1. Getting started

This chapter covers signing in, what to do the first time, and how to find your way around. It applies to everybody, whatever your job.

Signing in

Open the ERP in your web browser. You will see a card headed Consoletium with two boxes.

1. Type your work email address in the first box.
2. Type your password in the second box.
3. Click Sign in.

If your browser offers to remember the password, let it. The sign-in form is built so that offer appears, and a saved password you never have to type is safer than a short one you can remember.

If the password is wrong, the reason appears in red just above the button. Read it — it distinguishes a wrong password from an account that has been switched off.

Choosing your own password the first time

When an administrator creates your account, or resets your password, they choose a starting password and tell you what it is. The first time you sign in with it, the system stops you at a screen headed Choose your password. You cannot get past it to anything else, and that is deliberate: from that moment on, the person who handed you the password can no longer sign in as you.

1. Type the password you were given.
2. Type your new password twice.
3. Click Save and continue.

The screen checks as you type and tells you how many more characters are needed, or that the two entries do not match, before you press anything.

The password rules

There is one rule: at least eight characters. Everything else is allowed — spaces, punctuation, another language, a whole sentence. There is no forced expiry and nothing you must "mix in".

Longer beats complicated. A phrase you will remember is a better password than a short one with a symbol bolted on the end.

Note

You may see an administrator screen asking for twelve characters and a mixture of character types. That wording is stricter than what the system actually enforces, which is the eight characters above. It is a wording error on that screen, not a second policy.

If you are locked out

Ten wrong attempts within fifteen minutes locks the account for fifteen minutes. During the cooldown the account refuses even the correct password.

• The lock is on the email address, not on your computer. Moving to another machine or another network will not clear it.
• It clears itself after fifteen minutes. Nobody has to do anything.
• An administrator can clear it sooner: Setup → Users → Unlock, or Setup → Sign-in Record → Unlock now.
• Unlocking does not change your password and does not sign you out of anywhere you are already signed in.

Note

Ask for an unlock, not a password reset. A reset ends every session you have open and forces you to choose a new password, when all that happened is that you typed the old one badly.

Finding your way around

The menus

The bar across the top holds the menus. Which menus you see depends on your job — see the next section. Hovering a menu opens it; the items inside are grouped by the work they belong to.

The search box

The search box in the top bar finds two different things at once, and shows them under separate headings:

• Go to — screens. Type what you want to do rather than the name of the menu item. "who owes us" finds the receivables ageing report, "gst" finds the tax return, "what to buy" finds the replenishment list, "general ledger" finds the account ledger.
• Records — actual customers, items, and documents by number.

Each screen result also shows where it lives, for example "Reports › Receivables & payables", so searching for something three times teaches you where it is.

You can only find screens you are allowed to open. If a screen does not appear in your search results, your role does not have it.

Recent records

The clock symbol in the top bar lists the documents you have opened recently, so getting back to the invoice you were looking at five minutes ago does not mean searching for it again.

What your role decides

Everybody signs in to the same system and sees a different part of it. Your role decides two separate things: which menus appear, and what you are allowed to open or change.

Role	What it is for	What it mainly sees
Administrator	Running and configuring the system	Everything, including payroll and setup
Accountant	The books	Transactions, banking, reports, fixed assets
Back office	Day-to-day order and purchase handling	Transactions, lists, approvals, reports
Warehouse	Goods in, goods out, stock	The warehouse screens and transfers
Field sales	Visits and returns on the road	Visits, returns, ordering for a customer
Portal customer	Your customers, ordering for themselves	Only the storefront, and only their own orders

Note

A portal customer account is outside the system, not a staff account with fewer menus. It can never reach a staff screen, whatever it is sent.

If you think you are missing something you need, ask an administrator. Permissions belong to the role, not to the person, so the change is made once for everybody doing that job.