# Navigating PAI This document covers the main navigation structure, the dashboard, global search, and the table interface — the building blocks you'll use every time you're in the app. --- ## Main Navigation The left sidebar gives you access to PAI's top-level sections. - **HQ** — your home dashboard (see below) - **Projects** — your primary workspace; all projects, estimates, budgets, and production work live here - **Calendar** — organization-wide calendar view across all project days - **Campaigns** — multi-project grouping and aggregate financial tracking - **Clients** — client records and opportunity pipeline - **Vendors** — vendor database and the geographical Crew Finder - **Reports** — financial reporting and analytics across projects - **AP** — organization-wide accounts payable, spanning all projects - **Docs** — aggregated file browser for all documents uploaded across the app, including expense attachments, vendor documents, and project files - **Settings** — user management, organization configuration, rate cards, and integrations > [!note] > Which sections you can see depends on your user role. If a section isn't visible, it may not be included in your permissions. See [Users and Permissions](../01-Organization-Setup/Users-and-Permissions.md). --- ## The Dashboard When you log in, you land on the dashboard — **HQ** in the main navigation. The top of the screen greets you by name with the current date and time. Beside the greeting: - **Theme selector** — the color swatch; changes the dashboard's background color - **User selector** — view HQ as another workspace user, to see their assignments, tasks, and hours exactly as they do. Available to Workspace Owners and Workspace Admins - **Add New** — create a project, campaign, vendor, or client record The **?** button in the top bar opens **Contact Support**, the **Help Center**, and the full list of keyboard shortcuts. The main body of the dashboard is made up of widgets. **Jump to Project** — quick access to the four most recently updated projects you've created or been shared on. **Log Hours** — the in-house expense lines assigned to you that have been posted for hours reporting. Each appears as a card (switch to a list layout with the toggle at the widget's top right, and search to narrow a long list) showing the item, the project, and a progress bar of hours logged against the hours committed, with a **Log Hours** button that opens the reporting modal. Toggle between the **Open** and **Completed** tabs to see active assignments or closed ones — a completed assignment stays visible under Completed. The widget shows an empty state when you have nothing assigned, so it's always present. This is the whole of what a Staff Resource sees in PAI — see [Hours Reporting](../04-Executing-the-Job/Hours-Reporting.md). **Upcoming Days** — a 10-day forecast of all project days you're assigned to as a contact. If you created the project, your days appear here regardless of contact assignment. **My Tasks** — tasks you've created or that have been assigned to you, listed by due date. You can add a task directly from this widget; due dates default to the next day. **Org Timeline** — a week-at-a-glance view of upcoming events and deadlines across the organization. Toggle between **Projects** and **Staff** to lay it out by project or by person, step through weeks with the arrows (or jump back with **Today**), filter it, and expand it to full size. **My Projects** — all projects you've created or been assigned to, sorted by most recently updated, ten per page. Displays project name, reference number, last update date, assigned users, and status. **See All** opens the full list in Projects. **Quick Links** — shortcuts to the modules you use most: Projects, Campaigns, Vendors, Insights, AP, Pipeline, Docs, and Expenses. --- ## Global Search The fastest way to navigate PAI is the global search. Access it from the search icon in the top-right corner, or press **Cmd+K** (Mac) or **Ctrl+K** (Windows) from anywhere in the app. Global search finds projects by name or reference number. Reference numbers are the fastest lookup — a project's `P` number and its estimate's `E` number both bring it to the top of the results. Results are grouped by type: **Projects**, **Users**, **Vendors**, **Clients**, **Invoices**, and **Campaigns**. The filters above the results narrow the search to one type, or leave it on **Everything**. Use the arrow keys to move through results and **Enter** to open one. > [!tip] > Get in the habit of using reference numbers for search. A project name might be ambiguous across versions or clients; the reference number is always unique. Individual modules also have their own contextual search. In the Accounts Payable module you can search by vendor, invoice number (PAI's or the vendor's own), or payment status. In the Vendors module you can search by name, specialty, or location. --- ## Working with Tables Tables are the core interface pattern throughout PAI — the Projects list, the estimate, the budget, the Reports module, the Vendors list, and Accounts Payable all use the same underlying table system. Learning it once applies everywhere. Every table keeps its controls in two places. **Saved views** run along the top of the grid as a strip of tabs. At the top right sit the icon buttons: **Filter** and **Display Options** on every grid, plus **Search** on grids where it applies (AP has it; the estimate and budget don't). Between the view strip and those buttons, you can reach every layout property a table has. ### Saved Views A view is a saved table configuration — its filters, grouping, sort, column selection and order, and column widths. Views appear as tabs at the top of the grid, with **Add View** at the end of the strip. When a grid has more views than fit, the extras collapse into a **more** dropdown in the strip. **Click** a view to load it; the grid re-lays out immediately. **⇧→** and **⇧←** step to the next or previous view. Hover a view's tab for a summary of its configuration — sort, grouping, visible columns, and filters. **Right-click** a view to open its control menu (on a view that isn't loaded, it starts with **Make Active**): - **Save** — commit your current configuration to that view - **Save as New View** — keep your changes as a separate view and leave the original untouched - **Duplicate View** — branch a copy of the view as saved - **Rename View** - **Revert Changes** — discard your unsaved changes and return to the view as last saved - **Reset to Default** — return the view to its shipped configuration - **Save to Team Views** — publish