Offices
Offices in Proteus represent your organisation’s legal entities. When a new Proteus tenant is first created, a single office is set up as part of the initial configuration. This office can be updated at any time via General Settings or the Offices section of the Admin Console.
If your organisation operates multiple legal entities, particularly if you intend to use the Delivery module for invoicing and finance, a separate office must be created for each legal entity. This ensures that invoices, bank details, tax rates and reference sequences are correctly attributed to the right entity.
Offices are foundational to how Proteus organises data. Users, proposals, projects, contracts and purchase orders are all associated with a specific office. Keeping offices aligned to your legal entity structure ensures accurate financial reporting and compliance.
Office Key
Each office has a field called the Office Key, which is a unique identifier that can be incorporated into the reference numbering sequences used across Proteus records. For example, an Office Key of “LND” could be used in a Project Reference formatted as [TEXT]-[OFFICE KEY]-[SEQUENTIAL NUMBER], producing references such as PRJ-LND-001.
NOTE: The Office Key can only be viewed and configured in the Offices section of the Admin Console, not within General Settings. Ensure the Office Key is set correctly before creating records that use it in their reference format, as changing it later may affect the consistency of existing references.
Navigating Between Offices
If your Proteus tenant has multiple offices, you can switch between them using the office dropdown in the top left corner of the Admin Console. Select the dropdown and choose the office you want to open and configure.
Basic Information
The Basic Information tab within General Settings contains the core configuration for each office, split into two sections: Essential Information and Region Settings. Most fields are required and form the foundation of the office record.
Essential Information
The Essential Information section captures the office’s identity and contact details. The following fields must be completed:
Office Name - The name of the office or legal entity as it should appear across Proteus.
Address - The full registered address of the office.
Website - The organisation’s website URL.
Company Logo - The logo to be associated with this office, which will appear on invoices and other documents generated for this office.
Region Settings
The Region Settings section configures the date, time, currency and tax settings for the office. These settings directly affect how financial data is calculated and displayed across proposals, projects and invoices.
Date Format - The format used for dates displayed throughout Proteus for this office.
Time Format - The 12-hour or 24-hour time format used for this office.
Currency - The primary currency for this office. See the important currency note below.
Tax Rate - The default Tax percentage for this office. This is applied as a default on invoices but can be overridden at the contract level and adjusted on individual invoices.
Tax Label - In case your office operates in another tax regime than VAT you can adjust this to GST or Sales Tax.
WARNING: The office currency cannot be changed once it is in use. As soon as the first contract is created against an office, the currency becomes locked and cannot be modified.
If your organisation works with multiple currencies, the Multi-Currency feature is available for use. This allows the currency to be changed at the contract level, meaning proposals and projects (including invoicing) will use the selected contract currency rather than the locked office currency. The currency exchange rates are configured manually in the Admin Console under Finance Settings > Currency Exchange.
NOTE: Select Save once all Basic Information changes have been made. Changes will not be applied until saved.
Invoice Settings
Invoice Settings is where the bank details and default invoice configuration for each office are defined. The information entered here is automatically applied to every invoice generated from the selected office, removing the need to re-enter these details manually on each invoice.
Invoice Settings Sections
Invoice Settings is divided into five sections:
Section | Description |
Contact Information | The office contact details to appear on the invoice, such as the office address, phone number and email address. |
Reference Numbers | The reference numbering configuration for invoices generated by this office, ensuring invoices follow the organisation’s required reference format. |
Bank Information | The bank account details for this office. These will be printed on every invoice issued from this office, providing clients with the correct payment destination. |
Payment Terms (Days) | The default payment terms in days to be applied to invoices. These can be pre-populated here and will appear automatically on new invoices, but can be adjusted on individual invoices if required. |
Notes | Default notes text to be pre-populated on invoices. Useful for standard terms, payment instructions or other information that should appear on every invoice from this office. Notes can also be added or amended when creating an individual invoice. |
NOTE: Payment Terms and Notes set in Invoice Settings act as defaults only. Both fields can be updated on an individual invoice at the time of creation without affecting the default settings configured here.
How to Configure Invoice Settings
In the Admin Console, navigate to General Settings.
Select the Invoice Settings tab.
Complete all five sections with the relevant office bank and invoice details.
Select Save once all fields have been populated.
Creating & Managing Offices
The Offices section of the Admin Console is where new offices are created, existing offices are cloned or updated, and offices can be deactivated or deleted. This is also the only location where the Office Key can be viewed and set.
Creating a New Office
In the Admin Console, navigate to the Offices section.
Select Create New Office to open the creation form.
Complete the required details for the new office, including the Office Name and Office Key.
Select Save to create the office. The new office will then be available to configure via General Settings.
Cloning an Existing Office
Instead of creating an office from scratch, an existing office can be cloned. Cloning copies all of the selected office’s configuration including the General, Organisation and Timesheet & Expense settings, providing a pre-populated starting point for the new office.
In the Admin Console, navigate to the Offices section.
Select Clone Office from the options, or select the 3 dots next to an existing office and choose Clone.
In the clone form, enter the new Office Name and Office Key for the cloned office, and select the office you wish to clone from.
Select Save to create the cloned office.
WARNING: Cloning an office is irreversible. Once an office has been cloned, it cannot be undone. If the cloned office is no longer needed, it can only be deactivated not removed retroactively. Ensure the correct source office is selected before confirming the clone.
NOTE: After cloning, update the new office’s Basic Information, Invoice Settings and any other configuration that should differ from the source office. The clone provides a structural copy, but office-specific details such as address, bank information and tax rate will need to be reviewed and updated.
Office Actions
Each office on the Offices index has a set of available actions accessible via the 3 dots on the right-hand side of the office row:
Action | Description |
Edit | Opens the office configuration for editing. This is the only location where the Office Key can be viewed and updated. All other General Settings can also be accessed via this action. |
Clone | Immediately creates a clone of the selected office without opening the clone form. The cloned office will appear in the list and can then be configured. |
Delete | Permanently and irreversibly deletes the selected office. Before deletion, a migration office must be selected to receive all records and data currently associated with the office being deleted. It is strongly recommended to deactivate rather than delete an office wherever possible. |
Deactivate | Moves the office into a deactivated state. No new records can be created against a deactivated office. Existing records and data are retained and remain accessible. |
WARNING: Deleting an office is permanent and cannot be undone. All associated records (users, proposals, projects, contracts) must be migrated to another office before deletion can proceed. It is strongly recommended to use Deactivate instead of Delete to preserve the office’s data and historical records within Proteus.