The setup guide step by step

This is the companion to Walk through the setup guide: one section per step, in the order the guide shows them.

1. Essentials

Two blocks. Departure slots is the same editor as under Settings: a name, a departure time and a usual return time per row, a switch to enable it, Add slot for more. Your dive center starts with AM, PM and Night already there. Currency & dates sets the Date format, shown with live examples, and the Default customer language, which prefills the language when you use Add customer and is the language of the billing emails sent to your dive center.

2. Fleet and pool

Add each boat with a Boat name and a Capacity between 1 and 200, then Add boat. Below the divider, add a training pool with a Pool name and a capacity up to 50, if course sessions will be booked into one. Names have to be unique. Boats are created when you press Save & continue. If you have no boats, the step says so and you can skip it.

3. Certification levels

A preview of the standard agencies and how many levels each brings. Saving adds each of those agencies with its levels and skips, levels included, any agency whose name is already in your catalogue, so nothing is duplicated if you run it twice. Tick agencies under Course templates to also create their standard Open Water, Advanced and Rescue course templates. If you only use custom certifications, skip and add them later under Certifications.

4. Dive sites

Enter a Site name and the Max depth (m), a whole number from 1 to 350, and click the map to drop the pin. The map opens on your country. Without a pin, Add dive site refuses with "Click on the map to set a location", and Save & continue ignores a site you filled in but never added. Press Add dive site per site; sites already in the system are listed under Already added. A site with coordinates is also what the dashboard's weather panel needs.

5. Equipment

At the top, switch on Offer equipment rentals online so guests can request rental gear when they book, and Show rental prices if they should see your rates. Set daily and per-trip rental rates for the pooled categories DivePilot created at sign-up, and add stock per size with Add size, up to 20 sizes per category. Items tracked individually by serial number are not handled here; add them later under Equipment. Save is disabled while a rate is not a valid amount or is above the maximum amount.

6. Your team

Add each colleague with 1. Basic info: first name, last name, email, a role label and the Schedule roles they can be planned for. Then 2. Permissions: pick a preset chip or tick permissions by hand, and press Add staff member. The invitations are only sent when you save the step. Invited users receive the email in English; they can switch language after signing in.

7. Waiver templates

The standard agency waivers are listed by organisation, with Required where they are required for diving. Saving adds all of them as templates if they do not exist yet, including the required forms of agencies you do not use, which then count in every waiver check until you deactivate them; see Add the standard agency waivers. Add a custom waiver opens a dialog for your own document: title, organisation, version, validity in days, language, status, whether it is required for diving, and an optional PDF. A custom waiver is created the moment you confirm the dialog.

8. Guest onboarding

The registration QR code and link, as on the Registration settings page, followed by the two Online booking cards, Fun dives and Courses, each with Off, Scheduled only, Scheduled + requests and Requests only. The cards save the moment you click them. Customer form settings closes the guide and takes you to the tab where you choose which fields guests fill in.

9. Branding

Upload your logo, which saves immediately, choose the Primary colour and Accent colour with the contrast check, pick Light or Dark under Page mode, and fill in the Contact details for your public pages. The live preview shows your booking page as you type. Save stays disabled while the primary colour's contrast against white is too low.