A new business sees a Setup card at the top of Today. It isn't a wizard — it reads your actual data and ticks itself off as you go. You can work the list in any order, dismiss the card and bring it back later, and it will still be right.
Six items are required. The rest are optional and don't hold the progress bar back.
Required
Set your brand colour and logo
Settings → Organization details · Your colour and logo are used on outbound emails, the public booking page, and receipts. Do this first — everything a client sees inherits from it.
Add your first location
Settings → Locations · A location is where you operate: address, timezone, opening hours, contact details. Public booking will not work at all until at least one location exists, because the public URL is location-first.
Add at least one service
Operations → Services · A service is what you offer, how long it takes, and what it costs. Nothing can be booked or sold until one exists.
Set staff working hours
Team → Scheduling · Without hours, nobody appears as bookable on the calendar — the day grid will be empty even though staff exist. Set a weekly template per person; you can override individual days later.
Add your first client
Clients · Add one by hand, or import your existing list.
Invite your team
Team · Each person you invite gets their own calendar, timesheet, and reports. If you're a one-person business this item is marked optional automatically and won't block you.
Optional
Import your existing data
Settings → Import data · Bring clients, services, products, memberships, waitlist and stock over from Fresha or another system. Everything is mapped column-by-column, de-duplicated, and reversible in one click. See Import your data.
Turn on public booking
Settings → Booking → Online booking · Lets clients self-book at your public venue page. This one only counts as done when you can actually take a booking — you need a location, a service, and staff hours. Turning the toggle on without those three does nothing useful.
Connect payments
Settings → Payment processor · Connect Stripe to take card payments, collect deposits, and bill memberships automatically. Until this is connected you can still record cash, cheque, and external-terminal card payments — you just can't charge a card from inside Owneli.
Set your tax rate
Settings → Tax rates · So checkout and receipts charge the right tax on every sale. You can define named rates and apply per-service overrides.
Stock the retail shelf
Retail → Products · Only relevant if you sell physical products at checkout.
When you're done
The card disappears on its own once every required item is ticked. You can dismiss it earlier — the dismissal is per business, so hiding it for one business doesn't hide it for another you own.