General Setup

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Basic General Setup

This section describes the steps that need to be performed first to configure Openbravo.

Openbravo installations require at least a Client and an Organization. Client and Organization are the two key concepts within the General Setup.
In other words it is no possible to issue an invoice or to post a journal entry to the ledger in Openbravo, if there is no a Client and an Organization properly created and configured.

The first steps to follow to configure Openbravo are:

• the Installation of the Localization Packs if available for the country.

Openbravo can be localized for any country thanks to a key Openbravo feature which is Modularity.

A Localization Pack can include at least:

- the complete translation for the official language(s) in the country.
The language is automatically available once the localization Pack has been successfully installed, therefore can be selected as described at User Preferences

- the chart of accounts that defines the accounting structure if any to comply with the approved local practice and laws.
The Chart of Accounts is available for selection just while running either the Initial Client Setup or the Initial Organization Setup, see below.

- and the setup of the taxes which comply with the in-country tax authorities requirements.
The setup of the taxes is also available for selection while running either the Initial Client Setup or the Initial Organization Setup, and even in the "Enterprise Module Management" window

The localization pack as well as any other modules or packs can be installed in the application path General Setup // Application // Module Management which is accessible while logging as Openbravo/openbravo
and changing the Role to "System Administrator".

This can be considered the first basic step while setting Openbravo instances as it is required to install first the localization packs if any, in order to apply the accounting reference data or Chart of Accounts while creating either the "Client" or the "Organization" later on, see below.

To learn more about Localization, visit the Localization Guide

• the Initial Client Setup

A Client in Openbravo is the top-most level of configuration and data within Openbravo.

Above means that certain configuration such as users, customers, vendors and other master data can be managed in a client and therefore be available across all the organizations within the client.

Each client can host at least one or even more than one organization that can be used to model your enterprise.

The Initial Client setup is the process which creates a Client in Openbravo. A Client cannot be created manually.

This process besides creating a Client allows to select the reference data included in the module/s or pack/s already installed.
All that data, if applied to the Client, will we shared by all the organizations which belongs to the Client.

As a side note:
There is a "System Client" which is automatically created by Openbravo as part of the Openbravo installation process.
This client handles application data such as tables, columns and fields and it also manages some data which can be shared across all the Clients such as currencies, countries and regions and units of measure.

• the Initial Organization setup

An Organization is the second level of configuration and data.

Organizations can be structured in a hierarchical way within a Client providing multiple options while modelling your enterprise.

There are different types of Organizations which can either be independent legal entities or not.

Legal entities can either require accounting or not and Not Legal Entities can either allow transactional data or not.

The Initial Organization setup is the process which creates Organizations in Openbravo.
An Organization can be created once the Client it belongs to has been created.
An Organization cannot be created manually.

Same way this process besides creating an Organization allows to select the reference data included in the module/s or pack/s already installed.
This time the data, if applied to the Organization, will be available just for the Organization being created.

As a side note:
There is an Organization named (*) which is automatically created at the same time that the "System Client" is created. Every organization created later on will hierarchically be located below it.

• and the Users and Roles setup.

Openbravo security can be split into "Functional" and "Data" security.

"Functional" security manage the access rights to Openbravo entities such as Windows and Processes by properly setting up users and roles:

A User is an entity which can log into Openbravo whenever it has a password and at least one role assigned.

Each person accessing Openbravo should have a different user assigned properly configured.

A Role is the connection between users and access rights to Organizations, Windows, Processes and Forms in Openbravo.

Access rights are fist configured at role level, roles are then assigned to the user/s.

As a side note:
Openbravo creates two users by default, the "System" user and the "Openbravo" user:

- the "System" user is the owner of Openbravo application data. It is not possible to log into Openbravo as "System" user.

- the "Openbravo" user is a "super" user which have access to any Openbravo Client.
The password assigned to this user is "openbravo", however it can be changed if needed in the User window.
This user is assigned to the "System Administrator Role", a role with no access restrictions.

Data security is an advance setting as it manages the access rights to subsets of data within Openbravo entities such as Windows and Processes, by properly setting up the Data Access Level at table level and the User Access Level:

Data Access level defines the client and/or the organization each record is going to be visible from. Every table in Openbravo has a "Data Access Level" column.

User Access Level allows to limit the records which will be accessible in entities such as Windows, Processes, Forms, Widget Classes and Views for a role, or even limit the access to a given entity.

Basic Setup Diagram

Below diagram visually shows the Openbravo "basic" General Setup flow for a legal entity with accounting. This flow is one part of the overall Business setup flow.

In the example above the "Accounting" data can not be shared across all the organization/s of the client because it was not applied at client level but to the Organization being created.
This setup would fit in the case of a Client which has one or more independent legal entities with accounting underneath, same as the sample client shipped with Openbravo by default (F&B sample client).

There is a close relationship between the general setup which allows the creation and configuration of your enterprise, and the accounting configuration area because to set a "Legal with Accounting" Organization as ready requires below accounting items to be properly created and configured first:

1. a Fiscal Calendar
2. and an organization's General Ledger configuration which includes a dimension that is the Account Tree or "Chart of Accounts".

