Lesson #130
Setup – System Preferences function
General system preferences
As the name implies, these are preferences for features that span more than one module or are basic to the system, like log in.
Email is integrated into many RB functions. If you will be sending emails from RB, this is the one system preference that you are required to customize by entering your primary company email address settings. Other preferences can be customized at any time.
The Email preferences panel lists any email addresses already entered with the main email address selected as the default sender address for RB email. You can:
- Add email addresses.
- Change the default sender address.
- View, edit, delete, or test any listed email address.
- Export this list of email addresses that can be used systemwide as an Excel or CSV file to save, share, print, or use in other applications.
When entering a new email address, you can designate that it use either the standard email protocol or Microsoft 365 Office email protocol. If using the default email protocol, you must include the email server address and you can add security measures like SSL encryption of your email and SMTP authentication. If using a Microsoft 365 email account, you verify the account before using it because RB does not store your email’s password in the database.
The rest of the email setup is the address, user name, and any Bcc email addresses to include in emails by default; plus you can create a signature using formatted text, images, hyperlinks — even tables — that appends automatically to the end of your emails. You can edit your signature in the default WYSIWYG word processor environment or as HTML markup.
After setting up an email address, you can test it within this same function to see if you have the correct settings for sending emails within RB from this address. You can also view the sent email to see if you want to make any changes to the signature.
General vs. personal email addresses
You do not have to enter every user’s email address in System Preferences. If your staff should use their own address when emailing from RB, they can set up their email address in User Preferences (preferences that affect their RB account only, not the entire system). Then, in most instances, their address will be the sender address when they send an email through RB.
If you have a small staff and want to have users share addresses, enter the addresses in System Preferences, not User Preferences. Then they can use the default company email address or choose any of the other addresses as the sender when sending an email.
Email & RB Connect
Another reason to set up email accounts in System Preferences is if you have RB Connect. All RB Connect calendar communications for the contact side of RB Connect will be sent from the email account listed as the default in the System Preferences.
Or you can designate one of the other General email addresses as the source for auto confirmations and cancellations that are sent to clients regarding RB Connect job schedulings. This is so in case a client responds to the auto confirmation email they receive, their response needs to go to a validated email account. Set this up in RB Connect General Preferences.
Forgot Password Email
If one of your users forgets their RB password, they can request a new password from the sign-in screen. RB will automatically send them an email so they can reset their password. You can change the default text of the header and body of this email.
You can automatically insert relevant RB data with contextual data fields for who requested the reset, when they requested it, and the link to reset their password. You can also customize the appearance of the body of the email with text formatting, images, color, hyperlinks, and tables.
License Info
This section is for viewing purposes only. In these uneditable fields, find information about your RB licenses and other product information. It shows:
- Your RB product code
- Your current number of paid-for RB licenses
- Date your RB licenses will expire if not renewed
- Version of RB software you are using
- Web address of your RB
- Entity your RB is licensed to
- Amount in gigabytes of storage you are currently using for your RB repository
- Number of files in your RB repository
- Any plug-ins you currently subscribe to are checked in the Active column of this pane (you can export this list as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications)
- Any RB custom programming you have is listed in this pane (you can export this list as an Excel or CSV file to save, print, share, or use in other applications)
Login
RB follows general security rules for business application user log-ins. You can change some of these security features. In System Preferences, you can:
- Protect user accounts from hacking attempts by selecting a set amount of incorrect login attempts before RB locks out the user. Single-system users can select the “Never locked out” option.
- Require complex passwords that contain a number, lowercase letter, capital letter, and symbol.
- Force users to reset their password periodically. You can set the duration to every 30, 60, 90, or 180 days before RB users must change their password.
- If you require users to change their password periodically, you can allow them to keep the same password when they update their password.
- Use email addresses as the log-in name for all of your user accounts, instead of custom log-in names. With custom log-in names, users can change their log-in names, but everyone must have a unique log-in name. They do not have that option with email addresses.
- Require users to verify their identity upon RB sign-in with a second factor in addition to their user name and password. A verification code will be sent to the user’s preferred method of communication, which they must then enter into RB before accessing the site. Authentication is per device, and users can decide to authenticate a device once or every time they sign in on that device.
Notifications and Messages
You can select 30, 60, 90, or 180 days for how long RB will keep old messages in the Sent Message and Trash folders in the system’s message center before deleting them.
Session Timeout
Because RB is web based, you can work anywhere you have a web browser and internet connection. However, RB stores sensitive data — including information about your business units, accounting, contacts, and resources — so it will automatically log you off after staying inactive for a set period of time to deter prying eyes from compromising any sensitive data. It is exactly like how online banking sites sign you off after a predetermined length of inactive time.
The default is that you are automatically logged out of RB after 20 minutes of inactivity, but you can change the session timeout. You can set the interval at any 5-minute increment from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. Your changes will take place the next time you log in. Since this is a system preference, all users will be affected, including contacts and resources that use RB Connect, the next time they log in.
Since RB does not automatically save your information when it logs you out, it’s a good idea to set an interval that balances security with your work processes, and to let other users know what the interval is so they remember to save their work periodically.
System Time
Set your RB job clock to the time zone that your company is in. (The list of time zones is set in Calendar System Preferences.) Users can select a different default time zone for jobs they schedule in User Preferences.
You can also set the system to automatically adjust the job clock for Daylight Saving Time.
TL;DR: Set preferences for aspects of RB that impact multiple modules or the entire system in General preferences. Some preferences can be overridden by individual users in User Preferences.
RB concepts in this lesson
Business Unit (BU): One of your company’s revenue centers or any entity in your business that you want to track separately, such as branch offices, other companies you own, affiliates, and profit-sharing operations.
Contact: Person who works for a firm you do business with.
Job: Usually the reporting of a deposition, but can also be any kind of service you provide with your reporters or other resources. More >
RB Connect: Online repository, calendar, and access to your office for clients and resources.
Repository: RB has 9 repositories where you store files for safekeeping and quick retrieval. When you store files in a case, they are in RB’s Case Repository; when you store files in a job, they are in RB’s Job Repository; etc. If you have RB Connect, you can give clients and/or resources access to specific repository files.
Resource: Person or thing that provides your business with a service, such as reporters.
Users: You and your staff who directly access RB.
