Transparent Platform

Documentation Draft

Software Documentation

A comprehensive catalog of the Transparent Platform, organized by module, entity, and features. Includes system-level integration and automation architecture.

1 Platform Intent

Transparent Platform is designed as a set of business modules (CRM, delivery/production, talents, finance, and cross-cutting governance) implemented through shared entities and consistent workflows. This document catalogs the platform by module → entity → features, and expands the original feature notes into clearer descriptions and example usage.

1.1 End-to-End Workflow (How Modules Work Together)

Lead Acquisition

Marketing efforts generate raw leads, which are pooled and systematically processed by sales agents to convert them into active client accounts.

FreshSales Sync

Marketing Campaigns

Create campaigns (email, ads). Includes automated REST API ingestion from FreshSales CRM.

Cognito Forms

Leads

Raw, uncontacted contacts. Can also be automatically ingested via webhooks.

Request for Leads

Define target requirements (industry, size) for the sales team.

Email Command Engine

Sales Campaigns

Agents contact, validate, and qualify matched leads.

Result

Accounts

Qualified leads are converted into active customer accounts.

Module Details

2.1 General

The General module provides cross-cutting platform capabilities used by all other modules (governance, auditability, collaboration, reporting, and shared operational utilities).

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
System / API Mobile APIs & Push Dedicated endpoints (v1/v2) reproducing operational actions for a mobile workforce (task accept/reject, inbox, file ops, push notifications).
System / API Email Command Engine Parses inbound emails using a custom DSL (e.g., CreatePo, CreateRFR) to create corresponding operational entities frictionlessly.
System / API AWS SQS Background Queue Decouples expensive operations (row-level security rebuilds, email dispatch, integration ingest) via SQS message queue for system resilience and scalability.
Architecture Multi Companies Enable multiple legal/operating companies in the same platform. Companies can share production resources across company boundaries with configurable service fees for intercompany charging.
Architecture Multi users (multi identities) A single login can represent multiple identities across different companies, enabling cross-company work while keeping permissions and financial context separated per company.
Architecture Currencies Multi-currency support with company-level main currency. Financial entities (jobs, tasks, invoices, POs, payments) can track both account currency and company currency, using a daily recorded conversion rate for consistent reporting and audit.
Governance Logs Create an immutable record log for add/edit/delete operations on all system entities, including userId and timestamp. This is foundational for investigations, compliance, and operational debugging.
Governance Aging Track changes in specific fields over time (e.g., status transitions, due dates, pricing) to support analytics, SLA measurement, and accountability.
Security Advanced Security Who: user, management level, role, department, company, or related parties. When: conditions based on item status or combinations of field values (in the item or related items). How: permission mode (read-only vs read-write) and even field-level write restrictions.
Row-level RBAC is pre-computed and enforced via a dedicated SecurityEngine that rebuilds matrices continuously via a background cron queue.
Collaboration Messages Item-centric chat: any user who can access an item can participate in a conversation attached to that item, keeping context and decisions tied to the business record.
Reporting Dynamic Reports End users can create reports on any entity they can access, customizing fields, filters, and sorting; supports export to Excel.
Also includes aggregate Dashboards and Schedule Reports configured to run via cron for periodic email snapshots (e.g., resource utilization).
Operational utilities File Management Predefined folders per entity (e.g., Source/In/Out/Reference/Instructions) with role-based access rules to enforce workflow and reduce file handling mistakes.
Operational utilities Working Schedule Per-country weekends, working hours, and public holidays synced automatically from a public API; used to compute due dates, SLA windows, and resource availability planning.
Operational utilities Saving items Supports “Save”, “Save & New”, and “Save & Clone” patterns to speed up repetitive data entry while retaining audit logs for created records.
Notifications Alerts Rule-based notifications when items are added/edited/deleted, targeted to specific roles and/or users based on ownership, assignment, or escalation logic.
Productivity Todo A prioritized list of items needing attention. Designed to surface important issues and present multiple actions to resolve them (e.g., approve, assign, follow-up, escalate).
Productivity Inbox Central screen for user messages and notifications, conceptually similar to an email inbox but tied to system items and workflows.
Productivity Calendar User calendar view for personal planning and for submitting off days/hours; integrates with working schedule to avoid allocating tasks on non-working time.

