HowNow Server - Learning & Support

Connected Portal - Setting Up HowNow to Connected Portal

The connected portal main account login details need to be added to system options in HowNow. (This step is generally completed by the Business Fitness support team as part of the setup and testing of the Portal). Go to File >  Options > HowNow Portal.

From here you can add the account details provided to you by Business Fitness for your HowNow Portal. Please note - Any changes to this account will require a restart to the HowNow WebServer service on the server (HowNow 5.2 only). 


HowNow removes the record ID from the title of documents uploaded to the portal. If you wish to have the record ID included as part of the title of the document in the portal select Append the Record ID.


Changing the Main Administrators password

If the main Administrator Portal account holder changes their password, this change must also be reflected in the HowNow Portal Account in HowNow. First Remove the account holder - go to File > Options > HowNow Portal


Next Login as the new Account Holder again. You will now see the following screen: Enter your username and password and select Login and close HowNow.


After clicking on OK to accept all Options changes, you now need to Restart the File Helper Service (HowNow X) or the HowNow Webserver Service (HowNow 5.2).  The easiest way to do this is to get your IT People to do this for you.  They must do it on the Server where How Now is installed. If using HowNow X you can do this from your local computer if you have Administrator rights.


Please advise them to Stop the Services in the following order and then they only need to restart one and the other will automatically start.

  • Stop the HowNow Webserver Service then the Guardian Service.  
  • After that restart the Guardian Service and the Web Service will start on its own.


Creating the Record Statuses and Record Locations Used in the Portal

Before documents are uploaded to the portal, there are certain special record statuses that need to be established. This is usually done by the Business Fitness implementation team when establishing the portal.


Record Status

There are 3 new record statuses that we set-up ready for exporting and importing from the portal - these are:

  • Ready for Portal - assigning documents to be uploaded to the portal
  • Uploaded to Portal - this status is automatically assigned once a document has been uploaded to the portal
  • New Client File - this status is automatically assigned once a document has been downloaded from the portal

These Statuses can also be individually assigned to Employees who are able to change documents to these statuses. 


See this article for more information on setting up record statuses.


Only Documents with a Status of "Ready for Portal" can be uploaded to the Portal. Once documents have been assigned as Ready for Portal, anyone who has been set-up as an employee in the portal can upload documents.


Default Record Location

A default record location needs to be set for documents which are automatically downloaded from the portal into HowNow. This location may need to be changed annually if it is year based.


This is done from File > Administration > Records > Record Locations - it does require administrator access to HowNow to edit or add record locations.


See this article for more information on managing record locations.

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