This tutorial explains what an Administrator needs to do when setting up Blaq.

Welcome to Blaq!

Before you can start using Blaq, you need to complete its setup. If you follow the steps in this tutorial the process will be quite simple.

These steps are:

• Quick Introduction
  
• Setup your Company
  
• Add Employees (Users)
  
• Add Groups
  
• Add Products
  
• Add Customers and Suppliers
  
• Set the System Options

The steps should be followed in order. If you don't complete a step, you mightn't be able to complete a step further on.

It might look like there is a lot to do, but many of the steps don't require any work at all as the information has already been setup for you. However, occasionally you might want to make changes to the pre-loaded information to tailor Blaq to your requirements.

Quick Introduction

Before we start the setup procedure, there are a few things to learn that will make using Blaq easier and quicker. You'll find after using Blaq for just a short time, it will become very easy to use and to navigate around. Navigation is mostly done using the menus on the left of the screen.

At the top of the screen you will see a title which tells you the 'section' in Blaq you are in. Below that is often a set of tabs, generally for accessing different sub-sections of the section you're in. Under the tabs, there will usually be a toolbar with various buttons such as New, Save, Print for functions such as adding and saving records, printing, etc. but the buttons displayed will depend on what you're doing in Blaq at the time. 

To go to any part of Blaq, you can click on the section in the navigation menu at the top of the window. When you access most of the sections of Blaq, the first thing you'll see is a list of records. Often, there may be more records in the list than can fit on the page. If you look towards the top right of the screen, you'll see how many records there are as well as buttons to move forward and backward in the list. When you've found the record you want, simply double-click on it with your mouse to open it.

Wherever you see some text underlined in green, it means it's a tip and if you move your mouse over it you'll see some more information about that field.

Setup your Company

Open your company in the Company section. The details you entered when you subscribed to Blaq have already been included, but you can make changes here if you like.

Within the Company section are several sub-sections related to your company. These include:

• GL Accounts (general ledger accounts)
• Bank Accounts
• Tax Rates
• Payment Terms
• Payment Gateways
• Payment Methods
• Territories
• Activity Types
  

These are all accessed using the tabs at the top of the Company section. Click on any of the tabs to see the information for that sub-section. For most of these, default information has already been added when you subscribed. You can change or add any of the information as necessary.

GL Accounts

General Ledger (GL) Accounts are used for reporting purposes and for exporting sales or purchasing data to an accounting package.

In order to be compatible with the many different accounting packages available, you can setup your own General Ledger Accounts in Blaq to suit the accounting package. Each product in Blaq is assigned to one of these accounts so that sales and purchasing data for each product can be linked to the account. You need to create at least one account before you can create your products.

Bank Accounts

You can setup any number of accounts with banks and other institutions for credit cards, debit cards, direct deposits, etc.

The fields include:

• Display Name - the name to be displayed when it is shown in other sections of Blaq. This could be an abbreviation of the full account name.
  
• Account Name - the exact name as used by the bank.
  
• Bank Name - the name of the bank the account is held with.
  
• Branch/BSB - either the branch of the bank where the account is held, or it's BSB (Bank/State/Branch number).
  
• Account Number - the account number used by the bank for this account.
  
• Type - the type of account. The options are Asset, Equity or Loan.
  

Tax Rates

To suit different financial systems, different tax rates can be created. You need to create at least one tax rate.

The details for each tax rate are:

• Code - this is an alphanumeric code of up to three characters to identify the tax rate, eg. 'GST'.
• Description - a description of the tax rate, eg. 'G.S.T. (10%)'. This description is what is displayed in the transaction when choosing the tax rate for the transaction and its components. This can be up to 40 characters.
• Type - set to 'Goods & Services Tax' or 'Sales Tax' to determine how the tax on sales & purchases using it are handled when exported.
  
• Rate - the rate as a percentage, eg '10.00'. For a tax rate the equivalent of being exempt of tax, this should be '0'.
• Paid Category - the GL Category this tax should be linked to for purchases.
  
• Received Category - the GL Category this tax should be linked to for sales.

Once a tax rate has been assigned to a product it cannot be deleted.

Payment Terms

When you create a customer you must set the customer's payment terms. Enter the different payment terms your company allows in this section. You need to create at least one payment term.

Payment Gateways

This section is for adding payment gateways which will link to credit cards for payment processing.

Payment Methods

In this section you can setup the different types of payments your company accepts.

These will appear in the payment sections of accounts payable and accounts receivable. Any number of different types of payment methods can be used.

