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What is Paydough?

Paydough runs the day-to-day of a small business, with one location or many. It helps you:

• Take bookings online: one-to-one bookings, group sessions and a walk-in queue
• Sell packages and memberships
• Create and send invoices and quotes
• Get paid online
• Bill regularly with recurring invoices
• See what you earn and when money is coming in
• Keep your details right on Google, Facebook and 50+ other directories
• Read and reply to customer reviews

Getting started

Set up your business

Sign up with your email address, then follow the three steps:

• Business: its name, logo and address
• Location: your first location, the place you trade from. It takes the business's name unless you give it its own, and any address field you leave blank uses the business's. A location's country is fixed once it is created
• Employees: the email addresses of the people who work with you, separated by commas. Each gets an email inviting them to join. You can skip this and invite people later

Choose Create business to finish. See the Conceptual model for how businesses, locations, employees and customers fit together.

Add what you sell

• Services are what customers book, such as a haircut or a consultation. See Services
• Products are everything else you sell, from a bag of compost to a day's work. See Products

Each one has its prices and VAT rate, and every booking, invoice and quote fills them in for you.

Connect a payment provider

Connect your payment provider, such as Stripe, so customers can pay online. It is set up once for your whole business, under Integrations in your business settings, and every location takes payment through it. See Invoices.

Connect your directories

In the same place, connect your Google Business Profile and Facebook page. See Listings. Paydough then:

• Publishes your details on 50+ directories and keeps them up to date
• Brings your reviews into one inbox to read and reply to
• Shows how often people find you

Your dashboard

Each location opens on its dashboard, titled with today's date. New creates a booking, an invoice or a quote.

Needs you lists what is waiting for you, most urgent first:

• Bookings to confirm
• Overdue invoices, and what they owe
• Memberships with unpaid dues
• Quotes due to expire in the next 3 days
• A payment provider still to connect, when your plan includes payments
• Details your location still lacks: its address, phone number and business categories, and your VAT number once your prices charge VAT. It also suggests connecting Google and Facebook, and adding a short description and your opening hours

Each row opens the place to deal with it. A Global Payments account is the exception: your payment provider configures it for you, so its row says so and opens nothing. When nothing is waiting, it says you're all caught up.

Today shows what is under way now and up next, how full today's sessions are, and how many people you expect each hour. It appears when your plan includes bookings.

Your first invoice

1. Go to Invoices and choose Create invoice
2. Choose a customer, or enter an email address
3. Add items from your products, or your own
4. Set the due date
5. Create the invoice, then send it

Your customer receives an email with a link to view and pay online. See Invoices.

Your first quote

1. Go to Quotes and choose Create quote
2. Choose a customer, or enter an email address
3. Add items
4. Check the expiry date, one month away unless you change it
5. Create the quote, then send it

When your customer accepts, Paydough creates the invoice and sends it for you. See Quotes.

Finding your way around the guides

Start here

1. Conceptual model: how Paydough is organised
2. Services and Products: set up what you sell

Then pick what you need

Get found

• Listings: your details on 50+ directories
• Reviews: read and reply to reviews
• Presence analytics: visibility, ratings and Google activity

Get booked

• Services: what customers book, and who and where delivers it
• Bookings: your calendar, from booking to completion
• Sessions: group events with places and a waitlist
• Memberships: billing on a schedule
• Online booking: what your customers see
• Booking analytics: how busy you are, and who turns up

Get paid

• Products: what you sell, and your storefront
• Invoices: create, send, collect and refund
• Quotes: offers that become invoices
• Recurring invoices: bill on a schedule
• Packages: bookings sold up front
• Financial analytics: revenue, cash flow and collections

Scale

• Multi-location management: several locations, your team and your plan