Applies to: All customers. This article is for whoever is setting up your organization on Cloneable for the first time.
If you are the person configuring your organization's Cloneable account for the first time, start here. This is a one-time job: once it is done, day-to-day administration (adding people, watching analytics) is a lighter task covered separately in Getting Started as an Admin.
Follow these in order. Each one depends on the one before it, so do not skip ahead.
Step 1: Connect Katapult, or start without it
If you use Katapult: get your Katapult API key and store it in Cloneable's secrets vault. Nothing else below can happen until this is in place.
The key comes from your Katapult account, not from Cloneable. See How to add your Katapult key for exactly where to find it in Katapult and where to paste it in Cloneable.
If you do not see an API key option in Katapult, your Katapult account does not have API access turned on yet. Request that directly from Katapult; Cloneable cannot turn it on for you. See the same article's note on getting the key from Katapult.
If you do not use Katapult: skip this step and the next one entirely. There is no key to store and nothing to wait on; go straight to Step 3.
Step 2: Wait for Cloneable to wire the trigger (Katapult only)
Once your key is stored, your Cloneable contact sets up the automation, called a trigger, that actually moves data between Cloneable and Katapult. This is a handoff on Cloneable's side, so it may take a short while. See Triggers: the Katapult connection for what you provide versus what Cloneable does, and how to tell once it is working.
You do not have to wait idle. Adding your users (Step 4 below) can happen in parallel while you wait on this.
Step 3: Build your configuration
What a configuration is
A configuration is the reusable template behind every job: the fields and photos your crews fill in, the dropdown choices, the map icon colors, the measurement units, and which measurement workflow each object type uses. It is the single biggest lever you have over what a fielder sees, so take the time to get it right before your crews start collecting.
If you use Katapult, you build your configuration by importing your Katapult model, a one-time operation, separate from importing a job later. Read Configuration in full; every section matters the first time through, not just the summary.
If you do not use Katapult, read Building a configuration without Katapult in the same article for the self-serve starter option, or Build a configuration from a KML file if you have a geospatial file to derive it from.
Model versus job import
One thing worth understanding before you import: importing a Katapult model (what you are doing now) is different from importing a Katapult job (what a fielder does per project once your configuration exists). Importing a model is done once, usually during onboarding, and builds the reusable configuration; importing a job is done per project and loads a single project's data. Job imports are done by whoever handles imports at your organization, whether that is a fielder or your back office; if the field form itself needs to change later, that is a configuration change you make by re-importing the model.
How the Katapult round trip works
Importing a Katapult job creates a link: Cloneable remembers each pole, span, and anchor's Katapult ID, and export uses that link to write your field data back onto the matching Katapult object. The link is one-way and one-time: the import is a snapshot, the export only adds and updates (it never deletes), and the whole round trip depends on that stored ID staying valid. Almost every Cloneable-to-Katapult problem comes from an action that breaks or bypasses that link, which is why collecting data in the field documents specific do's and don'ts for crews, and Triggers: the Katapult connection covers the trigger that runs the round trip.
The round-trip attribute rule. Only the attributes you selected when the model was imported are shown to fielders and written back to Katapult. So if a field is missing in Katapult after an export, the usual cause is that the attribute was never selected at configuration time, which means it was never in the export set. That is a configuration fix (re-import the model with the attribute selected), not a re-collection. This is a gotcha you (setting up the organization) and field crews (Steps 12-15: Sync, review, export, verify) each hit from opposite sides.
Step 4: Add your users
Invite your admins, fielders, and analysts, and set up teams if your organization has more than one. See Adding users, teams, and SSO. This can happen at any point, including while you are waiting on Step 2.
What you do, and what Cloneable does
A few parts of setup are deliberately handled by Cloneable rather than by you, to keep the Katapult connection safe and consistent.
You (your Org Admin) | Cloneable |
Store your Katapult key in the secrets vault | Wires up the trigger that uses that key, and connects it to your configuration |
Provide and adjust your configuration data | Holds the Katapult-linked fields on your configuration (so the round trip stays intact) |
Invite and manage your users | Sets up single sign-on and any programmatic access keys |
Once setup is done
Your crews can now collect data (see Collect data in the field) and it rounds back to Katapult automatically. Your own day-to-day work moving forward, adding people over time and watching your analytics, is lighter than what you just did; see Getting Started as an Admin. Since you will be spending time in the browser, Finding your way around covers the web portal's navigation. A condensed, printable version of the sequence above also lives in Administrator setup overview.