How to Set Up Self-Hosted Accounting Software on cPanel Shared Hosting

What you need before you start

CWFMS runs on any standard cPanel shared hosting account. Before you begin, confirm your hosting meets these requirements:

• PHP 7.4 or higher — check in cPanel → Software → PHP Version Selector
• cURL extension enabled — required for payment gateway integration
• JSON extension — enabled by default on virtually all hosts
• Write permissions on data/ — needed for flat-file JSON storage
• SSL certificate — free via Let's Encrypt in cPanel, required for secure checkout

Step 1 — Check your PHP version

Log into cPanel and navigate to Software → PHP Version Selector (or MultiPHP Manager on some hosts). Select PHP 8.1 or 8.2 if available — both are fully supported. PHP 7.4 is the minimum. If your host only offers PHP 7.3 or lower, contact them to upgrade before proceeding.

php -v
# Should show: PHP 7.4.x or higher

php -m | grep -E 'curl|json|mbstring'
# Should list: curl, json, mbstring

Step 2 — Upload and extract the files

Step 3 — Set folder permissions

The data/ directory must be writable by the web server. In File Manager, right-click the data/ folder → Change Permissions → set to 755. Do the same for downloads/ and uploads/ if present.

chmod 755 data/
chmod 755 downloads/
chmod 755 uploads/

Step 4 — Run the setup wizard

Open your browser and navigate to your install URL followed by /admin/setup.php. For example: https://yourdomain.com/admin/setup.php

The setup wizard will walk you through:

• Setting your admin password
• Entering your brand name, support email and from name
• Configuring your base URL
• Setting your license API secret key

After completing setup, the wizard will redirect you to the admin login. Log in with the password you just set. The setup file is automatically disabled after first run for security.

Step 5 — Enable SSL

SSL is required for secure checkout and browser trust. In cPanel, navigate to Security → SSL/TLS → Let's Encrypt SSL (or AutoSSL). Click Issue for your domain. This is free and takes approximately 2 minutes. Once issued, all HTTP traffic will automatically redirect to HTTPS.

Running on a subdomain

If you want to run CWFMS at a subdomain like accounting.yourdomain.com:

1. In cPanel → Domains → Subdomains — create the subdomain and point it to a new directory, e.g. public_html/accounting/
2. Upload and extract CWFMS into that directory
3. Issue an SSL certificate for the subdomain via Let's Encrypt
4. Run the setup wizard at https://accounting.yourdomain.com/admin/setup.php

Common issues and fixes

Blank page or 500 error after upload

Usually caused by PHP version being below 7.4. Go to cPanel → PHP Version Selector and switch to 7.4, 8.0, 8.1 or 8.2. Clear your browser cache and reload.

Permission denied errors in the data directory

The data/ folder needs write permission. Set it to 755 via File Manager → Change Permissions. If still failing, try 775.

Emails not sending after setup

Configure SMTP in admin → Settings → Email / SMTP. Use your hosting mail server credentials (usually mail.yourdomain.com, port 587, TLS). PHP's mail() function often fails silently on shared hosting — SMTP is far more reliable.

Setup wizard redirects to login without completing

This means setup has already been run once and the wizard has been disabled. If you need to re-run it, delete data/settings.json via File Manager and revisit /admin/setup.php.

Related: Self-hosted accounting software guide · PHP self-hosted invoicing guide · Managing finances without a subscription