Choose Your Core Settings

Settings is where you choose your numbering and the rules your team will work under. One setting here blocks every sale until it is filled in, and four of the switches make later setup steps compulsory, so decide them now rather than discovering them halfway through your first job.

Before you start

• You are an organisation Owner with a Paperwork seat. Settings is open to organisation Owners only. Anyone else sees "Only organisation Owners can manage settings." See Set up your organisation and team.
• Your bank details to hand — account name, sort code and account number — and your finance email.
• A decision on whether you need departments and strict accounting. If you are unsure, the advice in each section below is to leave the switch off. You can switch it on later, once your lists exist.

Click Settings under Admin in the Paperwork sidebar. There are eight tabs. This page covers four of them: General, Sales & Jobs, Invoicing & Finance and, optionally, Opportunities. The first four share one Save changes button at the bottom right, so you can edit across them and save once. You will see Settings saved.

Set your Sales & Job prefix

This is the one setting that blocks you. It has no default.

Open the Sales & Jobs tab

Click Settings under Admin, then the Sales & Jobs tab.

Enter your Sales & Job prefix

Fill in Sales & Job prefix with up to 3 characters, for example DSP. It starts every sale and job number, for example DSP-2610001, so choose something your customers will recognise.

Click Save changes

You will see Settings saved.

Once a prefix is saved you cannot clear it by emptying the box. You can change it to something else at any time, but numbers already issued stay as they were.

Check your document prefixes

On the General tab, Document numbering holds three prefixes of up to 3 letters each. They have sensible defaults, so you only need to change them if you want to.

Field	Default
Invoice prefix	INV
Purchase order prefix	PO
Credit note prefix	CN

Invoice and credit note numbers are the prefix followed by a four-digit running number, for example INV0001. The Invoice prefix and Credit note prefix must be different, ignoring capitals, because they share a number series on a customer's statement. If they match, Save changes refuses with "Invoice and credit note prefixes must be different".

Choose these before your first invoice. A number stays with its document once it has one.

Decide the rules your team works under

Three switches on the Sales & Jobs tab and one on Invoicing & Finance decide what people are forced to do. Each one makes something later compulsory. Switch one on only if you are ready to do the step that goes with it.

Switch	What it forces	The page it affects
Require an agreement before creating a job (Sales & Jobs)	A quote cannot turn straight into a job. An agreement comes first, otherwise Paperwork refuses with "This organisation requires jobs to be created from an agreement"	Step 11, your first job
Require a department on sales and jobs (Sales & Jobs)	Every sale and job needs a department, otherwise "A department is required". Price lists are exempt	Step 6, where you create your departments. Create at least one first
Require a requested date on jobs (Sales & Jobs)	Every job needs a Requested date, otherwise "A requested date is required"	Step 11
Lock accounting codes in invoicing (Invoicing & Finance)	Every priced extra needs an extra type, otherwise "Extra type is required when an extra is priced under strict accounting." Nominal codes and cost centres cannot be edited on the invoice	Step 6, where you create extra types. Step 5 for the nominal codes they use

If you want your accountant's coding to be enforced, switch Lock accounting codes in invoicing on. If you are starting small, leave all four off and switch them on later.

Set expiry and terms for your quotes

Still on the Sales & Jobs tab:

• Auto-set a sales expiry date sets each new sale's expiry a number of days after its date. Switching it on reveals Days until a sale expires, which starts at 90.
• Sales terms & conditions is a text box whose contents are appended to your sales documents. Paste your standard terms here. Leave it blank to print none.

Add your bank details and invoice text

This tab prints on every invoice, so set it before your first one.

Open the Invoicing & Finance tab

Click Invoicing & Finance. It is saved with the same Save changes button.

Fill in Bank / remittance details

Enter the Account name, Sort code (for example 12-34-56) and Account number (7 or 8 digits). Enter your Finance email and Finance phone too. The finance email is the address printed under your name in the header of every invoice. A malformed value is refused with "Enter a valid sort code", "Account number must be 7–8 digits" or "Enter a valid email address".

Add your invoice terms and public comment

Under Invoice document text, Invoice terms & conditions prints in the terms block at the foot of an invoice, and Public comment prints as a short note for the customer. Leave either blank to print nothing.

Check your invoice email wording

Under Invoice email templates, Invoice email subject and Invoice email message are the default wording when you email an invoice. Leave them blank to use Dsposal's built-in text, which is fine to start with. If you write your own, use the placeholders exactly as listed in Finance settings. A misspelt placeholder is replaced with nothing and no warning appears.

The invoice terms and public comment are copied onto each invoice when it is created. Changing them later does not change invoices that already exist, so set them before your first invoice.

Leave the rental days and Opportunities for later

• Rental warning after (days) and Rental due after (days), at the foot of the Sales & Jobs tab, only affect the rental badges on Asset tracking. They start at 35 and 42 days. Leave them until you use sited containers — see Asset tracking.
• The Opportunities tab, with its Opportunity prefix (default OPP), Show Opportunities in the sidebar switch and Sales pipeline, is optional. If you do not run a sales pipeline, switch Show Opportunities in the sidebar off and Opportunities disappears for everyone. Anything you change on the pipeline needs its own Save pipeline button.

If you skip this

• No Sales & Job prefix — you cannot create a sale. New sale shows "Set up a sales & job prefix first" with a Set up the sales & job prefix button, and the server refuses with "A Sales & Job prefix must be set in settings before creating a sale". Jobs are created from sales, so nothing downstream can start.
• No bank details — invoices still go out. The PAYMENT DETAILS block prints with the account name, sort code and account number blank, and customers have nothing to pay into. Purchase orders only print their payment block if at least one of the five fields has a value.
• No finance email — the invoice header prints "Email:" with nothing after it.
• A rule switch on without its list — sales or jobs fail with "A department is required", "A requested date is required" or "Extra type is required when an extra is priced under strict accounting.", and the person raising the sale cannot fix it from where they are.
• Invoice terms or public comment added late — invoices created before you set them stay without them.

Check it worked

• Reopen Settings after a refresh. The prefix and bank details are still there.
• Click New sale under Sales. You no longer see "Set up a sales & job prefix first", and the form opens.

What to do next

Step 5, Set up tax rates, payment terms and nominal codes, builds the finance lists your invoices depend on. Without them, invoices carry no VAT and no due date.

• Numbering, Opportunities and Sales & Jobs settings — every field on these tabs
• Finance settings — invoice rules, bank details and email placeholders
• Reference Data