Follow these steps to get your 1stContact.ai account fully configured. Check off each step as you complete it to track your progress.
Sign up for a live beginner training session to learn the platform
Visit the Upcoming Events and Training page to see all available live training sessions.
Locate the Beginner Training card in the Individual Sessions section. Expand it to see the upcoming dates and times.
Beginner Training is the best starting point — it covers the core features you will use every day.
Choose a date that works for you and click the Register button on the Beginner Training card. You will receive a confirmation email with the session details and join link.
Register early — seats are limited and sessions fill up quickly.
Set up your company details so everything looks professional
From the left-hand sidebar, click on Settings (the gear icon), then select Business Profile from the menu.
Fill in your business name, phone number, website URL, and a brief business description. Upload your company logo and select your primary business category.
Use a high-quality PNG logo on a transparent background for the best appearance in emails and invoices.
Enter your full business address. This is used on invoices, estimates, and for local SEO if applicable. Double-check the ZIP code and phone number formatting.
Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. Review the profile preview to confirm everything appears correctly.
Personalize your account, connect email and calendars, and configure availability
Click your profile avatar in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar, then select My Profile from the dropdown menu.
Enter your full name, job title, phone number, and email address. Upload a professional headshot — this appears on outgoing emails, calendar bookings, and within the CRM.
A square photo at least 400x400 pixels works best.
Navigate to Settings > Email & Calendar > Email Accounts (or My Profile > Email Integration). Click Connect Email Account and select your provider (Gmail, Outlook, IMAP). Follow the OAuth flow to authorize access. Once connected, you can send and receive emails directly from the CRM.
Connecting Gmail or Outlook via OAuth is faster and more reliable than manual IMAP setup.
Go to Settings > Email & Calendar > Calendars Integration. Click Connect Calendar and choose Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. Authorize access through the OAuth flow. This syncs your personal calendar events so the CRM knows when you are busy.
Connect the calendar you actually use day-to-day — not an old or backup one.
After connecting your personal calendar, mark it as a Conflict Calendar for each booking calendar you create. This prevents the system from offering appointment slots when you already have an event on your personal calendar. Go to Calendars > [select a calendar] > Availability > Conflict Calendars and toggle on the connected calendar.
Always enable conflict calendars — without them, customers can book you during existing meetings.
Go to Settings > Video Conferencing (or Calendars > Settings > Meeting Location). Connect Google Meet, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams. Once connected, calendar bookings automatically generate a unique video link for each appointment.
Zoom is the most widely recognized by clients. If you use Google Workspace, Google Meet connects automatically with no extra setup.
Scroll to the bottom of the My Profile page. Under the General or Timezone section, select your timezone from the dropdown. This ensures all appointment times, reminders, and reports display in your local time.
Double-check this — a wrong timezone causes booking confusion and missed appointments.
Still at the bottom of the profile, define the days and hours you are available for bookings. For each day, toggle it on and set a start and end time. You can add multiple availability blocks per day (e.g., a morning and afternoon session with a lunch break).
Set realistic working hours — over-promising availability leads to burnout and double-bookings.
Select how you want to receive notifications — email, SMS, or both. Set quiet hours if you do not want alerts outside business hours.
Enable SMS notifications for time-sensitive alerts like new lead assignments.
Click Save Changes. Your profile is now active, your email and calendar are connected, and your availability is synced across the platform.
Authenticate one domain so your emails land in the inbox, not spam
Go to Settings (gear icon) in the left sidebar, then click on Email Services under the Email & Calendar section.
Click the Add Domain button. Enter your sending domain (e.g., mail.yourdomain.com) and click Generate DNS Records.
Use a subdomain like mail.yyourdomain.com rather than your root domain — this protects your main domain reputation.
Copy the provided DNS records (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) and paste them into your domain registrar's DNS management panel (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare, etc.). This step requires access to your domain's DNS settings.
DNS propagation can take 15 minutes to 48 hours. Cloudflare usually updates within minutes.
Return to the CRM and click Verify DNS Records. If the records are properly configured, you will see a green Verified badge next to your domain.
Once verified, create a sending email address (e.g., hello@mail.yourdomain.com). This is the "from" address your leads will see.
Avoid using generic addresses like no-reply@. A friendly name like hello@ or team@ gets better open rates.
Capture the specific data your business needs
Go to Settings (gear icon), then scroll to the Custom Fields section under the Contacts or Opportunities heading depending on where the field applies.
Click Add Field. Enter a field name, select a data type (text, number, date, dropdown, phone, URL, etc.), and add a help description if needed.
