Administration · Setup & configuration · 9 min read

Apps and configuration changes

Install and turn off apps, switch features and fields on and off, and get the change approved by a second administrator.

Before you begin

The Apps screen is where you decide what the company uses. Go to Administration > Workspace > Apps.

• Installing and turning off apps needs company.manage.
• Proposing a configuration change needs apps.configure. Approving needs apps.config.approve.
• Two different people must be involved in any configuration change. Nobody approves their own proposal.

Browse and install

1. Open Apps. The facets are All, Installed, Not installed, Updates and Planned. Filter by Category, Status or Owner, search, and switch between grid and list.
2. Click Install on an app. Its dependencies are installed too, and the audit trail notes what each was needed by.
3. Click Open to go to the app.

Billing and Tax come with Finance. They show as installed when Finance is, with Comes with Finance, and have no Install or Turn off.

If an update exists, Review updates shows it and Upgrade now applies it. Sync catalogue refreshes the list.

Turn an app off

1. Open the app and click Turn off app.
2. Confirm.

Its menus disappear, and its API refuses requests with 'The <app> app is not installed for this company.' The records stay and come back if you install it again. If another installed app needs it, the button is disabled with Needed by ...; turn off the dependent app first.

Look inside an app

Open an app to see tabs: Overview, Versions, Dependencies, Capabilities, Features, Fields, Security & access, Evidence, Activity and Configuration.

Change features and fields (two people)

Administrator A proposes:

1. Open the app, for example Purchasing, and go to Features.
2. Switch a feature Off, for example Tenders. Only unprotected, switchable features can be changed. Others show a lock: Always on or Not available.
3. Go to Fields. For a field choose its Mode: Hidden, Optional, Required or Read-only, as the field allows. A field is forced Hidden while its feature is off. When hidden says what happens to the value and is enabled only for Hidden.
4. Click Preview changes. It lists what will change and anything Blocked, with the reason. If something is blocked, Propose stays disabled.
5. Type the Reason for the change (up to 500 characters). Empty gives 'Say why the configuration should change.'
6. Click Propose for approval. A banner says the change waits for approval.

Administrator B approves:

1. Open the same app and its Configuration tab.
2. Review the proposal and click Approve or Reject with a reason.

A proposer sees no approve option: 'Somebody other than its proposer approves it.'

What happens next

After approval the change is in force. A switched-off feature's menu disappears, and creating its records is refused with '... is disabled for this company.' while old records stay readable. A required field shows * and a document step is refused with '... is required by this company before this step.' until it is filled. A hidden field's box is gone, and the API refuses a value for it: '... is turned off for this company.' The Activity tab shows proposed and approved.

To go back, use Restore on an older revision. That creates a new proposal needing approval too.

Industry profiles

On some apps the Configuration tab offers a profile to apply in one go. For Sales these are Professional services, Retail - several branches and Trading - single site. Choose one, Preview, Propose and have it approved.

Good to know

• Protected controls, for example the Finance ledger, cannot be turned off ('A protected control cannot be turned off.').
• A change can be blocked by company facts. If a branch numbers its own documents, you cannot hide the branch field on Sales documents.
• Hiding a field does not delete old values.