2.2 Company Settings

The Company Settings module defines company identity, operational defaults, and assignment constraints that control how work is priced, scheduled, and executed.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Main Settings Company identity & management Stores company identity details, management users, and operational parameters that apply across modules.
Main Settings Weekends & invoicing defaults Configure weekends and invoicing defaults such as templates, grace period, default credit limits, and default price books per currency.
Branches Multi-branch support A company can have one or many branches; branch context can influence assignment, pricing rules, and reporting segmentation.
Teams Trusted production teams Define trusted production teams and block assignment of other users. Team membership can be constrained by task type and task specs to enforce specialization and customer requirements.

2.3 Activities

The Activities module provides shared, linkable work items that can attach to any business entity (account, opportunity, job, task, invoice) to track communication, issues, and investigations.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Activities Shared Entity Log calls, meetings, emails, or internal actions and link them to any entity to build a complete timeline of work and decisions.
Tickets Shared Entity Create a ticket linked to any entity; it is routed to an assigned user to attend, enabling structured support requests within operational workflows.
Cases Shared Entity Create investigative cases linked to any entity; assign to users for deeper analysis (e.g., quality issues, disputes, negative feedback root cause).
Timesheets Time Tracking Tracks user and resource time with line-item detail tied to periods, providing productivity insights and supporting billable hour calculations.

2.4 Customers

The Customers module covers the commercial lifecycle from lead generation through account management, pricing, and opportunity management.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Integrations FreshSales CRM Sync Centralized REST API synchronization that automatically imports and refreshes Owners, Accounts, Deals (Opportunities), Contacts, Leads, Campaigns, and Activities directly into local mirror tables.
Marketing Campaigns Collect leads + ROI tracking Create campaigns (email, event, ads, etc.), capture new leads sourced from the campaign, record campaign cost and expected revenue to track ROI later.
Leads Companies or Individuals Uncontacted contacts with statuses (bad lead, good lead, etc.). Leads can be qualified and converted later into Accounts.
Can be ingested manually, via FreshSales integration, or through Cognito Form webhooks.
Request For Leads Send request to collect leads Define lead requirements (count, industry, region/country, number of employees, size, etc.) and use it as the input for Sales Campaign execution.
Sales Campaigns Assigned to sales agents Operates on a Request For Leads: sales agent contacts attached leads, validates them, and converts qualified leads to active Accounts.
Accounts Structure (infinite tree) Support complex account structures (e.g., parent company → branches → product lines). Enables roll-up reporting, pricing inheritance, and portfolio management.
Accounts Payment Reminders Send reminders to account emails when invoices are delayed, based on payment terms and due dates.
Accounts Profit guardrail Project Managers (PMs) cannot create jobs with negative profit unless explicitly allowed/flagged in the account configuration.
Accounts Invoicing options Support automatic invoicing per PO, per month, or manual invoicing workflows, depending on customer agreements.
Accounts Send invoice (auto) Allow automatic emailing of invoices once created/submitted (can be toggled per account).
Accounts Credit limit (behavior-based) Calculate credit limits based on payment behavior and spending patterns; used to prevent overexposure and control acceptance of new work.
Accounts Roles Each account has one account manager, one main PM, and backup PMs list to ensure continuity and coverage.
Accounts Satisfaction email Monthly email asking the customer to rate service quality for the prior month; can be disabled for certain accounts.
Accounts Follow-up Users can create follow-ups for themselves or assign to others with description and due date; contributes to accountability and next steps tracking.
Accounts Teams (dedicated) Assign a dedicated production team to an account per task type and/or specs to preserve customer-specific preferences and quality consistency.
Accounts Portal links Store customer portal URLs (PO portal, file portal, invoicing portal, etc.) as structured references for PMs and finance teams.
Accounts Tracking (behavior) Track account behavior and patterns weekly to inform credit limits, forecasting, churn risk, and upsell opportunities.
Accounts Other important fields Currency, price book, blacklist, price adjuster, allow sharing POs, payment terms, payment behavior, invoicing point.
Price Books Service prices (services + specs) A price book contains services and specs per service with UOM and price per currency. Price books can be linked to multiple accounts; defaults can be set per company and currency.
Opportunities Potential project pipeline Opportunity linked to a lead or account, with potential gross profit and detailed job requests. Can be won/partially won/lost; if won, create a project and jobs based on opportunity details.
Opportunities Quotation Send formatted quotation email to the customer directly from the opportunity details for consistent presentation.
Opportunities Lost opportunity tracking Route each lost opportunity to a consultant group based on lost reason, enabling analysis and improvement of sales strategy and pricing.

