Outpost for MSPs
The MSP plan is for a managed service provider that looks after other organizations’ endpoints and is paid for it. One console holds every client you serve, keeps each client’s data apart from every other client’s, and adds the business side of the practice: sales and quotes, projects, client agreements, and invoicing. This page explains how the console is arranged on the MSP plan, how client data is kept separate, and where each task is documented.
The MSP plan is the only plan licensed for paid managed services to other organizations. See Plans and limits.
The practice and the client workspace
Section titled “The practice and the client workspace”On the MSP plan, the console has two levels.
| Level | What it is for | How you get there |
|---|---|---|
| Practice | Work that spans clients or belongs to your business: the client roster, the cross-client ticket and alert queues, sales, projects, client billing, practice reports, and your own settings | Sign in, or select Return home in a client’s workspace |
| Client workspace | One client’s endpoints, users, tickets, alerts, scripts, profiles, documentation, and reports | Select the client’s name in Clients, or pick it in the Client switcher in the header |
You never switch consoles. The navigation changes to show the level you are at, and the header shows which client you are working in. The navigation layouts are described in The Outpost console.
Your team signs in once and works every client from the same account. Your clients do not sign in to the console. Their end users reach your team through the Outpost tray app on their computers, and the people you invite sign in to your branded client portal to see invoices, pay, approve work, and raise tickets. See Tray and Client portal.
How client data is kept apart
Section titled “How client data is kept apart”Each client has its own database. Its endpoints, users, tickets, scripts, documentation, and agreements are stored there. When you work inside a client’s workspace, every page reads from that client’s database, and a request made inside one client’s workspace cannot name a different client, whatever permissions the technician holds.
Records that belong to your practice rather than to one client are kept separately from every client’s database. These include the client roster, prospects, quotes, and invoices. The practice-level pages that read across clients, such as the Inbox and the practice Reports, ask each client’s database in turn. When a client cannot be reached, the page says so and shows the rest, rather than leaving that client out without a word.
Pooled allowances
Section titled “Pooled allowances”The MSP plan’s included active endpoints and Outpost Cloud Storage apply to your account as a whole. They are pooled across your clients, not given to each client separately. See Plans and limits.
Storage report at the practice level shows what each client stores and how much of it Outpost meters. See MSP reports.
What the MSP plan adds
Section titled “What the MSP plan adds”The MSP plan includes everything in Enterprise, plus:
| Feature | What it does | Where it is documented |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple client environments | A workspace and a database per client, the client roster, and the cross-client views | Add and manage clients, Practice home, Inbox, and estate status |
| Sales and quotes | A pipeline of prospects and deals, priced quotes, and a private link where the prospect or client signs | Sales pipeline and quotes |
| Sales orders | What an accepted quote’s hardware became: buying, delivery, invoicing on delivery or on order with a deposit, and margin | Sales orders, Procurement and assets |
| Quoting tools and opportunity workflows | Quotes won in Quoter, Salesbuildr, or QuoteWerks, and workflows that act on the pipeline | Quoting tools, Opportunity workflows |
| Projects | Phases, tasks, milestones with client acceptance, budgets, change orders, and a client status page | Projects, Time tracking and dispatch |
| Timesheets | Each technician’s week across every client, with ticket and task time filled in, submitted and approved weekly | Timesheets, Approve timesheets |
| Client agreements | What each client pays every period, counted by device type and seat, with discounts, price increases, and a next-bill estimate | Client agreements, Bill by device type and seat, Billing catalog |
| Client invoicing | Monthly draft invoices, sending, payments, credit notes, and an export for your accounting package | Invoice clients |
| Client payments | Online payment of your invoices through your own Stripe, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net, or QuickBooks Payments account, with pay links and autopay | Client payments |
| Client portal | A branded portal where your clients’ people see invoices, pay, approve, raise tickets, and more | Client portal |
| Practice reports | Reports across clients, including financial, project, and sales reports | MSP reports |
Sales, projects, agreements, invoicing, client payments, and the client portal are the business features. They exist only on the MSP plan.
How the business features fit together
Section titled “How the business features fit together”The business features follow the order in which a job happens:
- You work a deal in Sales and send the prospect or client a quote.
- The prospect or client signs the quote. Accepting it creates the client if it is new, a draft agreement for the monthly lines, a draft invoice for the one-time lines, an onboarding ticket, and a project when the quote sells one. A quote that sells hardware also raises a sales order, which you buy, deliver, and invoice. See Sales orders.
- You activate the agreement. From then on, time your team logs on that client’s tickets and project tasks is classified by the agreement’s rules.
- Outpost drafts an invoice for every client whose billing day has arrived. You check it and finalize it, which emails it to the client’s billing contact.
- The client pays online from the email, in the client portal, or by autopay, when you have connected a payment provider.
Who can do what
Section titled “Who can do what”Each business area has its own permissions, so a practice can give a salesperson the pipeline without the invoice book, and a project manager the projects without either.
| Area | Permissions |
|---|---|
| Clients | client:read, client:manage |
| Sales | crm:read, crm:write, crm:send, crm:approve |
| Projects | project:read, project:write, project:time, project:calendar, project:manage |
| Timesheets | ticket:write, timesheet:approve, psa:admin |
| Agreements and invoicing | psa:read, psa:write, psa:invoice, psa:admin |
| Client payments | psa:payments, psa:refund |
| Client portal | clientportal:read, clientportal:manage, clientportal:users, clientportal:remote, clientportal:branding, clientportal:domains |
Client billing is not the same as Settings > Billing. Client billing is what your clients pay you. Settings > Billing is your own Outpost subscription. See Roles and permissions.
Related
Section titled “Related”Content is licensed CC BY 4.0. Code samples are MIT. Outpost and the Outpost mark are trademarks of Outpost Business Solutions, PBC and are not covered by either license.