A guide to the Technical Hub.

Most of the awkward parts of buying a canopy have nothing to do with the canopy. It is finding the datasheet you downloaded three weeks ago. It is remembering which width you specified for the rear entrance. It is the colleague who needs the drawing while you are on site.

The Technical Hub is our answer to that. It is a private workbench attached to your account that holds your orders, your saved quotes, the products you are interested in, and the documents that go with them — plus Projects, which keep everything for one job in a single place and let you share it with the people working on it.

It is not an extra you pay for. Everything in this guide comes with a standard free account.

Registration takes about a minute: your name, an email address, a phone number if you would like us to be able to call you, and a password of at least eight characters.

1. Go to the registration page From Technical Hub at the top of any page — if you are not signed in it takes you to sign in, with a link to register.
2. Enter your details Name, email and a password. The form shows the password rules as you type.
3. Start using it Your account works straight away. We send a welcome email with a button to confirm your address — until you press it, a slim reminder shows at the top of the site, but nothing is blocked.

If you tick the newsletter box, that needs confirming separately — watch for its own email with a confirmation link. It is deliberate: it means we hold a proper record of your consent.

The Hub does not scroll down like an ordinary page. It scrolls sideways, as a row of full-screen panels — a workbench rather than a list. There are eleven: a home screen, then ten sections.

You can move between them however suits you:

• Scroll sideways, or swipe on a touchscreen
• Use the arrows at either edge of the screen
• Click a shortcut on the home screen — each one shows a live count of what is in that section
• Open Menu, top right, for a numbered list of every section plus the tools

The counter in the top-left corner tells you where you are — 04 / 11 Saved Projects, and so on.

Against each project you can record a client, a site address, a status, a target date and notes. The status runs through Draft, Active, On hold, Won, Lost, Complete and Archived, so your project list doubles as a view of what is actually live.

1. Create the project From Add project on the Hub's Saved Projects panel, or New project on the Projects page. Give it a working name — you can rename it whenever you like.
2. Add products and quotes Add products takes you into the range in a mode that drops what you choose straight back into the project. Saved quotes can go in too.
3. Note each line Quantity, the size or variant, and where it goes — “rear entrance, plot 14”. That location note is the bit people tell us saves the most time later.
4. Order when you are ready Open a line to go to the product, then add it to your basket and check out as normal. Put the project's name or PO number in the PO box at checkout and Accounts will total the job for you.

To archive a project, set its status to Archived — it moves to the Archived tab on the Projects page rather than disappearing.

A project can be shared so everyone works from the same list rather than three versions of an email attachment. Invite someone by email address from the People panel on the project, and choose what they can do:

The invitation appears on their own Hub, under Saved Projects, the next time they sign in — they accept or decline it there. We do not email it, so it is worth a quick word to say it is coming. If they do not have an account yet, they need to register with the address you invited; that is what connects the invitation to them.

Five sections of the Hub hold paperwork: Datasheets, Certificates, Installation Guides, Technical Drawings and CAD / DWG. Between them they cover the specification, the test and compliance evidence, the fitting instructions and the files your architect or designer will want.

To see every document of one kind across the whole range, use Browse all on any of those sections. Each product gets one card with all its files, sizes included.

Where a product comes in several sizes, its card may hold several files — “Datasheet · 4 sizes”. That is one product, not duplicates.

Every order you have placed is listed, newest first, with its status, delivery, PO number and total. Search by order number, product or PO, narrow by date or status, or re-sort the list.

The Delivery column tells you what you most want to know. Before dispatch it shows the date your order is expected by, worked out from the lead time you were given at checkout. Once it has gone, it shows the courier and tracking number instead. Open an order for the full breakdown — every line with its size and options, the delivery address, and the VAT split.

Every canopy we make is made to measure, so for anything bespoke, bulk or out of the ordinary, use the quote form and choose Save to my Tech Hub. Our team prices it and it lands in your Saved Quotes, where you can come back to it without re-keying sizes, or add it to a project.

A quote appears in your Hub once our team has priced and released it, so there is a short gap between sending the request and seeing it there. If you chose Email it to me instead, it comes to your inbox and will not appear in the Hub.

Open it from the Accounts shortcut on the Hub's home screen, or from Menu. It is its own page with a menu down the left — Back to Hub at the bottom takes you back.

It has its own guide: Guide to Accounts.

Everything above works on a standard free account. A trade account is about commercial terms rather than features: trade pricing and, once approved, 30 days’ credit from the end of the month.

There are two routes in. If you register with an email address on a company domain we already recognise, trade pricing switches on as soon as you confirm your address. Otherwise, send the short enquiry on our trade page — and for credit terms, the application form there too — and we will take it from there.