Orbit

01Overview

Orbit is a browser-based IT service management tool that runs entirely in Microsoft 365. It brings client records, contacts, support tickets, recurring maintenance schedules and billing notes together in one interface backed by SharePoint. There is no separate server or database to run.

Orbit is part of the CCI Suite by Coded Cadence Industries. Other suite apps it works with:

• Ping: the help desk portal your clients use to see their requests and, where enabled, their servers.
• Tempo: time tracking. Orbit can open Tempo with a ticket's details already filled in.
• CCI Server Agent: a small agent on each client Windows server that reports health to Orbit's System Monitors tab.

At a glance

Requirements

• A Microsoft 365 account that your administrator has given access to Orbit.
• A current web browser. Allow browser notifications if you want new-ticket alerts.
• For server monitoring: Windows Server 2012 or later on each monitored server (see Agent requirements).

02Signing in and getting around

Signing in

1. Open your Orbit address (for example, crm.pnw.com) in your browser.
2. Sign in with your Microsoft 365 account. Your account must be a member of the team your administrator has set up for Orbit.
3. Orbit loads the Dashboard. On each load it also auto-matches unassigned tickets to clients and creates any recurring tickets that have come due.

Security basics

• Server commands (reboot, sync clock, start services, assessment, uninstall, reset agent key) are signed for one specific server and logged with your name.
• Administrators see a red banner when an app secret is close to expiring, with instructions for renewing it.
• Demo account: a demo sign-in, if your organization has one, works against a separate demo site with sample data only. It cannot send emails or server commands, and it never sends client notifications.

The tabs

The navigation bar at the top has nine tabs. Click a tab to switch views.

The icons at the top right open Settings, the built-in user guide, global search, phone lookup, the keyboard shortcut list and the light / dark theme switch.

The daily banner

A banner appears below the navigation bar each time the page loads. It follows a priority order, so the most useful message always wins:

Click the ✕ button to dismiss the banner. It comes back on the next page load.

03Dashboard

The Dashboard is a real-time snapshot of open work. It shows:

• Ticket counts: New Today, Open, In Progress, On Hold and Closed.
• The total number of contacts across all clients.
• First-response alert: any Open ticket that has not received a reply within the target window.
• Overdue tickets: Open tickets older than a configurable threshold.
• Quick-add buttons: New Ticket, New Client and New Contact.
• Knowledge Base tiles: number of articles, new this week, articles not checked in 6+ months, times used, and common ticket subjects that have no article yet, each with a Write button.

First-response tracking

The first-response clock starts when a ticket is created and stops when a reply is logged as a work-log comment. Open tickets that are outside the target window are shown with a red border on the Dashboard and listed in the first-response alert panel.

04Clients

The Clients tab lists all active accounts. Click a client card to open the client detail view.

The client detail view

• Info: name, address, primary phone, website and notes.
• Domain Rules: email domains that auto-match incoming emails to this client (see Domain rules and auto-matching).
• Contacts: everyone linked to this client, with quick call and email links.
• Open Tickets: all tickets for this client that are not closed.
• Notes: internal free-text notes. Clients never see these.
• Recurring: scheduled maintenance tasks for this client.
• Client Docs: this client's Knowledge Base articles, such as procedures and server assessment reports, with + Add to create one.
• Quotes: this client's quotes, with + New quote, which fills in the client and contact for you.

A Client report (PDF) is available with the R shortcut.

05Contacts

The Contacts tab shows all contacts grouped by client. Use the search box or the client filter list to narrow it down. You can add, edit and delete contacts here.

Auto-created contacts

When Orbit imports an email from a sender it does not know, it creates a contact from the sender's name and email address. If the email signature contains a phone number, job title or address, those fields are filled in too.

