Onboarding & Setup

Last updated June 2026

Overview & setup journey

This guide is for IT teams and super-users setting up a new out-of-the-box PlainSail installation. It walks through the configuration areas in the order they depend on each other, so that by the time you reach billing rates everything they rely on already exists.

All of this setup is done within PlainSail. Throughout the guide each area lists its menu path and its internal navigation address (shown as area/screen) so you can confirm you are in the right place.

The setup journey at a glance

Configuration falls into five stages. Each one builds on the stage before, so working top to bottom means everything a screen relies on already exists by the time you reach it. Select any item to jump straight to its section.

Pre-setup checklist

Before you start adding users, confirm the following are in place. New user records depend on them.

• You are signed in with the Administrator role.
• The company system configuration exists – creating or updating a user requires it.
• A default currency (system currency) is set – new users are assigned it automatically.
• A default staff rate band exists – new users are assigned it automatically (see Section 12).
• User groups exist if you want to set a user’s Reports to or Team (those dropdowns are filled from user groups).
• Entity permission groups exist if new users must see entities straight away – otherwise a newly created user sees nothing until added to one.

1. User groups

User groups collect users and roles together. Roles are assigned to a group, and every user in the group inherits those roles. Set up the groups you need before fine-tuning individual users, and remember that a user’s Reports to and Team values are chosen from user groups.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Utilities > User Groups
• Navigation address: admin/usergroups

Fields and panels

Control	What to enter	Required	Notes
Name	A name for the group.	Yes	Must be unique. Max 255 characters.
Description	What the group is for.	Yes	Max 5000 characters.
Users panel	Add or remove members. The picker hides users already in the group.	–	You cannot remove yourself, the system user, or the last administrator from the Administrators group.
Roles panel	Add or remove the roles granted to members.	–	The Administrator role is not offered to non-admin groups, and the Administrators group’s roles cannot be changed.

2. Entity permissions

Entity permission groups decide which users can see which business entities – this is separate from roles. A group has a name, an inclusion type, a set of entities, and a set of users.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Entity Permissions
• Navigation address: admin/entitiesallowed

Fields and controls

Control	What to do	Notes
Name	Name the permission group.	Required; must not duplicate an existing group.
Type	Choose the inclusion type (include or exclude).	Changing it warns that entity access may change.
Entities / Users tabs	Switch between the entities in the group and the users in the group.	–
Drag/drop lists	Move available entities or users into or out of the group.	The global groups have restricted editing.
Show/Hide Users	Include users in the entity list.	Warns when adding users as entities to an excluding group.

Useful extras: Who can see this? and What can they see? answer access questions for a chosen entity or user, and administrators can reset the global group to defaults with Fix Global Group. The global group cannot be deleted.

3. User setup

User setup creates and maintains the people who can sign in to PlainSail. A user is also a business entity behind the scenes, so creating a user also creates an entity record you can open and edit. With your user groups and entity permission groups already in place, you can place each new person into the right roles and entity access as you create them.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Utilities > Users
• Navigation address: admin/usersandgroups

The Users list screen

Control	What it does	Default
Show logged in users only	Shows only users currently detected as signed in.	Off
Show ‘can logon’ only	Hides users whose access has been switched off. Staff who have left are expected to have access removed rather than being deleted.	On
Search box	Filters by part of the user’s full name or Windows name.	Empty
Status dot	Read-only indicator – green when the user is signed in.	–
Firstname / Surname / Windows name	Read-only columns. Shown struck through when the user cannot sign in.	–
Has access	Read-only icon showing whether the user can sign in. Edit the user to change it.	–
Is in these groups / Has these roles	Read-only panels for the selected user; click a group or role to jump to its setup.	–

Create or edit a user (manual form)

Field	What to enter	Required	Default	Notes
Windows name *	The full Windows/domain login.	Yes	Empty	Must be unique. Max 100 characters.
Title	Optional title.	No	Empty	Max 25 characters.
First name *	The user’s first name.	Yes	Empty	Max 100 characters.
Last name *	The user’s last name.	Yes	Empty	Max 100 characters.
Other names	Middle or other names.	No	Empty	–
Email *	The user’s email address.	Yes	Empty	Must be a valid email format.
Start date *	The date the user starts.	Yes	Today	–
End date	The date the user leaves.	No	Empty	Does not by itself stop sign-in.
Can logon?	Tick to allow the user to sign in.	No	Ticked	Blocked if the licensed user limit is reached.
Auto-approve time?	Tick if the user’s submitted timesheets should approve automatically.	No	Off	–
Hours per week	Weekly working hours. Use 0 to keep the user out of time recording/billing.	No	System default	Between 0 and 168. For existing users this is read-only here – change it under Time Setup > Working Hours.
Target utilisation % *	Target percentage of chargeable time.	Yes	0	Whole number 0–100.
Reports to	The user group this person reports to.	No	None	Select a user group.
Team	The user group used as this person’s team.	No	None	Select a user group.

