atlas field guide
Learn Atlas by watching it work.
Short video tutorials and step-by-step guides — from your first reusable schema to running your whole business on Atlas.
- episodes
- 6
- runtime
- 31 min
- guides
- 50
- tiers
- Overview → Basic → Advanced → Enterprise
[video series]
Atlas by Stratosphere
Watch in order to go from an empty workspace to a business running on Atlas — or jump straight to the episodes for your tier.
[written guides]
Read it, then build it
Step-by-step Atlas walkthroughs, plus practical guides to business modeling and data management. Guides that pair with an episode are marked, so you can read along or skim before you watch.
Why Atlas? A data model that fits your business
Most tools make your business fit their data model. Atlas works the other way around — you describe what you actually keep track of, and Atlas becomes that system.
Read the guide
What is business modeling? A practical guide for operators
Business modeling means describing how your organization actually works — its things, their information, and the steps that information moves through. A plain-language guide with a method you can use this week.
Read the guideWhat problems does Atlas solve?
Retyped fields, forms that disagree, scattered submissions and rigid tools — the everyday data problems Atlas is designed to remove, and how it removes each one.
Read the guideWhat a single source of truth really means (and what it doesn't)
The phrase "single source of truth" is everywhere in business software. What it actually requires, the common misunderstandings, and how to move toward one without a big-bang migration.
Read the guideGetting to know Atlas: what each tier unlocks
A guided tour of Atlas Basic, Advanced and Enterprise — the ideas each tier is built on, what you can do at each level, and how to decide where to start.
Read the guide
Build your first form in Atlas (Basic tier)
A step-by-step walkthrough of the free Basic tier — create two reusable data schemas, publish them, build a Service Request form from them, lay it out and print it.
Read the guide
Master data management for small and mid-sized businesses
Master data management isn't just for large enterprises. What master data is, why it goes wrong in growing businesses, and a lightweight approach to keeping customers, locations and assets consistent.
Read the guideOutgrowing spreadsheets: signs your business needs structured data
Spreadsheets are a great place to start and a hard place to grow. Here are the signs you've outgrown them, and what moving your data into Atlas looks like.
Read the guideData quality starts at the point of entry
Cleaning data after the fact is slow and never finished. How to design forms and schemas so good data is the default — validation, required fields, consistent definitions and review steps.
Read the guideCollect your form online with a public link (Advanced tier)
On Atlas Advanced, every form gets a public link. Find it, share it, see what customers experience, and read their submissions in Data Collection — without rebuilding the form.
Read the guide
Entities, attributes and relationships: data modeling in plain language
Data modeling without the jargon — what entities, attributes and relationships are, how to spot one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, and how to avoid the most common modeling mistakes.
Read the guideWhat is a data schema?
The data schema is the smallest building block in Atlas — a reusable set of fields that belong together. Here's what one contains, how it's used, and why defining fields once changes everything.
Read the guideWhat is a record schema?
A record schema combines reusable data schemas into one record type, like a Service Request or a Property Profile. How record schemas work on Basic and inside Enterprise classifications.
Read the guideDesigning intake forms people actually finish
Practical principles for intake and request forms — ask less, set expectations, group questions, validate kindly, and let people review before they submit.
Read the guideWhat is a classification? A blueprint for everything your business tracks
Classifications are where Atlas Enterprise begins — a blueprint for each kind of thing your business keeps track of, holding its record schemas, topics, resources, pipelines and security policy.
Read the guideWhen an off-the-shelf CRM doesn't fit your business
Generic CRMs are built around leads and deals. If your business revolves around properties, equipment, crews or cases, here's how Atlas lets you model what you actually track.
Read the guideData governance for teams without a data team
Data governance sounds like an enterprise program, but every growing business needs a lightweight version. Five practical habits — ownership, definitions, access, change control and review.
Read the guideCreate your first data classification (Enterprise)
A field-by-field walkthrough of creating a data module in Atlas Enterprise — type, security policy, instance counts, name, key, label and description — plus resources and automation.
Read the guide
Fill a data module: record schemas, topics and records (Enterprise)
A step-by-step guide to putting something in an Atlas data module — build a record schema from data schemas, create a topic, add and fill in a data record, and see why it needs an owner.
Read the guide
Going paperless without losing what works on paper
Digitizing operations doesn't have to mean abandoning paper overnight. A practical, phased approach that keeps the strengths of paper while removing retyping, lost forms and inconsistent questions.
Read the guideLeast-privilege access for business data: a practical guide
Least privilege means giving each person exactly the access their work needs. Why it matters for small businesses, how to apply it with roles and teams, and how to keep it from getting in the way.
Read the guideOne home for business data: ending the inbox-and-spreadsheet sprawl
Customer details in an inbox, requests on paper, jobs in a spreadsheet. Why scattered data costs more than it seems, and how to give it a single, structured home.
Read the guideThe hidden cost of rebuilding the same form fields
Name, email, phone, address — rebuilt in every new form. A look at what that repetition really costs, and how reusable data schemas remove it.
Read the guideSchema drift: why forms and data stop agreeing
Schema drift is what happens when the questions you ask and the data you store slowly diverge. Here's how it happens, why it's expensive, and how Atlas prevents it.
Read the guideHow schema versioning protects the data you've already collected
In Atlas, publishing a change creates a new schema version instead of rewriting the old one. What that means for forms, submissions, records and documents.
