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The Ultimate Back-Office Guide to How to Launch a Startup
Incorporation
Banking
Credit Card
Equity Management
Bookkeeping
Accounting
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
Expense Managment
Payroll/HRIS
HR Compliance
Benefits
Insurance Broker/Provider
The Stack
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The Ultimate Back-Office Guide to How to Launch a Startup

SignalFire's tools and tips for getting your startup set up as you scale from 0 to 50 employees.
Elaine Zelby
|
Spencer Ackermann
Congratulations! You've made the leap and are starting a company! Have you thought about different types of incorporation (like C corp vs S corp)? Do you know anything about accounting for startups?
Before you know it you'll have accounts payable, payroll, and benefits to deal with, government authorities to appease with reports and tracking, and shares to issue. As you scale rapidly, you'll need to think about hiring a bookkeeper, resource management, and HR functions.
Building the back-office stack is hardly the most invigorating part of building a company, but honestly, you're not going to survive without a solid foundation.
In each section of the sections below, we offer tips and best practices from experts to help save you time and help you get back to building a lasting company. Tap on each for a walkthrough of how to get set up.
After you've completed each category, mark it off at the top of each section to keep track of your stack:
14 Steps To Launch A Business
14
1
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Incorporation
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2
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Banking
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3
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Credit Card
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4
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Equity Management
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5
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Bookkeeping
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6
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Accounting
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7
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Accounts Payable
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8
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Accounts Receivable
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9
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Expense Managment
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10
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Payroll/HRIS
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11
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HR Compliance
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12
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Benefits
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13
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Insurance Broker/Provider
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14
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The Stack
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There are no rows in this table
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Our Picks For Zero to One

At
SignalFire
⁠
, we've worked with 100s of startups and keep our finger on the pulse of best in breed tools (plus what works best together) for getting your startup off the ground. This guide is meant to help you quickly and painlessly get your back-office set up and get you back to building your company.
If you're just getting started, here is a quick-start guide that we'd recommend as the initial back-office stack for ~90% of startups:
1
Stripe Atlas
Incorporation
Incorporate with Stripe Atlas for ~$500 and in about a week
Visit Site
2
Silicon Valley Bank
Banking
​
Visit Site
3
Carta
Equity Management
Set up a cap table with Carta
Visit Site
4
Brex
Credit Card
Leverage Brex for corporate credit cards
Visit Site
5
QuickBooks
Accounting
Use Quickbooks for all of your accounting needs
Visit Site
6
Pilot
Bookkeeping
Use Pilot as your outsourced bookkeeper
Visit Site
7
Gusto
Benefits
HR Compliance
Payroll/HRIS
Get Gusto to manage payroll, benefits, and HR
Visit Site
No results from filter
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You can also check out the
Full Resource List
⁠
for all our suggested vendors.

Make a Copy and Get Started

⁠
Copy this doc
⁠
on desktop to create your own version. Then, build and optimize your back-office stack with our comprehensive toolkit.

⁠
👉 Begin with the
Incorporation
⁠
section!
⁠
14 Steps To Launch A Business
Our Picks For Zero to One
Make a Copy and Get Started
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