Actions on this screen

Action	What it does
+ (manual add)	Opens the create-user form with working hours pre-filled to the system default.
Edit	Opens the selected user. The protected system user cannot be edited.
Delete	Hard-deletes if possible; otherwise just switches off the user’s access to preserve history. You cannot delete yourself or the system user.
Impersonate	Temporarily takes on the selected user’s roles (until restart or refresh permissions) to test access. The system user cannot be impersonated.

Worked example: create a new user

4. Workspaces

Workspaces categorise document filing. Each workspace has a type, a name, the users and documents linked to it, and an optional “default for fast tagging” flag.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Documents > Workspaces
• Navigation address: admin/workspaces

Fields and controls

Field	What to enter	Required	Notes
Name	The workspace name.	Yes	Must be unique. Max 255 characters.
Type	The workspace type.	Yes	New workspaces offer Customer Record and Organisation Record.
Default for fast-tagging	Marks this workspace as the default for fast tagging.	No	Setting a new default automatically clears the previous one.

5. Standard inventories & registers

PlainSail ships with a library of standard inventories and registers – structured data collections such as CDD questionnaires, risk assessments, and compliance registers (gifts & benefits, breaches, conflicts of interest, and more). Over 37 system templates are provided out of the box, and they can be configured to match your firm’s requirements.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Inventories > Templates

System inventories are locked by default to protect the reports, workflows and integrations that depend on them. Even while locked you can still set each template’s assignment group (who can access it) and category (how it is grouped in lists and reports). To change the fields themselves a template can be unlocked – coordinate with PlainSail Support first, as unlocking affects how future platform updates merge.

6. Country risk table

Country setup stores each country’s identity, tax-reporting flag, currency, accounting deadline, and country-risk data – corruption perception index, risk scores, overall risk, sanctions, and the reasons behind them. The risk scores recorded here feed the risk rating thresholds in the next section, which is how each country’s risk is applied when assessing the risk of your entities. PlainSail ships with the full standard ISO country list; you can add further countries if you need them.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Global Information > Countries
• Navigation address: admin/countries

Fields and controls

Field	What to enter	Required	Notes
Iso Code	The 2-letter country code.	Yes	Max 2 characters.
Iso 3 Code	The 3-letter country code.	Yes	Max 3 characters.
Name	The country name.	Yes	Max 100 characters.
Risk fields	Corruption Perception Index, Risk Score, Other Risk Score, Overall Risk, reasons, Has sanctions, and Sanction description.	No	Saved directly against the country.
Currency	The country’s currency.	No	Chosen from all currencies.
Accounting deadline months	The accounting deadline in months.	No	0–12.
In use? / Tax Reportable	Whether the country is active and whether it is tax reportable.	No	–

7. Risk rating thresholds

Risk ratings translate a numeric risk score into a named rating. Each rating has a name, a threshold, and an in-use flag. When scoring, PlainSail orders ratings by descending threshold and uses the first whose threshold is at or below the score.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Admin > Global Information > Risks
• Navigation address: admin/riskratings

Fields and controls

Field	What to do	Required	Notes
Show in use only?	Filters the list to active ratings.	–	On by default.
Name *	The rating name.	Yes	Must be unique. Max 100 characters.
Threshold *	The numeric threshold for matching.	Yes	Cannot be negative.
Is In Use?	Whether the rating is available for use.	No	–

8. Screening integration

Screening runs external background checks and ongoing monitoring of your entities through third-party providers. If your firm screens through PlainSail, confirm the integration is enabled and configured as part of onboarding.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Global Info > Screening

PlainSail supports LSEG World-Check and RiskScreen for automated (API) screening, plus a Manual File option where automated screening is not available. Administrators click Configure Screening API to enter the provider credentials (your World-Check or RiskScreen API details). Viewing screening needs the Screening_View role; configuring it needs Screening_Administer.

