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A new workspace starts empty. No channel is connected, no contacts exist, and nothing is automated. This page is the shortest path from that to DMLY actually working, in the order that matters: each step depends on the one above it.
Your Overview dashboard (the page you land on after signing in) has a live Get started checklist that tracks this same setup and ticks items off on its own as you finish them. Use this page for the how; use that one to see what’s left. Details below.
Set aside about an hour of your own time. Two things also depend on other people, so start them early: connecting WhatsApp needs Meta’s approval of your number, and your WhatsApp message templates are reviewed by Meta on their schedule, not yours. Both are called out below.

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The Get started checklist on your Overview dashboard

Workspace managers (the owner and any teammate with the Admin role) see a Get started panel at the top of the Overview dashboard. Member and Viewer roles don’t see it, since most of its steps link to setup screens they can’t open. The first time it shows, or whenever you select Change business type, it asks what kind of business you run:
  • Appointments & bookings
  • Classes & group sessions
  • Shop & commerce
  • Customer support
  • Something else
You can make the same choice earlier, at signup, on the optional What do you do? field. See Create your account. Either way, your answer decides which steps the checklist actually lists: pick a shop and it lists your catalogue and payments but not staff availability; pick customer support and it lists a channel, a contact, an automation and getting a template approved, with no staff, booking page or catalogue step at all. Every item on it is a live check against your real data, not a saved tick. Connect a channel and it flips to done on its own; delete your only service later and it un-ticks itself just as automatically. It can take up to a minute to catch up after you finish something elsewhere, so don’t worry if it looks a step behind. Selecting Set up on any unfinished item takes you straight to the right screen. The checklist only ever covers part of this page: filling in your business details, sending yourself a test message and inviting your team aren’t tracked on it, but they still belong early in your setup. Keep working down the list below regardless of what the dashboard shows.
Dismissing the checklist (the × in the corner, or Dismiss once every step is done) hides it for good. There’s no setting to bring it back, so only dismiss it once you’re actually finished, not just to tidy up the dashboard.
1

Fill in your business details

Open the menu at the bottom of the left sidebar (your name and avatar), select Settings, and stay on the first tab: Business Details.Fill in Business Name, Business Email, Business Phone, Currency, your Business Address, and upload a Logo.Do this first because these details are not decoration; they are printed on your invoices and receipts, used on your public booking page, and your Business Email becomes the Reply-To address on outgoing email. Setting them now means everything you create later is already branded correctly.Your workspace name is your business name; there is only one field, and changing it changes both.Business details →
2

Connect WhatsApp

In the left sidebar, go to Configurations → Integrations. The Channels tab is open by default. Select Add account, then WhatsApp.You get two ways to connect:
  • Configure WhatsApp via Embedded Signup — Simple (10 mins), then Connect a WhatsApp number. Use this one.
  • Bring your own WhatsApp Cloud API keys — Complex (30 mins), then Configure. Only if you already run your own Meta app.
Connect a channel before anything else, because almost nothing else works without one. Contacts, Broadcasts, Automation, Meetings and Growth Tools are all tied to a channel; with none connected they show Connect a channel first instead of the real screen.
Not ready for WhatsApp yet? Telegram is fully self-serve: paste a Bot token and you are connected. A Live Chat widget is also self-serve, but someone has to paste a snippet into your website before it appears. Either is a fine way to see the Inbox working today, but come back and do WhatsApp.
Connect WhatsApp → · All channels →
3

Let Meta review your message templates

Nothing to click here, but start the clock now.The moment a live WhatsApp number connects, DMLY submits its built-in dmly_ message templates to Meta for review. WhatsApp only lets you message someone outside a 24-hour window using a template Meta has approved, so until that review comes back:
  • Your WhatsApp broadcasts have nothing to send. The template picker lists approved templates only; a template that is Draft, Pending or Rejected simply is not in the dropdown.
  • Notifications that would go out over WhatsApp fall back to a plain message if the contact messaged you in the last 24 hours. Outside that window, they are skipped entirely rather than sent.
Review is Meta’s, not DMLY’s, and it is out of your hands. It usually comes back in under 24 hours. Plan your first broadcast around that rather than the other way round.To check where they stand, go to Templates in the sidebar and select Refresh templates, which re-syncs each template’s status from Meta and re-submits any that never went.Message templates → · WhatsApp rules and limits →
4

