⚙️ Initial setup
In 30 seconds
- The first time the owner signs in to their workshop they see, full-screen and with the workshop's logo and colours, a short initial setup wizard: language, time zone and currency, the default lead times and your brand (your logo and one colour). It takes about a minute.
- Everything else —your first product, the printers, your earlier data, costs and tax details— you do at your own pace from First steps, a card on the Home screen that ticks itself off as you go.
- Everything can be changed later in Settings.
The wizard
| Page | What you do | Can it be skipped? | Where you change it later |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Nothing: it tells you how many steps lie ahead | — | — |
| Your workshop | Language, time zone and currency | No | Settings → Workshop → General |
| Lead times | An order's delivery time and a quote's validity | No need: if you don't touch anything, nothing is saved | Settings → Workshop → General |
| Your brand | Your logo and one colour | Yes, with I'll do it later; on Hobby it doesn't appear | Settings → Workshop → Brand |
| All set | Nothing: it sends you to First steps, on the home screen | — | — |
Everything sits in a single column, in the middle of the screen. At the top, your workshop's logo and name and your plan (for example Pro plan · trial until …); below them, a bar with one segment per step that fills up as you go (on the welcome page none is lit; on All set, all of them). Then the title, a line saying what we're asking for, the form and, centred under it, ← Back and Continue. On mobile, the buttons stay fixed at the bottom.
At the foot of every page, “Questions? Read the guide” opens the page of this guide that explains that step, in your language. Continue saves what's on the page and moves to the next one. Back returns to the previous one without asking anything: what you've already saved isn't lost, but anything you typed on that page without pressing Continue is.
Welcome
A greeting with your name and your workshop's, and one line: “Three steps, one minute. You can change everything later in Settings.” If your plan doesn't include branding (Hobby), it says “Two steps”, because the wizard doesn't show you Your brand. Press Start.
Your workshop
Three fields, one under the other:
- The workshop's language: invitations, and emails to anyone who hasn't picked another one, go out in it; each person picks their own in their profile.
- Time zone: it decides when each month starts and ends in Finance, and what “today” is for orders that fall due. If you didn't have one yet, we take it from your browser and tell you so under the field.
- Currency: your workshop's; orders, quotes and expenses are added up in it. We suggest your country's. If you've already turned on invoicing, it shows as fixed and can't be changed.
This page has no I'll do it later: the three values come prefilled and Continue saves them as they are, so your workshop always has a time zone and a currency.
Choose the currency carefully now
A specific order, quote or expense can be in another currency (you choose it on the document, and you see its equivalent in yours at the exchange rate of its date), but the workshop's currency is the reference for everything. If you change it later, it only affects new records: what already exists keeps its currency and stops being added into the totals (“not converted”). And when you turn on invoicing, it's locked.
Lead times
Two numbers that every new document uses, side by side and with days inside the field:
- Delivery time: how many days a new order gets until its deadline, the one you see on the Kanban, in the calendar and on the home screen.
- Quote validity: the deadline to accept a new quote; it's printed on the PDF as “Valid until”.
They come with BolloPrint's default values. Only what you change is saved: if you don't touch anything, your workshop follows the defaults. Each one goes from 1 to 365 days; if a field is left empty or out of that range, you can't carry on until you fix it. Both can be adjusted later on each order or quote, and for all of them in Settings → Workshop → General.
Your brand
From the Pro plan, and just two things, which show in the app, on the sign-in page and on your quotes:
- Logo: ideally square with a transparent background, in PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF. It's saved as soon as you upload it.
- Brand colour: one of five —BolloPrint orange (the default), Green, Blue, Magenta or Violet—. Each one sets the app's four colours at once: the primary, the secondary and the light and dark backgrounds. If you already had colours of your own, none is selected and yours don't change unless you pick another.
The workshop's name, the sign-in texts and each colour one by one are changed in Settings → Workshop → Brand. It's the only page with I'll do it later, which moves on without saving the colour (the logo, if you've already uploaded it, stays). On Hobby the wizard doesn't show it.
All set
A ✓ and one line: your workshop is up and running, and on the home screen you'll find your first steps, such as creating your first product or connecting your printers. “Go to BolloPrint” finishes the wizard and takes you to Home, where First steps is waiting for you (explained right below). This page no longer has Back.
First steps
It's a card at the top of the Home screen with what we recommend to get the workshop going. Under the title, a bar tells you how far you've got.
Only the owner and administrators see it: all its tasks lead to Settings or to administration tools. The rest of the team doesn't see it.
