You can sign up for RareMargin and use it the same day: a new company starts with a 42-account chart of accounts, or you can explore a sample SaaS company first. Moving your books in takes longer, because RareMargin has no one-click import yet. This guide covers each step, the bank CSV format, who to invite and when to subscribe.
| Step | What it takes |
|---|---|
| Sign up | Your name, email, a password, the company’s name and its currency; no card for the 14-day trial |
| Chart of accounts | 42 accounts to start; add the ones your books use |
| Opening balances | One journal entry, from your old system’s trial balance |
| Customers and revenue | Products, customers and contracts; contracts schedule the invoices and the revenue |
| Vendors and bills | Vendors, then the bills you receive from your start date |
| Bank | Each bank account, tied to its cash account, and a CSV statement or the API |
| Team | At least one other person, so someone else approves what you submit |
01How long does it take to set up RareMargin?
You can sign up and use RareMargin the same day; moving a company’s books in takes longer, because RareMargin has no one-click import yet.
Sign-up creates the company straight away, with a 42-account chart of accounts and a first entity in the currency you choose. A sample company builds in the background while a loading page shows. How long the move takes depends on how many accounts, customers, contracts and vendors you bring, and on whether you script it against the API.
02What do I need to sign up for RareMargin?
Your name, an email address, a password of at least 10 characters, the company’s name and its base currency. RareMargin needs no card for the 14-day trial.
RareMargin supports 22 currencies, including USD, EUR, GBP, INR, CAD, AUD and SGD. You confirm your email address from a link RareMargin sends, and you can turn on two-factor sign-in with an authenticator app at any time.
03Should I start on a sample company or on my own books?
Start on the sample company to see RareMargin working with real-shaped data, or on your own books when you are ready to move in; you choose when you sign up.
The sample is a SaaS company with 14 months of history: contracts, invoices, bills, bank lines, two entities (US and UK) and a closed ledger. Every company, sample or not, gets the same 14-day trial.
04How do I move my books from QuickBooks or spreadsheets into RareMargin?
Add the accounts you use, post opening balances as one journal entry, add products, customers, contracts and vendors, then import bank lines from CSV; run both systems side by side for a month before you switch.
- Chart of accounts: start from the 42 accounts RareMargin creates and add the ones your books use.
- Opening balances: post one journal entry dated the day before your start date, with the balances from your old system’s trial balance on that day.
- Customers and revenue: add your products, which say how their revenue is recognized, then each customer and contract. RareMargin schedules the invoices and the revenue from the contract.
- Vendors and bills: add your vendors, and enter bills as they arrive from your start date. Approved bills post to payables and expense.
- Bank: add each bank account, tie it to its cash account in the ledger, and upload a CSV statement. Every line gets a suggested match.
- Check: compare RareMargin’s trial balance with the old system’s for each month you run both.
Most of this can be scripted against RareMargin’s REST API, which creates accounts, journal entries, customers, contracts, vendors and bills.
05What format does a bank CSV need for RareMargin?
A header row, then one row per transaction with a date, a description, and either one signed amount or separate debit and credit columns. RareMargin recognizes the column names most banks use.
| Column | Header names RareMargin recognizes |
|---|---|
| Date (required) | date, posted date, transaction date, posting date |
| Description (required) | description, memo, details, narrative |
| Amount | amount or value, positive for money in and negative for money out |
| Or debit and credit | debit, withdrawal or money out; credit, deposit or money in |
| Counterparty (optional) | counterparty, payee, merchant, name |
| Reference (optional) | reference, ref, check number, id |
Dates can be YYYY-MM-DD or MM/DD/YYYY. Dollar, pound, euro and rupee signs and thousands separators are ignored, an amount in parentheses counts as negative, and a row with a zero amount stops the import with its row number.
06Does RareMargin connect to my bank, Stripe or QuickBooks?
Not directly yet. RareMargin has no bank connections and no native integrations, so bank lines come in by CSV or the API, and other tools connect through the REST API, webhooks and the MCP server.
A developer can sync billing or bank data through the REST API at /v1, whose writes are idempotent, and follow changes with signed webhooks for 34 event types. AI assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT connect through the MCP server.
07Who should I invite to RareMargin, and with which role?
Invite at least one other person, because RareMargin’s approval rules keep anyone from approving their own entry. Each person gets one of four roles: owner, admin, accountant or viewer.
Owners and admins invite people under Settings, Members, and create API keys. Viewers only read. Only the owner can delete the company.
08When do I need to subscribe to RareMargin?
Before the 14-day trial ends, if you want to keep working in the books: an owner or admin subscribes from Settings, Billing, and days left on the trial carry over.
RareMargin costs $99 a month per company, with every feature and no per-user fee. If nobody subscribes, the company becomes read-only: nothing is deleted, and reports and CSV downloads keep working.