Removing duplicate contacts

The same person can occasionally appear more than once, for example when the inbox is checked before a newly created contact has finished saving in SharePoint. Until you clean up, the Contacts view hides the extra copies and shows only the best record. To remove the duplicates for good:

1. Open Settings and scroll to Deduplicate Contacts.
2. Click Remove Duplicate Contacts.
3. Orbit groups all contacts by email address, keeps the most complete record for each person and deletes the rest.

06Domain rules and auto-matching

Domain rules tell Orbit which email domain belongs to which client. When an email arrives from an unknown sender, Orbit checks the sender's domain against these rules before creating the ticket. The CCI Server Agent also uses them to group server cards under the right client.

Adding domain rules

1. Open the client's detail view.
2. Click Edit in the Domain Rules section.
3. Enter one domain per line, for example harborpine.example. A client can have several domains.
4. Save.

If no domain rule matches, Orbit tries to match the email by scanning its body for known client names.

Auto-match at startup

Every time Orbit loads, it scans all unmatched tickets and assigns a client using domain rules and email body scanning. Any new domain matches it finds are saved permanently to the domain rule list. A brief message confirms when auto-match is done. You don't need to do anything.

07Tickets

The Tickets tab is your main work queue. Each card shows the ticket number, subject, client, status, priority, assigned technician and the time since it was created.

A live count bar at the top shows pills for Open, In Progress, On Hold, Closed and New Today. Click a pill to filter the list to that status. You can also filter by priority, assignee, client and tag.

Ticket statuses

Creating a ticket by hand

1. Click + New Ticket on the Dashboard, or press N.
2. Fill in Subject, Client, Priority and Description.
3. Click Save. The ticket gets the next sequential ticket number, for example TK-0042.

Editing a ticket

1. Open the ticket and click Edit Ticket, or press E.
2. Change any field: status, priority, assigned technician, subject, description, tags or canned response.
3. Click Save. The edit window closes and the ticket card refreshes.

Editing is safe when colleagues are working on the same ticket: only the fields you changed are saved. If someone else changed the same field while you had the form open, Orbit shows who changed it and when, and asks which value to keep. OK keeps your value; Cancel keeps theirs.

Canned responses

Canned responses are pre-written reply templates. Pick one from the list in the ticket detail to fill the reply field. Responses include a branded signature with the link to your Ping help desk portal. Add, edit and delete templates in Settings.

Client notifications

When you change a ticket's status to In Progress or Closed, Orbit sends a branded HTML email to the client's email address on file, one email per change. The address comes from the original email when the ticket was created from email.

Tags

Tags are free-text labels you can add to any ticket, such as "network", "hardware" or "onboarding". Use them to classify work for filtering and reporting.

Logging time in Tempo

The clock icon on a ticket card opens Tempo in a new tab with the client, date and ticket description already filled in. Review the times and click Save in Tempo.

The Knowledge Base panel on a ticket

Every ticket shows related Knowledge Base articles, matched on title, tags, text and client. If the ticket came from a recurring schedule with a procedure attached, that procedure is shown at the top.

• Used this: counts the article as used. The count shows on the Dashboard.
• Save fix to KB: turns the ticket and your notes into a new article.
• Suggest a fix: the AI reads the ticket, its latest notes and the best-matching articles and files, and drafts a fix with links to its sources. Always check it before you use it.

08Email integration

Orbit checks your shared help desk mailbox at regular intervals through Microsoft Graph. Press I to check the inbox right away.

Email to ticket

Each new email becomes a new ticket, unless it is a reply to an existing conversation. Emails from blocked senders and no-reply addresses are skipped silently.

Thread grouping

When an incoming email has the same conversation ID as an open ticket, its body is added to that ticket as a work-log comment instead of creating a new ticket. The full exchange stays in one place.

Inbox settings

• Inbox window: how far back the inbox check looks (unread only, 1 day, 1 week and so on).
• Blocked senders: a comma-separated list of email addresses that should never create tickets.
• Email templates: customize the auto-match patterns used during email import.

