the background straight away while you carry on (see Reading your website). Tick This is my business's website if it's yours: only then can its logo and product photos be copied into Iraca when you accept them.
Your currency and time zone matter more than they look: prices, reports and "today" all follow them. You can change them later in Organization Profile.
3. A few questions
- What do you sell? A few words, plus the kind of business that fits best.
- Who do you sell to? Stores and distributors, consumers, or both.
- Where do you sell? Your own website, Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, TikTok Shop, markets or a shop, local delivery, or wholesale only. Pick all that apply.
- Do you make what you sell? Yes, you resell, or both. Food makers are also asked whether they make food at home under cottage food rules, or acidified foods such as sauces and pickles.
- How many people work with you?
- Books: tick it if you'd like to keep your accounting in Iraca.
- Do you use an AI assistant? Claude, ChatGPT, another one, or none. It only changes how Iris describes Talk to Iraca in the next step.
- What's hardest right now? Optional.
4. Your setup
Iris proposes a setup from your answers. Every item shows why it's proposed ("You make what you sell", "You sell on Amazon"), and you switch each one on or off.
- Parts of Iraca: inventory and orders, recipes and production, shipping, sales channels, lots and traceability, and wholesale (B2B). Parts your answers don't call for are proposed off; switch any of them on if you want them. You can always change these later in Settings → Modules and B2B settings.
- Included in your plan: extras your plan already includes, such as invoicing, point of sale or local delivery. Nothing to buy.
- Extras you can add: paid add-ons, such as HACCP plans or cottage food compliance, with their price and free trial. These are always off unless you switch them on, and switching one on starts its free trial; nothing is charged until the trial ends and you subscribe. Only the account owner can start a trial.
- After setup: suggestions such as connecting your Amazon account or bringing in your products from a spreadsheet. The next step is where you do them.
- Talk to Iraca: every business, on every plan, sees a card about Talk to Iraca, which lets you ask your own AI assistant (Claude or ChatGPT) about your sales, stock and customers. It shows a few example questions and the price. It has no switch: applying your setup never starts its trial. The trial comes after the review step, once your products are in, because a question asked of an empty business gets an empty answer.
If Iris read your website or your marketing material, some reasons also show what she found there, in quotes ("We cater weddings and events") or as "Your website runs on Shopify". Something your website shows can suggest an item your answers didn't, but it's still only a suggestion: you decide every switch, and paid extras stay off. While your website is still being read, a note says so, and anything it adds appears on its own.
Press Apply this setup. Applying again later sets the same switches; it never starts a second trial or doubles anything.
Your plan (only if needed)
Everyone starts on the Free plan. If you switched on something that comes with a different plan (books and financial reports, or the cash flow forecast, come with Standard), Iris says so and offers a free trial of that plan. You don't need a card to start the trial, and you can stay on Free instead. See Billing & Subscription.
5. Bring in what you have
Bring in what your business already has, so you don't type it again. Everything here is optional, and nothing is saved until you review it in the next step.
Your website
If you gave a website in step 2, its card at the top shows what Iris found: how many pages she read, the products and business details waiting for review, and the platform your site runs on. If it runs on WooCommerce or Shopify, or links to your Etsy or Amazon shop, the card offers to Connect it, which is the better way in: a connection brings in products, stock and orders, and keeps them in step. If reading failed (the site was down, or the address was wrong), press Read again, or Change to fix the address.
Connecting a store
Press Connect next to WooCommerce, Shopify, Amazon, Walmart, Etsy or TikTok Shop (the ones you said you sell on come first). It's the same connection you'd make from Integrations, with the same fields. Once connected:
- If the store has products Iraca doesn't know yet, the row says so and Match products opens the usual product matching. Orders wait until that's done, exactly as they do from Integrations. See Mapping products.
- Otherwise the row shows the last sync and how many records it brought in. Sync now runs one straight away.
Amazon listings
Once Amazon is connected, an Amazon listings card offers Import my Amazon listings. Iris reads your listings (FBA and FBM alike) and makes one product for each, with its name, SKU and price, for you to review in step 6 like everything else. She only reads: nothing changes on Amazon, and no stock is brought in, because the quantity Amazon shows is what Amazon was told, not what's on your shelf.
Is it your brand? Photos and descriptions on an Amazon listing belong to whoever owns the brand, and a reseller's storefront can't use them. So for each brand Iris finds she asks once, "Is Brand your brand?". For a brand you say is yours, the products also get the description and the main photo (the photo is copied only when you bring the product in). For any other brand you get the name, SKU and price, and the product says why it has no photo. You can change an answer until you bring the products in.
