User Guide

Getting started

Sitabula is a construction site management program that gathers everything a site produces — on site and in the office — in one place.

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Sitabula is a construction site management program that gathers everything a site produces — on site and in the office — in one place. How much of the work is done, timesheets, material orders, progress payments, current accounts: it all sits under the same project, and a record entered in one module shows up in the others by itself.

This section takes a first-time user all the way in: installation, signing in, choosing a project, the layout of the screen, roles and permissions. The modules themselves are covered one by one in the sections that follow.

1. Installing and opening for the first time

Sitabula is a Windows, iOS and Android program; it does not run in a browser. This guide covers the Windows version. Once you run the installer it has its own icon, its own window and its own entry in the Start menu.

Every time it opens, before it even shows the sign-in screen, the app checks your version. This is deliberate: an old client should not even connect to the server, because the difference between them can turn into lost data.

The screens you may see during the check:

Screen	What it means	What you do
Checking your version	Connecting to the update server	Wait — it takes a few seconds
Update required	A newer version exists	Nothing to do; the download starts by itself and its percentage moves on screen
Installation starting	The package is down, the install is being applied	The app closes and reopens on the new version
The update server could not be reached	No internet, or the server is unreachable	Try again · Download the installer · Continue for now
The update could not be completed	The package could not be downloaded or installed	Try again or Download the installer

NoteContinue for now only appears when the check failed. In that case it is unknown whether you are up to date, and locking the app because of an internet outage would be wrong. When the download or the install fails, that button is not there: there it is certain that a new version exists, and carrying on with the old one is a risk.

Download the installer opens the download page in your browser. If the automatic path is blocked, you can fetch and run the installer yourself.

2. Signing in

The screen is split in two: an introduction panel on the left, the sign-in card on the right.

The card has two fields — Email and Password — with a Sign in button below them. The eye icon in the password field reveals the password. Pressing Enter in either field also starts the sign-in.

Forgot password sits under the password field, and No account yet? Sign up under the button.

At the bottom there is a note headed Secure sign-in, saying that an account is used on one computer only. What that means is in §2.4.

If something goes wrong, a red strip appears at the top of the card and says why. For a wrong password it reads "Sign-in failed. Check your email or password and try again."; with no internet you get a separate message about the connection. The two are deliberately kept apart — "wrong password" and "no internet" are not the same thing.

2.2 Creating an account

Sign up turns the card into a registration form, which asks for:

Field	Description
Full name	Your first and last name
Email	The address you will sign in with
Password	At least 8 characters
Password (again)	The same password

Below them are three legal consent boxes: the Privacy Policy, the KVKK Disclosure Notice and the Terms of Use. The link beside each one opens the document in your browser — you do not have to leave the app. Registration does not complete until all three are ticked.

NoteSigning up creates a free temporary account so you can try Sitabula. If you work for a company, your account is usually created by your company's administrator, who passes the details to you; in that case you do not need the registration form.

2.3 If you have forgotten your password

Forgot password turns the card into the reset panel. You enter your email address and choose Send reset link.

The message that follows is deliberately vague: "If an account matches this email address, a password reset link has been sent." The app will not tell you whether an account exists at that address; if it did, it would be confirming which addresses on someone's list are real. The Send again button is on a 30-second wait.

The rest of the chain works like this:

An email arrives in your inbox. Check your junk mail folder too.
The link in the email opens a page on stner.org in your browser.
The page has an Open in Sitabula button. That button is for desktop computers; on phones the link opens the app directly.
The button brings Sitabula to the front and opens the Set your new password screen.
You type your new password twice and choose Update password. It must be at least 8 characters.

CautionThe link can be used once and expires after a while. If it has expired, start again from the beginning.

NoteIf the app has never been opened before, the Open in Sitabula button can look as though it does nothing. Open and close the app once, then try the link again.

A Sitabula account can be used on one computer at a time. The app recognises the computer from its name combined with your Windows user name.

If you try to sign in while your account is active on another computer, a Device mismatch section opens inside the card. It is not a pop-up; it stays within the sign-in card, so you can read it without dismissing anything.

The section says which device the account is active on and carries a Request transfer button. When you press it the request goes to your service provider, and the message on screen reads "Your device change request has been sent to your administrator." Once your service provider approves it, you can sign in from this computer.

NoteYou cannot approve it yourself, and neither can anyone inside your company: a device transfer is approved by your service provider. The wording on screen says "administrator"; that is who approves it. Seeing this screen is normal if you have changed computers or if your computer has been reinstalled.

2.5 Legal consents

Right after sign-in, before you choose a project, your consents are checked. If any are missing, the Complete your consents to continue screen appears.