All three are in Settings.

Always Ignore rules

Always Ignore rules permanently suppress recurring marketing, vendor or informational emails. When a matching email arrives, Orbit skips it silently: the email stays unread in the inbox and no ticket is created.

1. Open the ticket that was created from the unwanted email.
2. Click Always Ignore in the ticket's action bar.
3. A window opens with the sender's domain and AI-suggested subject keywords filled in. Review and adjust them.
4. Click Save Rule. The current ticket is closed and tagged "ignored".

An email is suppressed when the sender's domain matches the rule's domain and the subject contains at least one of the rule's keywords. If a rule has no keywords, the domain alone suppresses the email. View and delete rules in Settings → Always Ignore Rules.

Browser notifications

If you allow notifications when your browser asks, Orbit shows a browser notification when a new ticket arrives from email. Click the notification to jump straight to the ticket.

09Recurring work

Recurring schedules create tickets automatically. Typical uses are monthly server reboots, quarterly security reviews and annual license renewals.

Recurring tickets are created when someone signs in and a scheduled item is due. They appear in the client's Open Tickets and in the main Tickets queue.

Attaching a procedure

A schedule can carry a procedure from the Knowledge Base. Use the Procedure picker on the schedule to choose the article. Tickets created from that schedule show the procedure at the top of their Knowledge Base panel.

10Links

The Links tab lists vendor portals and tools by category. Filter by category or by client. Click + Add Vendor to add one. The order of the categories is set in Settings → Vendor Categories.

11Knowledge Base

The Knowledge Base tab holds your how-to articles, procedures and client documents. Everyone with access to Orbit can read, add, edit, delete and restore articles. Administrators manage the topics.

• Search finds words in articles and inside attached files: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, text files and photos. Text in pictures is read automatically.
• Fix guides: an article tagged with a monitor issue shows as a Fix guide link on server cards that have that problem.
• Client Docs: articles for one client appear on that client's page. Server assessment reports are filed there automatically.
• Deleted: articles and files deleted in the last 15 days, each with Restore.

The Dashboard's Knowledge Base tiles show which articles are new, which have not been checked in 6+ months, how often articles are used and which common ticket subjects still need an article.

12System Monitors and server health

The System Monitors tab shows backup status taken from the daily backup emails, and a live health card for every client Windows server running the CCI Server Agent.

The agent reports every 10 minutes. A server is marked Offline after 35 minutes without a report. The Agent guide button on this tab opens the built-in agent guide.

What the agent checks

A pending reboot is only reported when Windows itself asks for a restart (Windows Update or servicing). Files queued by browser or antivirus updates are not counted.

The agent runs at idle priority, waits a random 0 to 5 minutes before each run so servers don't all report at the same moment, and has a 20-minute time limit. Each check-in is a few KB, about 1 MB a day per server.

Finding servers

• Search by domain, server name or client name.
• Status badges are filters. Click Offline, Online or without client email to show only those servers; click again (or the ✕ next to the search box) to show all. When every server is checking in, the badge shows a grey "0 Offline".
• New this week shows servers added in the last 7 days. New cards carry an "Added" label.
• Select chips: Time sync off, Pending reboot, Failed backups, Backups 2+ days old, Stopped services and Firewall off show only the matching online servers and select them for the bulk-action bar (sync clock, start services, assessment, reboot). Choosing several chips shows servers with any of those problems. ✕ Clear shows everything again.
• Agent traffic at the bottom of the tab shows how much data all agents send per day. Hover for details.

Reading a server card

Server details

Click a card to open the detail window. It groups every field into System (CPU, RAM, uptime, agent version and agent key), Storage, Security, Network, Services & Tasks, Updates & Backup and Client Alerts. The Security group shows any non-zero failed-login count plus Targeted Accounts and Login Sources.