Check the name. Amazon titles are often long and stuffed with keywords. A title over 80 characters is marked please check, so you can shorten it before it becomes your product's name.
Links to Amazon. When you bring a product in, it's also linked to its Amazon listing, so Amazon orders for that SKU land on your product from then on. Stock sync is left off on the new link, so nothing is ever sent to Amazon until you switch it on from the mappings screen. A listing that is already linked to a different product is left alone and tells you so. If a product already exists with the same SKU (or the same name), the draft updates or skips that one instead of making a copy.
One setup reads up to 500 listings. For more, add the rest later from Amazon's mappings.
Taking card payments (Stripe)
If you're in the United States and your answers say you take payments from customers directly (selling at markets or a shop, catering or meal prep, or delivering to consumers), this step shows a Take card payments card. It shows your plan's card rate and who pays Stripe's fee before you decide anything.
- Connect Stripe takes you to Stripe to enter your business and bank details, which takes a few minutes, then brings you back to this step. Stripe may still be reviewing your details when you return; the card says so, and you can carry on.
- Later leaves it for after setup. A Connect Stripe item stays on Iris's plan until Stripe can take card payments, and you can also connect any time from Settings → Payments. See Payments and Stripe.
The card doesn't appear if you only sell through marketplaces like Amazon, use your own online store's checkout, invoice wholesale customers on credit terms, or have already connected Stripe.
Spreadsheets
Upload a products and stock sheet (a product list or a stock count) or a customer list (customers, or suppliers). CSV or Excel (.xlsx), up to 5 MB and 5,000 rows. Any layout works:
- The row with the column names. If your sheet has a title above the column names, Iris finds the row the names are on. Check it, and pick another row if she got it wrong.
- Which column is which. Each column of your file gets a Holds choice: SKU, name, unit cost, quantity on hand, supplier, email, and so on. These are the same columns as the products and contacts CSV imports. Iris fills them in from the column names; change anything she got wrong, and pick Don't bring in for columns you don't want (a sale price, for example). A name column is required.
- Suggest a match (when available) asks Iris's AI to match the columns for you. She is sent only the column names and the first five rows, never the whole file, and the suggestion only fills in the choices for you to check.
Press Continue and each row becomes a record waiting for review. Along the way:
- Money and numbers are cleaned up. "$1,234.50", "€ 4,75" and "1,200" are read as numbers. Anything that isn't a number (such as "N/A") is kept as typed and marked please check.
- Rows with the same SKU are combined into one product, and their quantities add up.
- A row with no SKU comes through marked please check: give it a SKU before you accept it.
- Suppliers named in the sheet become supplier records to review, one per name however it's capitalised.
- A cost far from the rest of the sheet (more than ten times, or less than a tenth of, the typical cost) is marked please check: it's usually a typo, and opening stock is valued at that cost.
You can open a file again with Match columns to change the mapping. That replaces the records from that file you haven't brought in yet; anything already brought in stays.
Invoices
Upload invoices as PDFs or photos (JPEG, PNG or WebP); you can pick several at once. There are two kinds:
- Invoices from your suppliers, ones you paid. Iris finds each supplier, what you buy from them, the pack you buy it in and what one unit costs. They become suppliers and supplies to review.
- Invoices you sent to customers, to stores, restaurants or distributors. Each customer becomes a wholesale customer to review, with what they bought noted beside them.
No bills, orders or payments. Invoices you already have were almost certainly paid. Iris uses them only to set up your suppliers, supplies and customers. She never turns a supplier invoice into a bill, which would put money you don't owe on your books, or a customer invoice into an order, which would count the sale twice.
Each row shows who the invoice is from (or to) and what it gave. Read more in Reading invoices below. This option appears only when AI reading is switched on.
Marketing material
Upload a brochure, a menu, a sell sheet or a photo of your logo (PDF, JPEG, PNG or WebP). Iris looks for what it says about your business, such as "handmade", "wholesale" or "catering", to improve the suggestions in your setup, and offers your logo if the image is one. Nothing else is saved from it: no products, customers or suppliers come from marketing material. This option appears only when AI reading is switched on.
6. Review
Records are grouped into Business details, Suppliers, Supplies, Products, Customers and Opening stock, with anything marked please check first. For each one you can:
- Accept or Reject it, or use Accept all and Reject all for the whole group. When some are marked please check, Accept the ones that look right accepts the rest and leaves those for you to look at, and Show only the ones to check narrows the list to them.
- Edit it with the pencil, to fix a name, a SKU or a cost.
