How Continual fits together

Continual keeps a business world model: one live model of your business that people and agents work on together. This page shows its parts and follows one change through all of them. Each part has its own page.

The parts

Part	What it holds	Example
Records	The things your business knows, as they are now	A customer, a deal, an invoice
Ledgers	How much, over time, as entries that are only ever added	The general ledger; deals by status
History	What happened, who did it, for whom, and why	"Continual issued INV-US-12 for Ana"
People and access	Who acts, and what each may do where	Ana is an accountant in the organization
Approvals	Which changes wait for a yes, and who gives it	Issuing an invoice waits for Ana
Work	Conversations with Continual, requests for people, and what is written	Ana's thread; a to-do to review a quote
Metrics and goals	The numbers the business steers by	Revenue this month; win rate
Apps	Bundles of all of the above for one area of the business	Sales, Finance, Projects

Three questions each have one home. What is true now? Records: open deals, overdue invoices. What happened, and why? History. How much, over time? Ledgers, and the metrics read from them.

Follow one change

Ana, an accountant, writes to Continual: "Invoice Northstar for the confirmed order."

1. 1

   Continual works for Ana

   Ana's message wakes Continual's agent, which works on her behalf. It can reach exactly what Ana can reach, and nothing more. See people and access.

2. 2

   It drafts a Document

   It drafts an invoice from the order's lines. An invoice is a Document: a record that becomes final. A draft has no number and can still change. See records.

3. 3

   It asks before finalizing

   Issuing the invoice binds the business, so by default an agent asks first. Ana gets an approval to decide, with the exact change Continual would make. See approvals.

4. 4

   Ana approves, and the invoice posts

   The Issue invoice Action finalizes the invoice: it gets the next number, INV-US-12, and can no longer change. In the same moment it posts to the general ledger: it debits what Northstar owes and credits revenue. See ledgers and money.

5. 5

   History and numbers follow

   The invoice's Activity records that Continual issued it, for Ana, because of her request. Revenue on the Metrics page rises, and opens to this invoice. See activity and metrics.

Every change in Continual follows this path, whoever makes it: a person in the app, Continual's agent, or an integration.

Security in three layers

Every change passes three checks, in order:

1. Access. Does the actor hold a role that allows this change, where the record lives? Roles given on the organization or a project reach everything under it.
2. Acting for. An agent always acts on behalf of a person or a service account, with exactly that actor's access.
3. Approvals. Does this change need review first? Each actor's authority says how much it may do alone, agent or person alike. Controls are business rules for everyone, such as large payments needing a second look.

A change that passes all three runs. One that needs a yes waits as an approval. Nothing goes around the checks, including Continual.

Where you see it

On the rail	What you do there
Continual	Ask for work, answer questions, and work through your to-dos
Feed	Coming: read what changed across the business, written by Continual
Metrics	See how the business is doing, and open any number to its records
Records	Browse the business world model: every record, app by app
Library	Coming: your sites and files