Help CenterAtera is a unique platform designed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and internal IT departments; Combining Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM), Help Desk, Remote Support, Billing and Reporting—it’s a complete, one-stop shop that enables MSPs to manage their entire business.
This article will walk you through the setup and major features of Atera and direct you to articles that will guide you through specific steps.
We’re so glad you’ve joined the Atera family. Let’s get started!
Part 2: Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Part 3: Professional Services Automation (PSA)
Part 8: Administrative Settings
You can change the look and feel of the system software, portal and reports. Add your logo and change the color scheme to match your company brand. Learn how to add your logo and branding
Add your customers to the system. Learn how to add customers. You can add contacts as well. Contacts are the people you interact with from your customer base.
Install Agents
You’ll need to install Atera Agents on all your customers’ workstations and servers to monitor the availability, performance and health of each individual device. This enables Atera to automatically alert you when a critical system or resource is down or degraded. Additionally, the agent provides valuable hardware/software, system & security information. Learn how to install an agent.
Part 2: Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM)
Set an Email for Alerts
Create an email address where alerts from installed Atera agents can be received.
We recommend creating a designated email address for alerts (e.g. alerts@yourdomain.com) or using the company administrator’s address. Learn how to set an email for alerts.
Configure Threshold Profile for Alerts
Set up a threshold profile that will determine the alerts you receive. You can customize threshold items within the categories of performance and hardware (e.g. CPU load, hardDisk usage etc.) as well as the types of alerts you receive on each item. You can also monitor service states (e.g. print spooler, browser). Learn how to configure a threshold profile. Once you configure your threshold profile, you will then need to assign the profile to your agent(s) or to a customer.
Note: A basic default threshold profile (set with Atera presets) is automatically assigned to all newly installed agents (until you configure and assign a new profile).
Monitor SNMP devices (devices that can’t have an agent installed)
You can monitor SNMP devices by associating them with a monitoring agent (an agent can be installed on a computer/server only). Learn how to monitor printers, Raids, routers and other SNMP devices or how to monitor Linux servers using SNMP.
Customize your Atera Dashboard
The Atera Dashboard is your main pane of glass, enabling you to see everything important that’s happening with your customers’ devices. You can see what may require your attention, such as tickets, alerts, and more. You can also modify your Dashboard to suit your needs.
Manage your Customers’ Devices
Atera provides a myriad of remote access tools for troubleshooting and solving your customers’ issues, as well as for proactive maintenance and prevention of future problems. To this end, we created the ‘Manage’ menu of tools, which is accessible on each agent. These tools enable you to access and manage your customers’ computers remotely, and include:
Service Manager - Enables you to view, stop, or start running services.
Task Manager - Enables you to end a task.
Software Inventory - Enables you to view and remove unnecessary programs.
Patch Management - Enables you to install patches and review existing patches.
Event Viewer - Enables you to view event logs.
User Activity - Enables you to view user activity.
Command Prompt - Enables you to remotely send CLI commands to a customer’s computer.
Run Script - Enables you to immediately run a script on your customer’s computer.
Shutdown Actions (Logout, Restart, Shutdown) - Enables you to logout, restart, or shut down your customer’s computer.
Helpdesk Agent - Enables you to activate or deactivate the Helpdesk Agent.
Webroot - Enables installation/uninstallation and updates of Webroot antivirus protection.
Chat - Enables activation/deactivation of the chat feature, as well as chat session initiation.
Patch Management and IT Automation
Patch management is an important aspect of IT administration, involving patching security vulnerabilities, and improving usability and performance by making sure software is up to date. Atera's Patch Management and IT Automation gives you total administrative control and automation of all customer patches, from within the platform. Learn how to set up automated patch management and IT automation.
Part 3: Professional Services Automation (PSA)
Set up your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Contracts
It’s necessary to create a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which will provide the basis for the service contract you sign with your customer(s). The SLA is an agreed upon document that details the average technician response, and resolution times for technical support issues.