- Decide what happens when it matches something already in Iraca, such as a product with the same SKU or a supplier with the same name. Keep what is on file (the default) leaves the existing record alone; Update it with this overwrites it with what came in. Iraca never merges the two without asking.
Opening stock is what you have on hand today. It's received into your main warehouse (Iris creates one from your business address if you don't have one yet). Each line needs a unit cost, which values the stock in your books, or No cost if you'd rather not value it; a line with neither can't be accepted. A product that tracks lots needs a lot number on its line.
Business details come from your website or a logo you uploaded: your email, phone and address beside what Settings holds now, and the logo with a Use as my logo box. Bringing them in updates your Organization Profile; fields that are blank change nothing.
Products from your website show the photo and the price on the site. The price is for reference only and isn't brought in. When the site gave no SKU, Iris suggests one from the product's name and marks it please check. Products read from the page text, rather than from your store's own listings, are marked please check too.
Supplies from your invoices show their cost per unit you stock (per pound, per can), the pack you buy them in ("Bought by the bag of 55 lb"), the supplier, and the invoice line the figures came from, so you can check the sums. Their supplier is set as each supply's preferred supplier when you bring them in. Customers from your invoices show what they bought; that's a note for you, and no order is made from it.
While a website or a file is still being read, the top of the step says so and lists what's being read; what it finds appears when it's done, and you can keep reviewing in the meantime. Where these came from, under the list, shows each file, site or store and what it gave.
When you're ready, press Bring in. Accepted records are saved in order: business details, then suppliers (so supplies and products can point to them), then supplies, products, customers and opening stock. The logo and product photos are copied from your website only now, when you bring them in, and only if you ticked This is my business's website in step 2. They go through exactly the same checks as an import from the Products or Contacts screens, plan limits included, so if one can't be saved it's marked Couldn't save with the reason, and the rest are saved anyway. Fix it and bring it in again; records already brought in are never saved twice.
What reaches your books. Opening stock with a cost is recorded as stock you already owned: inventory goes up, and the other side is your opening balance (equity). It's not a purchase and creates no bill. Stock with No cost is counted but adds nothing to your books.
Talk to Iraca. When you press Continue and your business has products, a short panel offers Talk to Iraca's free trial: Your 12 products are in. Ask about them from Claude or ChatGPT. Start free trial starts the 14-day trial (no card needed) and opens Settings → Talk to Iraca, where you connect your assistant; Back to setting up there returns you to the next step. Not now moves on, and the Dashboard card can still offer it later. Only the account owner can start the trial; an admin sees Ask your account owner to start the free trial. If you skipped bringing anything in, the panel doesn't appear.
Your store (only if you chose one)
If you said yes to an online store and left Set up your online store on in your setup, this step comes after Review. It sets the store up from the products you just brought in. See Setting up your store below.
7. Your team
Invite the people who work with you by email. They get a link to join. You can also do this later from Team Management.
How access works. Unless you said it's just you, this step explains the two layers of access. The access level (Admin or Member) is what you pick when you invite someone: admins can use and change almost everything, members can't change settings, billing or the team, and only you as the owner can change someone's access level. On top of that, Team Management is included in your plan, so everyone also gets a team role. Admins start as Administrator and members as Member, and you can switch anyone to a ready-made role such as Warehouse Staff or Accountant, or build your own from individual permissions. The owner's role can't be changed, and the Owner role can't be given to anyone else.
People on your invoices. If an invoice names someone at your business with an email address (who placed an order with a supplier, the sales contact on an invoice you sent), Iris lists them here as a suggestion. Nobody is invited unless you choose to: pick their role and press Invite on that person, or Not now to set them aside (they won't be suggested again). Invitations go out exactly as from Team Management, so your plan's number of team members applies. Iris never suggests the supplier or customer on the invoice, or anyone already on your team or already invited, and marks an address that isn't on your business's own email domain so you can check it's really a teammate.
8. Done
Iris shows how Iraca is set up and what's left. If you cater, do meal prep, or sell food in person, she also reminds you that selling food usually needs a state retail food license: add it from Iris's plan and Iraca reminds you before it expires (see Licenses and permits). Go to my dashboard takes you into Iraca, where Iris's plan for you lists the next steps. See Your plan with Iris.
Reading your website
When you give your website in step 2, Iris reads it in the background, so you don't wait for it. Here's what she does and doesn't do.
What she reads. Your home page and up to nine more pages of the same site that look useful, such as About, Contact, Wholesale, Catering or Menu. If your store runs on WooCommerce or Shopify, she reads the product list those stores publish for anyone to see, which gives exact names, SKUs, prices and photos. She also reads the details many sites include for search engines (your business name, address, phone, logo and products).