USB backup drive unplugged

If a server that backs up with Windows Server Backup has no USB drive plugged in, its card shows "USB backup drive unplugged since…" in amber, turning red after 60 minutes. After 60 minutes the card's Client Alert contacts get one email asking them to reconnect it (your help desk mailbox is copied; if the card has no contact, only your help desk mailbox is emailed), and the card adds "client emailed". Plugging a drive back in resets it. Servers that never had a USB drive, servers whose backups are handled elsewhere, and drives gone more than 7 days are skipped.

Firewall readiness

For a server with a firewall profile turned off, the detail window shows a read-only Firewall readiness panel:

• A verdict: Safe to turn on, or Turning the firewall on now would block N ports.
• Advice on the network type. For example, "Public" on a domain server usually means restarting the Network Location Awareness service or setting the network to Private.
• A table of every listening port with the program behind it, which computers connected this week, and whether it would be allowed or blocked.

Let it watch for a full week before acting. Nothing on the server is changed. Firewall readiness is not available on servers running PowerShell 2.0.

Repair authorization (clients not on contract)

When a server belonging to a client who is not on contract has findings, its card shows Request repair authorization.

1. Click Request repair authorization. The window lists the critical and minor items in plain English as a ready-to-copy email asking the client to approve the work.
2. Send the email to the client.
3. Once they approve, enter who approved, the date and time, and how they approved.
4. Click Save approval & create ticket. Orbit opens a ticket for the repair and the card shows "Repair approved".

Automatic client alerts

In a server's detail window, Client Alerts takes the client's email address or addresses. From then on:

• When a new critical issue appears, the client is emailed right away from your help desk mailbox.
• Open items are repeated in the weekly server report, sent every Tuesday at 5 AM Pacific: one email per client with a summary, per-server details, approval buttons for clients not on contract, and a box to request a change of recipients.
• Contract clients are told the issue is being monitored and will be fixed as soon as possible if it doesn't resolve on its own. Clients not on contract get an approval request with one-click buttons that email your help desk.
• Every alert is saved in the help desk mailbox's Sent Items.

Leave the address blank to turn alerts off for that server.

Daily backup report and drive-swap reminder

The same Client Alert addresses can receive:

• A short daily backup report at 7 AM listing every backup for the client (Windows Server Backup plus jobs reported by email, such as Synology).
• A Friday drive-swap reminder at 2 PM to swap the backup drive and take the removed one off-site.

Set these per server in Client Alerts: daily report every day, only on failures, or off; drive-swap reminder on or off. The reminder is on by default for servers using Windows Server Backup.

Clients can see their servers in Ping

Anyone whose Ping sign-in email is one of a server's Client Alert addresses sees that server under Your Servers in Ping. They can open it for details, approve repairs or ask a question; either action becomes a help desk request. Alert emails include a link to Ping.

Automatic tickets for contract clients

For contract clients, critical issues become tickets automatically as soon as they are detected, one ticket per issue and never duplicated. The ticket number appears in the client's alert email, the weekly report and their Ping ticket list.

Agent key status

Every server has its own secret key and is locked to it. The detail window shows Agent Key: Locked to this server, Added by (the technician whose new-server window let it join) and, if a check-in was refused, Key refused with the time and source address. A red "Check-in refused" line on a card means a machine tried to report as that server without its key (see Agent troubleshooting).

Remote commands

From a server card you can send Schedule Reboot, Sync Clock, Start Stopped Services, Run Assessment, Uninstall Agent and Reset agent key. These only work from Orbit: each one is signed for that one server and logged with who asked. Entering a command directly into the underlying SharePoint list does nothing. The demo account cannot send commands.

Assessment reports are filed automatically in the client's Client Docs.

13Installing and maintaining the CCI Server Agent

Agent requirements

• Windows Server 2012 or later with PowerShell 3.0 or newer (5.1 recommended).
• Outbound HTTPS from the server to the agent endpoint. Your Orbit administrator can give you the host name if you need to allow it on a firewall.
• Servers that must stay on PowerShell 2.0 (for example SBS 2011 or 2008 R2 with Exchange) get a PowerShell 2.0 edition automatically from the installer. Its version ends in -ps2.
• Administrator rights on the server.

