How to get started - allocpsa

AllocPSA provides tools needed to manage a professional services business (consultants, IT services firms, engineering firms, architects, marketing, etc.)
It is a suite of integrated applications (a Professional Services Automation suite) designed for services-based organisations and enables services organisations to achieve better profitability by improving staff efficiency through increased utilisation of productive time, better planning and integrated knowledge management.

AllocPSA includes help-desk, sales, time-sheeting, CRM, project tracking and many more features.

This tutorial aims at getting you started with your AllocPSA application.

1 - Getting Started with AllocPSA

To get started with AllocPSA, you must first be registered on Maestrano and log in your Maestrano account for the first time.

CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH ALLOCPSA ON MAESTRANO

Once the application is installed on your dashboard, simply click on it to be automatically and securely logged in. Your AllocPSA application is ready to work!

You can change your personal details by clicking on alloc (Located on the top right corner of your screen). Click on Save when you are done to save your changes.

Note: As part of your AllocPSA setup on Maestrano, you benefit from our unique Single Sign-on security feature. This means that you do not need to change, update or modify your AllocPSA username, password or email address as this data is all pre-configured based on your security information on Maestrano. We advise you do not modify or fill in these fields.

2 - Setting up your AllocPSA application and your company

You can now finalize the setup of your application and setup your company. To do so, click on Setup (Located on the top right corner of your screen).

From this section, you can edit the settings of your application.

In the section called "Basic Setup", we recommend that you enter the email address of one of the administrators of the application. This will be useful in case there is any issue with your application as the administrator will be advised by email.

Warning: In this section, you can modify the "AllocPSA base URL". Do not change the URL allocated (Purple circle in the picture above). The URL you see (In the form xyz.mcube.co) is the unique, safe and secure address provided by Maestrano to host your application. Changing this address will result in your application not working anymore.

To edit the information related to your company, click on the tab Company Info.

In this section, you can enter your company details, including the company's name, logo, address and headers for the PDF reports generated by the application (Timesheets, invoices,...).

Editing the financial information in AllocPSA

To setup the financial parameters of your company, click on the tab Finance. This is where you can setup the main currency to use in your application, update the exchange rates and setup the mark-ups generally used in your transactions (Including Tax on Goods or VAT, margin, etc.).

Timesheets setup in AllocPSA

To setup the timesheets of your company, click on the tab Time sheets. You can there establish the duration of a working day and appoint time sheets managers and administrators.

Miscellaneous setups in AllocPSA

In the tab Miscellaneous you can modify the settings of various parameters such as:

- Projects and tasks priorities

- Client categories and statuses (Useful for the CRM part of the application)

- Absences types (For the time sheets records)

- Project types and statuses

- Transaction types

- Currency types to use in the application

All those parameters come set to certain values by default when your AllocPSA application is installed on your dashboard.

3 - Adding and managing users to AllocPSA

TIP for adding users to AllocPSA on Maestrano: You want to know the most simple and secure way to add users to your AllocPSA application? Simply share your AllocPSA app with the users you need on Maestrano. It's a 1-minute process, that will make you create an 'Organization' (The group of users you want to grant access to your application) and invite those users you want. Follow this very short guide and you will be done in 1 minute.

The users will automatically receive an invitation email to access AllocPSA.

To add or manage users directly in AllocPSA, click on the tab People on the main screen of your application.

In this section, you can see the list of users registered in your application. To edit the profile of an existing user (modify their personal information), click on the username in the table and edit the profile.

To add a new user, click on New Person and fill in the form to create the new user.

When creating a new user, you will be required to create a username and password but these will not be used as the Maestrano Single Sign-on feature takes care of the security aspects of your application.

IMPORTANT NOTE: It is however important that you enter the same email address as your users have recorded on their Maestrano profile, to be able to access the application, otherwise their access will be denied for security reasons. For the users to be able to access AllocPSA, they will need to create an account on Maestrano, with the same email address as the one used in the AllocPSA application.

You will also be required to grant permissions to the newly created user: employee (Basic), project manager (Can create, edit and close projects and leads), Finance Admin (Can accomplish all actions related to finances) and Super User (Admin-type privileges).

Note that a user can have many or all of the permission levels granted.

4 - Start using AllocPSA

Your application is now setup and you can start using allocPSA to:

- Follow up captures, sales leads and opportunities (CRM-type). To do so, when creating a Client, select the designation "Potential". AllocPSA then allows you to track your progresses regarding this customer account.

- Manage existing customer portfolios and projects. You can create projects, track existing projects and tasks as well as customer portfolios. Note that AllocPSA allows for an accurate time tracking on each project thanks to the Time Sheets feature. For each project, time sheets can be created and the hourly rate of the resources recorded so that you can keep track of your spending at all times.

- Manage your products and sales (ERP-Type). In the "Sales" tab of your application, you can enter your products, their prices and descriptions as well as your sales. This ERP-like features help you keep track of your transactions.

- Manage your invoicing. AllocPSA's invoices features allows you to generate and send invoices to your customers. You can keep track of all your invoices and their statuses and can link them to your sales and your products.

- Work collaboratively. Use the Wiki provided by your application to share your files, folders and relevant information with your colleagues and stakeholders.