Then the text, with AI. What's still missing (an email or phone written on the Contact page, products named in the text) and what your site says about your business ("handmade in small batches", "we deliver locally") are read from the pages' text by an AI model. The text is read by Anthropic, Iraca's AI provider, only to set up your account, and isn't used to train AI models. If AI reading is switched off for your account, Iris still reads your store's product list and the details for search engines, but no AI model reads anything.
What she doesn't do.
- She never saves anything without you: everything she finds is a draft in step 6.
- She never switches anything on that costs money, and never connects a store for you. What your site shows can only suggest switches you then decide.
- She doesn't copy your logo or product photos until you bring them in, and only if you ticked This is my business's website.
- She doesn't follow instructions written on a page. Text on a website is treated as information about the business, nothing more.
- She doesn't log in, fill in forms, or read pages on other sites.
Sites built with JavaScript. Some websites are built in the browser with JavaScript, so the page Iris receives is almost empty. She doesn't run JavaScript, so on those sites there's little to read, and the card in step 5 says so. Upload a spreadsheet of your products instead, or connect your store if it's on one Iraca connects to.
How much she reads. Each setup has the same reading allowance on every plan: ten website pages, a number of documents, and a set amount of AI reading. When it's used up, the card says so and suggests a spreadsheet. What was read before that stays. Reading a new address in step 2 replaces the old reading's drafts, but doesn't reset the allowance.
Reading invoices
Iris reads each invoice in the background with an AI model. The file is read by Anthropic, Iraca's AI provider, only to set up your account, isn't used to train AI models, and is stored privately.
Suppliers. One per supplier, however the name is capitalised on different invoices; a later invoice fills in what an earlier one was missing (a phone, an address). If the supplier is already in Iraca, the record matches it, and Keep what is on file is the default.
Supplies, one per item. The same item on several invoices (by the supplier's item code, or its description) is one supply, at the cost on the newest invoice by invoice date, whatever order you uploaded them in. A receipt that prints one line per bag (seven lines of the same starch) becomes one supply of seven bags. Once you've accepted or brought in a supply, a later invoice doesn't change it.
How the pack and cost are worked out. Iraca keeps supplies in whole units, so:
| On the invoice | The supply |
|---|---|
| Bags priced by the pound: 15 bags of 25 kg, 826.65 lb at $1.88/lb | Stocked by the pound, $1.88 per lb, bought by the bag of 55 lb |
| A sack priced by the bag: 24 × "Bulk 55 Lbs" at $115.50 | Stocked by the pound, $2.10 per lb, bought by the bag of 55 lb |
| A pack of units: 102 cases of "LS 12" cans at $5.00 | Stocked by the can, $0.416667 per can, bought by the case of 12 |
| A product with its size: "Lady Fingers 7.00oz Bag" at $24.60 | Stocked by the bag, $24.60 each |
Costs are worked out to six decimal places so a small unit keeps its price. Packs of 10 lb or more are treated as bulk and stocked by the pound; a smaller size (a 7 oz bag) is what the product is, so it's stocked one at a time.
Marked "please check" when:
- the pack was rounded to whole pounds by more than half a percent (a 26.5 lb bag becomes 27);
- the size printed on the line disagrees with what was billed (a "10KG" bag billed at 20 lb), in which case the cost follows what was billed;
- it's bought by the case or box but the invoice doesn't say how many are in one;
- something on the line didn't add up for Iris, with her note shown beside it;
- the invoice names no supplier;
- the cost is more than ten times, or less than a tenth of, the same supplier's other supplies;
- something other than a supply already has that name in Iraca (an ingredient or a product): Iris doesn't merge them, you decide.
Customers come in as wholesale customers. An invoice to a business customer also tells your setup that you sell wholesale.
Setting up your store
The store step has six short parts on one page. Each is saved as you go, so you can leave and come back. Nothing goes live until you press Publish, and Iris never publishes for you.
- Your store's address. Your store lives at yourname.iraca.app. Type the name you want and Iris tells you straight away whether it's free, reserved or already taken. You can change it until you publish; after that it stays.
- What's for sale. Tick the products that go on the store. Only active finished products with a price are listed, never ingredients or supplies. The products you brought in during setup start ticked (or all of them, if you brought none in). A product without a photo or description is marked, because buyers look for both; it can still go on the store. Unticking a product takes it off the store without deleting anything, so you can tick it again later.
- How it looks. Your logo and its main color are used for the store. Answer four quick questions about your brand and press Write my store's text to have a tagline and an about text written for you, then change them as you like. If writing with AI isn't available, write them yourself: publishing never waits for it.
