Running the website day to day

Once your group website is set up, most days follow the same pattern: sign in, look at Group → Today, deal with what's waiting, and check stock and renewals now and then. This chapter is that routine, plus a quick reference to where everything lives.

Features marked (Pro) need a Pro or Agency licence.

Signing in

1. Go to your website's address followed by /wp-admin (for example yourgroup.com/wp-admin), or click Staff sign-in at the very bottom of any page.
2. Sign in with your own username and password. Please don't share accounts: the website records who did what, and with Pro each person sees only the businesses they look after.
3. You go straight to Group → Today.

Forgotten your password? Click Lost your password? on the sign-in page. After 5 wrong passwords, sign-in pauses for 15 minutes. More: Staff and sign-in.

The Today screen

Group → Today shows what needs doing, for the businesses you look after:

• New enquiries, newest first, with the business each one is for. Click one to open it, or See all … new enquiries.
• Stock & equipment (Pro): stock items at or below their reorder level, machines running low, restock tasks open and machines due a service this week.
• Clients (Pro): orders in progress and plans renewing in the next 30 days.

Every line is a link to the screen where you deal with it.

The red numbers

The red numbers in the left-hand menu show how many things are waiting:

• Enquiries: new enquiries.
• Stock & equipment (Pro): stock items and machines running low.
• Messages: messages from the plain contact form you haven't opened yet.
• Group: all of these added together.

A new enquiry is counted once, under Enquiries, not under Messages too.

Every day

1. Open Group → Today.
2. Open each new enquiry. Give it to someone (Given to), reply with Send as a reply, and set the Status. See Enquiries.
3. Answer client requests the same way. Your reply also shows in their client area. (Pro)
4. Update orders that have moved on: change the status and stage, and leave Email the client ticked. See Orders, invoices and plans. (Pro)
5. Record deliveries, sales and transfers as they happen, and mark restock tasks done when the machine is filled. See Stock & equipment. (Pro)
6. Change listing statuses straight from Group → Listings when a home goes under offer, is let or sold. See Listings.

Every week

• Check Stock & equipment → Overview for anything running low, and Services due this week. (Pro)
• Make restock tasks for low machines and give them to someone. (Pro)
• Check Group → Clients → Plans and renewals → Renewing in the next 60 days, and click Renewed once a renewal is agreed. (Pro)
• Close enquiries that are finished, so Group → Enquiries only shows what's live.
• Add a news post for a business, if you have something to say.

Every month or so

• Do a stock Count (adjust) for each place, so the figures match what's really on the shelves. (Pro)
• Look at Group → Messages → Due for review and delete what you no longer need. See Messages.
• Check the business pages and figures on the homepage are up to date.
• Check for updates under Dashboard → Updates, after a backup. See Backups and updates.

Where everything is

Getting help

If something isn't working, see Troubleshooting and support, or email support@thegradespace.com with what you were doing, what you expected and a screenshot.