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This document describes how to start using AvailSuite in production mode, i.e. to actually use AvailSuite to run your business. It is assumed that AvailSuite has been properly installed and required number of user licenses purchased. To get help installing AvailSuite, please refer to Installation and Configuration Guide or request support at support@availsuite.com.
AvailSuite also has built-in Quick Start tutorial with videos. To run the tutorial, click Quick Start on the main menu.
Preparing AvailSuite for production use consists of the following steps:
AvailSuite comes with sample data, whose purpose is to help you quickly learn the system. It is also likely that you will play around with the data during evaluation period. Therefore, the database will be full of unwanted data. In order to quickly delete all data from the database, in the Maintenance menu of the main form, choose Utilities and click Cleanup Database.
This operation will delete all records from the system except for company settings, employee information, and some miscellaneous tables like task categories.
Only a system administrator is allowed to perform the database cleanup.
Select Company Settings in the Maintenance menu on the main form. This screen allows you to enter: your company name, address and phones, e-mail and web site address.
On the second page, you can set picture of your logo. The recommended size of the logo is 200 pixels of width with 100 pixels of height. The options Zoom, Clip and Stretch are applicable only on the form, not during printing.
On the third page, you can set footnote text for orders and invoices.
On the fourth page, you can choose a Working Time used as default Working Time for Employees in your Company, and define a default tax value.
To create an employee, you can use any of the following ways:
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Use the button New Employee on the toolbar;
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In the File menu of the main form, select New and click Employee;
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fill a new row directly in the
employee grid;
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double-click on a new row on the Employees view or on a white area below rows;
To complete editing of a new employee and add a new row on the employee grid, use the button with the + sign in the row navigator below the grid.
When you add Employees to AvailSuite, they do not automatically receive any access to the system. It must be explicitly done by checking the Has system access control on the Employee data screen. You must also specify Login Name for the Employee and set a password using the Change Password button. This makes it possible for the Employee to use the system.
Please note that inactive employees have no access to AvailSuite
AvailSuite supports three types of user roles: Administrator, Manager, and Technician.
Technicians have access only to information about their tasks and account payable payments and they can submit time cards and expenses.
Managers and Administrators have almost the same access rights in the system. The only difference is that Administrators have ability to return completed and canceled documents back to active state for further editing. Administrators also have an ability to manage Document IDs and Charge Types. Administrator can cleanup the database, deleting the sample data.
The number of active employees with Administrator and Manager roles is restricted by the number of purchased AvailSuite's licenses. If at least one license has been purchased, you may create an unlimited number of technician users. If you utilize an evaluation version of AvailSuite, you can use up to 256 active employee with Administrator and Manager roles. Please note that you can evaluate AvailSuite during 30 days after its installation.
Miscellaneous tables contain items like customer or invoice categories. These categories are not necessary to use in the system. However, if you use them, it will help you to manage your data much more efficiently. For example, you may want to categorize your customer into long-term, new, and prospects. You may categorize your orders as urgent, in progress, or quote. The same applies to any other document in the system.
In addition to categories, there are a few tables with pre-defined values, like person titles or name suffixes.
To modify miscellaneous tables, click Maintenance in the main menu, and then click Category Dictionaries, and the select the table you want to modify.
To create a customer, you can use any of the following methods:
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use the New Customer button on the main toolbar;
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select New, and then Customer in the File menu on the main form;
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fill a new row directly in the
customer grid;
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double-click on a new row on the customer grid or on a white area below rows;
To complete editing of a new customer and add a new row on the customer grid, use the button with the + sign in the row navigator below the grid.
The customer form is self-explanatory, so it will be easy to enter all the customer data into proper fields. If you have many customers recorded in your legacy application or perhaps a spreadsheet, consider requesting us to convert the historical data into AvailSuite database. Feel free to contact us about this and other requests at support@availsuite.com.
AvailSuite allows importing existing lists of customers, vendors, services, and inventory from Excel files. You can find more information on these imports by the following link.
Order, Invoice, Task, and Purchase Order printing layouts in AvailSuite can be modified by users. For these purposes, AvailSuite provides the following abilities:
- You can choose most appropriate printing layouts you need for Orders and Invoices from standard Portrait and Landscape layouts.
- You can create a custom printing layout for printing Orders, Invoices, Tasks, or Purchase Orders.
- If your custom layout goes wrong, you can always return back to the original layout.
- You can save and load printing layouts to / from files.
See also Working with the Report Designer.
If you need to develop custom layouts, please send samples of layouts required to support@availsuite.com. We are ready to develop custom layout for your printing documents for a moderate fee.
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