Chapter 26 — Administration and maintenance

Module code: ADMIN Home: /administration/

For the workspace administrator: keeping the workspace healthy, backed up and correctly configured.

26.1 The administration hub

Screen: /administration/

The starting point for administrative tasks:

26.2 Workspace backup

Screen: /administration/ → Download workspace backup Restricted to superusers.

Taking a backup

1. Open the administration hub.
2. Select Download workspace backup.
3. A .zip file downloads containing:

This is a complete copy of your workspace. Treat the file accordingly: it holds employee records, financial data and student information. Store it where you would store the originals, not in a shared folder.

When to take one

[ ] Before any bulk import
[ ] Before a large configuration change — chart of accounts, permissions, menus
[ ] Before a version upgrade
[ ] On a schedule that matches how much work you could afford to redo

The platform takes its own server-level backups, but a backup you hold yourself is the one you can restore from without asking anybody.

26.3 Restore

Screen: /administration/ → Restore workspace Restricted to superusers. This destroys the current contents of the workspace.

1. Open the restore page.
2. Upload a backup .zip from this same workspace. A backup from another workspace is rejected.
3. Type RESTORE to confirm. The confirmation is deliberately awkward.
4. Confirm.

The database is replaced with the backup's contents, and the workspace's files are replaced with the backup's files.

Everything entered since the backup was taken is lost. Before restoring:

[ ] Take a fresh backup of the current state first — even if it is the broken state
[ ] Tell every user to stop working
[ ] Confirm the backup you are about to restore is the one you think it is,
    by checking its manifest
[ ] Be sure that restoring is genuinely better than correcting the data

Restoring is the right answer to a catastrophic bad import. It is the wrong answer to a handful of wrong records.

26.4 Requesting more apps

Screen: /support/request-modules/ Restricted to superusers.

If an app is missing from your home screen, it is not enabled for your subscription.

1. Open /support/request-modules/.
2. Tick the apps you want.
3. Submit. A billing support ticket is raised with your request.
4. Platform staff enable the app or discuss a plan change.

26.5 Support tickets to the platform

Restricted to superusers.

/support/new/          raise a ticket
/support/             your tickets
/support/<id>/         one ticket

For problems with the product itself, or billing questions — as distinct from the internal Help Desk (Chapter 17), which is your own staff helping each other.

Include, every time:

[ ] What you were doing, step by step
[ ] What you expected
[ ] What happened, quoting any error message exactly
[ ] The address of the screen
[ ] Roughly when it happened

A ticket saying "it does not work" costs a round trip before anyone can start.

If the workspace is suspended

When a subscription lapses, sign-in is blocked for everyone — but the page shown carries its own form for contacting billing without signing in. A workspace that has already paid is never locked out of reaching us.

26.6 Subscription status

Where your subscription is past due but not yet suspended, a banner appears across the top of the workspace showing the days remaining and a renewal link. Nobody's work is interrupted during that window.

The sequence is:

Trial  →  Active  →  Past due  →  (grace window)  →  Suspended
                        │                                │
                        └──── payment recorded ──────────┘
                                     reactivates

Recording a payment reactivates the workspace automatically. Nothing has to be restored.

26.7 Menu maintenance

Covered in Chapter 4. One habit worth stating here:

Export the menu before changing it. /administration/menu/export.json produces a complete file that can be re-imported to undo a bad reorganisation. It takes five seconds and saves an afternoon.

26.8 Regular administrative routine

Weekly
  [ ] Review new users and their roles
  [ ] Deactivate accounts for anyone who has left
  [ ] Check the email log for repeated failures
  [ ] Check the notification backlog is being worked

Monthly
  [ ] Take a workspace backup and store it safely
  [ ] Review roles against what people actually do — remove what is no longer needed
  [ ] Review who holds superuser and reduce it where you can
  [ ] Check subscription status and renewal date

Quarterly
  [ ] Full access review — every active user, every role
  [ ] Test a restore into a spare workspace if you have one; an untested backup
      is a hope, not a plan
  [ ] Review menu structure against how people actually navigate

26.9 Troubleshooting