The Setup Guide and Readiness
A new organization's Ops Dashboard opens, for its organization admins, with Set up your program: up to nine steps that stand a working compliance program up from nothing. The guide is derived, not tracked. A step is done because the record it describes exists (an aircraft on the register, a hazard on the safety register), never because somebody clicked "mark complete", so the list cannot drift from reality and each step retires itself the moment the work is genuinely done. The header says so: the steps are in any order, and each step checks itself off from your records.

The steps#
- Say where you fly from. Your country sets the categories, credentials and wording your records use; until you choose, the step says which country RotorLab is assuming. Sign-up asks this question, so an organization that answered it there finds this step already done. Its Open link goes to the Operating jurisdictions card on My Account, where an organization admin chooses and presses Save.
- Register your first aircraft. Everything hangs off the airframe: flights, maintenance, health, and every document that names it.
- Invite your first pilot. Flights, sign-offs and defects carry the name of the person who made them; invite the people who fly from the admin console. Done once the organization has a second active member. The step appears only when your plan lets more than one member in; on a one-member plan it is absent, and the guide finishes without it.
- File a flight (or drop a log). The flight record is the spine; a dropped log fills the metrics, charts, and health trends by itself.
- Check who hears about lapses ahead of time. Recurrent training, recency, training roles, credentials and authorization renewals are each said before they run out, to your admins and the person concerned. Its Open link goes to the Notifications card on My Account; done once an organization admin has looked at the lead times there and pressed Save notification settings.
- Stand up the safety register. Start from the hazard library and reshape it.
- Define the training program. Install the role skeleton and sign people off.
- Start the operations manual. The outline for your primary jurisdiction is laid out, and live sections read from your records.
- Freeze your first document. Publish a manual revision or freeze an area dossier: the moment records become a document you can hand over. The step appears only when your organization holds the operations manual or Operating Areas, and its Open link goes to whichever of the two you have.
Each step carries an Open link to the page where the work happens. Steps for add-ons your organization does not hold (the safety register, the training program, the operations manual, and the freeze step when you hold neither the manual nor Operating Areas) are simply absent; the guide never sells. When every step shown is done, the guide retires itself for good.
A step that is not for you#
A step that does not apply to your organization can be set aside. An organization admin presses Not for us on a step not yet done. The step leaves the guide's count, and the guide completes on the steps left. It stays listed under the guide, for example "1 step marked not for us: Define the training program (put back).", and put back returns it to the count. Once the guide has closed, the same line moves onto the Readiness card. A marked step still checks itself off from your records, and members never see it.
The guide for members#
A member who is not an organization admin sees Getting started instead, with only the steps their role lets them take. A role that files flights reads File your first flight in place of the organization's flight step, and it is done once a flight on record names them as the pilot. Register your first aircraft appears for a role that can manage aircraft, and Define the training program for a role that can manage training programs. The other steps (where you fly from, inviting people, notifications, the safety register, the operations manual and the freeze step) are an organization admin's and are not shown to members. A member's card shows even when an organization admin has skipped the organization's guide; press Hide for now to hide it for this visit.
Your account#
Under the guide, organization admins see Your account: the settings only an organization admin sets, each with its current value and a link to the card that changes it.
- Time zone: the organization's zone, and whether it is confirmed or assumed until you confirm it.
- Billing contact: who invoices go to, or that none is given and invoices go to the first organization admin.
- Two-factor sign-in: required of every member, or each member's own choice.
- Single sign-on: on, with the identity provider named, or off.
- How long records are kept: how many record kinds have a retention window, or that none is set.
Each is a choice, not a step: none of them counts toward the guide's progress, and the guide reads complete whatever you decide. When the guide is hidden or finished, the same list moves onto the Readiness card while any of these is still unset.
Skipping and resuming#
An organization admin presses Skip the guide and the card hides immediately, then a sheet asks how long for: Just for now hides it for this browser visit only and it returns next time, while For good hides it for the organization until someone resumes it. Canceling brings the card straight back. The Readiness card keeps a resume the setup guide link whenever the guide is hidden and unfinished, so there is always one obvious way back. Nothing anywhere waits on the guide: it is an offer, not a gate.
The readiness meter#
The Readiness card rolls the program's coverage into one number, assembled honestly:
| Component | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Safety register | Open hazards mitigated by a living record, and how many acceptances are pending. |
| Training coverage | Person-role pairings currently held, out of those defined. |
| Declaration of compliance | Requirements signed met or not applicable, across your aircraft types. |
| Flight conformance | Checked flights that stayed inside declared area volumes. |
| Filing clocks | Whether occurrence filings are owed, due, or overdue. |
A component rates only where your records can support a judgment. An area with nothing recorded yet shows not rated with the reason, and is never averaged in as zero, so the overall number means what it says. The card states the standing rule in its own header: readiness is advisory and never gates a flight, a dispatch, or anything else.
For organization admins the Readiness card also carries Download the audit binder, which assembles the program's documents in one motion: see Audit Binder.
Related#
- Ops Dashboard: where the guide and the meter live.
- Safety Management: the register behind the first rated component.
- Training Programs: the pairings behind the second.
- Audit Binder: the program, handed over.