Step 0: allow new servers

New servers are refused unless a technician allows them first. Do this step for any server that is not yet listed on the System Monitors tab. Reinstalling on a server that is already listed doesn't need it.

1. On the System Monitors tab, click Allow new servers (2 h).
2. Tick the acknowledgement that you are installing the agent on a client server you support and are responsible for the installation.
3. Optionally add a note (client and server).
4. Confirm. For the next 2 hours, any new server can join.

Your name, the time and every server that joins are recorded in the New-server log, and each server's detail window shows Added by. If you forget step 0, the server never appears and its Windows Application log shows event 9001 with "New servers are closed". Open a window and run the agent again.

Installing the agent

1. In Orbit, click Download Agent on the System Monitors toolbar.
2. Client Domain: pick the client's domain, for example harborpine.example. It must match one of the client's domain rules so the card groups under the right client.
3. Agent Endpoint URL: leave the pre-filled value.
4. Click Download Installer (.cmd). You get an installer file named for the client domain.
5. Copy the file to the server (for example through your remote-access tool) and double-click it. It asks for Administrator rights, downloads the current agent and installs it as a scheduled task. If antivirus blocks the usual script name, the installer uses an alternative name and tells you so.
6. The first report arrives within about 10 minutes.

To send a report right away, run the agent once from an elevated PowerShell window with the -NoJitter switch. Use the agent folder and script name the installer reported:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoProfile -File "<agent folder>\<agent script>.ps1" -NoJitter

If the installer says the scheduled task could not be created, see Agent troubleshooting.

What gets installed

Antivirus

The agent is built to avoid what strict antivirus products flag: it never overwrites the script its task runs (updates are new files), it sets config file permissions itself, and its task has no hidden-window switch. If the antivirus still removes the agent files or the scheduled task, whoever manages that antivirus should add a folder exclusion for the agent's folder (on-access and behavior monitoring).

Automatic updates

The agent updates itself. No action is needed when a new version is released.

• Each check-in tells the agent the latest version. If it differs, the agent downloads the new script and saves it as a new versioned file. The script the scheduled task runs is never overwritten.
• Every run starts in the task's script and hands over to the newest saved version that checks out (correct version inside, parses cleanly, runs on this PowerShell). If that fails, it simply runs itself, so a bad file cannot stop the agent.
• Older versioned files are removed after each update, and event 9002 is logged. The new version runs from the next check-in.
• A check-in that started just before the update may still report the old version once; the next one shows the new version.

To update a server immediately, run the agent with -NoJitter twice: the first run downloads the new version and the second runs it.

Uninstalling and removing a decommissioned server

1. Open the server's card and click Uninstall Agent (remote). The agent removes itself and its scheduled tasks on its next check-in. Alternatively, on the server, unregister the agent's scheduled tasks and delete the agent's folder from an elevated PowerShell window.
2. Then open the server's card in Orbit and click Remove server (decommissioned). This deletes the server's record and its disk alerts.

Security model

14Quotes: building and approving

The Quotes tab is where agents build proposals for clients, managers approve them, and billing tracks each sale through to commission payment. Costs, profit and commissions never appear on anything the client sees.

How a quote moves

The badge on each quote shows which step it is in.

Who does what

Building a quote

Open Quotes. Your own quotes are listed with the step each is in, and the tiles show your pipeline and commissions. Managers and billing can switch to All quotes. Chips filter the list by step, a quote with options shows how many it has, and a red triangle counts lines priced below the floor.