Territories

Each customer can be assigned a territory, though it's not required. This allows you to separate your customers into groups based on where they are located which is useful for reporting purposes.

When adding a territory, give it a Code (up to 4 characters) and a Description (up to 40 characters). For example, it could be 'NS' and 'Northern Suburbs'. Depending on the area your business services, make the description appropriate. If you only service a single city, then 'Northern Suburbs' would be fine. If your customers are in multiple states or countries, the description should be more specific such as 'Sydney - Northern Beaches' or 'USA - West Coast'. If your customers are generally all local then setting territories might not be useful.

Once you have added territories, you can assign them to customers in the [url=cust]Customer Setup[/url] section.

After adding a territory it's code can't be changed, though it's description can. A territory can't be deleted if customers have been assigned to it - change the customer's territory to a different territory first then you can delete the territory.

Activity Types

This is where you can define the types of activities available.

Activities types are available in:

• planner - activities can be assigned any activity type where 'Planner Activity' is set to 'Yes'.
• timesheets - each timesheet is either assigned to a job or can be assigned to any activity type where 'Timesheet Activity' is set to 'Yes'.
  
• sales and purchasing - within jobs, quotes, purchase orders etc. tasks can be created. The task can be labeled with any activity type where 'Task Activity' is set to 'Yes'.
  

Company Setup Complete

Once you've completed the previous steps, your company is setup.

The following steps relate to to your employees, customers, suppliers and the products or services you buy and sell.

Add Employees (Users)

When you subscribed to Blaq, the details you entered were used to add you as a user. If you like, you can add more users, though only one user is required. Users are added in the Employee section.

Employees are users of Blaq and will usually be your company's staff, but you can also add people from outside your company (eg. a bookkeeper) who needs access to your Blaq system.

As well as adding people who will be using Blaq, you can also add people who need to be shown in Blaq. For example, you can add details for people who will be working on jobs, even if they won't actually be using Blaq themselves. You need to add at least one user.

Once you've created a user, you should set their access rights to determine which parts of Blaq they will be allowed to use.

Add Groups

Products, Customers and Contacts all use Groups in Blaq to make it easier to search for them. Before adding Products, Customers or Contacts setup some Groups in the Groups section.

Groups are used in Blaq for labelling various types of records, such as products, customers and contacts.

Groups can either be Company groups which are accessible by everyone or Personal groups which can be setup by each user for their own use. This section is used for creating and modifying groups for use by all employees.

Groups for Customers and Contacts can also be setup by individual users for their own use. This is done in the user's [url=pref]Preferences[/url] section.

When searching for customers, contacts or products, groups make it easier to find what you are looking for.

Add Products

Products are the goods and services you sell. Before adding components to sales or puchasing transactions you will need to add products. You can do this in the Products sections or by importing them in the Import section.

Products are the goods and services you buy and sell.

Before you can start creating transactions in Blaq, you need to setup these Products. Blaq allows you to define many different types of products and an unlimited number of them. Each product can also have multiple pricing levels defined for it.

Add Customers and Suppliers

You need to add Customers and Suppliers before creating sales or puchasing transactions. You can do this in the Customer Setup or Supplier Setup sections or by importing them in the Import section.

Customer accounts are used when creating a quote or job. This section is for creating and maintaining your customers details, including addresses, contacts and contract pricing.

Within the Customer Setup section you can assign a customer multiple addresses and contacts. If products have been setup, you can assign special Contract Pricing for a customer. Also, you can preset special comments for easy loading in jobs & quotes for a customer. Once a customer's account has been used in a transaction it cannot be deleted.


Supplier accounts are used when creating a bill or purchase order in the Purchasing Module. This section is for creating and maintaining your suppliers details, including addresses, contacts and contract pricing.

Within the Supplier Setup section you can assign a supplier multiple addresses and contacts. If products have been setup, you can assign special Contract Pricing for a supplier. Also, you can preset special comments for easy loading in purchase orders for a supplier.

Once a supplier's account has been used in a transaction it cannot be deleted.

Set the System Options

The last step is setting the System Options. These are settings that affect all users, such as date formats and optional fields in transactions and they'll be set with the default Blaq installation settings. You may want to change these depending on your Company's preferences.


Change the options as necessary. There are multiple tabs near the top of the window so make sure you look through the settings in each tab. If you're unsure of a setting the default settings are often the best settings so you can leave them as is. You can always return to this section at any time and make changes when necessary.