🧭 Setup Wizard

The Setup Wizard guides you through configuring Pavilion step by step. It checks what is already set up and shows exactly what still needs your attention.

Accessing the Wizard

• On the Dashboard, a 🧭 Setup Wizard button appears while required steps are incomplete — it disappears once everything is done
• Always accessible via Settings → System → Setup Wizard — or the Settings nav bar dropdown → 🧭 Setup Wizard

The 15 steps

They run in the order a club actually needs them: the things you cannot open without come first, and the nice-to-haves sit at the end where they can wait for another evening.

• Club Identity — name, address, phone, logo, and location (for the weather panel)
• Demo Data — optionally load sample members, bookings and rota, so you can look round a working club before configuring your own
• Rinks & Green — the playing surfaces on your green
• Playing Sessions — the morning, afternoon and evening slots
• Booking Rules — when the green opens and closes, how far ahead members may book, how much notice a cancellation needs, and when a trained steward has to be in the group
• Membership & Fees — membership number prefix and subscription fees
• Online Payments — Stripe API keys (optional)
• Email Settings — who club email comes from, and the mail server it goes through. This is the step that decides whether your email actually arrives; see below
• Accounts & Bank — bank details, your financial year end, whether you keep cash or accruals accounts, and VAT (optional)
• Communications — WhatsApp group link (optional)
• Expenses & Approvals — let members claim expenses and set who signs them off (optional)
• Permissions — who on the committee can see and do what
• Member Pages — the pages members use to book, pay and check their rota. Pavilion can create any that are missing in one click
• Games Night — preload a guide of well-known club games (optional)
• Foyer TV Display — the clubhouse screen (optional)

📮 Setting up sending email

Worth understanding, because it is the step most likely to catch a club out. Left to itself, WordPress hands email to the web server — which many hosts do not run at all, and which often lands in spam because the message does not come from a real mailbox at your own domain. Renewal notices and receipts then quietly fail to arrive, and nobody finds out for weeks.

Tick Send club email through our own mail server and put your club email account in. Choose your provider from the list and Pavilion fills in the server name, port and encryption for you; you add the username and password. Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft need an app password rather than your everyday one — the wizard says so as you pick them. The password is stored encrypted, and the box is never filled back in afterwards, so leaving it blank keeps the one already saved.

Save the step, then use Send test email. If anything is wrong you get told exactly what — a refused password, a port the host is blocking, or something else on the site intercepting the message — rather than a bare failure. You do not need a separate mail plugin; if you already have one, Pavilion stands aside and says so.

🔑 Permissions

Pavilion ships with sensible defaults for Club Member, Club Volunteer and Club Administrator, so this step is a review rather than a chore — but it is worth doing before you hand out logins. The grid is one row per permission and one column per role. Not every committee member needs the accounts, and not every steward needs the membership list.

🔗 Member pages

These are the pages members actually use — booking a rink, paying, renewing, checking their rota and availability. The step lists each one and whether it exists, and can create everything missing in a single click, each with the right shortcode and published ready to link from your menu. Pages you have already made are never touched or duplicated. Remember to add them to your site menu afterwards.

Step Status

Each step shows a live checklist of exactly which items are done (teal ✓) and which are missing (white ○). You can:

• Save & Continue — save the form and move to the next step
• ✓ Mark complete — override and mark the step done without saving settings (useful if configured elsewhere)
• Skip for now ⏭ — skip optional steps and come back later

Progress Bar

A sticky progress bar at the top of the main panel shows all steps as clickable chips. Teal = complete, amber = skipped, navy = current, grey = not done. An overall percentage track sits below the chips.

Common questions

Can I re-run the wizard after setup is complete?

Yes — go to Settings → System → Setup Wizard at any time. All your saved settings are preserved; the wizard just lets you review and update them.

What does Mark Complete do?

It marks the step as done in the wizard without touching any settings. Use it when you have already configured something outside the wizard and just want to tick it off.

Why has the dashboard button disappeared?

The wizard button only shows while required steps are incomplete. Once all required steps are done (or skipped), it disappears. You can still access the wizard via Settings → System → Setup Wizard.

Can I skip a required step?

Yes — every step has a Skip button. Skipped steps count as “addressed” for the dashboard button. You can return and complete them later.

The wizard says Club Identity is incomplete but I have set everything up — why?

The checklist checks specific settings: club name, address, phone, logo (media upload), and weather location. If any one of these is missing, the step shows as incomplete. Use Mark Complete to override it.