Initial Client Setup Process

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Table of Contents#System Administator's Guide{{#if: Implementation| | Implementation }}{{#if: | | [[{{{3}}}]] }}{{#if: | | [[{{{4}}}]] }}{{#if: | | [[{{{5}}}]] }} | Initial Client Setup Process{{#if: | | [[{{{next}}}]] }} ⇒

Before you can start using ADempiere for your business, you have to define a new Client in the system. There is a process that will create the Client and also create two initial user accounts and sufficient supporting data that you can start to work with the new Client to complete the implementation.

Background

  • The Client is the highest level of an independent business entity. Each Client will have:
    • one or more Organizations reporting to it.
    • one primary but possibly several Accounting Schema or sets of books
    • a set of tree definitions for menus, organizations, business partners, products, projects, sales regions, activities and campaigns
    • Unit of Measure (UOM) definitions for non-monetary units of measure such as volume, weight, length and time
    • Control of the request management system and more specifically the email server
    • and a few other controls

ADempiere has already two clients predefined for you. The first is the System Client, which you will use to add your Client and configure your system. The second is the GardenWorld sample Client, which you can use for testing and evaluation purposes. The GardenWorld client has some data inserted that you can work with. You do not delete these two clients, but create a new one for your business

The Clients are managed in the {{#if: |{{{2}}}|Client }} Window. However, you can't just create a new Client. The Client is only visible to its own users so unless users exist, there is no way to log into the Client. To get around this, ADempiere provides a process to create a new Client and setup the initial users. The process will require a Chart of Accounts (COA) as a CSV file.

Beginning of Implementation

If you haven't done it already, create a Chart of Accounts file or make one that is suitable for your Client. While the COA can be changed later, it is far easier to make changes now.

Login to ADempiere as the System or SuperUser user. See Logging In to the Client.

Go to System Admin{{#if: Client Rules |  » Client Rules }}{{#if: |  »  }}{{#if: |  »  }}{{#if: |  »  }} and click on Initial Client Setup Process. The following screen will appear:

 

InitialClientSetupProcess.png

 

Some of those fields are:

  • Client: is the name of your company, we filled with YourClient.
  • Organization: is often a legal entity or sub-unit for which documents and transactions are processed. By example, we filled with YourOrganization; you may define others organization in a later time. Often, in small companies the Client and the Organization are the same.
  • YourclientAdmin and YourclientUser are the initial users that will be enabled to login into the system.
  • Leave the Business Partner and the Product checkboxes checked and the others unchecked. Those selections will be used to define the Accounting Schema. Afterwards, if you want, you can change these settings, for example to add Sales Region, Projects, etc.

Please, note the Ok button is disabled. Before you can continue, you must

  • select the Load Accounting Values Format button.
    • you select a comma separated file,
      • AccountingUS.csv which is a US sample of Chart of Accounts (COA).

You can define your own COA based on that sample and load that instead. The COA is required by ADempiere for its Financial Integration operations.

  • Then, press the Load Accounting button...
Load Accounting Dialog.PNG
  • and choose your COA file.
Load Accounting Dialog OK.PNG

Now you can see the Ok button enabled, and now the path to the accounts file is displayed with your choosed. Press the Ok button to continue...

Initial Client Setup Processing.PNG
  • and wait for the process to finish.

Then the new window is opened:

Initial Client Setup Finish.PNG

which show you the Users, Roles and all the standard entities that were created.

Refining the implementation

The next step will be to check and update the initial settings. To do it,

  • logout from ADempiere,
  • and login again,

but with your client-level Role you have just created (YourclientAdmin in the example). The initial password to your client-level Role is same as your client-level role name.

Then we'll go to the Initial Client Setup Review workflow to continue.

Tips

  • In order to assure the standard default entities were created and the security infrastructure was defined correctly, the only way to add new clients is through the Initial Client Setup form.
  • The Initial Client Setup will load only the defaults accounts. In order to load all your non default accounts and create your account hierarchy, you must log in the system with your new Admin Role. Now there are two steps to follow. First go down the Menu to System Admin > Data > Data Import > Import File Loader and choose your COA file (set the Import Format to 'Accounting - Accounts' value). Confirm your choice and the accounts already reside in an I_* table in the database. The second step in the import procedure (by placing the imported accounts into a PA_* table in the database) is to go down the Menu to System Admin > Data > Data Import > Import Account window. In there just press the 'Import Accounts' button. Choose your relevant Element and data-importing behavior and confirm. After the process is finished you have to log out and log back in. If you select the 'Element Value' tab in the Account Element you will see your Chart Of Accounts organized in your preferred hierarchy. By the way this two-staged importing mechanism is employed in the addition of the major business objects into your system (e.g. Business Partners, Products, etc.).
  • About Accounts File: If you change the .csv example file, to adapt to your needs, be careful: you must have one and only one account defined for each of the Default Accounts. Otherwise, the process will fail. The file is required with unmodified structure when you initially create a new Client. To change the example account file, we advice you:
Delete all lines with exception of the ones, which have Default Accounts.
Change the lines (value/key, name, description) as you need for your chart of accounts.
Add the other accounts in your chart of accounts.
Above steps are easily done using Adempiere Account editor (see the wiki article)