Getting Started With An Empty Trial Account

A step-by-step guide to getting started when you log in to Operating for the first time with a blank account. When you first sign up for Operating, your account is empty. This guide walks you through the recommended steps to set up your organization, add your first data, and start planning.

Written By Lauri Eurén

Last updated 7 days ago

Step 1: Configure Your Organization Settings

Before adding projects and people, set up the foundational data that everything else builds on.

Go to Settings → Organization, where you can:

Add office locations (Sites)

Create your physical office locations (sites).

Create teams or departments (Groups)

For example: PMO, Development, Design.

Define roles and seniority levels

For example: Project Manager, Business Analyst, Developer.

These settings will be available when you start adding people and assigning them to projects.

Step 2: Add Your People

Go to the People view and start adding team members from the add person button from top right.

When creating a person, assign:

  • Name

  • Site

  • Group

  • Role

These options come from the organization settings you configured in Step 1.

Step 3: Add Your First Projects

Go to the Projects view and create a few projects to work with. These can be real client engagements or test projects to help you learn the platform.

For each project, you can define:

  • Name

  • Client

  • Billing type

  • Currency

  • Project team

  • And more

You can adjust these later as needed by clicking the project details page open.

Step 4: Start Planning on the Timeline

Go to either Projects or People views on the lefthand navigation and toggle on timeline.

Project timeline

Open a project and add allocations for team members. Set project budgets and workloads. Define rates for positions.

People timeline

View each person’s schedule across all projects. Adjust allocations by clicking or dragging the handles.

Step 5: Connect Your Email To A Person Profile

To use timesheets and see your own schedule, you need to link your login email to a person in Operating.

Go to My Profile (click the organization name → My profile from top left) and select yourself from the dropdown.

Once connected, you’ll see your own schedule and timesheet in the Hours tab.

Step 6: Try Out Timesheets

Go to the Hours tab to view your timesheet.

Once you’re connected to a person and allocated to a project, you can start logging time against your assigned work.

Step 7: Set Up Invoicing

If you plan to use invoicing, open your projects and add invoicing schedules (typically monthly).

Make sure each project has the required billing metadata.
After that, the Invoicing tab will guide you through creating and managing invoices based on tracked and approved time.

Step 8: Enable Financials

To see project margins, revenue forecasts, and cost reporting:

Go to Settings → Financials and enable the financials module.

You’ll be prompted to:

  • Set a global average rate

  • Configure rate cards (what you charge clients)

  • Configure cost cards (your labor costs)

With financials enabled, you’ll see margin data on project timelines, along with revenue forecasting and planned vs. actual reporting in Reports.