Onboarding & industry presets

basic

How your account is set up, and how managers can load starter data or build a real business with AI from the Configuration page.

When your organization is created, Apolaris AI helps you go live quickly instead of staring at empty modules on day one. Some of this happens with your onboarding specialist, but two self-service tools on the Configuration page let a manager set up or top up data themselves — without contacting support.

This page covers both:

Load example data — a guided wizard that preloads a full industry template (demo data) so you can explore a populated CRM.
Set up my real business with AI — a conversational builder that creates your real records from your answers and spreadsheets.

It also covers the Quick Setup wizard — the guided first-run checklist that greets a manager on their first sign-in (see below).

Initial account creation, your subscription, and which modules are enabled are managed by Apolaris AI. Once your account exists, the seeding and starter-data tools described below are things owners and managers run themselves.

Who can do this

Both tools are on the Configuration page and are gated the same way.

Action	Who can do it
Open Load example data / Set up with AI	Domain manager (`is_manager`)
Run the guided wizard / AI builder	Same — a non-manager cannot reach either flow
Replace existing data first (the optional reset)	Apolaris (the platform operator) only — never a manager

A domain manager always passes the gate. A regular employee or a privilege admin without is_manager does not see these cards and cannot open the flows.

What onboarding sets up

During onboarding you capture the basics — business name, sites, language, currency, and number format. Your language, currency, and number format then flow through every module and report, so it pays to set them correctly up front. Make sure all your sites (locations) are added so staff and schedules land in the right place — see Organizations & sites.

From there you have a choice: load a ready-made example template to explore the product, or build your real business directly. Both live on the Configuration page.

The Quick Setup wizard

The first time a manager signs in to a brand-new organization, Apolaris AI opens the Quick Setup wizard over the dashboard: a guided first-run checklist that walks you through the essentials one small step at a time, with a progress bar, a Step X of N counter and a running time estimate. Each step is deliberately small — answer one question, fill one short form, or simply see where a feature lives. Many steps offer a handful of suggested answers tailored to your business type, plus an "Other" box for your own words, and what you choose is provisioned into your real settings as you go.

The step list adapts to the modules enabled for your organization. Everyone gets the core steps — Your company, Before Apolaris, Your market, Region & language, Look & feel, Choose your tools, Locations & hours, Your team, Your services, Your website, Bring your data and Secure your account — while module-gated steps appear only when the matching feature is on:

Staff logins (employee portal) — send your team their own sign-in invites.
Booking rules (shown with online booking or the contact center), Online booking page and Appointment reminders (online booking).
Teach your assistant (knowledge training), WhatsApp assistant and Payments (contact center).
Phone AI agent (voice channels) — your numbers and the test dialer.
Loyalty program, Promo codes, Customer journeys, Automatic reports, Your AI copilot, Staff copilot on WhatsApp and Security cameras, each behind its module.

The Step X of N count includes only the steps that apply to you, so the numbers stay honest as modules come and go.

Finishing every step is optional. A few basics (your company, market, region, tools and locations) are required to continue, but every other step has a Skip button, and Skip, I'll do it later closes the whole wizard whenever you like. Your progress is saved as you go — Back revisits an earlier step — and the final All set! screen is a checklist of what's ready and what you can still add later.

Quick Setup is for managers (is_manager); other staff never see it. It runs once per organization — if you'd like it re-opened later (for example after a new module is enabled, or for a newly promoted manager), contact support and we'll re-arm it; your earlier answers stay pre-filled.

Industry presets (16 verticals)

A preset is a starter pack tailored to one type of business. Apolaris AI ships 16 verticals plus an Other option, so the services, categories, inventory, and sample structure match how your business actually runs.

The verticals fall into two families:

Appointment / service businesses (calendar-driven): Nail Salon, Hair & Beauty Salon, Barber Shop, Spa & Wellness, Gym / Fitness Studio, Clinic / Dental, Auto Repair Workshop.
Retail / food & drink (ticket / basket businesses): Restaurant, Bar, Café / Coffee Shop, Bakery, Retail Shop / Boutique, Grocery Shop, Supermarket, Pharmacy, General Shop.

Pick the closest match — once seeded, you can edit, rename, or delete anything afterwards from within the app. The preset is a head start, not a lock-in.

Not sure which vertical fits? It's faster to load the closest template and tweak a few starter services than to build the whole list from scratch. The wizard's AI step (below) also suggests extra services and inventory specific to your business.

Load example data (guided wizard)

The Load example data card opens an AI-assisted wizard at /configuration/starter-data/. It preloads a full template — sites, staff, catalogue, inventory, customers, and recent history — so your account opens onto a populated, ready-to-explore CRM. This is demo content meant for evaluation and training, not your live records (for those, use the AI builder below).

Steps

Choose template — pick one of the 16 business templates and describe your business in your own words.
Customise with AI — the AI reviews the template against your description and proposes extra services and inventory rows. You toggle which components to load and set the volume (for example, how many weeks of history and how many customers).
Review & confirm — a read-only preview shows every record that will be created. Nothing is written until you tick the confirmation box. On this screen you can also ask the AI to add more ("add three premium service packages") and it merges the suggestions into the preview in place.
Done — the data is seeded and the real created-counts are shown.

To start: open Configuration → Load example data, then click Start guided setup.

Loading is additive — a preset only adds starter data; it never overwrites real data you've already entered. You can load another template or top up your data at any time.

The optional replace existing data first checkbox on the confirm screen wipes the organization's business data (sales, bookings, expenses, inventory, customers, services, employees, and sites) before re-seeding. This reset is run only by Apolaris and is intended for clean re-loads of demo data. A manager will not see or be able to run it. Because deleting transactional data desyncs analytics and reports, do not treat the reset as reversible.

Set up my real business with AI

The Set up my real business with AI card opens a conversational builder at /configuration/business-setup/. This is the more important self-service onboarding tool: it materialises real records (not demo data) from a chat and your own files.

How it works:

Open Configuration → Set up my real business with AI and click Set up with AI.
Chat with the AI onboarding consultant. It asks a few questions about your sites, team, catalogue, and inventory.
Upload spreadsheets (CSV or XLSX) of customers, products, services, or staff. The importer reads each file, and a side panel keeps a running summary of what's been captured.
Review a read-only preview of everything that will be created.
Confirm, and the real records are written to your organization.

You can start the conversation over at any time before building; that clears the captured setup but writes nothing.

Use this builder when you already have customer, product, or staff lists to import. It's the fastest path from your own spreadsheets to a populated, live CRM — no demo content and no external integrations.

This builder creates real, live records. Cross-data impacts apply immediately: created services and inventory feed bookings, sales, and analytics; customers become real CRM contacts. Review the preview carefully before confirming — there is no one-click undo for a manager. As with the example-data wizard, the replace existing data first option is reserved for Apolaris; managers cannot wipe and rebuild.

Choosing between the two tools

	Load example data	Set up my real business with AI
Creates	Demo / sample data	Your real records
Input	Pick a vertical + AI suggestions	Chat answers + CSV/XLSX uploads
Best for	Exploring, training, demos	Going live with your own data
URL	`/configuration/starter-data/`	`/configuration/business-setup/`

If you want to see how the CRM looks fully populated before committing, load example data. When you're ready to run your actual business, use the AI builder with your own files.

Changing your setup later

Your industry, sites, and starter data aren't frozen. You can adjust services, categories, customers, and most settings directly in the app at any time, and managers can re-run either tool from the Configuration page to load another template or top up data. For changes outside these tools — such as enabling a new module or platform-level questions — contact support.