Finishing the Setup Guide
Updated
The Setup Guide is the checklist card at the top right of your Overview page. It shows how many steps are done, and each step links straight to the page where you do the work. It stays hidden until you have finished at least two steps, and you can dismiss it once you are done.
The steps
| Step | Where it takes you | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Complete your business profile | Business Settings, Business Profile | 5 min |
| Add your services and pricing | Services | 5 min |
| Add your team members | Team and Payroll, Team Members | 3 min |
| Connect payment processing | Business Settings, Payment Settings | 5 min |
| Add your first client | Clients | 2 min |
| Create your first appointment | Calendar | 2 min |
| Set up automated reminders | My Account | 2 min |
| Enable online booking (optional) | Settings | 3 min |
The first two steps cannot be skipped. The rest can, and a skipped step can be un-skipped later.
Which steps appear depends on your business type. Solo pet sitters and trainers do not see "Add your team members"; veterinary accounts do not see "Enable online booking".
What actually ticks a step off
Steps complete automatically when the underlying data exists, not when you visit the page. Two of them surprise people:
- Complete your business profile needs a business name, an address and at least five rows of operating hours. Filling in the name and address alone will not tick it. Operating hours live under Business Settings, Facility Settings, Operating Hours.
- Add your team members needs more than one active employee. You already count as one, so this ticks only after your first invited staff member accepts.
The others are straightforward: one service, one payment provider actually configured, one client, one appointment, one reminder settings record.
Enable online booking never ticks itself. Mark it complete by hand once you have shared your booking link.
After the checklist
Two things are worth doing that are not on the list:
- Email templates. Business Settings, Email Settings lets you preview and edit the transactional emails your clients receive, and shows a Delivery Log of everything that has gone out. See Controlling which emails Alaga sends.
- Agreements. If you require a waiver before boarding or grooming, build it under Business Settings, Agreements. Reservations for clients with unsigned required agreements are created as Requested rather than Confirmed, so setting this up early avoids confusion later.