The tasks
Each task ticks itself off when what it asks for really exists in your workshop: you don't have to cross it off by hand, and you can't dismiss a single one either. Click a task's line to go and do it; at the bottom right, Continue: … takes you to the next one you have left.
| Task | Takes you to… | Counts as done when… |
|---|---|---|
| Create your first product | Quick create | You have at least one product, wherever it came from |
| Connect your printers | Settings → Printers | You have at least one active printer |
| Bring your data | The migration tool | You've applied a migration (and haven't undone it) |
| Work out what each part costs you | Costs, to the part you're missing | You've saved its four parts (see below) |
| Complete your details | Tax information | You have a legal name, a tax number and a tax (a saved 0 % counts) |
Each task has a circle on the left: empty if you still have it to do and green with ✓ when it's done. A finished task is crossed out and stays where it is; you can still click it to see or change what you did.
If you've already started a task, the line takes you to what's missing. For example, with an agent installed and no printers, Connect your printers takes you to the Local agent tab; with a Bambu Cloud account, to the Bambu Cloud tab.
In Complete your details, the address doesn't stop the task counting as done: what your quotes need to go out with their issuer box is the name, the tax number and the tax. In the United Kingdom, if you chose Not VAT-registered under VAT scheme, we don't ask you for a tax number.
Bring your data needs a computer with Chrome or Edge.
The four parts of costs
Work out what each part costs you covers the four Costs screens. The task takes you to the first one you're missing, and counts as done when you've saved all four:
| Part | Where it is | It counts when… |
|---|---|---|
| Margins and materials | Costs → Default values | You save that section with your default margin and at least one material price |
| Printing hours | Costs → Hourly cost → Print hours tab | You save your printers, hours a day or days a month |
| Fixed costs | Costs → Hourly cost → Fixed costs tab | You have at least one expense |
| Cost per hour | Costs → Hourly cost → Hourly cost tab | You save your surcharges, when you add the first one |
What counts is what you have saved, even if it's the same as the default value: saving it is deciding it.
What your plan doesn't include
If your plan doesn't include the migration tool (which comes from Pro) or the printers, that task appears at the end, greyed out, with a padlock and the name of the plan that includes it (🔒 PRO). Clicking it doesn't open the tool: it opens its help, which tells you which plans include it and has See plans, to see the plans on the website. Those tasks don't count in the bar: with the rest done, the card tells you All set!
The help for each task
The ? to the right of each task opens a side panel with:
- an animation that shows it step by step (it opens in a window; on mobile, in another tab). For costs, it starts at the part you're missing. Tasks that don't have theirs yet say “Animation in the works”;
- a few lines on what it is and what it's for;
- Read the guide, which opens the page of this guide that explains it (and, if there's more than one, the others), and the blog article when there is one;
- at the bottom, a button to go and do it.
Folding, hiding and removing it
| What you do | What happens | For whom |
|---|---|---|
| Fold (the arrow on the right) | The card shrinks to one line with the progress bar and the count (“4 of 5”). The same arrow unfolds it | Only in that browser |
| ⋮ → Hide from home | The card disappears from the home screen, but the menu reminder stays (see below) | Only for you |
| ⋮ → Don’t show again | We ask you to confirm and both the card and the reminder disappear. Everything they recommended is still in Settings | Only for you |
When you finish everything
The card tells you All set! with the whole bar in green. Close it with the × (or with ⋮ → Hide from home, which does the same here): it disappears from the home screen, but the menu reminder stays, now in green. If you want to see it again, click the reminder: the card comes back folded, on one line with the full bar.
The menu reminder
At the bottom of the side menu, just above your name, you'll see First steps with a progress circle and the count (1/5), the same as the card. Clicking it takes you to Home with the card in view, even if you had hidden it: unfolded while you still have something to do, and folded if you had already finished everything and closed it.
When you finish everything, the reminder doesn't go away: the circle fills in green with a ✓ and the count stays at 5/5 (if your plan doesn't include a task, for example the migration tool on Hobby, 4/4). Like the card, only the owner and administrators see it, and it only disappears with ⋮ → Don’t show again.
Frequently asked questions
Can I go through the wizard again? Not from the workshop: ask support and we'll reset it. You'll see it the next time you sign in, with your settings already filled in.
Where are the tax details, the costs or the team, which used to be in the wizard? The tax details and the costs are First steps tasks. The team is invited from Settings → Workshop → Users. The Discord community is under Help, in the user menu.
I closed the browser halfway through. When you come back, the wizard carries on at the page where you left it. What was saved up to the previous page is kept.
I clicked “Don’t show again” and want First steps back. It can't be undone from the workshop. Everything it suggested is in Settings: Tax information, Costs, Connecting printers and Bringing in your data.
A task doesn't tick itself off even though I've done it. It's worked out from what's saved: click the task to see what's missing (it takes you right there). If you did it in another tab, go back into Home so it updates.
I'm a worker and I don't see First steps. That's normal: only the owner and administrators see it.
I'm a worker and I see “Your workshop is still being set up”. It's what the rest of the team sees while the owner hasn't finished the wizard. It's usually a matter of minutes: press “Check again”.