1. Click + New Quote (or + New quote on a client's page, which fills in the client and contact).
2. Fill in the client, the contact who receives the proposal, a title and an optional message.
3. Add lines with the buttons under the items (see Line types).
4. Click Save.
5. Add supporting files in the Files box: drag in a vendor quote or cart screenshot, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V, and save it as "vendor cost". Billing uses these to check costs.

Line types

• + Hardware, + Software, + Warranty / services: type your cost and the price fills in at the recommended price. Change the price if you need to; the "rec $…" link puts the recommended price back. The proposal groups lines under these headings, and billing uses them for QuickBooks.
• + Other one-time: anything else billed once, such as installation labor or a project.
• Service plans: pick one of your managed service plans. The price and agreement terms come from the service price list in Quotes settings.
• + Pax8 subscription: search Pax8 and pick the product and billing option (see Pax8 products).
• Read items from paste / screenshot: let the AI fill in lines from a vendor page, cart or quote (see Reading items from a screenshot).

The vendor box under each description is internal only, for billing. The client sees the description and part number. You can change a line's type at any time with the Type list.

A price below the recommended price is allowed, but it is outlined in red ("below floor") and the manager sees it. The totals show one-time, monthly, your cost, net profit and commission.

Drop ship

Hardware can be drop shipped from the supplier to the client. Drop ship to the client is ticked automatically as soon as the quote has a Hardware line; untick it if the equipment is coming to your office instead. With drop ship on, the email to the client asks them to confirm the shipping address, you enter that address when they accept, and billing gets it with the PO.

Reading items from a screenshot

1. Click Read items from paste / screenshot under the items.
2. Paste product rows copied from a vendor site, cart or quote email, and/or paste a screenshot (Ctrl+V), drop in pictures or a PDF quote.
3. Click Read items. The AI fills in part numbers, descriptions, vendor, cost and quantities, and suggests Hardware, Software or Warranty for each line. Shipping and tax rows are unticked.
4. Check the list. On a quote with options, choose which option the items go into.
5. Click Add checked items. Prices are set to the recommended price, and you can adjust them.

Pax8 products

1. Click + Pax8 subscription.
2. Type part of the product name or SKU (for example "Business Premium") and click Search.
3. Pick the product, then click Use on the billing option the client wants. Pax8's live prices are shown with your cost and margin.

• The line is priced at Pax8 retail. Your Pax8 cost is filled in for the commission calculation.
• The billing and commitment (for example "1-Year commitment, billed monthly") is printed under the item on the proposal, with a note that a commitment cannot be cancelled early.
• Annual-billed options are shown per month; the yearly price is on the proposal. Volume pricing follows the quantity: change the quantity and the price updates.
• A price under Pax8 retail shows red for the manager. A Pax8 line typed by hand (without the lookup) uses the standard recommended price.

Offering options (up to 6)

1. Tick Offer options and pick how many (2 to 6, lettered A to F).
2. Name each option, for example "Access point (good)".
3. Set each line's Option to the letter it belongs to, or All for lines that are in every option (installation, services).

Every option needs at least one line of its own. Each option is color-coded, and the totals show each one separately.

• The manager approves all the options at once.
• The proposal opens with a comparison table (one-time, monthly and first-year cost per option) and a savings callout for the lowest-cost option, then shows each option in full.
• The email to the client starts with a box asking them to choose one option and reply with their PO.
• When the client accepts, you pick the option they chose. From then on the proposal, billing email, QuickBooks export and commission use only that option.

Working with co-agents

When more than one person works on a sale, add them to the quote so they can help build it and share the commission. Up to 10 agents can be on one quote: the lead agent (whoever created it, marked with a crown) and up to 9 co-agents.

• Add an agent: pick a name in + Add agent. The commission is split evenly to start (two agents 50 / 50, three 34 / 33 / 33).
• Set the split: type each person's percentage. Whole numbers only, and the total must be exactly 100 %. The total turns green at 100 % and red otherwise; you cannot save until it adds up.
• Remove an agent: click the x next to their name. The lead cannot be removed.
• The lead agent can change agents and percentages while the quote is a draft or awaiting approval. After a manager approves, only a manager can change them. Every change is recorded in the quote's History.