Read the guideStart free, grow into Atlas: planning your path through the tiers
How businesses typically move from Atlas Basic to Advanced to Enterprise, what carries over at each step, and how to tell when it's time to upgrade.
Read the guidePaper still works: why Atlas starts with printable forms
Clipboards, front desks and job sites still run on paper. Why Atlas's free tier is built around printable forms, and how those same forms go online later without being rebuilt.
Read the guideHow to create and publish a data schema
A focused, step-by-step guide to creating a data schema in Atlas, adding fields in the JSON Schema section, and publishing a version your forms can use.
Read the guideChoosing field types, formats and required fields
The small decisions that make a form pleasant to fill in and its data reliable — how to choose types, when to use formats like Email Address, and what to make required.
Read the guideBuild once, reuse everywhere: one address schema for every form
How reusing a single Service Address data schema across request, inspection and quote forms keeps every form consistent, and how to organize schemas so reuse is easy.
Read the guideDesigning good data schemas: where to draw the lines
Which fields belong together, how big a schema should be, and how to name schemas so they're reused instead of copied — practical rules for designing data schemas.
Read the guideLaying out a printable form: sections, headings and widths
How Atlas turns attached data schemas into sections of a printable form, and how to use titles, headings, footers, field order and widths to make it easy to fill in by hand.
Read the guideSharing a public form link: where to put it and what to keep in mind
Websites, email, text messages, QR codes on printed material — practical places to share an Atlas public form link, plus the handful of rules that keep public intake safe and useful.
Read the guideWorking with submissions in Data Collection
Where online submissions land in Atlas, how to read them, how to share them as PDFs, and good habits for keeping on top of incoming responses.
Read the guideGoverned public intake: why open forms need identity and review
Public forms are convenient and risky at the same time. How identity capture, schema validation and a review-before-submit step make Atlas public intake trustworthy.
Read the guideModeling your business in Atlas: from whiteboard to classifications
A practical, step-by-step method for turning how your business works into Atlas classifications, resources, record schemas and security policies — with a worked landscaping example.
Read the guideData modules and resources: deciding what stands alone
In Atlas, a classification is either a data module whose topics stand alone or a resource whose topics belong to a parent. How to choose, and how automatic sub-topics help.
Read the guideNaming classifications well: name, key, label and description
How Atlas uses a classification's name, key, label and description, and practical conventions for naming things so your File System reads the way your team talks.
Read the guideSecurity policies explained: explicit, inherit and default access rights
How Atlas security policies decide who can reach each classification — named, reusable sets of rules with an authorization mode, default access rights, and per-classification rules.
Read the guideThe five access levels: Discover, Read, Write, Archive and Manage
Every Atlas access rule grants exactly one of five levels to a role, a user group or a single user. What each level allows, how they combine, and how to choose.
Read the guideWhy every topic needs an owner
In Atlas, topics are bound to a user group that answers for them. What Unassigned Topics are, why ownerless records are a risk, and how to keep ownership clear.
Read the guideExternal IDs and topic properties: connecting Atlas to the rest of your tools
Two small fields on every Atlas topic do a lot of work — External ID for matching records with other systems, and properties for the details you want at a glance.
Read the guideFinding your way around the Atlas File System
The File System is home base in Atlas — where data modules, record schemas, topics, records and submissions live. A tour of the breadcrumb, views, search and the details panel.
Read the guideEnginuity and Uniform: the two engines behind Atlas
Atlas is built from two engines over one shared data model — Enginuity for data and operations, Uniform for forms and documents. What each does and why they share a model.
Read the guidePipelines explained: checklist-gated workflows with PRE, PRIM and POST
Atlas pipelines move a resource through named stages, each gated by a checklist of directives. How stages, subroutines, directives, and FINITE vs. CONTINUOUS runs fit together.
Read the guideWork queues and notification rules: getting work to the right team
Atlas routes work to roles instead of individuals, and maps events to the people who should hear about them. How role-scoped queues and notification rules keep work from stalling.
Read the guideDocument templates: generating documents that stay in sync with your data
How Atlas document templates bind to a record schema version, how the Layout Editor and bound placeholders work, and why generated documents never go stale.
Read the guideSamples and aggregations: tracking measurements over time
Not everything you collect is a record. How Atlas models repeated measurements as samples, and how the aggregation canvas computes derived values as new samples arrive.
Read the guideAtlas as the backend for your own applications
On Atlas Enterprise, your own customer portals, dashboards and mobile apps can read and write the same records through the Atlas API Client and Atlas SDK — with the same validation.
Read the guideUnderstanding Enterprise platform requests: what's included and how to plan
Atlas Enterprise includes 10,000,000 platform requests a month, then $1 per 100,000. How metered pricing works, a few worked examples, and habits that keep usage efficient.
Read the guideNo guides match that search.
[choose your altitude]
Start free, climb when you're ready
Every tier builds on the same schema-first foundation. Jump to the episodes for yours.
- Basic Free
- Advanced $5 / mo
- Enterprise $99 / mo
Never miss an episode
New tutorials land on the Stratosphere Atlas YouTube channel first.
Subscribe on YouTube Prefer a live walkthrough? Book a demoReady to build your business graph?
Start with reusable schemas today. Scale into enterprise APIs when you need them.