Only the missing documents are listed; something you have already accepted is not put in front of you again. You can open each document in your browser, read it, tick its box and then choose I accept and continue.

Consents are recorded together with your user, the version and your device details. When the documents change version, everyone is asked again.

NoteIf this check cannot run because of an internet problem, the app lets you in. The gate's job is to catch a missing consent, not to punish an unreachable server.

3. Choosing a project — Site Portfolio

After signing in you do not land in a project straight away; the Site Portfolio screen opens first. Everything in Sitabula sits under a project, so no module opens until you have chosen which project you are working in.

What is on the screen:

A one-line summary under the title: how many projects are active, how many there are in total.
The Project name or location search box.
The status filter — All · Active · On hold · Completed, each with the number of projects in that state.
Project cards — each card carries the project's image, its name, a status badge, the location, the start date and a progress line. Clicking a card opens that project.
Refresh and New project at the top right.
Who you are signed in as, and Sign out, in the title bar.

Cards can be chosen from the keyboard too: Tab between them and press Enter.

NoteIf a project has no image, or it cannot be loaded, the card shows a building icon; a record with no name is listed as Untitled project. On a project with no production items defined yet, the progress line says so.

If the list is empty

An empty list has three different causes, and the screen tells you which one it is:

What you see	What it means	What to do
A message saying your account is pending	Your role is Suspended	Talk to your administrator; no project appears until your account is activated
A message saying the company has no projects	You are an administrator but no project has been created yet	Create a project
A message saying no project has been opened to you	Projects exist but none has been opened to you	Ask your project manager for access

Why the choice is not remembered

The app shows the portfolio again on every start; it does not drop you straight into the project you last worked in. This is deliberate: in the meantime your permissions may have changed, the project may have been deleted, or you may have moved to another company. In any of those cases, landing in an empty shell with no explanation is far worse than seeing the list one more time.

4. The layout of the screen

Choosing a project opens the app's actual shell. It has three parts: the title bar at the top, the sidebar on the left, and the content area in the middle.

NoteSitabula opens in full screen. In full screen the title bar is deliberately not drawn — the point is to give the screen over to the content. The picture above is the app as it opens, which is why there is no bar at the top. Leave full screen and the bar appears.

4.1 The title bar

Windows' own title bar is switched off; the app draws the bar itself.

From left to right:

The brand mark and the word "Sitabula".
The context trail: the open project's name, then an arrow, then the name of the open page — for example Kuzey Bahçe Konutları › Timesheets. It tells you where you are at a glance.
The window buttons: Minimise, Maximise / Restore, close.

Any empty part of the bar can be used to drag the window.

On screens without a sidebar — sign-in and project selection — this bar also carries the theme switch, who you are signed in as and the Sign out button. Inside the shell all of those live in the strip at the bottom of the sidebar.

The sidebar has three layers.

The project switcher at the top. It reads Site Management in small letters with the open project's name underneath. Clicking it returns you to the Site Portfolio, where you can pick a different project.

The module list in the middle. The modules are gathered into four groups:

Group	Modules
(no heading)	Overview
Site Operations	Site Data Entry · Production Report · Production Planning · Site Daily Report · Quantity Take-offs · Timesheets · Concrete Tracking · Equipment Tracking
Logistics & Materials	Stock Tracking · Order Management · Dispatch Tracking
Management & Finance	Progress Payments · Finance Panel · Current Accounts · Subcontractors · Suppliers · Customers
Office & Tools	Files · Users

The account and shell strip at the bottom. Your name and role on top, six buttons below:

Button	What it does
Collapse sidebar / Expand sidebar	Reduces the sidebar to a narrow strip of icons
Switch to dark theme / Switch to light theme	Changes the theme
Settings	Opens the settings screen
Full screen / Exit full screen	Puts the window into full screen, or takes it out
Quit application	Closes the app
Sign out	Leaves your account and returns to the sign-in screen

NoteQuit application and Sign out are different things. The first closes the program; the second leaves your account and returns to the sign-in screen.

When the sidebar is collapsed the module names are hidden and only the icons remain; the group headings become thin dividing lines. Hovering an icon shows the module's name as a tooltip.

4.3 The content area

The page of the module you chose is drawn here. Most module pages share the same skeleton, so by the time you open the second one you already know the layout:

Layer	What it does
Title and actions	The page's name, its period, and Refresh · Download PDF · Download Excel · New … on the right
Toolbar	Period or date selection, the search box, and the filters under Filter by
Summary cards	The page's few most important numbers and a 12-month chart
Breakdown	The same data distributed across groups
Table	The records themselves; clicking a row opens its detail
Side panel	The selected record's details, its history and the actions available on it

5. Roles and permissions

Access in Sitabula goes through two separate layers: your role and your project permissions.

