Getting Started

This guide orients you to Ascent: how to sign in, what the dashboard shows, how the left-hand navigation is organized, how to find anything with global search, and where to configure your organization.

Overview

After your first sign-in you can:

• Sign in with your password, single sign-on (SSO), or a security key (passkey)
• Get a quick read on your work from the Dashboard
• Navigate the app using the grouped left sidebar
• Jump to any client, ticket, asset, or other record with global search
• Manage your profile, theme, notifications, and inbox from the top bar
• Find organization-wide configuration under Settings

Signing In

Ascent uses a step-by-step sign-in flow:

1. Go to your Ascent URL (for example, https://yourcompany.goascent.app).
2. Enter your Email and click Continue. Ascent looks up the sign-in methods available for your organization.
3. On the next screen, sign in with whichever method your organization allows:
   • Continue with Microsoft / Google / Authentik / SSO — if your organization has single sign-on configured, a button appears for each provider.
   • Password — enter your password and click Sign in.
4. If your account has two-factor authentication enabled, you are prompted to verify with your Authenticator App (a 6-digit code) or your Security Key, depending on what you've set up.

Sign in with a security key

On the first (email) screen you can also choose Sign in with Security Key to authenticate passwordlessly with a registered passkey or hardware key (such as a YubiKey), without entering an email or password first.

The methods you see depend on how your organization is configured. If no sign-in method is available for your account, contact your administrator. Looking for the customer-facing Client Portal? It has its own separate login.

The Dashboard

The Dashboard (the home page at /) is your daily starting point. What you see depends on your permissions:

• Managers (users who can read reports, invoices, and clients) see organization-wide stat cards: Open Tickets, Tickets Due Today, Active Clients, and Revenue MTD.
• Other users see a personalized view with My Open Tickets and My Tickets Due Today.

Below the stat cards, every user sees:

Section	What it shows
Average Response Time	Average first-response time, with change vs. last week
Resolution Rate	Percentage of tickets resolved, with change vs. last month
Tickets Resolved	Number of tickets resolved this month
Recent Tickets	Latest tickets across clients, with priority and status
Today's Schedule	Today's calendar appointments plus tickets due today
Recent Activity	Recent actions from your team (or your own actions)

Users who can read both reports and invoices also see a Profit & Loss widget in the right column.

For a deeper walkthrough, see the Dashboard guide.

The Navigation Sidebar

The left sidebar groups every module into sections. You only see the sections and items your role and permissions allow, and some items require a specific license feature. Use the collapse control next to the logo to switch between the full sidebar and a compact, icon-only view.

Section	Items
Main	Dashboard, Inbox
CRM	Clients, Contacts, Locations, Pipeline
PSA	Tickets, Dispatch, Time Tracking, Projects, Checklists, My Tasks
Team Management	Schedule, Time Off, On-Call
Assets	Assets, Networks, Racks, Domains, Certificates, Software, Flexible Assets
Billing	Invoices, Recurring, Payments, Quotes, Products, Contracts
Vendors	Vendors
Knowledge base	Documentation, Credentials
Analytics	Overview, Team, SLA, Client Health, Feedback
Reports	Overview, Tickets, Revenue, Profit & Loss, Revenue by Client, Expenses, Time
Settings	Organization configuration, grouped by category in a left rail — Organization, Users & Access, Ticketing, Security & API, Email, AI, and Assets
Admin	Operational tools: Settings (opens the Settings area), Integrations, Audit Logs, AI Chat Logs — plus the collapsible Migrations sub-group

Collapsible sub-groups

Long sections can bucket related items into collapsible sub-groups so the sidebar stays manageable instead of scrolling forever. The Admin section uses one:

Sub-group	Items
Migrations	Autotask Migration, SyncroMSP Migration, ConnectWise Migration, Hudu Migration, ITFlow Migration

(Within Settings, the left rail likewise groups configuration into categories such as AI — AI Ticketing and AI Chat Assistant — and Ticketing — Customization, Routing, Workflows, SLA, Canned Responses, Checklist Templates, Tags, and Customer Feedback.)

Click a sub-group's header to expand or collapse it. Each group remembers whether you left it open or closed (saved per-user in your browser), and the group that contains the page you're currently on always opens automatically so the active item is never hidden. When the whole sidebar is collapsed to the icon-only rail, sub-group items appear as the usual icons with hover labels.

A few notes on gating:

• The Billing section requires the usage-based-billing license feature.
• Analytics and Reports require the reports.read permission.
• The Admin section is only visible to users with the Owner or Admin role.
• A sub-group only appears if you can access at least one item inside it.
• The Inbox item shows a badge with your unread count.

Global Search

Ascent gives you two ways to search across your data, both powered by the same index:

• Header search box — the search field at the top of every page. Start typing to see a dropdown of matching results.
• Command palette — press ⌘K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) anywhere in the app to open a centered search dialog. The footer hint in the header search box also points to this shortcut.

Type at least 2 characters to search. Results are grouped by type, and you can move through them with the arrow keys and open one with Enter (press Esc to close). Selecting a result takes you straight to that record.

Global search covers:

• Clients
• Contacts
• Tickets
• Assets
• Invoices
• Quotes
• Projects
• Documents
• Contracts
• Vendors

The Top Bar

Beyond search, the header on every page includes:

• Inbox — opens your inbox (/inbox), with a badge for unread items.
• Notifications — the bell icon opens a dropdown of recent notifications. A red badge shows your unread count, and View all notifications opens the full list.
• User menu — your avatar opens a menu with Profile, Settings, a Theme submenu (Light, Dark, System), and Log out.

On record-scoped pages, a client selector also appears so you can filter the view to a single client.

Where to Configure Things

Most organization-wide configuration lives in the Settings area, with operational tools under Admin (both visible to Owner and Admin roles):

• Settings (/settings) — core organization configuration, grouped by category.
• Settings → Users & Access → Roles & Permissions — manage roles and what each role can do.
• Admin → Integrations — connect external services.
• Admin → Audit Logs — review activity across the organization.

For an index of administrative tools, see the Administration Overview. For your own preferences (profile, theme, security), use the Settings entry in the user menu — see the Settings Overview.

First Steps

Once you're signed in, a typical path is:

1. Review your Dashboard to see open work and recent activity.
2. Open CRM → Clients to browse or add the clients you support — see the CRM overview.
3. Open PSA → Tickets to create and work support tickets — see the Tickets guide.
4. Explore Assets, Billing, and Reports as you need them.

Tips

• Press ⌘K / Ctrl+K from anywhere to jump to a record without leaving the keyboard.
• Collapse the sidebar to reclaim screen space; hover an icon to see its label.
• Switch between Light, Dark, and System themes from the user menu at any time.