---
title: Academy 1. Welcome to TBA
description: "Foundation, lesson 1: how TBA is organized, the menus, Home, My Stuff and the Utility Menu, finding things, and using TBA on a phone."
url: "https://theasst.com/docs/academy-1-welcome-to-tba/"
updated: "2026-10-30"
category: Academy
---

# Academy 1. Welcome to TBA

*TBA Foundation · Lesson 1 of 9 · about 1½ hours*

## After this lesson you can

- Find any part of TBA from the menu bar and the tile pages.
- Use My Stuff, the Utility Menu and Global Find.
- Choose your own color theme.
- Use TBA on a phone, and know where to get help.

## Why it matters

Everything else in TBA is built from a few ideas you meet here: a menu bar, a sidebar of actions for the page you are on, and lists you search before adding. Knowing the layout means you spend your time on the work, not hunting for the screen.

## Read

- [Getting Started](https://theasst.com/docs/getting-started/)
- [Utility Menu](https://theasst.com/docs/utility-menu/)
- [Global Find](https://theasst.com/docs/global-find/)
- [My Color Theme and Preferences](https://theasst.com/docs/my-color-theme-and-preferences/)
- [My Tasks](https://theasst.com/docs/my-tasks/)
- [Using TBA on Your Phone](https://theasst.com/docs/using-tba-on-your-phone/)

## The big picture

The menu bar runs across the top: **My Stuff** (your own home page, preferences and tasks), **Clients**, **Sales/Service**, **Items**, **Vendors**, **Accounting/HR**, **Reports**, **Setup** and **Help**. What you see depends on your permissions. The left sidebar holds the actions for the page you are on (Save, Print, Attachments, and so on). The **Utility Menu** on every page holds personal actions: change your site, refresh your permissions, clock in or out, and see your tasks. If an administrator changes your permissions, use *Refresh Permissions* there to load them without signing out.

## Try it

1. In a demo company, open each menu and note one thing under each.
2. Use **Global Find** to find a client, then an invoice.
3. Change your color theme under My Stuff.
4. Click **Help** on any page and notice which article it opens.

## Check yourself

Can you say where things live and what the Utility Menu does? If so, move on to lesson 2. A practice quiz and certification exams are planned for a later release.