9. Chart of accounts & account plans

The chart of accounts is maintained as ledgers. Each ledger has a code, a name, the ledger it totals to, currency/entity constraints, an account type, a ledger type, and reconciliation flags. Account plans are named sets of non-totalling ledgers.

During onboarding, review PlainSail’s standard chart against your existing one: confirm the account structure fits, identify any gaps, and map your current ledgers across so balances and reporting line up. Add or amend ledgers and account plans as needed before you start posting.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Bookkeeping > Chart of Accounts (with Account Plans and Account Types alongside)
• Navigation addresses: bookkeeping/ledgersview and bookkeeping/accountplans

Chart of accounts (ledgers)

Field / action	Behaviour
Code	Required and greater than 0; must be unique and lower than its totalling ledger. Used ledgers cannot change code. Totalling codes conventionally end in 99 (you are warned otherwise).
Name	Required and unique. Totalling ledger names conventionally contain “total” (you are warned otherwise).
Type / Account type / Subledger	Must be compatible with each other. Totalling ledgers use the undefined account type; investment ledgers use an investment subledger and cannot carry a currency or FX revalue.
Totals to / Closes to	Totals to is required. Closes to needs both credit and debit, cannot point at a totalling ledger, and warns on currency mismatches.
Delete ledger	Blocked if other ledgers total or close to it. If unused it is deleted; if used it is marked inactive.

Account plans

Field / action	Behaviour
Name	Required and unique.
Is In Use?	Controls whether the plan can be used. Deleting a used plan marks it not in use instead.
Account list	Must include at least one non-totalling ledger – totalling ledgers cannot be added.
Add a new ledger to a plan	After creating a ledger you are prompted to add it to account plans.

10. Fee types

Fee types categorise the charges you raise and control how work in progress is posted to the general ledger. Set these up before your rates, because activity rates are priced against fee types used for time recording.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Billing > Fee Setup > Fee Types

Each fee type has a category – Flat Fee, Disbursement, Time Record, or Deposit – which determines the configuration fields shown and how the charge behaves. Time Record fee types are the ones that become chargeable activities in Section 11.

11. Activity rates

Activity rates set the price for a chargeable activity, optionally scoped by client and charging entity, with optional per-user overrides. The activity must be a fee type used for time recording.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Billing / Time Setup > Activity Rates
• Navigation address: billing/rates/activityrates

Fields and controls

Field	What to do	Notes
Filters	Filter by Activity, Client, Charging Entity, and “Show in use only?”.	“Show in use only” is on by default.
Activity	Select the activity to price.	Required – if there are no valid activities, add/edit is blocked.
Client / Charging entity	Optional scoping.	Leave blank for a generic rate that applies to any client/entity.
Rate	The rate for the activity.	Optional and not negative. A blank rate with no client/entity/override falls back to the user’s default rate band (you are warned).
Overrides	Per-user rate overrides.	Need a saved activity rate first; each user appears once and rates cannot be negative.

12. Charge-out rates

Charge-out rates are built from staff rate bands (each containing one or more sub-bands with a rate) and a per-user rate band assignment. New users are given the default staff rate band automatically, so a default band must exist before you add people (it is on the pre-setup checklist). Define your full set of bands and allocate them to users as one of the last parts of your user setup.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Billing / Time Setup > Rate Bands and Staff Rate Bands
• Navigation addresses: billing/rates/ratebands and billing/rates/staffrates

Rate bands and sub-bands

Field	What to do	Notes
Band Name	Name the rate band.	Required and unique.
Sub-band Name	Name each sub-band within the band.	Required and unique within the band.
Unit Rate / Hourly Rate	Enter the rate. “Enter hourly” converts an hourly figure into the stored unit rate.	–
Default?	Marks the default sub-band.	Exactly one sub-band must be the default; the first one you add is set as default.
Apply retrospectively	Optionally apply rate changes from a chosen date.	Updates uninvoiced time records from that date. The date must be today or earlier.

Assigning rate bands to users

Control	What it does	Notes
Staff rate list	Shows users and their current rate band.	Only lists users who can sign in.
Filter by band	Filters the list by rate band.	–
Change	Sets a new staff rate band for a user.	–
Apply retrospectively	Maps old sub-bands to new ones and updates the user’s uninvoiced records.	Without this, only future time records use the new band.

13. Invoice templates & billing emails

Finally, set up how invoices are produced and issued. Each charging entity – the legal entity that invoices are raised from – carries the templates and numbering that control the look of your invoices and statements.

