Getting Started with Unanet

Before you can begin using Unanet, there are a few 'setup' steps and tips that should be considered.  This  Getting Started  documentation will help walk you through these steps to get you up and running fast!  

To get started quickly, check out:



System Installation and Setup

If you haven't setup and configured the application, check out the Unanet Installation help topics.  These steps must be completed before you can proceed with using Unanet.

You should strongly consider setting up a test environment in addition to your production Unanet system.  This could prove useful for the purposes of an initial pilot phase, as an area to experiment with a variety of property settings, and as a platform to perform test system upgrades and migrations.

Also, you may want to review the Performance Tuning Tips page, to make sure your site is configured for optimal performance.


Initial Login Account

Before you can begin configuring any data, you'll need to set up an initial Administrator user id and password.  Check out Initial Login Account for additional information.


Initial Data Setup

Once the system has been installed, you will need to populate a number of screens with data to match your organization's needs.  This is where you'll setup Projects and add Users.  You will need to consider other systems that will be feeding data to Unanet (Importing), or that will be receiving feeds from Unanet (Exporting) when determining how to configure your site's data.   

See Initial Data Setup to get started with this process.


Revisiting the Property Settings

One of the steps included in the Installation and Setup section addresses configuring the various Unanet property settings.  Now that you've had some time setting up the data, it may be a good idea to re-visit the list of properties to see if there are any others that you may now find useful.  These properties can be used to control many aspects of the system's functionality.


Saving Base Configuration  (Time Saving Tip!!)

This note does not apply to On Demand hosted customers.

When first installing and configuring the system, it is not uncommon that administrators want to experiment with using the system once the data has been loaded (which we encourage).  If you plan to 'experiment' with the application, you might want to consider taking a snapshot of the database before proceeding further (now that it has the basic configuration data populated).

In this way, you can add test users, create test time and expense reports, and experiment with the many features of the system.  Once you have completed your initial testing phase, you could then restore your system to a clean (test data free) state -- ready for use by your end users.


Pilot the System

One final recommendation --- in your plans to roll out Unanet to your work force, you may consider initially rolling out to a smaller / pilot group.  In this way, you can work out any of the data flow issues (e.g. feeding HR information from an external system into Unanet --- or --- your new approval process flow --- or --- the feeding of data from Unanet into your downstream accounting systems, etc).  Many of our successful customer implementations have pursued this approach.


Training Materials

Additional training materials are available on the Unanet Support site that provide Unanet usage information per user role.  Your system administrator has access to these supplemental materials.


Knowledge Center

For more assistance, check out the Unanet Knowledge Center, which contains additional best practices, answers to frequently asked questions, instructional videos and more.

Note: The Knowledge Center is now available at support.unanet.com.

Interested in additional training? Check out the upcoming course offerings at Unanet University.