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The first time you open Commander Finance on a free trial, a setup wizard walks you through the choices your budget needs before the dashboard is useful. It opens automatically and stays open until you finish—there is no close button, because a budget without a cycle can’t compute anything. If you leave partway through, the wizard reopens at the first step you haven’t finished. Work you already saved is kept.

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What the wizard asks

1

Review what's coming

The opening screen lists the choices ahead and shows the date your free trial runs through. Tap Start setup.
2

Set your budgeting cycle

Pick how long each budget cycle runs, when the current cycle started, and your timezone. Starting a new cycle never deletes anything—your accounts, budget lines, and past transactions all persist. This is the one required step—Next stays disabled until the form is valid.
3

Choose a budgeting mode

Pick Tracking, Targets, or Envelope. Envelope is preselected as the recommended starting point.
4

Add your accounts

Enter the checking, savings, and credit accounts you want to track, one at a time with Add account. Starting balances can be estimates.
5

Pick your budget lines

Tap any of the common lines offered—Rent, Groceries, Utilities, and so on—or create your own with Add custom line.
A closing screen confirms your workspace is ready. Tap Go to my dashboard to start using Commander.

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What you can skip

Only the budgeting cycle is required. Every step after it advances on Next whether or not you entered anything, so you can move past accounts and budget lines and add them later. Nothing you choose here is permanent. Cycle and mode both live in Budget Settings afterward, and accounts and budget lines can be added, edited, or removed at any time.

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Linking a bank during setup

The wizard takes manually entered accounts only—there is no bank-linking step. Automatic transaction syncing comes with the Sync plan, and you set it up after the wizard closes. See Choosing a subscription for what each plan covers, and Setting up a new synced account for linking a bank once you’re on Sync.