Help
The questions people actually ask. If yours is not here, write to us and a real person answers.
Getting in
Signing in, passwords, invitations.
I cannot sign in
Almost always the email. Use the one your invitation was sent to — not a personal address, and not a different work one. If the password is the problem, ask for a new one; it takes a minute. If SPEC says the same thing however carefully you type, check whether SPEC itself is up before you try again.
Sign in → then press Sign in
I forgot my password
Ask for a link and it is emailed to you. SPEC gives the same answer whether or not the address is on the system, so nobody can use it to find out who is a customer — which means if no email arrives, the likely reason is that the address is not the one you signed up with.
Ask for a new password → then press Email me a link
The password email never arrived
Look in junk first — it is nearly always there. If it is not, the address you typed is probably not the one on your seat. Ask whoever invited you which address they used.
Try again → then press Email me a link
I want to change my password
From inside SPEC, once you are signed in. Eight characters or more.
Change your password → then press Save password
I was invited but the link does not work
An invitation is single-use and belongs to one email address. If it has already been used, or you are opening it while signed in as somebody else, it will not work — sign out and open it again. If it is genuinely expired, ask for a fresh one; it costs nothing.
Sign in → then press Sign in
Two of us signed up and now there are two businesses
This happens, and the fix is to pick one and invite everybody into it. Signing up creates a NEW business; joining an existing one only ever happens through an invitation. Nothing in the spare one is lost while you decide — ask us to clear it once you have.
Invite people into the one you are keeping → then press Send invite
Is SPEC down, or is it me?
There is a page that says so plainly, and it does not need you to be signed in. If it says everything is working and you still cannot get in, the problem is your address or your password, not SPEC.
Your people
Adding somebody, taking somebody off, and what they can see.
How do I add a person?
On your business page, put their name against the role they do. That is all it takes and it costs nothing — the name sits on the chart straight away.
Your business on one page → then press Add
How do I give someone a login?
Putting a name on the chart does not send anything. Inviting them does — open "Invite them in" beside their name. That is also the moment a seat starts being billed, so it is deliberately a separate press from adding the name.
Your business on one page → then press Send invite
How do I change what someone can see?
There is no switch, on purpose. What somebody can see follows where they sit on the chart — move them to a different role and it moves with them, both ways, the same minute. For covering somebody else’s crew while they are away, press that role on the chart and ask the administrator for rights over it. They decide in Approvals, and it is taken back from Company settings when the cover ends.
Move them, or ask on the chart →
There is no button for this, and that is deliberate
Somebody has left — what do I do?
Take their name off the role. The role stays, and so does everything they scored — their history belongs to the business, not to their login. That is also what stops the seat being billed.
Your business on one page → then press Remove
Someone is in the wrong role
Put their name against the right role and SPEC will ask whether you meant to move them or to merge the two roles. Say which; it does not guess.
Your business on one page → then press Move them
Roles and the chart
The shape of the business — who does what, and who reports to whom.
How do I add a role?
On the chart, under whoever it reports to. A role is a JOB, not a person — "Site Supervisor", not "Dave". That distinction is the one thing worth getting right, because everything else in SPEC hangs off it: two people can do one role, and one person can do three.
Org chart → then press Add it
How do I delete a role?
On your business page. SPEC will refuse while somebody is in it or something reports to it — move those first. The top role cannot be deleted at all; a business has to have a top.
Your business on one page → then press delete role
I have my org chart in a spreadsheet already
Paste it in and SPEC will build the chart from it, rather than you typing thirty roles by hand.
Org chart → then press Build the chart
It will not let me change the chart
You can see the whole chart — the shape of a business is not a secret — but changing it belongs to whoever manages your part of it. You can never change a role above you or beside you, only your own and the ones beneath it.
KPIs
The handful of things each role is measured on, two per pillar.
How do I add a KPI?
Two per pillar per role, which is twelve for the whole role and is deliberately not more. If you are adding the thirteenth, something else should come off.
KPIs per role → then press Save
How do I delete a KPI?
Clear its text and save. There is no delete button — an empty row is how a KPI goes, which catches people out, so: empty the words, press save, it is gone. Months already marked against it keep their marks.
KPIs per role → then press Save
It says the weights must add up to 100%
Within each pillar, the KPIs have to share out 100% between them — otherwise a score cannot mean anything. The message names the pillar that does not add up. Nothing is saved until it does, so nothing is lost.
What makes a good KPI?
One you can answer at the end of a month without arguing: met, not met, or not applicable. "Improve safety" is not one. "Every crew did a toolbox talk on Monday" is. If two honest people would answer it differently, it needs rewording, not a better scoring system.
Marking the month
The rhythm — marking, submitting, signing, and what happens after.
How do I mark the month?
