Quick start — your first twenty minutes

Twenty minutes from an empty organization to one controlled document, one recorded reading, one closed nonconformance, and a readiness map that reflects all three.

Before you start

You need the email address your invitation went to and one PDF you already use — a real procedure, a work instruction, a form. Do not invent a document for this walk; putting something real under control is the point.

You also need a second person for one step. Norma refuses to let the author of a revision approve it, in every organization, because a quality system where one person writes and approves alone is not a quality system. Have your quality manager, supervisor or co-owner at a screen when you reach step 6, or stop there and pick it up when they are free. Trying Norma out alone? Invite a second address you control and walk both sides — in a live system, a second person must be a second person.

The ten steps

1. Sign in — /login. Enter the email address your invitation went to and your password, then choose Sign in. If you have no password yet, choose Email me a sign-in link instead and set one from Settings afterwards.
2. Create your organization — /onboarding. Name the shop and choose Continue. Add the departments you actually have, or none, and choose Save units and continue. Add the people who will use Norma — at least one besides yourself — and choose Save people and continue. Tick the roles each of them holds and confirm each row, then choose Save roles and continue. Read the summary and choose Confirm and invite. When Norma asks you to confirm it's you, enter the six-digit code from the email it just sent you.
3. Check the person who will approve — /app/<org>/organisation/members. Confirm your approver is listed with the right email address. If they are not, add them here with Add member and tell them to expect the invitation.
4. Create your first controlled document — /app/<org>/doc_control. Give it the number and title your shop already uses — not a new numbering scheme — and choose Create document.
5. Draft revision A and send it out — /app/<org>/doc_control/<documentId>. Choose Create revision, label it as your shop labels it, and say what changed. Choose Attach file and upload the PDF. Choose Add approver and name the person from step 3. Then choose Send for review.
6. Have it approved, then make it effective — /app/<org>/doc_control/<documentId>. Your approver signs in, opens the same document and chooses Sign, then Approve, then Record signature with their password. Back in your seat, choose Mark approved, then Make effective, pick the date it takes effect, and choose Set effective date.
7. Record who has to read it — /app/<org>/training. Choose Require reading for the person who has to know this document. When they tell you they have read it, choose Record completion on their row — or let them confirm it themselves from their own screen.
8. Raise a nonconformance — /app/<org>/nonconformance. Use something that actually happened this month: where it was found, what the item is, what is wrong with it, how many. Choose Raise nonconformance.
9. Close it — /app/<org>/nonconformance/<ncId>. Choose Record disposition and say what happened to the parts — scrap is the simplest to walk; rework and repair ask for a verification entry, and use-as-is expects the concession that authorized it — a concession you have requested but not yet been granted will block closure. Decide the systemic question with CAPA not required (or raise one if it deserves one), then choose Close nonconformance.
10. Open the readiness map — /app/<org>/standard. Look at what four records changed. A readiness signal is not a certificate: it says what Norma can see in your records today, not that an auditor has accepted anything.

What you have at the end

One document under control with a real approval signature behind it, a reading requirement someone is accountable for, a nonconformance with a disposition and a systemic decision, and a chain behind every one of them that names who did what and when. That is a quality management system with four records in it. Everything after this is more of the same.

Where to go next

Document Control basics explains revisions, approvals and periodic review. Training & Competence explains how reading becomes evidence and what expires. Nonconformance explains disposition, containment and when a CAPA is worth opening. This article is the in-app copy of NORMA-UG-002, the controlled Quick Start that ships with the user guide.