What you will accomplish

You will follow a clear first-week setup path so your facility's time zone, payments, messages, portal, team access, and daily operations tools work correctly before customers and staff rely on them.

Settings is where you tell Car Storage Software how your facility works.

Use this section when you are setting up a new team, preparing to invite staff, turning on customer-facing tools, or checking that important business settings are correct.

When Settings is set up well, your team can:

• Schedule work in the right time zone.
• Send invoices and collect payments.
• Send emails and text messages from the right business identity.
• Standardize recurring care, checklists, status labels, and bookable facility spaces.
• Invite customers to a portal that looks like your facility.
• Collect signed agreements and customer documents.
• Give staff the right access without exposing private areas.
• Organize leads and customer follow-up.

Quick start: your first 30 minutes

If you are brand new to the app, do these steps in order before you invite customers or staff. Each step links to a full guide when you need more detail.

1. Set time zone and regional formats (about 5 minutes)

   Open Settings > General and follow Set up general facility settings.

   Expected result: Dates and times on Schedule match how your team talks about the day.

2. Add your logo and colors (about 10 minutes)

   Open Settings > Branding and follow Set up facility branding.

   Expected result: Customer emails and the portal show your facility name—not a generic label.

3. Set customer portal language (2 minutes, if needed)

   If many customers speak Spanish, open Settings > General and set Language in Set up general facility settings.

   Expected result: Portal menus and messages appear in the language you chose.

4. Connect payments if you will invoice (about 10 minutes)

   If you plan to send invoices or collect storage fees online, open Settings > Billing and start Connect payment processing.

   You can skip this step today if you only need scheduling and customer records.

5. Invite one trusted teammate (optional)

   When someone else needs dashboard access, use Manage team permissions. Give them only the areas they need—not admin access by default.

Best setup order for a new facility

Follow this order if your team is setting up the app for the first time. Each step builds on the one before it.

• Start with General settings so dates, times, addresses, country, and locations are correct.
• Set up Branding so your logo, colors, and facility name look correct on customer pages and emails.
• Set up Billing before your team sends invoices, quotes, recurring charges, or checkout links.
• Set up Communications so emails, texts, review links, and notification defaults work the way your team expects.
• Set up Operations before staff rely on recurring care plans, workflows, custom statuses, bookable amenities, or floor plan tools.
• Set up Contracts before requiring customers to sign agreements or upload important documents.
• Set up Customer onboarding before turning on public registration or required portal setup steps.
• Set up Website & customer app before inviting customers or adding public links to your website.
• Review Team permissions before inviting staff into the dashboard.
• Set up CRM settings so leads, customers, follow-up dates, and customer types are easy to understand.
• Finish with Security settings so sign-in and admin access are safe.

What each Settings page is for

1. General

   Open Settings > General for time zone, date format, time format, address format, country, and facility locations.

2. Events & schedule

   Open Settings > Events & schedule for services, appointment types, reminders, booking rules, photo rules, and resources. For a full guide, see Configure event types.

3. Operations

   Open Settings > Operations for service plans, statuses, workflows, amenities, and floor plan setup. Start with Configure operations settings.

4. Contracts & Documents

   Open Settings > Contracts & Documents for contract templates, e-signature setup, document types, and customer upload categories. For a full guide, see Contracts overview.

5. Branding

   Open Settings > Branding for your logo, brand colors, facility name, app home screen name, and theme. For a full guide, see Set up facility branding.

6. Website & customer app

   Open Settings > Website & customer app for customer app home layout, shareable links, booking widget, vehicle page visibility, and public facility pages. For a full guide, see Configure portal and website.

7. Customer onboarding

   Open Settings > Customer onboarding for the public registration form and the steps customers complete after sign-in. For a full guide, see Configure customer onboarding.

8. Communications

   Open Settings > Communications for phone and text messaging, email domain setup, social links, Google Reviews, and notification defaults.

9. Billing

   Open Settings > Billing for Stripe payment processing, processing fee rules, statement billing, invoice settings, tax rates, quote settings, and accounting integrations.

10. Team

    Open Settings > Team to invite staff, update permissions, review notification preferences, assign locations, and remove access for people who no longer need it.

11. CRM

    Open Settings > CRM for pipeline stages, customer types, lead sources, and automatic follow-up timing.

12. Security

    Open Settings > Security to manage passkeys for safer sign-in.

Important words in plain English

Common setup mistakes to avoid

• Do not invite customers before the portal sections, logo, and billing settings are ready.
• Do not build workflows before the event types they use are correct.
• Do not give every staff member admin access. Most people only need access to the areas they work in.
• Do not send invoices until payment processing, tax settings, and invoice numbering are reviewed.
• Do not copy website links until you confirm the public page or portal page opens correctly.

How-to guides in this section

• Set up general facility settings — time zone, dates, country, and locations.
• Set up facility branding — logo, colors, facility name, and theme.
• Connect payment processing — Stripe, fees, taxes, and invoices.
• Configure communications — phone, text, email domain, reviews, and alerts.
• Configure operations settings — overview of service plans, workflows, statuses, and amenities.
• Set up vehicle service plans — recurring care packages for stored vehicles.
• Create operations workflows — step-by-step checklists for intake, pickup, and similar jobs.
• Manage custom statuses and amenities — job labels and bookable bays or rooms.
• Configure customer onboarding — public registration form and portal setup steps.
• Configure portal and website — customer app layout, login links, booking box, and public pages.
• Manage team permissions — invite staff and choose safe access.
• Configure CRM settings — pipeline stages, customer types, and sources.
• Review security settings — passkeys and access habits.

Quick links by job

• Owner / manager setting up the facility: Start with Set up general facility settings, then Set up facility branding, then Connect payment processing if you bill online.
• Front desk inviting customers: Finish Configure customer onboarding and Configure portal and website before sending public links. See Facility Web Pages.
• Hiring or updating staff: Use Manage team permissions and Review security settings.
• Shop floor / operations lead: Use Configure operations settings and Create operations workflows.
• Sales or CRM lead: Use Configure CRM settings.

Troubleshooting

What to do next

If this is your first time setting up the app, continue with Set up general facility settings.

If your team is already using the app and you need to fix one area, choose the guide that matches your task from the list above.