Initial Setup

Before doing anything else with your new ASM installation, you should now perform the initial configuration of ASM for your shelter. The steps are as follows:

1. If you want to use your own animal classifications, you can use the System->Lookups->Animal Types to alter the standard ASM ones - ASM assumes your shelter deals with dogs and cats and wants to differentiate between stray and abandoned animals. After doing that, select your new defaults in the correct place on the defaults tab of the System->Options screen (See )
2. Go to the System->Options screen and enter your shelter's details. You can set all of the systemwide behaviours for ASM and control the format of generated animal codes here. See
3. Go to System->Lookups->Remove unwanted breeds and species - Remove any unwanted breeds and species from the database that your shelter does not deal with. See
4. Make sure you have a word processor installed on your computer if you want to use ASM to generate adoption paperwork, kennel cards, etc. You can tell ASM which word processor you are using on the System->Options screen (). ASM supports all versions of Open Office, Microsoft Word 2007, Abiword and versions of Microsoft Word older than 2007 through the ``Rich Text Format Compatible'' word processor option.
5. Create usernames and passwords for your shelter staff in the System->Edit System Users screen. Once you have your own username and password, delete the default ``user'' user. See