---
title: "Create your business"
description: "Set up the business that everything else depends on: its currencies, billing rules, branding and payment gateways, and how its test mode and live mode work."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/create-your-business"
---
# Create your business

> Set up the business that everything else depends on: its currencies, billing rules, branding and payment gateways, and how its test mode and live mode work.

A business is one entity you bill under. It has its own catalogue, currencies, tax setup, payment
providers and invoice numbering.

Most companies need exactly one. Create more only if you sell under separate legal entities, in
separate regions, or under separate brands — separate businesses keep separate books.

## Create it

On your organization home, select **Create business**. Give it a name and a default currency.

Each business has a live mode and a test mode, and both are created together. The free plan
includes both, with every feature. Build in test mode first, then copy your set-up to live mode (see
[Go live](https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/go-live)).

<screenshot alt="The organization home, with a card for each business and their combined revenue figures" caption="Your organization's home: every business one click away, then how they are doing together." src="org-home">



</screenshot>

With a single business, the page leads with that business instead: its name and logo head its MRR,
paying customers, expected cash and receivables, and every figure opens the list behind it. A
business's logo and brand colour come from its branding settings and mark its card and its entry
in the sidebar.

<note title="Test mode and live mode are separate">

Test mode has its own customers, invoices, settings and invoice numbers, and a built-in test
gateway that never moves real money. Nothing you do in test mode reaches live mode.

Switch between them with the **Mode** switch at the foot of the sidebar. A bar across the
top of the screen tells you when you are in test mode. When you are ready, copy your set-up to live
mode with **Settings → Import & export data**.

</note>

## Set it up

Open the business in test mode and go to **Settings**. Work through these in order — later steps depend on
earlier ones.

<steps>

### Configure

Your business name, address and contact details. These appear on every invoice your customers
receive, so use the legal entity you actually trade as.

### Currencies

The currencies this business transacts in, and the exchange rates used for reporting. Add every
currency you intend to sell in — a customer can only be billed in a currency you have added.

Reporting rates roll your metrics up into one currency. They never change what a customer is
charged.

### Product catalog

Set the billing frequencies available to your plans and add-ons — monthly, yearly, or whatever
periods you sell on.

### Billing rules

How billing behaves when things change: what happens on an upgrade, when invoices are raised, how
long customers have to pay, and what happens when a payment fails.

You can come back to these. The defaults are sensible.

### Payment gateways

Connect your own payment gateway account. Until you do, Two Minute Billing can raise invoices but cannot
collect them. See [Connect a payment gateway](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway).

### Taxes

Tax rates by country and state. Skip this only if you genuinely charge no tax. See
[Set up tax](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/set-up-tax).

</steps>

## Brand what your customers see

Under **Settings**, add your logo, icon and brand colour. Your customers see these on invoices, on
the hosted checkout page and in the self-serve portal — so they see your company, not ours.

## Decide what customers can do themselves

**Settings → Hosted pages** controls what your customers can do on the checkout page and in the
portal: update a card, change plan, cancel, download invoices. Each switch you turn on removes a support ticket. Each switch you leave off is a job your team does instead.

<tip title="Next">

[Build your catalogue](https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/build-your-catalogue) — what you sell, and what it costs.

</tip>

## Related

- [Build your catalogue](https://twominutebilling.com/help/getting-started/build-your-catalogue)
- [Connect a payment gateway](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway)
- [Organizations and businesses in the API](https://twominutebilling.com/help/developers/concepts/account-hierarchy)


## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://twominutebilling.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.