Overview/Getting started
Getting started
Everything you need in your first session: how to sign in, where your work appears, and the four ideas that make the rest of Slate feel obvious.
Signing in
Slate runs in your browser at your agency's address. There is nothing to install. Your account is created for you when your administrator invites you, and your role is set at that moment.
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Open your agency's Slate address
You will land on the marketing page. Choose Sign in, or go directly to
/login. -
Enter the email and password you were given
Passwords are stored securely and never visible to anyone, including administrators. If you have forgotten yours, ask an administrator to reset it.
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You arrive on your own Home screen
Slate does not show everyone the same dashboard. Your role decides which sections appear and in what order. Two people with different roles will see genuinely different screens — this is intentional, and it is covered in detail in your role guide.
Installing Slate on a phone
Slate is designed to be used one-handed on a phone, and it can be installed so it behaves like an app. This is what makes notifications reach you when Slate is closed, so it is worth doing on day one.
| Phone | How to install |
|---|---|
| Android | Open Slate in Chrome and choose Install app (or Add to Home screen) from the browser menu. |
| iPhone / iPad | Open Slate in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. Apple only delivers notifications to an app on the Home Screen, so this step is required before notifications will work. |
The four ideas that explain everything
Slate is a workflow system, not a folder full of files. Four concepts carry almost all of its meaning. Once these are clear, every screen becomes readable.
1. Your role decides your screen
Every person holds exactly one role. The role is not just a label — it decides which navigation items you see, which buttons work, and which approvals you are authorised to give. A videographer opening Slate sees a list of today's shoots. An accountant opening the same system sees invoices awaiting approval. Neither can reach the other's screens by accident.
2. Work is a queue, not a hunt
The most important screen for staff is My Work. It gathers everything that needs you and sorts it by urgency rather than by project. You do not open five different modules to discover what is late — the queue tells you, and each item carries one clear action.
This is the single biggest change from working out of chat and spreadsheets: you no longer have to reconstruct your own to-do list each morning.
3. Nothing advances without the right approval
Slate enforces your operating rules on the server, not in people's memory. An invoice cannot be sent before the Sales Chief approves it. A shoot cannot be scheduled before the client approves the content plan. A video cannot reach a client before internal quality control and the Creative Director have signed off.
When something is blocked, Slate does not simply refuse. It states what is missing, who owns it, and what the next action is. See the ten rules →
4. Every decision is recorded with who made it
Approvals bind to roles, and the record shows both the person and the role they held at the time. If someone changes jobs or leaves, history still reads correctly — “approved by Ayman, as Creative Director”. This is what makes the audit trail trustworthy and the 48-hour review clocks fair.
Finding your work on day one
Once you are signed in, these are the screens worth knowing immediately, whatever your role.
| Screen | What it is for | Who uses it |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Your role-specific landing screen: what needs you, what is moving, what is stuck. | Everyone |
| My Work | The full personal queue — overdue, due now, waiting on you, waiting on the client, blocked. | All staff roles |
| Projects | The live work board. Every piece of content in production lives here. | Production, managers |
| Review | Versions waiting for a decision, with their countdown and revision state. | Creative, managers, clients |
| Clients | Each client's profile, readiness, finances, and active cycles. | Sales, operations, managers |
| Cycles | The monthly content cycle — the plan and its four videos. | Content ops, managers |
| Invoices | Raise, approve, send, and settle invoices. | Finance, operations, Sales Chief |
| Activation | The checklist that makes a new client safe to start work for. | Operations |
| Client › Portal | Create, copy and revoke the link your client signs in with. | Managers and above |
How work reaches you
You will rarely need to go looking for a task. Slate pushes work to the person who owns the next step, through four mechanisms.
Handovers
When someone finishes their part, they hand the work on explicitly. A videographer marking footage as organised hands it to the editor; the editor completing an edit hands it to quality control. The receiver can accept it, or return it with a reason. A handover is never silent.
Notifications
Slate sends one consolidated notification per problem rather than one per dependent task. If a shoot has three missing items, you get one clear list, not three separate messages.
Reminders
Deadlines and review windows generate their own reminders. A client review window, for example, sends a nudge before it expires rather than letting work quietly lapse.
Notifications on your phone
Everything above also reaches you as a push notification on your phone, so a handover or an approval request does not have to wait until you next open Slate. You can turn this on per device and choose which kinds of event reach you.
To enable it: open Settings › Notifications and choose Enable notifications. On an iPhone or iPad you must add Slate to your Home Screen first — Apple only delivers notifications to an installed app. You can send yourself a test notification to confirm it works, and turn it off again for any device.
Things worth knowing before you start
Next steps
Once you are comfortable signing in and reading your queue, continue to How the system works for the full monthly cycle, or jump straight to the guide for your role.