The first step is setting up your ‘business hours’, as this will be an indispensable part of the SLA. Learn how to set your business hours.
Next, create an SLA.
Finally, you can create your customer contract. Contracts can be based upon a retainer/flat fee, an hourly rate, block hours, block money, a project hourly rate, a project one-time fee, as well as on specific services such as remote monitoring, and online backup. You can have multiple contracts with any one customer, based on different types of support or different support hours. Clicking on any of the above links provide you with instructions for setting up the specific type of contract.
Set Email Address for Tickets & Support
We recommend that you create a support email address for your customers using your own domain (e.g. support@yourdomain.com) which will forward to the Atera ticketing system (by way of an auto-generated address we provide you). Learn how to set up your support email address in Atera’s system.
Tickets
Tickets are the bread and butter of the Atera support platform. And there are a number of ways tickets can be opened. They can be:
- Created manually by a technician.
- Created automatically when your customer sends an email to your support address.
- Created manually by your customer using the customer portal.
- Created manually by your customer using a hotkey (CTRL + F12).
- Created manually from an alert.
- Created automatically from a chat session (after two minutes of chat, a ticket is automatically created).
You can communicate with your customers, respond, and provide them with updates from within the ticket. Learn how to handle tickets here. You can also streamline multiple tickets on the same issue by merging tickets.
Set up the Customer Portal and Helpdesk Agent
The Portal is your customers’ round-the-clock destination for tech support, where they can open tickets and track the status. Here’s also where they can view their Knowledge Base library of support articles. You can customize the Customer Portal address that you provide to your customers; They’ll be able to visit the portal and log in with their username and password, which is automatically issued upon contact creation (and can be found within each contact).
Next, you’ll want to activate the Helpdesk Agent. This will give your customers the ability to create support tickets (using either the mouse or the CTRL + F12 hotkey). Once you activate it, the Helpdesk Agent icon will appear on your customers’ Desktop taskbar.
Lastly, your customers will need to authenticate the Helpdesk agent (for purposes of identity confirmation). Learn how to authenticate the Helpdesk Agent. Once this process is complete, the Helpdesk Agent will be fully functional for the customer.
Customize your Atera Dashboard
The Atera Dashboard is your main pane of glass, enabling you to see everything important that’s happening with your customers’ devices. You can see what may require your attention, such as tickets, alerts, and more. You can also modify your Dashboard to suit your needs.
Set up a Customer-Facing Knowledge Base
You can provide your customers with a knowledge base library containing support articles, and other useful information. The knowledge base can be general and available to all customers or customized per customer—with customer-specific information such as usernames, passwords, or personalized instructions. Learn how to set up a general knowledge base for all customers or a customized knowledge base for a specific customer.
Ticket Automation Rules
You can set ticket automation rules—these are rules that cause certain actions to occur based on a specific trigger. There are many possible rules that you can create. For example, you can create a rule that customers are always sent an automated email upon ticket creation, or when a ticket is closed. Or you can create a rule that customers will receive a customer satisfaction survey upon closing of a ticket. Learn how to set up ticket automation rules.
Part 4: Remote Access
Remote access is an important way help desk technicians can support their customers. They can view user behavior, desktop environments and application quirks, which can help them diagnose issues quickly—as well as install updates or applications without needing to involve the customer in the process.
Atera fully integrates and offers seamless in-app remote access with:
- TeamViewer
- AnyDesk
- ScreenConnect
- Splashtop
Atera offers Splashtop RMM for unattended support and Splashtop SOS for attended support. Click the above links to learn how to set up and use the Splashtop remote access tools.
Part 5: Online Backup
Online Backup is the best way to ensure all your important data stays safe. The value of online backup lies in storing a copy of your data in a remote location, so it remains safe against possible natural disasters, theft, computer viruses, accidental deletion, or hard drive failure, etc. With online backup you will always have the latest copy of your data preserved. Atera integrates with Acronis for top-notch online backup.
