Getting started

This system runs the assembly's money, its people, its projects and its dealings with residents on one set of books. This manual explains how, in the order you are likely to need it.

Two front doors

There are two ways in, and they are deliberately separate.

• Residents use the public site. No password: you identify yourself with the ratepayer code printed on your demand notice and the phone number the assembly already holds for you.
• Staff sign in at /accounts/login/ with a username and password issued by the administrator.

What you see depends on your job

Every member of staff is given a role, and the role decides which modules appear in the sidebar. A revenue collector sees the receipt book and nothing else. A finance officer sees the budget, the vouchers and the journals. Nobody has to scroll past menus they will never use, and nobody can reach a record their job does not require.

The dashboard follows the same rule. Above the assembly-wide figures sits your desk: the four numbers and the one list that matter for your job today. A collector opens on the day's takings against their monthly target; a planning officer opens on the applications waiting for a decision, oldest first.

Your first day

1. Sign in with the username and temporary password you were given.
2. You will be asked to set your own password. Do it there and then.
3. Check your profile — your name, staff number and department are printed on documents you produce, so they need to be right.
4. Open the chapter in this manual for your own module and read it once through before you touch live records.

Things that are true everywhere

• Numbers are never typed twice. Receipt numbers, voucher numbers, application numbers and asset tags are all issued by the system, in sequence, and cannot be edited.
• Money is always in Ghana cedis and always shown to two decimal places in a monospaced figure, so columns line up the way a cash book does.
• Printing means your browser. Anywhere you see a Print button, use the browser's own print dialogue and choose "Save as PDF" if you need a soft copy. There is no separate export to install or maintain.
• Nothing important is deleted. A receipt is reversed, not removed. A voucher is rejected, not erased. The trail stays.

Using it on a phone

Most people using this are on a phone, at a counter or in a market, and the system is written for that first.

• The menu is behind the Menu button at the top left. It slides in over the page; tap outside it, press the cross, or follow any link to close it.
• The groups are folded on a phone so the whole menu fits on one screen. Tap a group to open it. The system remembers which ones you left open, so if you only ever work in Revenue, that is what you will see next time.
• A number beside a folded group is work waiting inside it — vouchers needing a decision, permits in process, open complaints. You can see what needs doing without opening anything.
• Tables become cards. On a narrow screen each row of a long table is stacked as a list of labelled values instead of scrolling sideways.

The map

Every record with a location shows on the assembly map — rated properties, businesses, projects on site, permit applications, citizen reports and the assembly's own offices. Anything that was never GPS-tagged is drawn at the centre of its electoral area, so it is roughly right rather than missing. Use the buttons above the map to switch layers on and off.