Businesses

A business is the legal entity, or trading name, that appears at the top of your invoices. Everything you send belongs to one business: its documents, its number sequences, its tax rates, its payment methods and its templates. One account can hold as many businesses as you like, on every plan, so a freelancer with a side company or an agency running several brands can keep them all in one place and switch between them in one click.

How businesses fit in

Account (Free or Team, your members and billing)
 └─ Business (1..n)
     ├─ Profile, logo, country, currency, tax ids
     ├─ Numbering sequences (INV-, EST-, CN-, RCT-)
     ├─ Tax rates
     ├─ Payment methods (Stripe, bank transfer, ...)
     ├─ Templates
     └─ Clients and their documents

• Unlimited on every plan. There is no limit on the number of businesses, on Free or Team.
• Separate numbering. Each business has its own gap-free number sequences, so INV-2027-0001 can exist in two businesses without clashing. See Document numbering.
• Separate payment methods. Each business connects its own Stripe account and shows its own bank details. See How payments work.
• Business scope for members. When you invite someone, you choose whether they reach all businesses or only some. See Members and invitations.
• The switcher. The account and business switcher at the top of the app lists every business you can reach, grouped by account.

Your plan, members, billing and audit log belong to the account, not to a business. Settings can be set for the whole account and then overridden per business. See Settings.

The business profile

Country defaults

When you create a business, its country fills in a starting currency and tax presets, along with the locale and paper size. You can change all of them afterwards. From the week of 25 January 2027, businesses in countries with a supported local QR payment method also get that method pre-selected. See Local QR payments.

Add a business

Edit any of this later in Settings > Business, for the business currently selected in the switcher.

Delete or archive a business

• A business with no sent documents can be deleted. Deleting is a sensitive action, so you sign in again first, and you confirm it.
• A business with sent documents cannot be deleted. Sent invoices, credit notes and payments are legal records, and documents and payments are never permanently deleted. Instead, the app offers Archive business, which takes it out of your way while keeping every record.

Deletion is a soft delete. It is written to the audit log.

Through the API

Every business action is a capability, so you can manage businesses from the API, CLI or AI agent.

curl -X POST "https://api.freeinvoiceautomation.com/v1/businesses" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIA_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: business-studio-north" \
  -d '{
    "legal_name": "Studio North Ltd",
    "display_name": "Studio North",
    "country": "IE",
    "base_currency": "EUR",
    "timezone": "Europe/Dublin",
    "locale": "en-IE",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "tax_ids": [{ "type": "vat", "value": "IE1234567T" }]
  }'

{
  "data": {
    "id": "0193f2a1-0b0b-7c4e-9a10-2d3e4f5a6b70",
    "legal_name": "Studio North Ltd",
    "display_name": "Studio North",
    "slug": null,
    "country": "IE",
    "base_currency": "EUR",
    "timezone": "Europe/Dublin",
    "locale": "en-IE",
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "phone": null,
    "address": null,
    "tax_ids": [{ "type": "vat", "value": "IE1234567T" }],
    "logo_attachment_id": null,
    "created_at": "2027-01-04T09:00:00Z"
  }
}

Most business-owned endpoints take a business_id. If your key can reach exactly one business, you can leave it out.

To add a logo, upload the image with Upload a file, then set logo_attachment_id on the business.

Deleting a business needs a fresh sign-in, so it is done by a person in the web app; an API key cannot do it.

Permissions

A member with a business scope only sees the businesses in their scope.

Errors

Related pages