Frequently asked questions

Product

Who is Orafila for? Companies that sell, install and support software: software houses, resellers and partners of business management software, system integrators, MSPs, with 5 to 150 employees. It covers support, customers and contracts, sales and invoices, purchasing and stock, basic accounting and people.

Do we need to install anything on our computers? No. Orafila is used from the browser (recent versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), also from tablets and phones. You only need an authenticator app on your phone for two-step verification.

Is it in English? Yes, and in Italian too: everyone chooses their own language; documents and e-mails to customers and suppliers go out in the document language chosen by the company.

Can we try it first? Yes: a company can be activated with realistic sample data (two years of history) that fills every screen and is removed with a command without touching the real data.

Does it replace our accounting software? No. Orafila issues invoices, records payments and expenses and gives a financial overview and an indicative VAT figure, but the official accounts stay with your accountant or your accounting software. The CSV exports help pass the data on.

Can we use it for support only? Yes. Modules appear to the people who have the permissions to use them: with the support roles you see only tickets, inbox, customers and calendar.

Support and mail

How do customers' e-mails become tickets? Each queue reads its mailbox (IMAP) every minute. If the sender is one of the customer's contacts or their domain is registered on the customer page, the e-mail opens a ticket or is added to the right one; the others stay in Inbox, to be sorted. Automatic replies and bulk e-mails marked as such are discarded.

Does it work with Microsoft 365 or Gmail? Gmail and Google Workspace yes, with an app password. Microsoft 365 not for reading, today (Microsoft does not accept the password alone and OAuth access is not available yet): forward the queue's mail to another mailbox, or use a forwarding gateway. The mailboxes of the main Italian hosting providers work directly.

Do e-mail attachments reach the ticket? No, today the ticket shows only the names of the attached files; the files stay in the mailbox.

How are service times calculated? In working hours (Monday-Friday, 9:00-13:00 and 14:00-18:00) excluding national holidays and company closures, with first response and resolution targets by priority; the resolution time stops when the ticket is waiting for the customer.

How does the hour bank work? Chargeable time logged on a ticket is deducted from the customer's valid hour bank that expires first, with the company's rounding and minimum charge per job. Top-ups and corrections stay in the history; the system warns when an hour bank is running out and forecasts the date.

Invoices

Are the invoices valid for tax purposes? The invoice with tax value is the e-invoice sent to the SDI (Sistema di Interscambio, the Italian e-invoicing exchange). Orafila creates it in Fatture in Cloud with the same number and sends it to the SDI, following its status; the Orafila PDF is the courtesy copy. Without Fatture in Cloud, the e-invoice is sent through your own intermediary.

Can we issue credit notes? Not from Orafila, today: they are issued in the e-invoicing software (for example Fatture in Cloud), and in Orafila the invoice is cancelled.

Can we continue the numbering already started this year? Orafila's numbering starts from 1 every year. If you have already invoiced this year with another program, use a dedicated sezionale (numbering series) in Fatture in Cloud, or switch to Orafila from 1 January.

Can we correct an issued invoice? No: an issued invoice cannot be edited. It is cancelled (if it has no payments) and a new one is issued; for an e-invoice already sent, a credit note is needed.

Artificial intelligence

Is AI mandatory? No. Without an API key or with AI turned off, Orafila works in full; the guides and the health check remain available.

Can the AI send e-mails or change data by itself? No. The AI suggests (triage, drafts, briefings, the assistant's answers) and people decide: the only thing it saves by itself is the triage suggestion on the ticket, which remains a suggestion until an agent applies it. The assistant reads only the data that the person's role can see.

Which AI does it use? How much does it cost? Claude (Anthropic), GPT (OpenAI) or Gemini (Google), as each company chooses, even a different one for each feature. You pay the AI provider for what you use; Orafila shows the estimated spend for the month and can stop the AI when a monthly budget is reached.

What data goes to the AI provider? Only the data needed by the feature in use (for example the text of the e-mail and the categories for triage), never passwords or secrets. The full list is in Artificial intelligence.

Security and privacy

Is our data kept separate from other companies' data? Yes, by the database itself: every table has forced Row-Level Security rules, verified by automated tests; the application stops if its database role could bypass them.

How is sign-in protected? Passwords of at least 12 characters, mandatory two-step verification, lock after 5 attempts, 12-hour sessions that each person can close, a record of every sign-in.

Where is the data? In the server region chosen at installation; the installations described in the guides use European Union regions (Milan, Frankfurt, Amsterdam).

Are there backups? Yes: every night a full encrypted backup, verified and copied to external storage; 7 copies on the server and 30 days in the external storage. Restoring takes one command. See Security and privacy.

Who can see what? The roles decide: 23 permissions in 7 default roles, which can be changed, plus your own roles. See Roles and permissions.

Is there an activity log? Yes, administrators can consult it; it cannot be edited and contains no secrets.

Installation and operations

Where is it installed? On an Ubuntu Linux server with Docker: Oracle Cloud, DigitalOcean, any VPS or a company server. Or as a service managed by the provider. See Installation.

How long does installation take? About 2-3 hours the first time, almost all of it waiting, following the guides step by step.

Can we use our own PostgreSQL database? Yes, PostgreSQL 15 or later with TLS, including a database managed by the cloud provider. See Installation.

How is it updated? With deploy/nova.sh update: check of the new version's digital signature, safety backup, new files, automatic database update, restart in a few moments.

Several companies on the same installation? Yes: each company has its own code, its own users, its own settings and its own separate data.

What happens if we lose the server? It is rebuilt on a new server from the package, the configuration and the keys kept in the password manager, and the latest backup is restored from the external storage. See Operations and maintenance.

Can we import the data from the system we use today? Customers yes, from Excel or CSV with a preview and checks. Other data (past tickets, contracts, hour banks) needs a dedicated import, to be agreed.