The honest version, with no steps left out. If you have ever installed WordPress by hand you already know how to do this, and the installer does more of it for you than WordPress does.
Every module, one after another: Settings and branding, the public Credits Board, Client CV and Video Portfolio, then Jobs, Projects, Clients, the Calendar, the CV Builder and the client portal.
A full walkthrough of Fortan Software, section by section.
In cPanel, make an empty MySQL database and a user, and give that user All Privileges on it. Two minutes, and the only part that touches your hosting control panel.
Unzip and upload to your web root. Turn on hidden files in your FTP client first — the .htaccess files are dotfiles, and they are what keep the private folders private.
Visit install.php and follow four screens. It checks your PHP version and extensions before it commits to anything, writes the config, creates the tables, and offers to load demo data so nothing is empty while you look around.
It offers to delete itself when it has finished. Then set your branding, add your details, and start entering work.
The one thing people get wrong. Turn on hidden files in
your FTP client before you upload — in FileZilla that is
Server → Force showing hidden files. The .htaccess
files are dotfiles, and they are what keep your invoices and client
files private. Nothing looks broken when they are missing; the private
folders are simply public, and you would not know.
Do this once, straight after uploading. Both commands should return what is shown, and take about ten seconds.
| Check | Expected |
|---|---|
curl -I yourdomain.com/api/exports/work-history.xlsx |
403 — a 200 means that folder's .htaccess did not upload |
curl -I yourdomain.com/install.php |
404 — once you have deleted it, which you should |
Settings changes the colours, fonts and logo across every page — the public credits board, CV and portfolio included — with a live preview as you go. Five presets if you would rather not start from a blank palette, and a reset button when you have gone too far.
Profile holds your name, headline, contact details and business address. The business address is what prints on estimates and invoices, so it is worth getting right before you raise the first one.
Added later by editing api/config.php on the server. An
Anthropic key turns on AI CV tailoring; Reed, Adzuna, Jooble or
Careerjet keys turn on job search; SMTP settings turn on job alert
digests and portal notifications. All optional — the app works
without any of them.
Settings → Export Your Data downloads your whole
database as a single .sql file — clients, jobs, projects,
timeslips, invoices, budgets, the lot. No lock-in, and worth doing
before you apply an update.
It is an export, not a full backup: your uploaded files
live in media/ and belong to your host's backup tool,
which can also keep a copy off the server.
Settings tells you when there is a new version. Unzip it over the
top — your config, your media folder and your database are not in the
zip, so nothing of yours is touched — then visit
upgrade.php, which applies any database changes and
tells you what it did.
Back up before you update. Two things: the database (phpMyAdmin → Export → Go) and the site folder (File Manager → select all → Compress). It takes a minute and it makes everything reversible.
The demo is the real application with demo data in it. Every button works, and it resets itself every night — so change whatever you like.