Navigate BlueMatrix

Goal

Move confidently around the staff shell: section rail, sidebar, Find a page search, the Ctrl K command palette, pinned and recent pages, workspace tabs, and the top bar tools (workspace switcher, My Work, Help, locale, your account menu).

Who it is for

Every signed-in staff user. What you see is filtered by permissions, enabled_modules, and plan features from /me. Search, the command palette, pins, and recents follow the same filters: they never offer a page you cannot open.

Preconditions

• You are signed in to the correct workspace.
• Optional modules you expect (CRM, POS, HR, …) are enabled and entitled for the tenant — otherwise those nav groups stay hidden.

Steps — shell layout

1. Left rail — one icon per area: Work, Directory, CRM, Trade, POS, Stock, Ops, Books, HR, AI, Admin.
   • Point at an icon to look inside that area without leaving your page: after a brief pause the sidebar shows its sections and pages. Move the pointer into the sidebar and pick a page. If you move away without choosing, the sidebar returns to the area of the page you are on. When the sidebar is collapsed, the same preview opens as a flyout.
   • Click an icon (or press Enter / Space on it) to open that area's main page, for example Books opens the Chart of Accounts and CRM opens the Pipeline. If you cannot open the usual main page, the next page you can open is used instead.
   • Moving keyboard focus across the rail never switches the sidebar or opens a page.
2. Sidebar — the pages of the selected area, grouped into sections. Items require their permission (and optional module / feature); missing access hides the item instead of opening a forbidden screen. The + next to an item opens its create form.
3. Find a page (top of the sidebar) — type part of a page name or a common word for it (for example vendors, cost centers, e-invoicing). Results come from every area you can access and show where the page lives (for example Accounting › Tax & Compliance).
   • Use ↓ / ↑ to move through results and Enter to open the first match. Opening a result behaves like clicking a sidebar link (it reuses or opens a workspace tab).
   • Esc or the × button clears the search and returns the sidebar exactly as it was.
4. Pinned and Recent — hover a sidebar item and select the pin icon to add it to Pinned at the top of the sidebar; select it again to unpin. Recent lists the last pages you opened (not the one you are on); collapse it with its heading. Both are saved in this browser for your user and workspace, and a page disappears from them automatically if you lose access to it.
5. Command palette — press Ctrl K (⌘ K on Mac), or select Search or jump to… in the top bar. It searches pages, Settings sections, your open tabs, and Create actions (type new invoice). With an empty search it shows your pinned and recent pages, other open tabs, and your most-used create actions.
   • ↓ / ↑ move, Enter opens, Ctrl Enter opens in a new workspace tab, Esc clears the search and a second Esc closes the palette.
6. Workspace tabs — opening a page adds a tab. Close a tab, close others, or confirm when unsaved changes would be lost.
7. Top bar
   • Workspace switcher — current tenant name / short name; switch or (with tenant.manage) New workspace.
   • Search or jump to… — opens the command palette.
   • My Work — personal work queue across modules (badge when items wait). Path /my-work. This is not the Sales workspace (/sales-workspace under CRM → Daily selling), the fixed selling queue. /work-hub opens that workspace.
   • Notifications bell.
   • Help menu: Help on this page opens a right-hand drawer (left in Arabic) with the article for this screen, plus Open in Help Center. Search Help Center and Open Help Center still open a new tab. “This page” uses the route meta.helpSlug when set (for example New workspace → get-started/onboarding), otherwise a module fallback, otherwise the get-started home.
   • POS till — compact ? (no bulky menu) opens the same drawer for apps/pos/run-sale (and KDS / kiosk variants).
   • Customer / supplier portal — the same three Help actions as staff, with portal article slugs.
   • Locale switcher — your UI language among tenant enabled_locales (PATCH /auth/locale).
   • Theme toggle.
   • Account menu (your initial) — Notifications, Notification Preferences, Sessions & devices, and Sign out. These are about you, not the business, so they live here instead of in an area.

Where things live

• Work — Dashboard, My Work, Approvals, Calendar; Projects (projects, tasks, billable expenses); Collaboration (goals, announcements, newsfeed).
• Trade — sales and purchasing documents, Subscriptions, Recurring documents, sales team, and Online store catalog sync.
• Ops — Logistics, Returns & service, and Production.
• Books — ledger, treasury, Tax & Compliance (tax codes, categories, jurisdictions, determination, exemptions, registrations, tax returns, statutory statements, e-invoicing submissions and templates), Currency (exchange rates, FX revaluation), Assets & subsidiary ledgers (fixed assets, capital, special accounts, investments), and reporting.
• HR — Records, Time & leave (including expense claims), Talent, and Payroll.
• CRM — Pipeline, Engagement, Support, Reporting & health, and Automation & setup.
• Admin — Settings (the settings workspace, Guided Setup, Document Numbering, Analytical Dimensions), organization, customization, and extensibility.

Organization shortcuts (admins)

Under Admin you typically find Settings, Guided Setup, Members, Industry packs, Subscription, and New workspace — each gated by its own permission. Admin opens Settings when you can view at least one settings page, otherwise its first page you can open.

Result

You can open any page your role allows without guessing URLs or remembering which area it belongs to. Help stays one click away for the current screen.

Hard stops

• Missing module → route middleware returns 422 (The :module module is not enabled for this tenant.) and the UI usually redirects to the dashboard.
• Missing permission → nav item hidden (also from search, the palette, pins, and recents); direct navigation is blocked by the router guard. Hiding a link is a convenience, not a security control: the server still checks every request.
• Read-only module after plan downgrade → mutating APIs return 422 (…read-only on your current plan…).

Related

• Sign in and invites
• First-week checklist
• Help home