Part 6: Antivirus
Our integration with the award-winning Bitdefender and Webroot Smarter Cybersecurity solutions ensures full-scale anti-virus and identity theft protection. Every email opened, app downloaded, link clicked, and network joined is an opportunity for hackers to compromise your data. Ransomware continues to evolve, and cryptojacking has joined the list of threats to add to the worry list. Bitdefender and Webroot offer complete protection against these, and other threats, for all your devices, without slowing you down. Learn how to install Bitdefender or Webroot on your customers' devices.
Part 7: Billing
As a true one-stop shop, Atera has billing built into the platform, integrating with:
- QuickBooks Online
- QuickBooks Desktop
- Xero CSV
Or, you can export invoices directly to your own accounting software with our flexible invoicing or by using CSV files. Learn more about syncing Atera with Quickbooks Online or Xero, Atera billing or creating a monthly invoice.
Part 8: Administrative Settings
The place to set up, update and customize nearly all your settings, and to generally make the Atera platform your own, is the Admin page. Here, you’ll find many settings within the categories of Basic Setup, Monitoring, Customer Facing, and General. Only a user with 'Admin' permissions can access and edit Admin page settings. Learn more about setting roles and permissions.
Basic Setup
- Settings - Specify various advanced configurations here.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) Policies - Create SLAs here.
- Contracts - Create, view, or edit all your contracts here.
- Business Hours - Create or edit calendars (for linking to SLAs) here.
- Custom Fields - Create custom fields on various pages in the platform here.
- Ticket Automation Rules - Create ticket rules that perform actions based on conditions set by you.
- Contract Rates - Create or edit contract rates, that will appear as options in your contracts.
- Products & Expenses - Add or edit products and expenses chargeable to customers.
- Taxes - Add taxes for inclusion in invoices.
- Accounting - Sync Atera with your accounting software (QuickBooks Online or Xero).
- Software Bundles - Create software bundles for convenient software installation.
Monitoring
- Alerts - Set default customer alert settings here.
- Thresholds - Create customized threshold profiles that will determine the alerts you receive.
- Patch Management and IT Automation - Create automations for patch update installations.
- Scripts - Create, upload and edit scripts here.
Customer Facing
- Email Settings - Set your support address for forwarding to Atera’s ticketing system.
- Email Templates - Create customized email templates, for use with automation rules.
- Quick Reply Templates - Create templates for quick replies within tickets.
- Customer Portal - Configure your customers’ portal here.
- Knowledge Base - Create your customer’s Knowledge Base library here.
- Whitelabel - Add your logo and customize the look and feel to match your brand.
- API - Get your API key, or reset it, here.
General
- Subscription - View, or adjust your Atera subscription plan or payment method here.
- Technicians - Add a technician, edit information and roles, or view existing technicians here.
- Roles - Create roles to define technician permissions (will appear on the Technicians page).
- Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) - Select 2FA settings here.
- Activity Log - View a running history of technician activity here.
- Import Customers - Import customers and contacts here.
- My Profile - Update your personal info, including image, language preference and technician signature.
- Tax Administration - Add or edit your VAT identification number (if applicable).
Part 9: Reporting
View reports on every aspect of your IT business within the categories of general, monitoring, technician performance, profitability and customer satisfaction.
General
Monitoring
- System At-a-Glance
- Customer Health
- Agent Health
- Auditor
- Microsoft Licensing
- Patch Search & Deploy
- Patch Status Summary
- Patch & Automation Feedback
- Software Inventory
Technician Performance
Profitability
- Customer Profitability
- Top Retainer Customers
- Bottom Retainer Customers
- Timesheet
- Customer Periodic
- Products & Expenses
- Block Contracts Balance
Satisfaction
Atera's Network Discovery add-on service gives you a complete picture of your customer networks, by identifying network components and creating an inventory, with detailed information on each device. It also pinpoints opportunities to offer customer upgrades—and earn more in the process. Network Discovery gives you the tools to effectively and proactively support your customers and grow your business. It's nothing less than an IT support, x-ray vision, super tool. Learn more about Network Discovery
Dragos Tulbure