Schools & Fleets — Operational Help

1. Workspaces & boat access

Every account has a Personal workspace and may also belong to one or more org / fleet workspaces (schools, hire fleets, clubs). Each workspace is a separate operational space — its boats, members, billing, and inventory are isolated from your personal side and from other workspaces.

The workspace switcher in the top-nav scopes the boat list, the All Boats page, and the org-level menus (Billing Queue, Organization Inventory, Checklist Templates) to the active workspace. Personal owner-operators only see their own workspace and never see fleet-only menu items.

One boat = one operational workspace. A boat lives in exactly one workspace at a time — never simultaneously personal and fleet. See Boat transfers for moving boats between workspaces.

2. Roles & permissions

Seven org-membership roles, each with a specific operational remit:

• Fleet Owner — protected organization owner with access to every fleet boat and all Manager capabilities. An ordinary Manager cannot remove, demote, deactivate, or change a Fleet Owner.
• Manager — access to every fleet boat; manages the organization, members, invites, settings, billing, templates, assignments, and reviews.
• Office Staff — access to every fleet boat and broad operational tools, including Manager Desk, Billing Queue, labor rates, templates, and shared inventory. Office Staff cannot manage organization members or settings or change the subscription plan.
• Maintenance / Mechanic — access only to assigned boats; can complete tasks, raise defects, and enter labor, supplies, receipts, and photos. They cannot see restricted rates, delete or void defects, or reorganize shared storage.
• Instructor / Captain — access only to assigned boats; can run checklists, complete tasks, raise defects, and review existing BSR information. They cannot enter labor or full service records, start a new BSR, or use administration or billing tools.
• Owner / Client — read-only access to assigned vessels and information that staff have made available in the owner portal. They cannot edit operational records or see internal evidence unless it is explicitly published for owners.
• Billing — intentionally narrow access to the Billing Queue and its permitted billing actions. This role does not receive ordinary fleet-boat access or Manager Desk capabilities.

Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff see every boat in the organization. Maintenance, Instructor, and Owner / Client users need an explicit BoatAccess assignment for each boat. Billing membership grants Billing Queue access, not implicit boat access.

3. Shared checklist runs

A checklist on a fleet boat is a shared operational record. Any authorised user with access to the boat can open it and complete items — the next person sees what's already done.

• Auto-save: each item completion saves immediately and links to the underlying PMS task where one exists.
• Multi-user continuation: two instructors, or an instructor and a mechanic, can work the same checklist in turn until every item is resolved.
• Closing / locking: once a checklist run is closed it becomes an immutable operational record. Re-opening means starting a new run from the same template.
• Read-only viewers (owner / client) can see the run but cannot tick items.

4. Instructor workflow

Open Checklists before a session and continue an in-progress run or open a fresh run from a fleet template. Tick items as you verify them. If something fails, report a BSR item on school-fleet boats. When inspection is complete, leave the run for a Manager or Office Staff member to close.

5. Maintenance / mechanic workflow

• Use the All Boats page (scoped to the workspace) to see overdue tasks, in-progress work, and open defects. Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff see every fleet boat; Maintenance, Instructor, and Owner / Client users see assigned vessels only.
• Managers and office staff can open a task and manage Assignment; maintenance/mechanic and instructor roles do not get those controls. Assignment is collapsed by default on task detail.
• Open a task to log work, enter parts used, attach photos, and record the outcome (passed / issue found / temporary repair / could not complete). Follow-up tasks are generated automatically where appropriate.
• Resolve defects with a service record — the defect link is preserved so the history shows what the repair was for.
• Mark work in progress or waiting for parts so the dashboard reflects current shop state.

6. Defects & follow-up work

A defect is an operational follow-up signal raised by anyone with boat access — typically an instructor finding something during a pre-sail check. Defects are visible to the maintenance team and drive repair work.

• Severity: Critical (boat unsafe), Important (resolve soon), or Normal.
• Status flows: open → in progress → awaiting parts → resolved / won't fix / deferred.
• Resolving a defect links the resolving service record to the defect so the history thread is preserved.
• Defects do not automatically take the boat offline — that's a fleet-policy call. The dashboard surfaces critical-defect counts so managers can act.

7. Fleet checklist templates

Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff can define a checklist once at the organization level and copy it to selected boats. A template is the reusable master; each vessel copy is an independent snapshot.

• Use the currently listed controls to create or edit a template, add or remove its items, and select boats for copying.
• Activate the template when it is ready for operational use. Roll it out by copying it to the intended vessels.
• Edit a template at the org level — copies made later use the current template content.
• Existing boat copies become independent after the copy: editing the template does not retroactively change copies already on boats. This is deliberate — a fleet operator can tune a checklist for a specific boat without breaking the master template.
• Items in a template can be wired to specific PMS tasks so a tick on the checklist completes the underlying task and updates due dates.

8. Boat transfers — moving boats into fleets

A boat can move between workspaces (e.g. an owner donating a boat to a school's training fleet, or a charter company moving a hull between two fleet workspaces). Transfers are admin-led and explicit; there is no self-serve doorway.

• All service history, equipment, inventory, certificates, and defects move with the boat.
• Existing checklist runs and tasks are preserved.
• Permissions are rebuilt against the destination workspace — boat access in the old workspace is removed.
• Billing for the boat shifts to the destination workspace's billing owner.

9. Operational history & attribution

• Every service record, defect, and closed checklist run records the user who completed it. The Service History page shows the attribution alongside the date.
• Filter the history by user, date range, or category to audit a specific instructor / mechanic's work.
• Internal work records (e.g. mechanic notes not relevant to owners) default to not owner-visible — they appear in the mechanic's view but not on owner-facing exports.
• Users with core access can export CSV from each boat for resale, end-of-season reports, and external audits.

10. Multi-user behaviour

• Pages do not lock. Two users editing the same task or checklist will both save; the most recent write wins on conflicting fields.
• Service records, defect-state changes, and checklist completions are append-only and attributed — they are not overwritten by a later edit.
• Older service records cannot overwrite newer ones (future-dated completions are rejected).
• If you see a stale value after a colleague saved, refresh the page — there is no live push.

11. Organization inventory

Organization Inventory is the shared stock view for the active workspace. Fleet Owners, Managers, Office Staff, Maintenance, and Instructors may view it. Only Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff may create, edit, move, or otherwise manage shared stock.

12. Organization storage

Storage locations describe where organization inventory is kept. Fleet Owners, Managers, Office Staff, Maintenance, and Instructors may view the organization’s storage and current stock locations. Only Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff can maintain the location structure, move assets, or reorganize stock.

13. Organization administration

Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff can open the school or fleet administration landing page. Organization settings and member management remain restricted to Fleet Owners and Managers; Office Staff only see and use the administrative controls their role exposes.

14. Organization members

Fleet Owners and Managers manage member roles, status, and vessel access. Office Staff may reach the administration area but cannot change members or organization settings. Assigned-vessel roles do not gain access to future boats automatically.

15. Organization invitations

Fleet Owners and Managers can invite organization roles. Office Staff may invite Owner / Client users through the owner-administration workflow, but cannot invite operational staff or change member roles. Review the displayed role and organization before sending an invite.

16. Owner directory

Fleet Owners, Managers, Office Staff, and Billing may view the organization’s owner and contact directory. Fleet Owners, Managers, and Office Staff may edit owner records and view or add internal owner notes. Billing has directory lookup access but cannot edit owner records or access those internal notes.