Use clear, descriptive field names like "Lead Source Detail" rather than abbreviations like "LSD" — your team needs to understand them at a glance.
For dropdown or multi-select fields, add the available options one per line. For text fields, set a default value or placeholder text if helpful.
Choose whether the field applies to Contacts, Opportunities, or both. This determines where the field appears in the CRM.
Click Save. The new field is now available in contact records, forms, and workflows. Repeat for any additional fields you need.
Plan your fields before creating them — a well-organized field set keeps your data clean and your automations simple.
Bring your existing contacts into the CRM
Export your contacts from your previous system as a CSV file. Ensure the columns include First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, and any custom fields you created in the previous step.
Remove duplicates and clean up formatting (especially phone numbers) before importing — garbage in, garbage out.
Go to Contacts in the left sidebar, click the three-dot menu (or Import button) at the top right, and select Import Contacts.
Drag and drop your CSV file or click to browse. The system will preview the first few rows so you can confirm the data looks correct.
Match each column in your CSV to the corresponding field in the CRM (e.g., "First Name" column maps to "First Name" field, "Email" maps to "Email", etc.). Unmapped columns will not be imported.
If a column does not match an existing field, you can create a new custom field directly from the mapping screen.
Optionally assign a tag (e.g., "Imported Aug 2026") and select a pipeline so the imported contacts are organized and easy to filter later.
Always tag imports — it makes rollback and segmentation much easier.
Click Start Import. You will receive a notification when the import is complete. Review any rows that failed and correct formatting issues.
Create booking calendars so leads and clients can schedule with you
Go to Calendars in the left sidebar, then click the Calendars tab at the top. Click Create Calendar to begin.
Select the calendar type: Simple Calendar (one-on-one meetings), Round Robin (distribute among team members), or Class Booking (group sessions). Most service businesses start with Simple Calendar.
Enter a clear name (e.g., "Discovery Call"), a description, and the meeting duration. Set the meeting location as a phone call, in-person address, or video conference (Google Meet or Zoom).
Keep the name action-oriented — "30-Min Strategy Call" performs better than "Calendar 1".
Choose which days and hours this calendar accepts bookings. Set buffer times between meetings and a minimum booking notice (e.g., 24 hours ahead).
Add a 15-minute buffer between calls to give yourself time to wrap up notes and prep for the next conversation.
Select the user who will host these meetings. Their availability, timezone, and working hours (set in My Profile) determine the open slots shown to bookers.
Enable automatic confirmation or require manual approval. Turn on email and SMS reminders to reduce no-shows — a reminder 24 hours before and 1 hour before is a good default.
Enable SMS reminders — they cut no-show rates significantly.
Click Save. You will get a booking link you can share via email, embed on your website, or include in your signature. Test the link yourself before sharing it widely.
Accept payments directly through the CRM
Go to Settings (gear icon), then select Payment Gateway under the Payments section.
Select your payment processor — Stripe, PayPal, or NMI. Stripe is the most common starting point and connects in minutes.
Stripe has the best developer ecosystem and lowest fees for most small businesses.
Click Connect and follow the OAuth flow to link your payment provider account. You will be redirected to the provider's site to authorize the connection.
Return to the CRM and confirm the status shows "Connected". Test with a small transaction ($1) to ensure payments flow through correctly.
Run a test charge and then refund it to confirm both the charge and refund flows work.
Enable the payment types you accept (credit card, ACH, etc.). Configure whether to pass processing fees to the customer or absorb them.
You can now generate invoices, send payment links, and set up recurring billing directly from contact records and opportunities.
Give your AI Employee the knowledge it needs to serve customers
In the left-hand sidebar, click on AI Agents, then select Knowledge Bases at the top of the page.
Create a new knowledge base and add your website URL at a minimum. The AI will crawl your site to learn about your business, services, pricing, and policies so it can answer customer questions accurately.
At a minimum, add your website — the more pages it can crawl, the better your AI Employee performs.
Define your brand style and voice for consistent marketing
In the left-hand sidebar, click on Marketing, then select Brand Boards.
Configure your brand colors, fonts, and logo. These visual assets are applied automatically across social media posts, email templates, and landing pages created within the platform.
Use your exact brand hex codes and font files — consistency builds trust and recognition.
Define your brand voice — tone, style, and messaging guidelines. This tells the AI how to write in your brand's voice when generating content, emails, and social posts.
Be specific: "friendly and professional, avoids jargon, uses short sentences" works better than just "professional".