# Getting started

Before you create your account, take ten minutes to gather a few things. The setup wizard will ask for them, and having them ready makes onboarding faster.

## What to gather

### Business information

* Your **company display name** (what shows up in the dashboard) and a short URL **slug** (lowercase letters, digits, and dashes only).
* Your **legal entity name** — exactly what's on file with your state.
* Your federal tax ID (**EIN**) — required for KYB verification and 1099 reporting.
* Your **business address** (line 1, city, postal code, ISO-2 country code; state is optional in the schema but recommended for US entities).
* An **industry** label (free-text string today — no controlled vocabulary; "services", "saas", etc.).
* A **contact email** and contact name for the primary account holder.
* **Beneficial owners (UBOs)** — full name, ownership percentage, country, and optional date of birth / title. You'll need at least one (typically anyone owning ≥25%) before KYB can run.

### Bank information

* We use **Stripe Connect Express** for remittance payouts. During onboarding you'll be redirected to Stripe to link a bank account; you'll need the same details Stripe normally requires (business info, beneficial owner, account + routing numbers). Payouts only enable after Stripe clears the account.

### Placement information (rough estimates are fine)

These aren't required by the onboarding API today, but knowing them helps the customer success conversation:

* Approximate count of accounts you'll place per month (helps us anticipate the volume policy caps — 50/day for unverified creditors, 10,000/week verified, per `src/settings.py`).
* Approximate average invoice size.
* States where your debtors typically operate (drives compliance evaluation).

### A sample placement file (optional but useful)

If you already have a list of overdue accounts in a spreadsheet, you can upload it after verification. We accept CSV today (up to 20 MB per file), individual file drops (PDF up to 10 MB, image up to 5 MB), inbound webhooks, and a direct connection from QuickBooks Online (private beta). See [Uploading your first placements](/for-creditor-partners/creditor-onboarding/uploading-your-first-placements.md) for the supported columns.

## 3P versus 1P — which mode is right for you

ai-collect is built **3P-first**; 1P is future state. Today, everyone is on 3P.

| Mode                 | Who collects                                 | Who takes compliance risk | Pricing                                                                                                                                                                 |
| -------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Third-party (3P)** | We do, on your behalf                        | We do                     | Contingency on amounts we recover — your contingency percentage is set at signup; the wizard defaults new tenants to 25%, and pilot partners are negotiated separately. |
| **First-party (1P)** | You do, using our software, under your brand | You do                    | Not yet available.                                                                                                                                                      |

If you're signing up today, you're on 3P. Talk to your customer success contact about your actual contingency percentage before you start placing real accounts — the wizard's default is just a placeholder.

## What happens next

After you finish the wizard's KYB step, your account moves through a sequence of states: `pending_signup` → `pending_verification` → `pending_bank_link` → `pending_agreement` → `verified`. KYB itself is fast in the common case (Middesk in production, mock in dev) but a "needs review" outcome can sit in `pending_verification` for an operator to look at. The wizard shows your current step as you make progress.

While you wait:

* Read [Compliance basics](/for-creditor-partners/creditor-onboarding/compliance-basics.md) so you understand what we'll do automatically.
* Read [Configuring your strategy](/for-creditor-partners/creditor-onboarding/configuring-your-strategy.md) — there's only one knob today, so this is a short read.
* If you have a sample list of accounts, format it as a CSV using the columns documented in [Uploading your first placements](/for-creditor-partners/creditor-onboarding/uploading-your-first-placements.md). You won't be able to upload until your account reaches `verified` and an API key is issued.

> Note: the compliance engine refuses outreach on any non-verified creditor — so until you've cleared KYB, linked a bank account through Stripe Connect, accepted the MSA, and an API key is minted, nothing can be placed or called.

## TODO

* Screenshot: setup wizard step 1 (business information form).
* Screenshot: dashboard "Account in review" state.

***

Last reviewed: 2026-05-24 by Customer Success.


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