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You can go from zero to a live job on your dashboard in under 10 minutes. This guide walks you through the five key steps: creating your account, filling in your business profile, adding your first customer and their vehicle, creating your first order, and reading your dashboard overview. By the end you’ll have a working setup ready to take real bookings.
1

Create your account

Go to detailahead.com and click Start free trial. Enter your name, email address, and a password, then verify your email when the confirmation lands in your inbox.After verifying, you’ll land on the onboarding screen. Choose how you want to use DetailAhead:
  • Create a store — you’re the business owner setting up your own detailing operation. This is the right choice for most users.
  • Join a team — your employer already uses DetailAhead and has sent you an invitation. Check your email for their invite link and accept it here.
If you choose Create a store, DetailAhead walks you through a short setup wizard. You can go through every step (about five minutes for the full guided path) or choose Just the essentials to get through the three steps the platform needs before it can take a booking — business details, services, and hours.
2

Set up your business profile

Open Settings from the left-hand sidebar and select Business Profile. Fill in the following fields:
  • Business name — shown on invoices, your booking page, and the top of your dashboard
  • Address or service area — e.g. York and 20 miles around if you’re mobile
  • Phone — your contact number for customer-facing communications
  • Contact email — the address customers and invoices reply to
  • Opening hours (in words) — e.g. Mon–Sat, 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM. This text is displayed on your booking page. Actual bookable time slots are controlled separately under Settings → Opening Hours.
Click Save changes when you’re done.
You can also upload your business logo from the Business Profile panel. Your logo appears on invoices and the public booking page.
3

Add your first customer

Navigate to Customers in the sidebar. Click + New Customer and fill in:
  • Name — the customer’s full name
  • Phone — their mobile or contact number
  • Email — used for booking confirmations and follow-ups
After saving the customer record, click Add Vehicle on their profile. Enter the vehicle’s make, model, year, and colour. Adding the vehicle now means every order you create for this customer links directly to a specific car — building a service history automatically with each job.
You can add multiple vehicles to a single customer. This is useful for customers who bring in a family car and a daily driver at different times.
4

Create your first order

Go to Orders in the sidebar and click + New Order. Work through the order form:
  1. Customer — search for and select the customer you just added
  2. Vehicle — select the vehicle from their profile
  3. Service — pick a service from your catalog (you can add services in Settings → Services if your catalog is empty)
  4. Date & time — set when the job is scheduled
  5. Status — set this to Confirmed so the order appears as an active booking on your dashboard
Click Save to create the order. It will appear immediately in your Orders list and on the dashboard calendar.
If no services appear in the service picker, you need to add your price list first. Go to Settings → Services, add at least one service name and price, then return to create your order.
5

View your dashboard

Click Overview (or the DetailAhead logo) in the sidebar to return to your main dashboard. You’ll see:
  • Your newly created order in the Today’s Jobs or upcoming schedule view
  • Key metrics for the day — bookings, revenue, and any alerts
  • A setup progress meter if there are recommended configuration steps still to complete
Your dashboard updates in real time as you add customers, complete orders, and record payments — so the numbers you see always reflect what’s actually happening in your business.
This quickstart covers the minimum steps to get moving. For the full recommended setup — opening hours, notifications, your service catalog, booking page, and team invites — see the Account Setup guide.

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What to do next

Account Setup

Complete the full setup checklist: hours, notifications, your booking page, and team invites.

Customers & Vehicles

Learn how to manage customer profiles, vehicle history, tags, and notes.

Orders

Explore the full order workflow — statuses, team assignment, and job completion.

Plans & Billing

Review which plan fits your business and manage your subscription.