2.5 Feedback

The Feedback module captures customer sentiment at account/job/PO level and connects negative feedback to structured remediation actions.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Feedback General Feedback can be created automatically from monthly satisfaction emails or manually at account, job, or PO level. Feedback type can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Feedback Actions Cases + corrective delivery Users can create cases and assign investigators. For negative feedback on a job, PM can assign a resource to fix the wrong task and track closure actions.
Content Checker Alert Queue Manages an automated queue of alerts triggered by content events across Accounts, Jobs, or Opportunities. Processes pending alerts and securely dispatches them to assigned reviewers.

2.6 Forecast

The Forecast module standardizes annual revenue planning so leadership can compare expected performance across portfolios and growth strategies.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Annual Forecast Three pillars Brand managers and account managers forecast next-year revenue across: (1) New sales (new customers), (2) Account management (current customers), (3) Upselling (new product lines for existing customers).

2.7 Projects (Delivery)

The Projects module is the operational core: it turns commercial commitments into structured delivery (POs, projects, jobs, phases, tasks), manages files and handoffs, captures quality signals, and enables delivery-to-invoice traceability.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Integrations Memsource & ownCloud TMS Direct OAuth integration to auto-generate TM projects, pull file analysis for weighted words pricing, and securely synchronize deliverables via an ownCloud-backed file cache.
Integrations External Vendor Intake Automated polling engine targeting Welocalize, Junction, and Moravia platforms to seamlessly map external offers and accept them into internal system Tasks/Jobs.
Integrations Google Drive Receives finalized files from Google Drive and tightly integrates them with the PM "close task" routine.
Purchase Order Verification (PO vs jobs) Validate PO amount against the sum of related job amounts to prevent over/under billing and to keep delivery aligned to contractual limits.
Purchase Order PO file validation Optionally compare related job data against values extracted from an attached PO file to catch mismatches early.
Purchase Order Add to Draft Invoice Support prepayment workflows by allowing PM to add PO/jobs to a draft invoice before full delivery.
Purchase Order Generate payment link Generate an online payment link so the customer can pay by credit card; payment can automatically create a client payment record.
Purchase Order Follow-up (missing PO) Create follow-up requests when customer delays sending the PO file; ensures no delivery starts without needed documents.
Projects Grouping entity Optional container (name + dates) to group many jobs for a large engagement; supports reporting and stakeholder communication.
Jobs Services sold to customers Job captures customer, job type, specs, dates, amounts/prices. It is the main commercial-to-delivery unit tying financials to work execution.
Jobs Workflow (phases) Jobs have predefined workflows broken into phases; phases organize tasks and enforce consistent delivery steps per service type.
Jobs Auto plan Auto-create phases and tasks based on selected workflow preset to standardize execution and reduce planning effort.
Jobs Test job flag Mark jobs as tests for a customer to separate them from production commitments and to evaluate quality before scale-up.
Jobs Sync with TMS Sync with external Translation Management Systems (e.g., Phrase, Transessor, Memsource) to exchange job/task data and reduce manual duplication.
