Create your account and tour the dashboard

This guide covers the first five minutes with Porchyard: creating your account and finding your way around the dashboard. Most people are ready to add a property by the end of it.

Sign up

Go to porchyard.com and choose Start Free Trial. Enter your email address and a password, or continue with a supported single sign-on provider. Every account starts with a 30-day free trial of Starter, with every feature for up to 15 properties, so you can set everything up before deciding which plan fits. No credit card is required to begin.

After you submit the form, check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link inside to verify your address. If it has not arrived after a minute or two, check your spam folder or request a new link from the sign-in screen.

Find your way around

Once you are signed in, you land on the dashboard. It looks sparse at first because you have not added any data yet. The main areas you will use are:

• Properties -- your portfolio, with a card for each property.
• Tenants -- the leases on each property and the people signed to them.
• Transactions -- income and expenses, imported from CSV statements.
• Invoicing -- invoices to the owners you manage for, and one-off invoices to anyone else.
• Settings -- your profile, team members, and billing.

What to do next

The fastest way to see Porchyard working is to add one property and import a month of transactions for it. From there the dashboard starts filling in with real numbers.

• Continue with Add properties and units.
• Not sure which plan fits? See Choose the right plan.