Getting Started

Power users build QBO solutions by configuration: templates, rules, roles, and settings, all maintained in the browser. This page explains how that configuration is organized, who maintains which part, and the order that works best when you plan something new.

Configuration is templates

Every kind of record is defined by a template: a kind of process, a workflow, a document, a task, a message, a worklist, a score, a ledger, an import. Templates decide what a record attaches to, how many of it a parent may have, which statuses it uses, who can see it, and what it does. Learn the settings templates share once, in Templates, and they apply everywhere.

Templates call each other. A process template launches a workflow template; the workflow’s steps create tasks from task templates, generate documents from document templates, and calculate scores from score templates; worklist templates route the tasks to teams. Most of a solution is designing that chain.

Method signatures

Wherever configuration needs to do something (a workflow step, a schedule, a template’s data source, an action after an import), it uses a method signature:

{ClassName}/{Operation}?{Parameters}

For example, Contact/Save?FirstName=Adam&LastName=Apple saves a contact, and Attachment/Generate?Template=Welcome Letter generates a document from a template. Method signatures are the same operations developers call through the API at /api/{module}/{operation}, so anything a person can configure, an integration can call, and vice versa.

Roles

QBO ships with a standard set of roles. Each user can be a member of several, and your security administrator can customize any role’s permissions.

Role	Maintains	Default home page
Processor	Daily work: tasks, documents, and messages	Worklists
Manager	Assignment, priorities, bulk operations, imports, and team performance	Worklists
Template Administrator	Templates for every module: processes, workflows, tasks, documents, messages, worklists, scores, ledgers, imports, labels, and reports	Templates
Rules Administrator	Rules matrices, linked objects, and business rules enforced on save	Rules
Security Administrator	User accounts, roles and permissions, group (partner) access, and IP restrictions	Security
Configuration Administrator	Settings, plugins and credentials, queuing with calendars and schedules, custom routes, the main menu, and module configuration (types and statuses)	Configuration

QBO also creates a Public role alongside these.

What each administrator works on

• Template administrators do most of the building. Start with Templates, then Cases, Workflow, and Worklists.
• Rules administrators own decisions that change often: which vendor gets an order, what an item costs, which team a task goes to. See Business Rules.
• Security administrators manage who can sign in, what they can do, and which records partners can see. See Security.
• Configuration administrators connect QBO to its environment: storage, mail, AI providers, and other plugins; queues for background work; and custom routes. See API & Architecture.

Plan a new solution

Plan in this order. Each step defines the scope of the next.

1. Management reports. Agree on the key performance indicators first, and on the lifecycle of the work they measure. It is far easier to design a solution around the numbers you need than to retrofit reporting later.
2. Workflows. Draw each process as a flowchart. Shapes become steps (tasks, if/then conditions, scores, child workflows, document generation, and calls to other systems); lines become dependencies.
3. Worklists. QBO can create a worklist for any step. Ask managers which queues they need: if they want a dedicated queue, there must be a step for it; if four steps feel like one job, collapse them, or combine them into a single worklist.
4. Interfaces. List the systems and vendors QBO will exchange data with. Contracts, credentials, and test scheduling usually take longer than the integration itself, so start early.
5. Tasks. Lay out the forms people will fill in, with their fields and validation.
6. Scores. Gather the spreadsheets and rules behind your calculations; existing Excel models can often be used as they are.
7. Documents. Collect the letters and notices to be generated, ideally in Word with the merge fields marked.

Design for change

Requirements change during a project and after it. Build so that the likely changes are configuration, not code:

• Put decisions likely to change in rules. “Which vendor gets this order” will change; a rules matrix lets the business update it without a release.
• Parameterize, don’t hard-code. When a choice could reasonably go either way, make it a setting.
• Make integrations reusable. Once an outside service is connected, anyone with permission should be able to call it, not just the workflow it was built for.

A typical implementation team is small: a business analyst who configures QBO, a developer who writes plugins for what configuration can’t do, and an architect who keeps the design on sound patterns.