# How it actually works

From an empty account to a defensible works programme is 13 steps. This is all of
them, in order, with what you can see at the end of each — not what the software does,
but what you can point at and say *that happened*.

It is read from the same spine the in-product tutorial is built on, so it cannot
describe a screen that has been renamed or a step that has been removed. Each step
opens: the page under it is the tutorial a council is taught from, which is a longer
and more honest answer to *how much of my week is this* than a list of titles.

Not sure any of this is the right job at all? [Why choosing which roads to fix is hard](/how-it-works/why-this-is-hard)
takes the question on its own, including what councils do instead and when each of
those is the better answer.

::section cards

### [1. Get in](/how-it-works/access-get-in)

You are in, and the product says which council and what you may do.

### [2. Find out what you are allowed to do](/how-it-works/access-what-you-may-do)

The abilities your role carries.

### [3. Load the road network](/how-it-works/network-import)

Roads, lines and segments appear; the import is listed in the ledger.

### [4. Load condition](/how-it-works/condition-chainage)

A survey run is filed; segments carry a score; the unsurveyed length falls.

### [5. Look at what you have](/how-it-works/network-look)

The network on a map, coloured by condition.

### [6. Find out what it could not see](/how-it-works/network-gaps)

The unsurveyed length, stated rather than averaged away.

### [7. Set the rules, or accept the defaults](/how-it-works/config-rules)

The setting changes, and the change is on the record with who made it.

### [8. Run a programme against a budget](/how-it-works/programme-run)

A ranked list of works within the budget, and what it could not see.

### [9. Ask what a different budget would buy](/how-it-works/scenario-compare)

A saved scenario, and the condition the network ends at under it.

### [10. Produce the documents you have to file](/how-it-works/documents-file)

A booklet, stamped with the data and configuration it was made from.

### [11. Record work that actually happened](/how-it-works/ledger-record)

The work is on the ledger with its cost and who funded it.

### [12. Come back next year](/how-it-works/annual-refresh)

The new survey becomes current; last year stays on the record.

### [∞. Undo a survey you should not have filed](/how-it-works/survey-void)

The run is retracted and stays on the record; condition falls back.

::

*These pages are a rendering of tutorial version `f9a7ff6fe082`. The repository is
the source; this is an export of it, and the version moves when the tutorial does
rather than when the repository does.*

See also: [what PaveKeep cannot do yet](/what-it-cannot-do-yet).

::section cta

## Nothing above needs a consultant in the middle of it

And nothing above is a screen that exists only in marketing.

Accounts are by invitation — self-service sign-up is switched off in the product’s own configuration, so a council gets one by asking.

::cta /see-it See the steps running
::cta.ghost /app/ Sign in
::

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Source: https://pavekeep.com.au/how-it-works · PaveKeep · derived content