diff --git a/services/finance/firefly-deployment.yaml b/services/finance/firefly-deployment.yaml
index 63bdd3ba..9754f463 100644
--- a/services/finance/firefly-deployment.yaml
+++ b/services/finance/firefly-deployment.yaml
@@ -146,6 +146,14 @@ spec:
           volumeMounts:
             - name: firefly-storage
               mountPath: /var/www/html/storage
+          # Database initialization must finish before liveness can restart PHP.
+          startupProbe:
+            httpGet:
+              path: /
+              port: http
+            periodSeconds: 10
+            timeoutSeconds: 5
+            failureThreshold: 60
           readinessProbe:
             httpGet:
               path: /