How to run the counter

Getting in, and what you're looking at

Your administrator creates your account and gives you a temporary password. It is temporary in the strict sense: you will not get past the front door with it.

1. Sign in with your email address and the password you were given.

2. You will land on a screen asking you to set your own password. This is not optional and there is no way around it.

   Type the temporary password once more, then your own twice. It has to be different from the temporary one.

3. Agree to the terms. Now you are in.

The shape of the screen

The sidebar down the left is the whole application. It is in three groups, and the grouping is worth learning because it tells you where to look for anything.

Top of the sidebar is Search. It looks across customers, quotes, invoices and items at once, so when you know the name or the number but not where it lives, start there.

Setting up the shop

Skip this part if somebody has already done it — but read the numbering note, because that one is hard to undo.

Everything here is under Settings, and most of it is administrator-only.

1. Company information. Name, address, phone, email, and your time zone. The address prints on every quote and invoice, so get it right once.

   The time zone matters more than it looks: every timestamp is shown in it, so if it is wrong, your day-end report covers the wrong day.

2. Your logo. Upload a PNG or JPEG. It goes on documents.

3. Numbering. Set the prefix and next number for quotes, invoices, purchase orders, credits and receipts — for example INV- starting at 1032.

4. Tax rates and payment terms. Add the rates you actually charge and the terms you actually offer. Terms start out as COD, Net 10, Net 20 and Net 30; change them to match how you really sell.

5. The document builder. This designs how a quote or invoice looks — colours, which fields show, the footer. It redraws a real document as you type, so you see what the customer sees.

No tax rate on purpose

The system does not invent a tax rate for you. A rate called “Standard” at 0% would be inherited by every customer and would compute tax as zero on every document — correctly, silently, and wrongly. Add your real rates before you sell anything.

Email

Out of the box your email is sent from a shared TopperBase address with your company name on it. That works immediately and needs no setup. Under Settings → Email sending you can:

• Add a reply-to address so that when a customer hits reply, it reaches you. You will be emailed a code to confirm it is really yours.
• Set up your own domain, so email comes from [email protected] instead. Two steps: prove the domain is yours with one record, then add three more. The screen checks each one and tells you exactly which is missing.
• Send a test email. It is a real message, not a simulation — if something is wrong you get the actual reason.

What you sell

Your catalogue is in two lists, and the split is not cosmetic.

How a topper gets its questions

For each manufacturer and model you sell, you build the list of questions that model actually needs — front glass, side windows, colour, rack, and so on. Each question is a dropdown, and each answer inside it can carry its own price.

Do that once, and from then on writing a quote for that topper is a matter of answering the questions in order. The prices add themselves.

Install packs

Rather than typing a labour line every time, set up named packs — Economy, Standard, Deluxe, whatever you call them — each with its own price. On a quote you pick the pack and the labour is priced.

Pricing levels

If you sell to dealers at different prices from walk-in customers, set up pricing levels and put each customer on one. The right price then follows the customer onto every quote without anyone remembering to apply it.

Your first customer

Go to Clients and choose New customer.

1. Pick Company or Private. A company gets a business name; a private customer gets a first and last name.

2. Fill in the phone, email and address. Only what you actually have — you can add the rest later.

3. Set their terms, their pricing level, and if they are tax exempt, tick it and record the exemption number.

4. Add their truck with Add truck — year, make, model, bed length, cab. This is what makes the parts fit, and you will be glad of it the second time they come in.

5. If it is a business with more than one person you deal with, use Add a contact for each. Every contact can have their own email, and you choose who gets a given document when you send it.

Your first quote

This is the screen you will spend most of your day on. Go to Quotes and start a new one.

1. Pick the customer. Their terms, pricing level and tax status come with them. So do their trucks — pick the one this job is for.

2. Add the topper. Use Find or add an item. Choosing a topper opens its questions: answer them down the list, and watch the line price change as you go.

3. Add the accessories. Same box, one line each. Quantities and prices are editable on the line if this job is a special case.

4. Add the labour. Pick an install pack, or add a line and type it.

5. Check the totals. Subtotal, tax and total are down the right. If the customer is tax exempt, tax is zero and the document says why.

6. Save, or Save and send to save and go straight to emailing it.

Sending it

On a saved quote, Send quote opens the compose screen. Tick who should get it — the customer's contacts are already listed — adjust the wording if you want, and send. The PDF attaches itself.

Where a quote can be

Draft is yours to edit. Sent means it has gone out. Accepted means they said yes. Converted means it has become an invoice and is now read-only. Expired happens on its own once the expiry date passes. Void is for one written in error — it stays on the record rather than vanishing.

Quote to invoice to paid

The customer says yes. There are two ways forward and they differ.

Taking payment

From the invoice, record a payment: amount, method, date and a reference. Part payments are fine — record each one as it arrives and the balance follows. When the balance reaches zero the invoice becomes Paid by itself.

When something goes back

A return, a warranty write-off or a billing correction is a credit, under Credits — not an edited invoice and not a negative one.

A credit carries its own date, which is the whole point: a return in August against a June invoice belongs in August's sales and August's tax filing. Every report reads the credit's date, never the original invoice's.

If you have to change a sent invoice

Reopen for editing puts it back to draft. Use it for a genuine mistake found quickly. If the customer has already paid or the work is done, a credit is the honest answer — it leaves a trail, and an edited invoice does not.

Tracking the work

An invoice says what was sold. Jobs says where the work has got to. Every invoice gets a job, and the board moves left to right:

On a job you can set:

• Assigned to — whose job it is.
• Promised by — what the customer was told.
• Booked in and Should take — when it is coming in and how long you expect it to need.
• Notes — including private ones the customer never sees.

Ordering what you haven't got

Orders shows what needs ordering, grouped by brand, ready to become purchase orders. Send the PO, and when the truck arrives, receive it against the PO.

Receiving a topper creates a record of that particular topper — its colour and the options it was ordered in — not just a count. So your stock list shows what is actually standing in the yard, and when it goes out on an invoice, that unit is marked sold and tied to that customer. Two years later you can still answer “which one did they get?”

Counting

Inventory adjustments is for when the shelf and the screen disagree: breakage, a miscount, a stock take. Record the adjustment with a reason rather than quietly editing a number, so the history explains itself later.

Knowing how you're doing

Dashboard is the morning screen: what is happening today, what is owed, what is booked in. Start there.

Reports is where you go with a question. These are the ones worth knowing by name.

A working rhythm