Where to find it

• Menu path: Billing > Fee Setup > Charging Entities

Against each charging entity you set the invoice template (a Word .docx defining the invoice layout), the client statement template, the invoice number pattern, and the default tax band. Entity billing preferences then link each billed entity to a charging entity, including the invoice currency and payment method.

If you issue outgoing invoices to clients by email, confirm the automated billing emails are switched on and addressed correctly before go-live. The exact email setup is environment-specific – agree it with your PlainSail implementation contact.

Tips & Warnings

Good to know

• Work through the stages in order – later areas reuse the user groups, users, and rate bands created earlier.
• A user is also a business entity. Creating a user creates an entity record you can open from the edit form.
• New users automatically receive the system currency and the default staff rate band, so make sure both exist before adding people.
• Most reference data (countries, risk ratings, ledgers, rate bands, activity rates) is never truly deleted once it has been used – it is marked not in use instead, preserving history.

Things to watch out for

• A new user with no entity permissions sees nothing. After creating a user, add them to an inclusion entity-permission group or they will not see any entities.
• Exclusion always beats inclusion. If a user is in both an included and excluded permission group for the same entity, the entity stays hidden.
• Licence limits can block sign-in. If the licensed user count is reached, you cannot save a new user (or switch an existing one) with Can logon? ticked.
• Existing weekly hours are read-only on the user form. Change them from Time Setup > Working Hours instead.
• Retrospective rate changes touch live data. Applying a rate band or staff-rate change retrospectively updates uninvoiced time records from the chosen date.
• You cannot delete yourself or the system user, and the Administrators group and its roles are protected.

FAQ

What order should I configure things in?

Define your user groups and entity permissions first, then create users and slot them in. Next set up workspaces and your standard inventories & registers, then the risk and compliance data: country risk table → risk rating thresholds → screening integration. Finish with the finance foundations (chart of accounts and fee types) and time & billing (activity rates, charge-out rates, and invoice templates & billing emails). The numbered sections above follow this order.

Can I assign a role directly to a user?

No. Roles are always assigned to user groups. Create a group with the role you need and add the user to it – the user inherits the role through membership.

I created a user but they can’t see any entities. Why?

Entity visibility comes from entity permission groups, not from the user record. Add the user to an inclusion group that contains the entities they need (Section 2).

A new user can’t sign in. What should I check?

Confirm their Windows name matches their actual login (DOMAIN\username), that Can logon? is ticked, and that the licence limit has not been reached.

How are charge-out rates actually structured?

Through three pieces: staff rate bands (each containing one or more sub-bands with a rate), and a per-user rate band assignment. New users get the default staff rate band automatically; you change an individual’s band from Staff Rate Bands.

What is the difference between an activity rate and a charge-out rate?

An activity rate sets the price for a specific chargeable activity (optionally per client or charging entity, with per-user overrides). A charge-out rate is the user’s default rate, driven by their staff rate band. If no activity rate matches, billing falls back to the user’s rate band.

Why can’t I edit or delete the system user?

It is a protected internal account – it cannot be edited, deleted, impersonated, or removed from the Administrators group.

What happens when I delete reference data that is already in use?

For countries, risk ratings, ledgers, rate bands and activity rates, PlainSail first tries a physical delete. If the record is referenced elsewhere it is marked not in use instead, so existing records keep working.

Project plan checklist

A high-level plan you can copy into your own project tracker and tick off as you go. The order follows the five setup stages above.

Done	Stage	Task	Section
☐	People & access	Create the user groups your firm needs and assign roles to each	1. User groups
☐	People & access	Set up entity permission groups so users can see the right entities	2. Entity permissions
☐	People & access	Add your users and place each into the right groups and permissions	3. User setup
☐	Documents & data	Create the workspaces used for document filing	4. Workspaces
☐	Documents & data	Review and configure the standard inventories & registers	5. Inventories & registers
☐	Risk & compliance	Check the country risk table and add any missing countries	6. Country risk table
☐	Risk & compliance	Set your risk rating thresholds	7. Risk rating thresholds
☐	Risk & compliance	Enable and configure your screening integration	8. Screening integration
☐	Finance foundations	Review, map and adjust the chart of accounts	9. Chart of accounts
☐	Finance foundations	Set up your fee types	10. Fee types
☐	Time & billing	Define activity rates for chargeable activities	11. Activity rates
☐	Time & billing	Create staff rate bands and allocate them to users	12. Charge-out rates
☐	Time & billing	Configure invoice templates and confirm automated billing emails	13. Invoice templates & emails