2. Company Initialization and Settings

Guides administrators through initial company setup and onboarding tasks. Covers prerequisites, company settings, workflows, integrations and troubleshooting.

Welcome to the Company Initialization section. This area helps managers complete the essential setup and onboarding tasks that get your bodyshop running on the platform. You'll learn how to configure company contact details, create employee accounts and roles, define workflows and buckets, connect common integrations, etc. Use the roadmap below to complete the setup reliably and avoid common pitfalls.

Prerequisites

Have your manager (administrative) credentials from the welcome email ready before changing settings. Settings section require manager-level access.
If you manage several bodyshops, decide which location you are configuring and first of all switch to it in the top-left bodyshop selector before making changes.
Collect integration credentials you will need: PayPal Application ID and secret, SMTP server settings (host, port, TLS, username/password).

Always verify you selected the correct bodyshop before saving changes. Unsaved edits are a common source of confusion – click Save on the corresponding settings pages to persist changes.

Settings pages are available at estvis.com/settings. Many workflow and company parameters are edited there.

Getting started: An actionable roadmap

Follow this step-by-step checklist to finish your initial setup. Each step links to a detailed article in this section.

Configure company contact information – set company's name, phone, address and email.
Learn more: Create Company Profile & Contact Information
Set payroll rules, employee rates, and insurance-withholding settings (if used):
Configure Common Company Settings
(Optional) Learn template variables for automated communications:
Template Variables
Set up outgoing email and notification settings (SMTP/TLS):
Outgoing Email & Notification Settings
Create employee accounts, assign roles and permissions (bodytechs, estimators, painters, auditors and other).
How to: User Accounts, Roles & Permissions
Configure buckets (statuses) and tie actions/triggers (SendCustomerMessage, SendAdditionalOffer) to status changes:
Workflow Statuses (Buckets) & Automated Actions
Customize preliminary photos templates and settings:
Preliminary Photos Templates Customization
Configure additional services:
Additional Services Customization
Add bodyshop to your account (for multi-location businesses):
Adding Bodyshop to Account
Use the troubleshooting guide below on this page if you find issues.

Tip: create employee accounts early and assign at least one manager and one estimator. Use a small pilot case to verify end-to-end notifications, PDFs, and payment flows before wide rollout.

Company settings (what to configure first)

Contact information: edit company phone, address and public review links. Save changes clicking the Save.
See Create Company Profile & Contact Information.
Common parameters: CSI display, server addresses (for advanced/network admins), PayPal assignment, employee insurance withholding, hourly rates and week goals.
See Configure Common Company Settings.
Outgoing email: check Enable custom email and verify TLS settings to ensure emails and status-change messages deliver properly.
See Outgoing Email & Notification Settings.

If you change outgoing email settings, send a test message immediately. Misconfigured SMTP/TLS is a frequent cause of missing customer notifications.

Workflows & buckets (repair process mapping)

Customize buckets (statuses) to match your repair stages. Add actions to statuses (for example SendCustomerMessage or SendAdditionalOffer) so the system sends automated invites or offers on transitions.
See Workflow Statuses (Buckets) & Automated Actions.
Enable or disable automatic status-change notifications depending on your customer communication policy.
Customize preliminary photos templates and additional services as needed.
See Preliminary Photos Templates Customization and Additional Services Customization.

Completed checklist records (username, timestamp) are logged in Case History for audit trails.

Multi-location setup

Adding bodyshop to account: for businesses managing multiple locations, you can add additional bodyshops to your account.
See Adding Bodyshop to Account

Store integration keys securely and only provide credentials to administrators. When enabling payment connectors, test with a sandbox account before accepting real customer payments.

Troubleshooting and common issues

Missing or unsent notifications: check outgoing email server settings and status-change notification toggles; verify TLS and test email delivery.
Changes not applied: confirm you selected the correct bodyshop and clicked Save on settings pages. Unsaved edits are a top cause of deployment drift.
Failed integration syncs (QuickBooks/PayPal): validate API credentials and review mapping settings. Retest with sandbox credentials before retrying in production.

Helpful tips

Build one canonical test case and run it end-to-end: case creation → photos → estimate → parts order → invoice scan → customer notification → payment. This exposes gaps before staff training.
Use Acknowledge reminders for staff assignment confirmations so responsibilities are explicit.
Configure template variables early to ensure automated communications work properly with your company's specific information.

If you need to reference the live settings UI while following these articles, open: Settings web page.

What's next

Open Settings page
Configure company contact information
After setup and validation, move to Integrations