Jobs Advanced financial data Track unit price, minimum charge, discounts, taxes, extra fees, total job price, total cost (from tasks), gross profit, target profitability, and actual profitability.
Jobs Unpayable jobs Allow marking a job as free/unpayable with reason, supporting goodwill gestures and internal accountability.
Jobs Job risk Assess quality/revenue/delivery risks using a trained data model; intended to surface early warnings and required mitigations.
Jobs Send quotation Send a quotation file derived from job data for alignment before execution and to standardize commercial documents.
Jobs Files workflow Use file management folders (Source/In/Out/Reference/Instructions) at job/task level to reduce mistakes and to preserve traceability.
Jobs Delivery & validation When PM marks job as delivered, the system supports verification of tasks and rating of assigned talents to capture performance signals.
Jobs Request resource Send a request to talent management to find capable resources if current pools cannot satisfy the job/task requirements.
Jobs Instruction sharing Job-level instructions can be shared across all subtasks for consistent guidance and fewer re-clarifications.
Phases Second-layer organization Each phase represents a specific task type; all tasks under a phase share the same type, enabling consistent staffing rules and handoffs.
Phases Resource selection (bidding) PM can send a resource selection plan to multiple resources; resources choose files/amounts they want within the phase window; PM reviews acceptances and assigns in one click.
Phases Phase instructions Instructions set at phase level are shared to all tasks in the phase to keep work consistent.
Tasks Production execution Tasks are assigned to resources; PM selects task type/specs, dates, and resource. Tracks delivery, communication, and compliance with workflow.
Tasks Assign resource options Assign via dropdown, advanced resource pool search, or resource selection plan (account team/employees/all talents). System can assign first-accept or choose best accepted after a timer.
Tasks Financial data & fees Track unit cost, discounts/deductions, extra fees, total cost, and service fees. For intercompany or agency scenarios, total cost can include service fee components.
Tasks Online link & credentials If task files are hosted externally, PM stores link and credentials for the assigned resource in a controlled field.
Tasks Approval + status Assigned resource can be required to approve before starting; can also reject. Statuses include accepted, started, in progress, completed, overdue, invoiced.
Tasks Workflow handoff Tasks link across phases. When a resource uploads output in one phase, it is automatically moved/sent to the next phase task “In” folder to reduce coordination friction.
Tasks Prepayment PM can initiate a prepayment request for a % of task amount before work starts; talent manager and finance verify before execution.
Tasks Knowledge base search Resources can search a knowledge base related to the task; if not found, they can raise a query to the PM.
Tasks Task evaluation PM evaluates resources after completion (delivery, communication, quality). Results influence resource rating and future assignment decisions.
Queries Ask PM + auto-knowledge Resource questions are sent to PM; answers are saved automatically in the knowledge base to reduce repeated questions and improve onboarding.
Evaluation Sheet Production evaluation Some task types require evaluation by another resource in the next phase (e.g., translation followed by revision) to enforce quality gates.
Evaluation Sheet Quick evaluation Evaluator assigns 1–5 stars across categories tailored to the evaluated task type for fast quality scoring.
Evaluation Sheet Detailed evaluation Evaluator records issues with type, category, and severity; system computes a final score used in performance analytics and talent ranking.

