Getting started
What Orin OS is, and where Practice fits
How Orin OS, your businesses and their apps fit together, and the shape of client work in Practice.
Orin OS is the system your business signs into. One account reaches every business you belong to, and each business holds a set of apps. Practice is the app an accounting firm runs its client work in. This page explains how those pieces fit together, so the rest of the manual makes sense.
Orin OS, your businesses and their apps
When you sign in, Orin OS shows the businesses your account belongs to. Opening a business takes you to its apps. If you belong to several businesses, you use the same email address and password for all of them.
Each business holds its own apps. Practice is the practice management app. Other apps, such as Books, CRM, HR, Payroll, PoS and Time, appear for a business only when it holds them. Inside any app, the Your apps button in the top bar lists the apps this business holds and moves you between them.
Practice: the shape of the firm's work
Client work in Practice follows one chain. Each link is a screen of its own, and most screens are a different view of the same chain.
- A client is a business or a person your firm acts for. A client carries a jurisdiction (Ireland or the United Kingdom), a currency and a manager. See The client list.
- An engagement is what you have agreed to do for that client, over a period. The scope, the fee and the engagement letter live there. See Engagements and periods.
- Tasks are the pieces of work an engagement breaks down into, each with an owner and a due date. They are what you see on My Workspace each morning.
- Time is the hours you log against tasks, billable or not.
- Invoices are raised in Billing from unbilled time and fees. See Billing and invoices.
Not every task belongs to a client. Internal work, such as renewing the firm's own insurance, can be a task with no client, and it still appears on your workspace.
Where you will spend your time
Most people live in two screens. My Workspace is what is on your plate today. Capacity shows whether you, and the people around you, have room for more.
The menu down the left of Practice follows the firm's day: your own work first, then clients, then money, then reports over all of it. Finding your way around explains the menu and the bar across the top.
Common questions
Is Orin the same thing as Orin OS? Orin OS is the whole system: your account, your businesses and the apps. Practice is the app in it that runs a firm's clients, engagements, tasks, time and billing. Older parts of this manual say Orin where they mean Practice.
Do I need to set anything up before I start? Usually not. An administrator at your firm sets up the business. Until that is finished, a Get set up checklist appears in the top bar, and it disappears once every step is done.
Why can I not see a screen a colleague can? Three things decide it: whether your business holds the app, what your permission groups allow, and, for a few menu items, the kind of work the business does. See Roles and what each can do.
A screen is empty. Is something missing? Usually there is nothing there yet. A new business starts with no clients, engagements or tasks.