The Fiscal Calendar once manually created can be available to all the organizations within the client if it is created for the (* (asterisk)) organization.

A defaulted General Ledger configuration and the Chart of Accounts can be automatically created if an "Accounting" reference data such as a "Localization Pack" containing a Chart of Accounts module is installed and applied to the Organization. Moreover, in case there is no a Localization Pack for your country, Openbravo delivers a Generic Chart of Accounts module which if installed and applied creates a sample Chart of Accounts and a defaulted General Ledger configuration which can be later on customized to meet the needs of your organization.

To learn more about accounting, please review the Financial Management Introduction article.

Back to the General Setup area, above Openbravo basic setup is briefly explained in the Business Setup section of the Quick Guide.

You can review below User Guide links in the other listed below if if it is required to learn more above each of the basic configuration concepts:

• Initial Client Setup
• Client
• Initial Organization Setup
• Fiscal Calendar
• Organization
• User
• Role

Advanced General Setup

General Setup application area is also the place where additional and not that basic Openbravo setup is also configured by not following a specific flow of events.

• the Enterprise Module Management

This window allows to apply any kind of reference data but the "Chart of Accounts" (as the Chart of Accounts is not a dataset but a csv file):

- to the (*) organization, this way the reference data will be shared across all the Organizations within the client

- to a specif organization of the client, this way the reference data will only be available for the organization

- or to a set of organizations of the client, this way the reference data will only be available for those organizations.

This window is very useful in those cases where the Organization/s are already created therefore a dataset of a module or pack can not be installed through the Initial Client Setup.

• the Process Request

This window allows to schedule processes such as:

the "Accounting Server Process", this process is a system process which once scheduled search and automatically post documents

the "Heartbeat Process", this process is a system process which once scheduled collects information about Openbravo installations

the "Costing Background Process", this process calculates the cost of the material/product related transactions

The Process Monitor window allows to review the status of every scheduled processes.

• the Preferences

This window allows to customize the Openbravo instance for a user/s or for an organization/s, for instance:

It is possible to configure through a preference that the recent views or windows viewed are shown in the user workspace.

It is also possible to configure through a preference that "Post" buttons and "Accounting" related tabs are shown for a user/s.

It is also possible to configure the Audit Trail feature through a preference.

• the Alerts

Alerts are the way Openbravo informs about events of any kind happening.

An alert can be notifications such as "Customers with exceed credit", "Products under stock" or "Bank Accounts without accounting information".

Openbravo supports the configuration of many type of alerts.

• Most Openbravo windows can be shown two ways which are:
  • in Grid view
  • and in Form view

Besides, Openbravo allows the customization of the views. Customized views can be stored and retrieved when needed.

The Window Personalization window is the place where customized "Windows" and "Form" are stored after being saved and therefore maintained.

"Grid" settings are stored in the preference window thanks to a specific property named "Grid Configuration".

• Openbravo allows to log-in by using a Google account, there are two ways to get that working:
  • one way is by linking the existing Openbravo users to a Google account.
    This way is configured by using the Google Account Association process
  • another way is by allowing that any user with a Google account can log-in.
    This way is configured by using the Google Integration Preference window.
    This window allows to pick the most restrictive role of the client and assign it to those users do not linked to a Google account.

Finally, once Openbravo is installed there is some data created by default which does not require any action taken by the end-user, that is:

• the Currencies
• and the Countries and regions

This data is store at "System Client" level which implies that it is shared among all the clients and organizations in the Openbravo environment.

If the organization deals with foreign customers and vendors the conversion rates should be manually defined in the Conversion Rates window.

Application Menu

General Setup area is split in several folders which collect similar settings.
Now let us review each folder and window mentioned above in more detail.

Application

Application folder gathers multi-data settings, attributes values or specific properties settings at different levels as well as alerts configuration.

• Alert
• Alert Management
• Conversion Rates
• Country and Region
• Currency
• Data Import Entries
• Data Import Entry Archive
• Direct Process Import Entries
• External System
• Preference
• Session Preferences
• Window Personalization
• Attachments Configuration

CRM Connector

ManualDoc:SectionGeneral Setup CRM Connector(Openbravo Admin)

• CRM Connector Configuration

Client

Client folder collects client basic configuration as well as the role of the client to assign to those users do not linked to a Google account.

• Client

Enterprise Model

Enterprise Model folder allows to create and model the Organizations which belongs to a Client.

• Enterprise module management
• Initial organization setup
• Organization

Process Scheduling

Process Scheduling folder allows to schedule and monitor Openbravo background processes.

It also allows to configure (as System Admin) frequency for Logs Clean Up.

• Process Group
• Process Monitor
• Process Request

Security

Security folder allows to create and cofigure basic security entities such as users, user roles and access rights.

• Audit Trail
• Role
• User

Workspace

ManualDoc:SectionGeneral Setup Workspace(Openbravo Admin)

• Widget

Advanced

• Export Client
• Organization Type
• Role Access
• Widget Instance

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