Go down your KPIs and say how each one went. You mark your own role and the ones beneath you — never above, never sideways.
The month → then press Save
I marked something wrong — can I change it?
Yes, right up until the month is locked. Mark it again and save. Once a month is locked it stays locked: that is the point of locking it, and a record you can quietly edit afterwards is not a record.
The month → then press Save
Nobody has marked anything and the month is nearly over
Mark it anyway, honestly, with what you know. A month marked roughly is worth more than a month left blank, because the blank one teaches the business that SPEC is optional. The second month is easier than the first and the third is easier again.
Everything is green and I do not believe it
Then it is being marked kindly rather than honestly, and that is the one thing that makes the whole thing worthless. A month with nothing amber in it is a month nobody looked at. The fix is not in SPEC — it is saying out loud, once, that amber is the normal colour of a working business.
How do I close the month?
Four steps, in order, and only whoever is at the top of the chart can do them: submit it, sign it, then lock it. Locking generates the board pack and opens the next month. Between submitting and signing you can still reopen it; after locking you cannot.
The month → then press Submit for sign-off
I submitted it too early
Reopen it — that works right up until it is signed and locked. After locking it is final, and the answer is a note against next month rather than a rewrite of last one.
The month → then press Reopen the month
Something is waiting for me to approve
Everything waiting on a decision from you is in one place, with what it is for.
Paying for it
Seats, cards, and what happens if a payment stops.
What does it cost?
The first seat is free, for good — one person can run a whole business in SPEC without paying anything. Seats are counted from the second, and only people you have actually invited count. A name on the chart with no login is free.
SPEC says read-only and will not save anything
The payment has stopped — an expired card, nearly always. Nothing has been deleted and nothing is lost; everything comes back the moment the card is sorted, including anything you tried to type while it was read-only. A one-person business is never locked, because it owes nothing.
Sort the payment → then press Update card
How do I change the card?
Through the Pricing page, which is where invoices and receipts live too.
Billing → then press Billing
If I stop paying, do I lose everything?
No. The business goes read-only — you can see all of it and change none of it — and it stays that way. Nothing is deleted because a card expired. If you genuinely want it gone, ask us and say so out loud; it is deliberately not a button.
Mirrors, and the improvement register
The artifacts your team runs projects through, and the running list of problems.
Something is wrong and I want it written down
Type it on your page, in your own words, and it goes on the improvement register with an owner and a place to be signed off. Anybody with a login can log one — that is the point of it.
My page → then press Log it
How do I make a mirror?
A mirror is a thing your team pins and argues over — a rate you are working out, a plan with an owner against each step. Anybody with a login can make one and anybody can comment.
Mirrors → then press + New mirror
A mirror says it is not live
It names which feed is not connected. SPEC will not call a mirror live while any of its inputs are missing, because "partly current" reads as "current" on the screen where somebody is about to change a price.
What is the difference between the Board and a mirror?
The Board is the governing group — its charter, its pack, its meeting. A mirror is an artifact a team makes and works through. They used to share the word "board", which is exactly why one of them was renamed.
I want to tell you SPEC should do something differently
There is a box for exactly that, and it is read by the people who build SPEC. If somebody has already asked for the same thing, SPEC tells you so and your saying it again pushes it up the list — which is how the thing most customers want gets built before the thing one customer asked loudest for.
What would you change? → then press Send it
Getting set up the first time
What to do on day one, and what can wait.
Where do I start?
Six steps, and SPEC works out which are done from your actual data rather than from ticked boxes — so you can leave and come back and it knows where you were. Do them in any order.
This is going to take days
The first useful month needs three things: the roles, two KPIs per pillar on the ones that matter, and the people in them. Everything else — the board, the charter, the systems — can wait, and SPEC will not block you on any of it.
Do I have to connect Xero and Simpro?
No. SPEC works entirely on numbers people type in, and that is a complete way to run it. Connecting systems means some numbers arrive by themselves instead — useful, never required, and not the thing to do first.
I was just looking around and want to keep what I built
Sign up and the business you were looking at becomes yours — the chart, the marks, all of it. That is the whole point of the look-around: it is the house you then buy, not a showroom copy of it.
Set up your business → then press Create my business
When something looks wrong
Before you assume it is broken.
A page says something went wrong
That is our end, not yours, and it should be rare. Check whether SPEC is up, then tell us what you were doing. If a page gave you a reference number, send that — it points straight at what happened.
A number looks wrong
Every score in SPEC shows its working — open the scorecard and you can see each KPI, its weight and what it contributed. Nine times in ten the working explains it. If it does not, tell us, and quote the month.
My question is not here
Write to us and say what you were trying to do. A real person answers.
Still stuck
Write to manager@specbizhq.com and say what you were trying to do and what happened instead. If a page gave you a reference number, send that too — it points straight at what went wrong.