Answer the setup questions

You have been invited into a company on Beacon. Before any screen means anything, Beacon asks how your revenue works — fifteen questions, each saved the moment you answer it, and changeable later. Nothing is measured from your answers on their own. They tell Beacon how to read the systems you connect next, so the figures it shows are yours rather than a template’s.

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Decide your reporting currency first

It is the first question Beacon asks, on the Setup page and in Ask Beacon alike, because Beacon cannot save any other answer until it knows your reporting currency. Every figure in Beacon reports in this one currency. Changing it later means restating history. Beacon reports in one of six today: USD, EUR, GBP, NOK, SEK and DKK. The question says so on screen, before you answer:

Beacon reports in one of these six today. If your books are in another currency, tell us — we cannot set you up on it yet.

If your books are in a seventh, tell your contact at Beacon rather than picking the nearest one.

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Getting to the questions

1. Sign in at the address in your invitation. Signing in proves who you are; access to a company is granted separately.
2. If you land on a page showing a user id, your access has not been connected yet. Give that id to whoever is setting up your account — it is how they connect you to your company. It is not a password and gives nobody access on its own.
3. Once you are in, you can answer in either of two places. Both ask the same next question and count the same fifteen, so you can switch between them at any point:
   • The Setup page, under Settings → Setup. Open the Company questions tab.
   • Ask Beacon, from the top of any screen. While questions are open, its button shows how many are left. It asks the next question inside the chat; tap an answer and it is saved straight away, and Beacon tells you what that answer changes. Ask me later skips a question for now.

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The fifteen questions

The Company questions tab lists them in three groups, in the same order Ask Beacon asks them. An answered question shows your answer in words with a green Answered mark. The one to answer next is marked Next.

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Asked first

Until it is answered, the other questions read After the reporting currency.

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About your business

Nine questions. On annual revenue: ballpark is fine. Beacon replaces it with your actuals once billing is connected. The bands are stated in US dollars whatever reporting currency you pick. On the yes / no questions: they are two buttons rather than a tick box, on purpose — so “no” and “not answered yet” are never the same thing.

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Your setup

Five questions. This group opens once About your business is complete, because these answers build on it. Three of these change what you see rather than only describing you:

• Segments are your lenses, live immediately. Beacon detects your actual segments separately once your data is joined up, and shows both.
• Cohorts — a customer joins a cohort on the day it opens and never joins it later.
• Forecast horizon sets how far out everything runs — contract terms, pricing, quotas, and how far any screen scrolls.

Who’ll be using Beacon records roles. It does not grant access. Who may actually see what is set separately, by whoever manages your company’s access.

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Two questions Beacon does not ask here

• Your growth style. You choose it when you set your target, where it sits next to the growth it describes.
• Data residency. Beacon cannot offer a choice of where your data is stored yet, so it does not ask.

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How answers are saved

There is no Finish button. Each answer is saved the moment you choose it, on the Setup page or in Ask Beacon, and the count of open questions goes down by one. On a pick-any question, every tap saves. One choice always stays chosen, because the question needs at least one. If Beacon cannot save an answer, the screen says why and that answer is not stored. Choose again once the reason is fixed. If your sign-in has expired, sign in again and carry on where you left off. Troubleshooting covers the rest.

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Changing an answer later

Open Settings → Setup → Company questions and select the question. Choose a new answer and it is saved straight away. Company profile, in the account menu, shows the answers read-only.

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The account menu

The menu at the bottom left of the rail is where your company and your own sign-in live. It holds: Adding a company. Tell your contact at Beacon the company’s name and reporting currency, and whether it belongs to a group you already run. Beacon creates it, and it appears under Switch company as soon as you have access. Each company keeps its own data, its own connections and its own people. Profile and sign-in security belong to you, not to a company, and apply wherever you sign in. Your password and your two-step verification are held by Beacon’s identity provider — Beacon never sees either.

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What comes next

Answering the questions is the first of a short list. The Overview tab on the Setup page tracks each step, and Ask Beacon leads with whichever one you are on. In order:

1. Connect your billing system. This switches on Revenue and Retention. Nothing is measured until billing is connected — during the pilot this is done with Beacon’s team.
2. Connect your accounting system. Adds your books — invoices, payments and costs. Also done with the team.
3. Connect your CRM. Adds your pipeline and customer records, so each customer can be joined up across sales and billing. You can do this yourself, under Connections.
4. Set your target. Records the growth you are aiming for and your growth style, which sets the bar every commercial decision is measured against. Beacon then shows where you stand against it.
5. Invite your team. Add colleagues by email; each gets their own sign-in and you decide what they can see. Add and manage users walks through it.

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