This section explains how to start any Costpoint application and presents a detailed description of the screens involved.
Start the entire Costpoint system by running the application CSTPOINT.EXE. This is accomplished by selecting your Costpoint icon (which is also stored in CSTPOINT.EXE) or running the CSTPOINT.EXE from Windows. Either way, the Costpoint Login screen will open. After entering the login information, the screen that Deltek refers to as the Navigate screen will open. From the Navigate screen, any Costpoint function may be selected.
If you know the name of a Costpoint function's application, you can run that function directly from Windows. In this situation, the Costpoint Login screen will open only if Costpoint is not already up. Instead of the Navigate screen, the application you chose to run will open. If you then want to go to another Costpoint function, select the Navigate menu item and the Costpoint Navigate screen will open. From then on, Costpoint acts as if you had started up the Costpoint application originally. To find out the name of any Costpoint application, see the Current Function field in the About Costpoint menu option under Help.
The Costpoint application initially displays the introductory screen shown here. Before going any further, you must enter the User ID, Password, and Database. For background information about these fields please refer to the System Administration and Initialization sections of this manual.
The Costpoint Version appears immediately above the copyright information.
Enter up to 20 alphanumeric characters (only up to eight for SQLBase users). You must already be established in the database by the database administrator and in Costpoint by the system administrator.
Enter up to 12 alphanumeric characters (only up to eight for SQLBase users).
Before you enter Costpoint for the first time, get your password from the database administrator. Once you have successfully logged in for the first time, select the Change Password option in the Options/Preferences menu and change the password given to you by the database administrator.
Enter up to 22 characters for name of the database. Get this from the Costpoint system administrator.
Enter up to 60 characters for the SQL Server Instance Name (SQL Server databases only), which you can procure from the Costpoint system administrator.
After you have filled in the User ID, Password, and Database fields, select this pushbutton to continue in Costpoint.
Select this pushbutton if you decide not to continue in Costpoint and want to exit.