VenueDesk setup and onboarding from signup to launch.

This VenueDesk setup and onboarding guide follows the real path from choosing a plan and creating a workspace through launch readiness, customer payments, contracts, team access, reporting, and the daily operating tools your venue will use.

1. Choose a plan and create the owner account

Start from the registration screen and select an available plan. Standard supports one venue and the complete core workflow. Pro adds multiple venues, advanced reports and CSV exports, and the custom branding editor. Enterprise is intended for organizations that also need API access, custom onboarding, and priority-support designation. Enter the owner details, business name, secure password, and an available workspace slug.

2. Complete checkout and verify the owner email

Stripe Checkout handles the VenueDesk subscription. The tenant is provisioned only after a valid completed checkout state. After provisioning, verify the owner email before entering tenant administration. Tenant users can also choose to protect their own accounts with TOTP MFA and recovery codes.

3. Add venues and packages

Create the venue record, timezone, and operating foundation. Add the packages customers will select, including venue assignment, capacity, duration, price, deposit information, description, and optional package imagery. Standard and Founding Venue default to one venue, while Pro and Enterprise support multiple venues.

4. Configure availability and booking rules

Set operating days, notice and advance windows, start-time grid, setup and cleanup buffers, and blackout dates. The same authoritative rules are used by the public customer flow, staff-created reservations, and rescheduling so a different part of the system cannot bypass availability controls.

5. Configure branding and publish

Package images improve customer-facing package cards on the core workflow. Pro and Enterprise can also configure the tenant logo, primary color, public heading, and introductory copy. Once at least one venue and package are ready, publish the workspace and continue to the business overview.

6. Complete the launch-readiness checklist

The persistent dashboard checklist is based on live configuration rather than manual checkboxes. It verifies important items such as venue setup, package setup, Stripe connection, an active package contract, and publish state. Optional readiness items can include branding, a team invitation, and a real walkthrough of the customer flow.

7. Connect Stripe for customer payments

Authorized account managers connect the venue's own Stripe account through Payments settings. That connected account receives eligible customer deposits and balance payments and is separate from the Stripe account used for the VenueDesk subscription. Customer payment actions stay unavailable until the connected account is ready.

8. Configure contracts, communications, and documents

Use the generic agreement, build a custom contract template, or import readable text from a text-based PDF. Packages can require a signed agreement before payment. Configure customer status messages, balance reminders, event reminders, invoices, receipts, signed contract PDFs, and selected customer-visible booking files.

9. Invite the team and configure staff alerts

Invite supported roles within their permission boundaries. VenueStaff remains limited to manually creating new bookings rather than managing existing reservations or administrative settings. Owners and Admins can configure staff booking emails for events such as new bookings, status changes, reschedules, signed contracts, and payments.

10. Use search, notifications, calendars, and checklists

Global search helps authorized users find bookings and customers by reference, customer details, event type, venue, package, or date. The Notifications workspace surfaces current pending requests, deposits, unsigned contracts, balances, and recent activity. Package checklist templates become booking-specific task lists for event preparation.

11. Use plan-specific reporting and connectivity

Pro and Enterprise include Overview, Sales, Bookings, Packages, and Customers reports with bounded date ranges and spreadsheet-safe CSV exports. Enterprise can also use tenant-scoped API tokens with explicit abilities for data access and optional booking creation through the normal availability and communication workflow.

12. Keep improving the workspace during beta

Use Help & Feedback from inside the application to report problems, suggest improvements, or contact support. VenueDesk captures bounded technical context such as application version and safe page path without collecting form contents, passwords, card data, or sensitive query strings.