Customizing the main menu

Suprata covers a lot of trades in one product. A plan that includes Auto Glass, Flat Glass and Commercial Glazing suits a glass company that does all three. A shop that only does residential windows and shower doors, though, doesn't want to look past Auto Glass every day. The main menu is organized so that it stays short, and the customizer lets you finish the job: choose what shows and in what order, for the whole company.

It takes about five minutes, and you can put it back to the standard menu with one button.

How the standard menu is laid out

Your own day sits at the top: Dashboard, New Job, Communication, Work Queue and My Day. New Job is second because booking work is the thing most people do most often. Everything else is grouped by area of the business:

Customers: accounts, agreements, follow-up surveys, the customer portal and documents.
Tickets: your tickets, the ones waiting to be claimed, all tickets and ticket reports. Tickets get their own entry because a help desk is a queue people work all day, not something you look up now and then.
Jobs: open jobs, the calendar and dispatch.
Glass: one group per glass trade (Auto Glass, Flat Glass, Commercial Glazing).
Reservations, and Sessions & Passes, for bookable sites, sessions and permits.
Inventory: stock, purchasing and receiving.
Billing: Accounting Health, invoices, payments, recurring invoices, statements, aging and the till.
Reports: custom reports, sales, tax and call logs.

Under the divider at the bottom are Administration (for admins), Help (Documentation and Contact Support) and Log Out.

A report about one area lives in that area: the Auto Glass performance numbers are under Auto Glass, occupancy is under Reservations. Reports is for money, tax and anything that spans the business.

Finding a page: the search box

There's a search box at the top of the menu, and on the Administration side too. Start typing and the menu narrows to the pages that match, with their groups opened. Use the up and down arrows to pick one and press Enter to go there. Esc puts the menu back the way it was.

It matches more than page names. Typing logo finds Organization Info, sms finds SMS Templates and Quick Replies, insurers finds the Auto Glass Insurers tab. Two words narrow it further: flat glass deposits leaves only that one setting. Press / from anywhere on a page (outside a text box) to jump straight to the search box.

It only searches your own menu. A page your role can't open won't turn up in the results.

The menu shrinks to fit each person

Groups adjust to what each person can actually open:

A group with nothing in it disappears. A technician whose role doesn't include billing never sees Billing.
A group with one item left is replaced by that item. A front-desk clerk whose role only includes Accounting Health sees Accounting Health at the top of the menu, not inside a Billing group. A shop with only one glass trade sees Flat Glass on its own, not inside Glass.
A group's red number adds up the items in it. If three jobs are running late on the Flat Glass board, the Flat Glass group shows 3, and so does Glass. You can see something is waiting without opening anything.

When you'd use the customizer

Your plan includes work you don't do. You're a flat-glass shop that never touches windshields: open Glass and hide Auto Glass. With one trade left, the Glass group gives way to Flat Glass on its own.
Your team lives in two or three screens. Move Jobs or Customers up, and put Open Jobs first inside Jobs.
A group is mostly noise. If your office only uses the Aging report and Payments, hide the rest of Billing and put those two first.
You don't run a register. Hide Till inside Billing.

When not to use it:

To stop someone opening a page. Hiding is about tidiness, not security. That is the job of roles; see below.
To hide something from one person only. The layout is company-wide. A technician who shouldn't see Billing already doesn't, if their role doesn't include it.

How it fits together

Three things decide what a person sees on the main menu, in this order:

Your plan. Features your plan doesn't include are either left off the menu or shown dimmed so your team knows they exist. The customizer lists what your plan includes, plus those dimmed items, which are marked Not on your plan.
Their role. Each person sees only the menu items their role allows. The customizer never shows anyone something new.
Your company's menu layout. Of what's left, the layout hides what you've hidden and puts the rest in your order. Then the groups shrink to fit, as above.

Hiding is not a permission. A hidden page still opens from a link, a bookmark or a notification, for anyone whose role allows it. If you need someone to not reach a page, change their role.

Setting it up

The screen is in the settings side of the menu, under Company → Main Menu. You need the Settings permission to use it.

Start by hiding. Every item has a switch. Turn off what your company doesn't use. The preview on the right shows the menu exactly as it will look, including groups that shrink.
Open the groups. A group shows a count like "5 of 7"; click it to see what's inside. Some groups have groups of their own (Glass holds a group per trade, Billing holds Recurring Invoices and Till). Hide or reorder inside each one.
Read the labels on groups. All items hidden means the group won't show at all. Shows as "Flat Glass" means only one item is left, so that item takes the group's place.
Put the everyday screens first. Drag an item by its handle, or use the up and down arrows. Items move within their own group; the screen doesn't move an item from one group into another.
Look at the bottom of the menu. Help can be hidden or trimmed, but it stays under the divider. Administration and Log Out always show.
Save. There's one Save button for the whole screen. It lights up as soon as something changes. Everyone gets the new menu the next time they load a page.

To undo everything, use Back to the standard menu. Show everything turns every switch back on but keeps your order.

What happens when Suprata adds something

New features show up on the menu in their standard place, even if you've customized it. You don't have to come back and switch them on. If you don't want one, hide it the same way.

If a menu item is renamed in an update, your arrangement keeps it where you put it, under its new name.

Common mistakes

Treating "hidden" as "locked". A hidden page is still one click away from a link in an email or a bookmark. If it matters who opens it, set that in the person's role. See When to create a custom role.
Hiding the item that carries the red number. Order requests in Inventory, jobs running late on a board and documents waiting for approval all show a red count. Hide that item and nobody sees the count. If someone is responsible for that work, keep it showing.
Hiding by company when you meant by role. If only your technicians find Agreements confusing, hiding it hides it for the office too. Take it off the technicians' role instead. Their menu loses it, and the office keeps it.
Rearranging while people are mid-task. Moving the menu around in the middle of the day confuses people. Make the change before the morning, and tell the team once.