This chapter is for the administrator preparing a new environment. Six steps produce a working administration: you decide the company setup, enable the right modules, invite your team and create the first customer. Expect half an hour to an hour, depending on the size of your team.
Step 1 · Logging in and your account
With a new account you receive a verification email. The link in it is valid for 24 hours; after that an administrator can send a new one. Not seeing the email? Check your spam folder.
If two-factor authentication is enabled for the platform, your first login includes a one-time setup with an authenticator app (Google or Microsoft Authenticator) via a QR code, and you receive recovery codes. Store those somewhere safe. A verified IP address stays trusted for fourteen days, so you are not typing codes every morning.
Step 2 · One company or several
The first real decision: does this environment run one company, or several entities that cross-charge hours to each other? You set this under Companies.
- One company: every company selector, filter and column disappears from the screens, along with per-project cross-charging. The app becomes noticeably simpler.
- Several companies: each company has its own customers, rates and internal time categories, and a project can charge hours across companies.
The choice is reversible: switching deletes nothing, so switching back brings everything into view again. For each company, fill in at least the name, VAT number, bank account and the default hourly rate; that rate is the safety net for any project without a rate of its own.
Step 3 · Base settings
The Settings page holds the settings that apply to everyone in the environment. Walk through them once, in this order:
- Timezone: controls how every date and time is displayed and interpreted, from time entries to the scheduler. Pick your head office’s timezone; the “Current Time” card at the bottom shows the result immediately.
- Date and time format: DD-MM-YYYY, MM-DD-YYYY or ISO, and 24-hour or 12-hour.
- Invoice generation: which day monthly invoices are prepared, the timing of quarterly invoices, how many days after completing a milestone or project invoicing happens, and the default payment term. With automatic generation on, draft reports are ready as soon as their date arrives.
- Report logo: the logo at the top of the report PDF your client receives. Surrounding whitespace is cropped automatically.
Click Save Settings at the bottom; the logo card saves itself directly.
Step 4 · Enabling modules
Every feature in AdComPro is a module, and modules are enabled per environment. What is off disappears from the menu and stays out of the way. That keeps the app exactly as big as your agency needs. Enabling works like this:
- Open Modules (in the admin part of the menu; visible to the administrator role only).
- Walk down the list. Each row is one feature; the Status column shows whether it is on. Rows with a lock are core modules, which are always on.
- Unsure what something does? The info icon behind the name opens the description, including where the module sits in the menu and which other modules depend on it. Check that list before switching anything off.
- Click the button in the Action column to switch a module on or off. The change applies immediately, for this environment only.
Pay special attention to the rows starting with “Project type:”: they decide which project types you can choose when creating a project. With only one type enabled, the selector disappears and every new engagement is automatically that type. The types themselves are covered in chapter 4.
A starting point per situation:
| Kind of agency | Enable on top of the standard modules |
|---|---|
| Agency with regular clients on a monthly budget | Project type: retainer (on by default) and possibly support subscription (SLA) |
| Project shop with one-off engagements | Project type: fixed price and time and materials; retainer off if you never use it |
| Support team selling hour bundles | Project type: prepaid hours and support subscription (SLA) |
| Team that wants leave tracked in the app | Work Schedule first, then Leave and absence; the second depends on the first |
| Invoices into the bookkeeping | Exact accounting and/or e-invoicing via Peppol |
Switching off is never destructive: existing projects of a disabled type keep working, you just cannot create new ones. And if someone misses a menu item later, look here first; the feature is probably just switched off.
Step 5 · Inviting your team
- Open Users and click New User.
- Fill in name and email and choose a role: admin manages their own company, project manager manages assigned projects and approves hours, user logs time on assigned projects, reader is read-only. Assign the smallest role that lets the work happen.
- Under Expected Hours, set the working week: one weekly total, or, with the work schedule module, per day (Mon 8, Tue 8, Wed 8, Thu 8, Fri 4). That schedule feeds the dashboard capacity, the hour reminders and the leave calculation.
- Leave Auto-approve time entries off, except for people you trust blindly; their hours skip approval.
- Creating the user sends a verification email automatically. A colleague can only log in after verifying.
Step 6 · First customer, first project
- Create your first customer under Customers, with a contact person.
- Create the first project under Projects and pick the project type that matches the agreement.
- Give it at least one milestone with one task: hours are always booked on a task, so without that structure there is nothing to book on.
- Add the team and decide per member what they may do: log hours, approve hours, see financials, edit the fee.
- Book a test hour via Log Time in the top bar and approve it. If it shows up on the project, the chain works.
Building the same kind of project more often? Record the structure once as a project template (menu Config) and pick that template when creating the next one.
Checklist
- Company setup chosen and company details complete, including the default hourly rate
- Timezone, formats and invoicing settings done
- Modules matching your agency, project types checked
- Team invited, roles and working hours set
- First customer and project in place, test hour booked and approved