Chapter 2 — Signing in and finding your way around

This chapter covers everything every user needs on their first day, whatever their job. Read it once; the rest of the manual assumes it.

2.1 Creating a workspace (new customers only)

Skip this section if your company already has a workspace and somebody has given you a username.

Screen: /saas/signup/ on the main product website.

1. Open the sign-up page and choose a plan. The card shows the monthly price and what is included.
2. Fill in the form: - Company or organisation name — this becomes the name on your documents. - Workspace address — the subdomain you will sign in at. Choose something short and permanent; it appears in every link you send. - Your email — this becomes the owner account and receives the verification message. One email address can own one workspace. - Country — pick where the company is based. The system uses this to load the right chart of accounts later; you do not have to know which one. - Apps — tick the modules you want switched on. You can request more later.
3. Read the terms and privacy links under the button, then submit. Submitting the form is the moment you accept the terms, and the system records the date, the version of the terms, and the address the request came from.
4. Check your email and click the verification link. Nothing is built until you do. The link is valid for 24 hours.
5. After verification a progress page shows the workspace being prepared. This takes a few minutes. When it finishes you are given your sign-in address.

If the verification email does not arrive: check the spam folder first. If it is genuinely missing, contact support — the workspace is waiting in a pending state and can be re-sent rather than started again.

2.2 Signing in

Screen: /login/ on your workspace address.

1. Go to your workspace address, for example https://acme.toss-erp.com/.
2. Enter your username and password.
3. Select Sign in.

Your first sign-in

If an administrator created your account, you will normally have received an activation email rather than a password. Click the link in it, choose your own password, and you are signed in.

Forgotten password

1. On the sign-in page choose Forgot password.
2. Enter the email address on your account.
3. Open the message and follow the link to set a new password.

The link expires. If it has, simply request another.

If sign-in is refused

2.3 The portal home screen

After signing in you land on the portal home:

/

The home screen is a grid of app tiles. Each tile is one module — Accounting, Inventory, Human Resources, and so on. Selecting a tile opens that module's own dashboard.

You only see tiles for apps that are both switched on for your workspace and permitted for your user. An empty or short home screen almost always means missing permissions rather than a missing app; see Chapter 4.

Some accounts do not see the tile grid at all:

• Employees without staff access land on their own employee dashboard, showing their attendance, leave balance and payslips.
• Customers and parents land in the mobile app area at /m/ — see Chapter 21 and Chapter 22.

2.4 Moving around

The app shell

Inside a module the screen has three fixed parts:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Header:  ← Portal   Module name        🔔  🌐  👤      │
├───────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Sidebar  │                                             │
│  menu     │   The page you are working on               │
│           │                                             │
└───────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

• ← Portal in the header always returns to the tile grid.
• The sidebar lists the screens inside the current module. It is built from your permissions, so two colleagues may see different sidebars in the same module.
• Breadcrumbs at the top of most pages show where you are and let you step back one level.

The three header controls

2.5 Working with lists and forms

Nearly every screen in the product is either a list or a form. Learning the two patterns once saves reading the same instructions in twelve chapters.

Lists

A list screen shows records in a table with a filter bar above it.

• Search box — free text against the main fields of the record.
• Filter dropdowns — status, date range, warehouse, and so on. Filters combine: choosing a status and a date range shows records matching both.
• Pagination — at the foot of the table. If you cannot find a record, check you are not looking at page 1 of several.
• Export — where offered, exports respect the filters currently applied. What you see is what you get.
• New — the button at the top right opens the blank form.

Forms

• Fields marked with a red asterisk are required; the form will not save without them.
• Save stores the record as a draft. Save and post (or Confirm) does both in one step where the screen offers it.
• A question-mark icon beside a label shows guidance for that field on hover or keyboard focus.
• Leaving a form with unsaved changes discards them. Save first.

Attachments, comments and history

Many records — purchase orders, tickets, items, gate passes — carry a panel at the bottom with three things:

• Comments — an internal discussion thread on that record.
• Attachments — files uploaded against it.
• History / log — an automatic record of who changed what and when. You cannot edit this; that is the point of it.

2.6 Changing the language

Select the globe icon in the header and choose a language. The product ships with English and Arabic. Choosing Arabic also flips the whole interface to right-to-left layout.

The choice is remembered for your account. It affects the interface only — data you have typed in, such as customer names, is stored exactly as entered.

2.7 Notifications

Screen: /notifications/

The bell icon in the header shows unread notifications. The system raises them for things that need you, such as a leave application waiting for your approval, a purchase order awaiting authorisation, or a help desk ticket assigned to you.

1. Select the bell to see the most recent items.
2. Select a notification to open the record it refers to. Doing so marks it read.
3. Mark all read clears the badge without opening each one.
4. The full notification centre at /notifications/ shows the complete history with filters.

Some notifications are also sent by email. Which ones depends on how your administrator configured the system — see Chapter 25.

2.8 Your profile

Screen: /my-profile/

Your profile page shows the account details held about you and lets you maintain the parts that are yours to maintain:

2.9 Signing out

Select the avatar in the header, then Sign out. On a shared or public computer, always sign out rather than just closing the tab.

2.10 Getting help