it to the rest of the workspace (see below) - **Delete View** Below those, under **In this saved view**, sit **Filter**, **Group**, **Sort**, and **Columns** — adjust any of them for the view without leaving the menu. The same menu is available from **Display Options → Views**, which also lists your saved views. > [!warning] > Views don't save automatically. If you customize a table and navigate away without using **Save**, it reverts to its last saved state. #### Team Views **Save to Team Views** promotes a personal view to the workspace, where it appears in the strip for everyone. Only workspace owners have access to this tool. Use it for the configurations a job actually runs on — the AP view your coordinator checks each morning, the budget grouping your producers review in — so nobody rebuilds them by hand. ### Display Options **Display Options** (**⇧V**) holds the same layout properties as the view menu, plus the ones that apply to the grid itself: - **Views** — your saved views and the view control menu - **Columns** — show or hide columns and drag to reorder them; the control shows how many are currently hidden - **Sort** — sort by one or more fields; the control shows the current sort. (The estimate's Display Options doesn't include Sort yet — sort the estimate from a column header or the view menu.) - **Group** — organize rows into collapsible groups, with multiple levels you can reorder - **Row Height** — how tall each row sits - **Enter Fullscreen** (**⌃F**) — hide the surrounding chrome and give the grid the whole window - **Open Sidebar** (**⇧⌘S**) — open the record sidebar for the grid's context - **Export** — **Export as CSV** downloads the grid > [!tip] > Export reflects the view you're looking at, not the whole underlying table. Configure the grid first — filter to what you need, hide the columns you don't — and the CSV comes out ready to send. ### Searching On grids that have one, click the **Search** icon at the top of the grid to search within it. This searches the rows of the grid in front of you, which is a different job from [global search](#global-search): use grid search to find an invoice in AP, and global search to move between projects. The estimate and budget have no Search icon — their floating totals box (**/**) handles finding and adding items instead. ### Filtering Click **Filter** (**⇧F**) to add one: pick a field, choose a condition, set a value. Stack as many as you need to narrow the grid. Applied filters appear as editable chips in a bar directly above the grid. Change a field, condition, or value in place, clear one with its **×**, or click **+** to add another — no need to reopen the menu. **Clear Filters** at the top of the Filter menu removes them all. > [!tip] > Combine filtering and sorting for fast lookups: filter to active projects only, then sort by last updated to surface the most recent work. Then right-click the view and **Save** so it's one click next time. ### Sorting **Sort** lives under Display Options, or in a view's right-click menu — or click a column header and sort from its options. Pick one or more fields and set each one's direction; the column header of a sorted field shows an arrow and its position in the sort order. **Clear Sorting** removes them. ### Grouping **Group** lives under Display Options, or in a view's right-click menu. Add multiple grouping levels and reorder them, and use **Collapse All / Expand All** on large tables. **Double-click** any group header to expand or collapse that group individually. ### Columns **Columns** lives in the same two places. Show or hide columns there and drag to reorder them — or drag a column header directly to a new position in the grid. Column widths are adjusted by dragging the divider between column headers. Click any column header for that column's options: **sort** by it, **hide** it, or **freeze** it to the left or right edge so it stays in place while you scroll horizontally — useful for keeping the item name in view while you work across rates and totals on a wide estimate. Order, width, and frozen columns are all part of the view configuration and are kept when you save the view. ### Row Actions Most tables have a three-dot menu (⋮) on each row for context-specific actions — on the Projects list it sits in the Summary cell and offers **Edit**, **Duplicate**, and **Delete**. The available options vary by module. On grids that support it, **right-clicking** a row or group header opens a context menu — a faster alternative to the three-dot menu. Not every grid has row context actions (the Projects list doesn't). Right-clicking a group header shows expand, collapse, and copy options. Right-clicking a row shows row-level actions such as duplicate; on expense lines, the context menu also includes options to open the line in the sidebar and upload an invoice. For bulk actions, select multiple rows using **Shift+click** (range) or **Cmd/Ctrl+click** (individual), then use the bulk action controls that appear. > [!note] > Right-click does different work depending on where you click. On a **row or group header** it opens row actions; on a **view tab** it opens that view's control menu. ### Inline Editing Many tables support editing directly in the cell — click into a cell to edit, **Tab** to move to the next editable cell, **Enter** to confirm, **Escape** to cancel. ### Keyboard Shortcuts The **?** menu in the top bar lists PAI's shortcuts. | Key | Action | |---|---| | **Cmd+K / Ctrl+K** | Open global search | | **/** | Add an expense or item (opens the floating box's search/create field) | | **⇧F** | Filter the grid | | **⇧V** | Show grid Display Options | | **⇧→ / ⇧←** | Next / previous saved view | | **⇧⌘S** | Toggle the sidebar | | **⌃F** | Enter or exit grid fullscreen | | **Tab** | Move between editable fields | | **Enter** | Confirm edit or select highlighted item | | **Escape** | Cancel edit or close dialog | | **Arrow Keys** | Navigate between cells | | **Space** | Select/deselect row (in multi-select tables) | --- ## Module-Specific Table Behaviors A few modules extend the standard table with additional capabilities worth knowing about: **Budget** — supports batch status updates across multiple rows, vendor assignment by typing directly into vendor cells, and a day assignment column for linking expenses to specific production days. **Clients (Pipeline)** — shows revenue forecasting based on opportunity probability settings, with visual stage indicators. **Accounts Payable** — includes payment status tracking with visual indicators and date range filtering by invoice, due, or payment date.