The quote appears in each co-agent's My quotes list with a purple co-agent tag. Co-agents can edit items, attach files and click Send for manager approval; the agents and split are read-only for them, and they have no Delete button.

Sending for approval

Click Send for manager approval. If any line is below the floor, explain why in the note. The managers get an email.

For managers: approve or send back

Every quote needs a manager before it can go to the client. Open it from the email, or in Quotes choose All quotes and the Awaiting approval chip. The agent's note is shown at the top, and the line under the quote number shows the agents and their split.

• Approve: every agent on the quote is emailed, and the lead agent can send the proposal. Your name and the time are recorded. When the quote has co-agents, the approve window shows the commission split; check it, change any percentage if needed (whole numbers, total 100 %), then approve.
• Send back: say what needs to change. The quote returns to draft and every agent on it is emailed.
• Lines below the floor are counted in the approve window, across every option, so nothing slips through.
• A manager can still change the agents or the split after approving, until the quote is sent to billing. This doesn't send the quote back to draft, because the price did not change.

Changes after approval are never silent. If an agent edits the items after you approve, the quote goes back to draft and needs approval again. After the client accepts, any change comes back to a manager before it can be billed.

15Quotes: sending, acceptance and billing

Emailing the proposal

1. On an approved quote, click Email proposal to client.
2. Check the address, subject and message. The message is written for you: it asks the client to choose an option when there are options, and to confirm the shipping address when the quote is drop shipped.
3. Click Send. The proposal PDF is attached automatically.

The email is sent from your own email address (not your sign-in name), appears in your Sent Items, and the client replies straight to you. If Orbit's email service is not yet allowed to send for you, Orbit sends it from your mailbox using your own sign-in instead. You don't need to do anything.

The client sees the choose-an-option box and the drop-ship box first, then your message.

What the proposal contains

• A branded cover banner.
• One-time items grouped under Hardware, Software, Warranty / services and Other.
• Monthly services shown separately in purple.
• Notes: pricing valid for 30 days, month-to-month services, cabling as an estimate, and that tax, shipping and any card surcharge apply.
• The terms of any service plan, and how to accept.
• For quotes with options: the comparison table and savings callout first.

Click Preview proposal at any time to see it.

I emailed it myself

If you sent the proposal from Outlook instead:

1. Click I emailed it myself.
2. Download the exact proposal PDF from the window if you still need to attach it.
3. Enter who you sent it to.
4. Click Mark as sent. The quote moves to Sent, the PDF is saved on the quote, and the 30-day expiry, acceptance and billing work as usual.

Recording the client's acceptance

1. When the client replies with a PO, click Client accepted (PO).
2. Pick the option they chose (when there are options).
3. Enter the PO number and, for a drop-shipped quote, the ship-to address they confirmed. The address is required.
4. Drag the client's email from Outlook into the Files box and save it as "client acceptance".

If the client accepts a contract service plan, Orbit reminds you to mark the client as a contract client in the client list.

Sending to billing

Click Send to billing. Billing gets one email with the PO, the option the client chose, the drop-ship address, every line's cost and price, the one-time total by category, the commission, the approval and change history, the final proposal PDF and the files on the quote. The quote is then locked.

For billing: invoice and commission

Billing users see all quotes. On a quote that was sent to billing, these buttons move it through the last steps:

Commission is earned when the client pays the invoice. Sales tax, shipping and card surcharges are added by billing on the invoice, so they never change the commission. On a quote with options, only the option the client chose counts. On a shared quote, each agent earns their percentage of the quote's commission; the total never changes.

The Commissions screen

Managers and billing have a Commissions button on the Quotes tab. It shows each agent's commission pending (client has not paid), earned (client paid, to pay), and paid this month and this year. On a shared quote, each agent's total includes only their share, and under To pay the quote lists every agent with their percentage and amount.