5.1 Roles

A role applies company-wide — it is the same whichever project you are in.

Role	What it means
Administrator	Full access to all projects and all pages. User management is open to this role only; the permission matrix does not apply to administrators.
Site manager	Access is set by the per-project permission matrix.
Field engineer	Access is set by the per-project permission matrix.
Viewer	Read-only. Cannot write notes, files or records even if editing is enabled in the permission matrix.
Suspended	The account is suspended. It cannot see any project even if permissions are granted.

You can see your role in the strip at the bottom of the sidebar, under your name.

5.2 Project permissions

For every role except administrator, each module is opened individually, and this is per project. Being able to see Timesheets in one project does not mean you can see it in another. Permissions are granted by the project manager.

A module that is closed to you is not removed from the menu — it appears dimmed with a padlock beside it. Hovering it shows a short note saying why. Clicking it opens a window headed Access denied which says "Permissions are granted by the project manager."

Not hiding the module is deliberate: this way you know that part of the program exists and can ask your manager for it if you need it.

Administrators onlyThe Users module is opened by role, not by permission. User management belongs to the company rather than to the project, so it does not appear in the project permission matrix; a non-administrator who clicks it sees a different explanation.

5.3 Which page the app opens on

When the shell opens, the first module available to you is selected automatically. If you can see Overview, the app opens there; if not, it opens on the first module in the list you can reach.

If you have permission for no module at all, the content area reads "No sections available to you — no section has been opened to you in this project."

NoteWhile permissions are still loading, or when the server cannot be reached, the menu is not restricted. Telling you "you have no permission" during a network outage would turn a non-problem into a real one. The actual security gate is on the server; the padlocks in the menu only shape what you see.

5.4 Sections not yet migrated

Some modules appear in the menu but their page has not been written yet. Today the only example is Customers; opening it shows a card saying the section has not been migrated yet. This is not an error and has nothing to do with your permissions.

6. Settings: theme, language and currency

The settings screen opens from the gear icon in the strip at the bottom of the sidebar.

The APPEARANCE section holds two settings:

Theme — Light or Dark. You can make the same change from the moon/sun button in the sidebar.

Language — Türkçe or English. The choice applies immediately; you do not have to restart the app.

NoteThe language and theme choices are kept on this device only. Signing in with the same account on another computer means choosing them again there. Both are personal preferences — they have nothing to do with your role or your permissions, and anyone can change them.

The CURRENCY section shows the company's ledger currency: ₺ Turkish lira, $ US dollar or € Euro.

Administrators onlyOnly an administrator can change the currency. Changing it reinterprets all of the company's records, including past entries, and amounts are not converted: a record showing 1,000 will read 1,000 in the new unit. Everyone sees that symbol, both on screen and in exports.

The settings screen also carries your account's name, email and role; links to the legal documents; the app's version number; and, at the very bottom, the account deletion section. The details are in the Settings section.

7. Updates

Updates are checked at startup (§1). If a new version is published while the app is open, a New version available notice appears saying "The new version has been downloaded. Restart the app to install it." The Restart button completes the installation.

8. Signing out

The Sign out button in the strip at the bottom of the sidebar returns you to the sign-in screen. Quit application, next to it, closes the program altogether.

You do not need to sign out to move between projects; use the project switcher at the top of the sidebar.

9. Key terms

Terms that recur throughout the guide:

Term	Meaning
Company	The organisation accounts belong to. Projects, users and definitions belong to the company.
Project	A construction site. Almost every record in Sitabula is attached to a project.
Module	A section in the sidebar — Timesheets, Stock Tracking and so on.
Permission	A user's right to view or edit a particular module in a particular project.
Block / Unit / Room	The physical breakdown of a project. Production records hang from this tree.
Production item	A unit of work done on site — formwork, rebar, plaster and so on.
Quantity take-off	The quantity calculation for a piece of work.
Timesheet	The monthly record of days worked by the workforce.
Progress payment	The periodic calculation of what the completed work is worth.
Current account	The debit–credit ledger with a subcontractor, supplier or customer.
Subcontractor	A firm taking on part of the work.
Supplier	A firm selling materials.

NoteThe screenshots in this guide contain no real company data; the project, person and firm names are examples.

The first page you see after signing in: Overview
Creating, editing and deleting projects: Projects
Language, theme, account and version information: Settings
Creating users and granting roles and permissions: Users