# Welcome to PAI Docs PAI is a production management platform for advertising, film, and commercial productions. These docs cover everything from setting up your organization to managing active jobs, tracking vendor payments, and understanding your financial performance. The docs are organized around how work actually flows — not by feature area. Whether you're bidding a new project, running production, or reviewing financials at the end of a quarter, the section you need matches where you are in the process. --- ## How the Docs Are Organized **[Understanding PAI](./00-Understanding-PAI/PAI-Philosophy.md)** — Start here if you're new. Covers the philosophy behind how PAI is built, how to navigate the app, and walkthroughs of the major workflows end to end. **[Organization Setup](./01-Organization-Setup/Organization-Settings.md)** — Configuration your admin handles once: users and permissions, rate cards, default modifiers, tags, and integrations. **[Bidding a Project](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Creating-a-Project.md)** — Creating projects, building estimates, working with modifiers, versioning, sharing estimates with clients, and managing your client CRM. **[Winning the Job](./03-Winning-the-Job/Approving-an-Estimate.md)** — Approving estimates, generating a budget, and handling change orders and overages after approval. **[Executing the Job](./04-Executing-the-Job/Working-with-the-Budget.md)** — The working budget, call sheets, days and scheduling, vendor assignments, recording transactions, deliverables, and everything else that happens during production. **[Vendors & Payments](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Vendors.md)** — Your vendor database, the vendor portal, accounts payable, invoices, timecards, and payment automation. **[Financial Visibility](./06-Financial-Visibility/Live-Margins.md)** — Live Margins, Project Finance, Insights, Campaigns, Pipeline, and the Expenses report. **[Reference](./08-Reference/FAQ-and-Troubleshooting.md)** — FAQ, troubleshooting, notifications, and support. --- ## Where to Start **New to PAI?** Read [PAI Philosophy](./00-Understanding-PAI/PAI-Philosophy.md) first, then [Core Workflows](./00-Understanding-PAI/Core-Workflows.md). These two pages give you the mental model that makes everything else make sense. **Setting up your organization?** Go to [Organization Settings](./01-Organization-Setup/Organization-Settings.md). **Looking for something specific?** Use the search bar at the top of the page, or browse the full index below. --- ## Full Article Index ### Understanding PAI - [PAI Philosophy](./00-Understanding-PAI/PAI-Philosophy.md) — The core mental model behind PAI: margin protection, explicit agreements, and why the system is built the way it is. - [Core Workflows](./00-Understanding-PAI/Core-Workflows.md) — End-to-end walkthroughs of PAI's major workflows, with emphasis on downstream effects and how the system's interconnectedness reduces manual work. - [First Login and Setup](./00-Understanding-PAI/First-Login-and-Setup.md) — What to do when you first access PAI: account creation, profile setup, and connecting your organization. - [Navigating PAI](./00-Understanding-PAI/Navigating-PAI.md) — Orientation to PAI's main navigation, dashboard widgets, global search, and the table interface used throughout the app: saved views, Team Views, Display Options, filtering, and CSV export. ### Organization Setup - [Organization Settings](./01-Organization-Setup/Organization-Settings.md) — Core company configuration: branding, billing details, project defaults, vendor portal settings, and the Approved Invoice Email automation. - [Users and Permissions](./01-Organization-Setup/Users-and-Permissions.md) — Adding and managing workspace users, assigning roles, and understanding what each role can access. - [Rate Cards](./01-Organization-Setup/Rate-Cards.md) — The organization's reusable library of line items with pricing — how to build it, use it in estimates, and manage multi-rate configurations. - [Staff Rates](./01-Organization-Setup/Staff-Rates.md) — The staff rate card on a workspace user's record: Default Rates (hourly, daily, flat) and item-based Custom Rates, and how those rates override the organization rate card when a staff member is assigned to a line. - [Default Modifiers](./01-Organization-Setup/Default-Modifiers.md) — Configuring the fringes and markups that automatically populate on every new project estimate. - [Tags](./01-Organization-Setup/Tags.md) — Creating and managing tags and tag groups for projects, expense lines, and vendor profiles. - [Webhooks](./01-Organization-Setup/Webhooks.md) — Available webhook triggers, setup steps, and common Zapier-based integration use cases. ### Bidding a Project - [Creating a Project](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Creating-a-Project.md) — How to create a new project, associate it with a client, set reporting panel fields, and configure job codes. - [Building an Estimate](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Building-an-Estimate.md) — Adding line items from the floating totals box, setting quantities and rates, understanding how PAI calculates costs, and using the rate card in estimation. - [Estimate Views](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Estimate-Views.md) — The estimate view strip: the fixed Timeline and Days views, the saved Sheet View configurations that ship alongside them, building your own, and where version settings live. - [Modifiers](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Modifiers.md) — How Fringes and Markups work in estimates: calculation differences, the Modifiers window, the project discount, Passthrough, Apply to Fringes, and group-level assignment. - [Versioning and Comparison](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Versioning-and-Comparison.md) — Creating and naming estimate versions, the status lifecycle, what locking means, and using the comparison tool. - [Sharing Estimates](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Sharing-Estimates.md) — Printing and externalizing estimates: reaching the print view, available print layouts, AICP headers, and default expiration settings. - [Reference Numbers](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Reference-Numbers.md) — How PAI assigns project and estimate reference numbers and how to configure job codes. - [Client