- Getting orders to customers. Choose at least one: one shipping rate for everywhere (with free shipping over an amount if you like), pickup at your pickup places (add one here if you have none), or local delivery if you have the Local Delivery add-on and a delivery zone. Zones and carrier rates are in Store settings.
- Payments and contact. Connect Stripe so the store can take card payments, and add the business email buyers can reach you at. Both are needed to publish.
- Ready to publish. A summary of your store. If something is still missing (an address, a product, a way to reach customers, your email or card payments), each one is listed with a link to fix it, and Publish appears only when nothing is. Tips like missing photos are shown too, but they never stop you publishing.
Press Publish to put the store live, or Not yet to keep it as a draft and carry on. Iris's plan brings you back, and you can publish any time from Store settings. Everything else about the store is explained in Setting up your storefront.
Skipping
Skip for now moves to the next step without saving that one. Skip setup, at the top of every step, takes you straight into the app. Iris's plan is there either way.
If you skipped, Finish setting up Iraca is the first item on Iris's plan on the dashboard, and it opens the setup assistant again, where you left off.
Finishing your review later
Reading can finish after you've moved on, and you may want to look at some records another day. Until every record Iris found has been brought in or set aside, Iris's plan on the dashboard has an item, Finish reviewing what Iris found. It opens the same review, whether you finished the setup assistant or skipped it, along with any teammates suggested from your invoices. The item is ticked once nothing is left to decide and nothing is still being read.
Only the account owner and admins see this item, since only they can review.
Bringing in more later
Once you're set up, you can hand Iris more at any time: a new stock spreadsheet, a customer list, supplier invoices, or a store you've just connected. On Inventory → Products, choose Import with Iris.
You get the same two steps as during setup, Bring in what you have and Review, and nothing else. Iris doesn't ask the questions again, doesn't propose anything, and doesn't switch any part of Iraca on or off. Your plan, your team and your settings stay exactly as they are. Records come in only when you bring them in from the review, the same way as the first time.
A few things to know:
- Leave and come back. Back to products at the top keeps your place. Choosing Import with Iris again opens it where you left it.
- Finishing shows what you brought in and takes you back to Products. Next time, Iris starts again at Bring in what you have.
- Marketing material isn't offered here. It only helps Iris suggest a setup, and there's nothing to suggest this time.
- Reading has its own allowance. Invoices read here don't use up what was left from setup, and the other way round. When it's used up, spreadsheets still work: you match the columns yourself.
- Reviewing later works the same way. If records are still waiting, Iris's plan on the dashboard has Finish reviewing what Iris found, and it opens this review.
- If you're still in the middle of the setup assistant, finish or skip it first: it has its own Bring in what you have step.
The files you upload here are deleted 30 days after you finish, like the ones from setup (see below).
Only the account owner and admins see Import with Iris.
What's deleted after 30 days
What you hand the setup assistant is kept only as long as it's useful. 30 days after you finish the setup assistant (or leave it with Skip setup), Iraca deletes:
- the files you uploaded: invoices, marketing material and spreadsheets;
- the records you rejected in the review.
Everything you brought in stays: products, supplies, suppliers, customers, stock, your business details and logo are ordinary Iraca records and are never deleted by this. Records you haven't decided on yet stay in the review too, so you can still bring them in, but a file can't be read again once it's gone. If you resume the setup assistant from the dashboard, nothing is deleted while it's open again.
Until then, the files are stored privately and never have a public link.
Coming back to a step
The assistant remembers where you were. If you close the tab or reload, it opens at the same step with your answers filled in. Use Back to change an earlier answer; the proposal updates when you continue.
Meet Iris
Iris is Iraca's guide. She walks you through the setup assistant, and afterwards she stays around in a few quiet places:
- Empty lists. When you have no products, supplies, contacts, orders or recipes yet, she says a line about what goes there, next to the button that adds the first one. If the list is empty only because of a search or filter, you see the usual "nothing found" message instead.
- Iris's plan for you on your dashboard, where she says what to do next and why. See Your plan with Iris.
- Tips. On the products, supplies, contacts and recipes lists she sometimes points out something useful, one tip per screen at most. Close a tip with the × and it stays closed in that browser.
She never opens a pop-up of her own and never gets between you and a button. She doesn't appear on anything your customers or drivers see, or on the warehouse tablet screens.
Hiding tips
Open your profile menu (your initials or photo, top right) and turn on Hide tips from Iris. Her tips and her empty-list lines disappear for you on every device and in every business you belong to; your teammates keep theirs. Turn it off the same way to bring them back.
Hiding tips doesn't change the setup assistant or her plan.