KMyMoney keeps all the data about your finances in a file. As was stated in Defining the accounts (personal records), you can keep more than one set of accounts, but the data for each will be kept in a separate file, and KMyMoney can only have one file open at a time. See the chapter on File Formats for more details about KMyMoney's data files.

In addition to that data file with all the financial data for that set of accounts, KMyMoney uses additional files to store data regarding configuration settings and display preferences. The exact location of these files depends on your specific Operating System or Distribution.

To create a new file you can either select the File → New menu item or choose the new icon from the toolbar. In addition, if the main welcome page is displayed, you can also select the first link: “Get started and setup accounts.”

KMyMoney will then open the “New File Setup Wizard” which will guide you through the process of creating the file.

Any information entered hereon the Personal Data page is used only to personalize your file. All these fields are optional, so you can use KMyMoney without entering any information now. In the future, this information may be used in some reports and for online banking. If KMyMoney requires any personal information in future releases and finds none, you will be prompted to enter the relevant data then.

In case you have an address for yourself stored in the KAddressBook, the button Load from Addressbook is enabled and pressing it imports all information into KMyMoney.

Once you have completed entering data, press Next.

If you need to change any of this information in the future, you can access this form with the File → Personal Data... menu item.

KMyMoney supports multiple currencies. To set your base currency (the currency you use day to day and which will be used for your reports,) select the appropriate entry from the list provided and press Next. A default will be selected based upon your locale settings, but you can easily choose a different currency, if appropriate for you situation.

In this example, US Dollar has been selected as the base currency.

After you click Next, the following page allows you to create an initial account. For the typical KMyMoney user this is a checking account.

Enter the name of the account and a possible account or reference number assigned by the institution managing the account. The name is arbitrary, and is simply how the account will be referenced and displayed by KMyMoney. Enter the opening date and the opening balance of the account. For example, if you want to use KMyMoney to manage all your finances as of 2008-01-01, then enter the balance of the account at the beginning of this date. The number can possibly be obtained from a paper statement. You may also enter the name and the bank code of the institution. The latter, known as the routing number in the US or the sort code in the UK, is optional and only required for online banking purposes, but it may also be helpful when importing bank statements in some of the formats supported (OFX, QFX.)

In case you don't want to setup an initial account or don't have a checking account, just uncheck the checkbox.

Once finished, press Next to proceed.

Choose the appropriate country and account template(s). Each template provides a different set of categories for organizing your finances. Multiple templates, even from different countries, can be selected using a combination of Ctrl and Shift together with the left mouse button. The account hierarchy to be setup will be shown in a preview part of the wizard. In case you cannot find a template that suits your needs, don't select a template at this time, and you can manually set up categories later.

Once finished with the template selection press Next to proceed.

This is the final page of the wizard. If you select the checkbox “Configure preferences after finishing the wizard”, the application settings dialog will be displayed after you have completed the account setup wizard.

At this point, clicking “Finish” will start the “Save storage as...” dialog, where you choose the type of storage (XML, possibly with encryption, or SQL) and specify the details of that storage method, such as file name and location or sql database details. See the File Formats and File Formats chapters for more information about each storage type.