2.8 Talents

The Talents module manages the supply side of delivery: talent profiles, approvals, capabilities, pricing, utilization, rating, and the mechanisms for selecting and assigning resources to work.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Integrations Cognito Forms Webhooks Webhook ingestion from Cognito forms enabling self-service recruitment. Automatically parses JSON payloads to provision Resource and Candidate records along with their CVs/Certificates.
Integrations Moodle Sync Integrates with Moodle for tracking candidate training plans, auto-ingesting course completion certificates directly into the resource's profile.
Analytics MT Engines & LPPI Tracks the Language Pair Price Index (market rate analytics) and connects to GT MT APIs for machine-translation segment detection and scoring.
Talents Profile General info Holds all resource profiles (employees, freelancers, agencies). Includes identity, contacts, location, CV, currency, service fees %, and manager relationships.
Talents Profile Approval method Before assignment, a resource can require talent manager approval with recorded approval data (how/when approved), ensuring controlled onboarding.
Talents Profile Other related data References, communication channels, training, education, and employment history to support matching and compliance.
Financial Information Bank & eCash details Stores vendor payment details needed for payouts; should be protected by the platform’s advanced security rules.
SLA Acceptance before work Each freelancer/agency must accept the SLA before working; acceptance is logged for audit and dispute handling.
Export CVs Generate CV Generate a CV from stored resource data and work history for customer submissions or internal reviews.
Rating Auto rating Auto-rate resources based on PM evaluation and production evaluation scores, enabling data-driven staffing decisions.
Utilization Auto utilization % Compute utilization percentage based on assigned tasks on coming days to avoid overbooking and to improve delivery predictability.
Talents Capabilities Task types & specs Each resource has capabilities mapped to task types and specs they can perform; used to filter assignment candidates and enforce eligibility.
Talents Capabilities Prices Store main price/unit and alternate pricing for off-time and weekend work; enables accurate cost estimation.
Talents Capabilities Other capability data Recommended flag, productivity per day, proficiency level, grade, and computed rating to support smart ranking.
Advanced capabilities setup Bulk update/import Dashboard to add/update/import capabilities and related data for many resources at once, reducing admin overhead.
Account Team Dedicated team Talent managers allocate dedicated teams by task types/specs for an account; these teams can be prioritized during resource selection.
Resource Selection Availability request Send availability requests to many resources for a task. Can target account team, employees only, or all capable resources; assignment strategy may be first-to-accept or best accepted after time window.
Request for resources Escalation If selection plan ends without acceptance, a request is sent to talent managers to search for capable resources; can be initiated manually by PM or automatically.
Resource Pool Advanced search Search talent database by task type/specs, rating, prices, resource type, etc. Supports operational decisions beyond simple dropdown selection.
Resource Pool Compare Compare multiple resources (price, quality, etc.) side by side to support staffing decisions.
Resource Pool Send email Talent managers can send group emails to selected resources to fill capacity quickly.
Talent Card Summarized view One-page summary including key data, work history, rating, and files to speed up selection and review.

2.9 Finance

The Finance module converts delivered work into invoices and payments for both customers and vendors, and supports intercompany billing when production resources are shared across companies.

Entity Feature Notes / Expanded description
Integrations SAP ERP Sync Centralized, bidirectional cron-driven synchronization of Accounts, Resources, Client Invoices, Vendor Invoices, Internal Invoices, and inbound Payment endpoints (with automated retry queues).
Client Invoices Create invoice (multi-PO) Client invoice can include multiple POs; PMs may have multiple jobs per PO. Supports consolidated billing while preserving traceability to delivery items.
Client Invoices Invoice number Auto-generate invoice numbers based on saved templates per company to meet accounting and legal formatting requirements.
Client Invoices Due date automation Due date is set automatically based on account payment terms, reducing manual errors and supporting reminders/escalations.
Client Invoices Generate payment link Generate credit-card-only payment link; when paid, system can automatically create a client payment record and reconcile to invoices.
Client Invoices Generate invoice file Export invoice as PDF or Excel using company templates.
Powered by PhpExcel with dynamic multi-currency and multi-tax calculations.
Client Invoices Email invoice Accountant can send invoice email manually; system can also auto-send on submission if enabled in account settings.
Client Payments Allocate payments A payment can cover multiple invoices and can be partial; invoices become paid or partially paid based on allocations.
Vendor Invoices Auto-create from tasks Vendor invoices are created automatically after the related task is completed; each vendor invoice relates to one task.
Vendor Invoices Download official docs Accountant can download vendor identification/proof of address before issuing payment to support compliance and vendor onboarding controls.
Vendor Payments Batch payments Each vendor payment can include multiple vendor invoices, enabling efficient payout runs.
Vendor Payments Notification After payment, send notification to vendor with payment PDF files for confirmation and dispute reduction.
Internal Invoices Intercompany billing When one company assigns resources from another company, the resource-owning company issues an internal invoice to the assigning company: assigned task cost + service fees (as defined in tasks).