1. Tick the quotes being paid.
2. Add a note, such as the payroll date.
3. Click Mark selected commission paid. One tick marks the commission paid for every agent on that quote.

Commission report (Excel)

Commission report (Excel) builds a workbook for payroll. Choose To pay now (client has paid, commission not paid yet) or Commissions paid in a month.

• The Summary sheet has one row per agent (number of quotes, the one-time / service / Pax8 parts, and the commission to pay) with a total.
• The Detail sheet has one row per agent per quote, with a Share % column. A quote shared by three agents has three rows. It also shows the client, option chosen, PO, invoice, dates, one-time sale / cost / profit, monthly sale and cost, and how the commission was figured.
• Sale and cost columns are for the whole quote, so the total row adds up only the commission shares. Money columns are formatted and the detail sheet has filters.

QuickBooks invoices

QuickBooks invoices creates a CSV for QuickBooks → Import data → Invoices.

• One invoice per quote. The invoice number is the quote number, and the first line also shows the quote and PO numbers.
• Only the Hardware and Software lines of the option the client chose are included. Tick the boxes to also include Warranty / services or other one-time lines. Service plans, managed firewall and Pax8 lines are always left out, because they are billed monthly elsewhere.
• Ship-to city, state and ZIP come from the drop-ship address (its last line, "City, ST 12345"), otherwise from the client list.
• Quotes waiting to be invoiced are ticked; services-only quotes are unticked because there is nothing to invoice. Already invoiced quotes can be exported again.
• Tick mark as Invoiced to move the exported quotes to Invoiced (invoice number = quote number) right after the download.

Duplicating a quote

Duplicate on any quote starts a new draft with the same client, contact, options and items, which is handy for a revised quote or a similar job. The new quote notes which quote it was copied from and needs its own approval.

Quote expiry

Proposals are valid for 30 days. In the last week, sent quotes show "expires in N days", and "expired" after that. A tile on the Quotes tab counts the quotes to follow up.

Deleting a quote

Use the trash can on the list or Delete on the quote, and give a reason (for example "client declined"). A deleted quote disappears from every list, the pipeline and the Commissions screen, but the record is kept with who, when and why, so it can be restored if needed.

Quotes settings

Quotes → Settings holds who the managers and billing people are (Knowledge Base administrators change these), the billing mailbox, and the service price list with each plan's monthly price, short description and agreement terms (managers can change these). Tick contract plan for plans that make the client a contract client.

Where quote data lives

Quotes, their history and files are stored separately from Orbit's SharePoint lists, so agents can only load the quotes they are on and their costs. Every step is logged in the quote's History with the person and time.

16Global search and keyboard shortcuts

Global search

Press / or click the search icon to open the search overlay. It searches all of these at once:

• Ticket subjects and descriptions
• Client names
• Contact names and email addresses
• Knowledge Base articles and files

Results are grouped by type. Click a result to open that record.

Keyboard shortcuts

17Settings

Open Settings from the icons at the top right.

18AI features

Orbit uses AI in these places:

• Suggest a fix on a ticket's Knowledge Base panel: drafts a fix from the ticket, its latest notes and the best-matching articles and files, with links to its sources.
• Always Ignore: suggests subject keywords for a new ignore rule.
• Drafts and summaries in the ticket workflow.
• Read items from paste / screenshot on a quote: fills in lines from vendor pages, screenshots or PDF quotes.

AI runs through a secure server-side function; no AI key is stored in the browser, and there is nothing for you to set up. Your Orbit administrator manages the AI service. If it is not available, AI buttons say so; tell your administrator.

19Troubleshooting and FAQ

Orbit

CCI Server Agent

Quotes

20Getting help

Questions, bug reports or feature requests: email info@taucher.llc. You'll reach the people who wrote the software.