Configuring FYI to suit your Practice

We have pre-loaded 'best practice’ configurations to help get you started. These include:

• Defaults for filing Cabinets and Categories
• Default User Groups
• Sample Templates and Stationery
• Pre-activated process automations
• Default Practice Settings.

In addition, when users are added from your Xero Practice Manager, FYI imports all your employees. They are all imported as "Active" and as "Standard Users".

These defaults can be configured to suit your practice.

The following items need to be set up before you migrate any historical documents into FYI. This will create your filing structure, allow you to determine which users can access which documents and set up your FYI account.

Step 1 - Set up your Cabinets and Categories

Cabinets represent the top-level of FYI's filing structure and can be used to separate document types (i.e. Admin, Correspondence, Corporate Secretarial, Source documents, Workpapers & Finals) or as a way to segregate divisions (Admin, Accounting & Tax, Wealth, SMSF, Partner Files). Consider which approach (potentially a hybrid) will work best for your practice.

There are two unique aspects to cabinets which are the reason they represent the top-level of the filing structure:

1. Security controls can be assigned at a user group level to restrict access to entire cabinets. Imagine a physical cabinet with a lock and key, only those users with a key to access the cabinet can add to it or see what's inside. 
2. Each cabinet can be created with a unique filing structure beneath it. This is important in creating a structured filing system, as it means you can avoid asking users to file to unnecessary locations (i.e. if I place a document into the permanent cabinet, I should not be asked to file to a year).  

Refer to Setting up your Cabinets and Categories.

Categories are the way documents are tagged with meta-data to create a filing structure. Categories can be used as filters on lists when displaying information in FYI.

Categories are completely customisable, although Year is one category that every practice will need. 

Other examples of categories are: 

• Month: Jan, Feb, Mar, etc.
• Quarter: Sep. Dec, Mar, Jun
• Tax Type: BAS, IAS, Income Tax, FBT, Payroll, etc.
• Permanent Type: Deeds, Wills, Agreements, etc.
• Corporate Secretarial Type: ASIC, Register of Members, Minutes, etc.

FYI will provide some initial default Categories upon trial creation, but these can be edited/removed and others can be set up to suit the requirements of your practice.

Refer to Setting up your Cabinets and Categories.

Step 2 - Set up User Groups

User Groups control access to cabinets and admin functionality.  Typical User Groups include Partners, Administrators and Standard Users.

Refer to Setting up User Groups.

Step 3 - Set up Active Users

When FYI imports your employees from Xero Practice Manager they are automatically set as Active Users in FYI.  Each Team Member must be flagged as Active or Inactive, with all Active users assigned to relevant User Groups within FYI. This step finalises your document security permissions. 

Whilst activating users, take this opportunity to assign user roles (i.e. Accountant), qualifications (i.e. CA) and approval level (i.e. First Review).

Refer to Setting up Active Users.

Step 4 - Set up your FYI Account

Enter your billing details to set up your FYI account. This is a mandatory step before any data can be migrated onto the FYI platform.

Refer to Setting up your FYI Account.

We also recommend completing the following steps to complete the setup of your practice prior to implementing FYI across your practice.

Step 5 - Set up your practice letterhead

Add your letterhead to FYI’s stationery to optimise your document creation process.

Refer to Setting up your Practice Letterhead.

Step 6 - Set up your email signature

Create a practice-wide email signature that leverages merge fields, such as author; name, role, phone number and email address. This will allow you to leverage FYI's email drafting and workflow capabilities.

Refer to Setting up your Email Signature.

Step 7 - Start setting up templates

Templates hold the standard text for the body of the documents. This would be the text included in the middle of the letter, for example, for an engagement letter or notice of tax assessment. Refer to Start Setting up Templates.

Step 8 - Practice Settings and Process Automations

There are various configuration settings that can be set up for your practice. These need to be checked to ensure the defaults are correct for your practice's requirements. There are also certain environment configurations and checks that are needed. When installing FYI, various Process Automations are automatically installed for your practice which need to be checked to ensure the automations are correct for your practice's requirements. Refer to Checking the Practice Set Up and Process Automations.

After completing the steps outlined above, you are ready to invite users to start using FYI. Refer to Inviting New Users to Start Using FYI.

Note:  To ensure a smooth onboarding process for new users,  please make sure you have completed the following steps to set up each computer:

1. Install the FYI Add-ins for Office and Outlook
2. Configure your OneDrive for use with FYI
3. Prepare your browser for FYI

Refer to Optimising your computer for use with FYI.