CRM](./02-Bidding-a-Project/Client-CRM.md) — Managing client records, contacts, and project associations in the Clients module. ### Winning the Job - [Approving an Estimate](./03-Winning-the-Job/Approving-an-Estimate.md) — What approval means, the two surfaces that approve a version, how it triggers project number assignment, the single-version rule, and changing the approved version. - [Generating the Budget](./03-Winning-the-Job/Generating-the-Budget.md) — The Start Project action, how estimate line items expand into budget expense lines, and what's created automatically. - [Overages and Change Orders](./03-Winning-the-Job/Overages-and-Change-Orders.md) — The difference between change orders (replacing the approved estimate) and overages (additive standalone documents), and how each affects project totals. ### Executing the Job - [Working with the Budget](./04-Executing-the-Job/Working-with-the-Budget.md) — The budget as a live financial document: expense line structure, status lifecycle, vendor assignment, min hours and overtime, recording transactions, and submitting external invoices. - [Hours Reporting](./04-Executing-the-Job/Hours-Reporting.md) — How in-house labor is actualized: posting an hourly in-house line to a staff member, logging hours against it, and closing it out. - [Days in PAI](./04-Executing-the-Job/Days-in-PAI.md) — What a Day is in PAI — a logical scheduling entity, not just a calendar date — including day types, creation, and how days connect to the budget and call sheets. - [Call Sheets](./04-Executing-the-Job/Call-Sheets.md) — How call sheets are generated for Production days, populated from budget expense lines, and kept in sync with the budget bidirectionally. - [Project Calendar](./04-Executing-the-Job/Project-Calendar.md) — Scheduling production days, viewing deliverable deadlines, creating custom events, and subscribing to an external calendar feed via ICS (Google, Apple, Outlook). - [Contacts](./04-Executing-the-Job/Contacts.md) — Managing workspace users (staff) shared on a project and external contacts, including call sheet day-inclusion controls. - [Deliverables](./04-Executing-the-Job/Deliverables.md) — Tracking final project outputs: creating deliverable records, setting due dates and format specs, and scheduling post days. ### Vendors & Payments - [Vendors](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Vendors.md) — Managing your vendor database: people and businesses, adding and inviting vendors, classification and activation, vendor records, and the Crew Finder map search. - [Vendor Portal](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Vendor-Portal.md) — How the vendor portal works: onboarding and activation, what vendors can do once connected, portal configuration, and payment status tracking. - [Accounts Payable](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Accounts-Payable.md) — Overview of the AP module: how invoices arrive, the AP grid, invoice statuses, and the full AP-to-budget status relationship. - [Invoices](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Invoices.md) — Invoice review at the expense line level, the Overview and Expenses review tabs, approving and rejecting, scheduling payment, and vendor notifications. - [Timecards](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Timecards.md) — Vendor timecard submission: entering start/end times and breaks, how PAI calculates straight time and overtime, and how timecards flow into invoice submission. - [Purchase Orders](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/Purchase-Orders.md) — Purchase orders and deal memos: formally committing expenses and tracking approvals before vendor billing begins. - [AP Automations](./05-Vendors-and-Payments/AP-Automations.md) — Using the Approved Invoice Email setting to forward approved invoices to your bill pay provider, and webhook-based AP automation with Zapier. ### Financial Visibility - [Live Margins](./06-Financial-Visibility/Live-Margins.md) — The real-time financial panel: configuring it with saved views, how grouping determines its whole structure, and what the figures mean in estimate context vs. budget context. - [Project Finance](./06-Financial-Visibility/Project-Finance.md) — The full financial view for a single project across four tabs: working margin on the Overview, estimate and budget totals with their breakdowns, and the full-width Live Margins grid. - [Insights](./06-Financial-Visibility/Insights.md) — Portfolio-level financial view showing planned vs. actual performance across all approved projects, with filtering for cross-project analysis. - [Campaigns](./06-Financial-Visibility/Campaigns.md) — Grouping a client's related projects under one budget, sharing them through campaign contacts, and tracking project totals against the budget. - [Pipeline](./06-Financial-Visibility/Pipeline.md) — Tracking open bids and forecasting revenue from external totals and probability, with the All Opportunities, Pipeline, Approved and Cancelled segments. - [Expenses](./06-Financial-Visibility/Expenses.md) — Org-wide view of every expense line across all project budgets, with filtering for vendor spend analysis and auditing. ### Reference - [Notifications](./08-Reference/Notifications.md) — Email notifications sent to users and vendors, the in-app notification panel, and choosing which events notify you. - [FAQ and Troubleshooting](./08-Reference/FAQ-and-Troubleshooting.md) — Frequently asked questions and common troubleshooting scenarios across all areas of PAI. - [Help and Support](./08-Reference/Help-and-Support.md) — How to get help with PAI: the in-app help menu, email support, bug reporting, feedback, and security issue reporting. --- ## Help and Support **In the app** — click **?** at the top right of any page for **Contact Support** and the **Help Center**. **Email** — [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) **Report a bug or send feedback** — email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) with a description of the issue. Screenshots and steps to reproduce are helpful for bugs. **Report a security issue** — visit the [PAI Trust Center](https://trust.paihq.com/) to file a report. **Report a Code of Conduct violation** — if you've witnessed or experienced a violation of PAI's [Terms of Service](https://www.paihq.com/terms-of-service), contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).