Send yourself a test message

From your own phone, message the number, page or bot you just connected. Then open Unified Inbox in the sidebar and check it arrived.Do not skip this. Connecting a channel and receiving on it are two different things: the connection can look fine while inbound messages never arrive, and you would rather find that out now than when a customer does. If the message lands in the Inbox, your channel is genuinely live.
Check the channel is listed on Configurations → Integrations → Channels, and that its card has no red dot. That dot means Unauthorized, and the channel needs connecting again. If the channel is there with no red dot and messages still do not appear, inbound delivery is a setup problem on the Meta or Telegram side rather than something you can fix from this screen. Contact support with the channel name and the time you sent the test.
Inbox overview →
5

Add your services or products

Only if you have something to book or sell. Skip this if you’re a pure customer-support business.Go to Offerings in the sidebar. If you take bookings or run classes, open Services and add one; its duration, buffers, price and payment mode all live here, along with Show on public booking page. If you sell physical stock instead, open Products and add one there.Offerings overview → · Services → · Products →
6

Set your availability and brand your booking page

Only if you take bookings or run classes.Go to Business → Appointments → Staff, add yourself or your staff, and fill in Working hours; nobody is offered a slot until this is set. Then go to Business → Appointments → Settings → Branding and add a Booking page title, description, logo and brand colour, so the public page you’ll be sharing looks like your business rather than a blank form.Staff and availability → · Booking page →
7

Connect a payment gateway

Only if you plan to take payment online, whether for a booking, an invoice or a product order.Go to Configurations → Integrations and open the tile for your gateway (Stripe, PayPal, Paystack, Razorpay, MyFatoorah or Mercado Pago). Paste in your credentials, then add the webhook endpoint the tile shows you, in the provider’s own dashboard.
Don’t skip the webhook step. Without it, a client can pay successfully at the gateway while DMLY still shows the invoice or booking as unpaid.
Connect a payment gateway →
8

Invite your team

Open the same bottom-of-sidebar menu and select Team Members, then Invite member. Enter their email address, pick a Role, and select Invite.Do this after the channel is live so your team’s first login shows them real conversations rather than an empty state.There are three base roles:
  • Admin: “Can access and edit everything.”
  • Member: “Can access and edit everything except configuration section.”
  • Viewer: read-only. They can see the messaging modules but can’t change anything.
If none of them fits, build your own permission set under Team Roles (New role), then pick it in the invite modal’s Custom role dropdown; the default there is None — use the base role above. DMLY ships no ready-made custom roles, so anything you see in that list is one your workspace created.People join by clicking the emailed invitation; there is no way to add someone directly. Your plan caps how many members and pending invitations a workspace can hold.
Only the owner and Admin teammates see the Get started checklist on the Overview dashboard; a plain Member or Viewer you invite won’t see it, even mid-setup.
Team members → · Roles and permissions →
9

Turn on your first automation

Go to Automation in the sidebar and build a flow.Start with one: a greeting or an out-of-hours reply. It is the first thing that makes DMLY work while you are not watching, and it is the cheapest way to learn the flow builder before you rely on it for anything expensive.Whatever you connected in step 2 can run it. Automation works on every channel type, unlike Broadcasts, Templates and Growth Tools, which are each limited to particular channels. It does still need a channel, though: with none connected it shows Connect a channel first, like the rest of the list in step 2.Automation overview → · Flow builder → · Templates →
10

Bring in your contacts

Go to Contacts in the sidebar and select Import, which opens a page headed Import contacts. Take the Download sample file first and match your columns to it; that one habit prevents most failed imports.Contacts come last on purpose. Anyone who messages you becomes a contact automatically, so this step is about your existing list, not about getting started. Import it once your channel is live and your team can answer, so any replies land somewhere useful.
Importing a list is not consent to broadcast to it. WhatsApp holds you to the number’s opt-in, not your CSV. The Unsubscribe tag ships locked for exactly this reason and cannot be deleted. Respect it.
Import contacts from CSV → · Tags and segments →

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Where to go next

Learn the Inbox

Assign chats to teammates, set conversation status, and save quick replies for the questions you answer twenty times a day.

Send your first broadcast

Once a template is approved, send a campaign to a segment of your contacts.

Take bookings

Add your services as Offerings and let clients book appointments themselves.

Get paid

Invoices, payments and payment links you can share straight into a WhatsApp chat.

Collect Google reviews

Connect your Google Business Profile and ask happy clients for a review over WhatsApp.

Find your way around

A tour of the sidebar, the profile switcher and where settings actually live.