Set up the store,
then make a sale.
UpChannels starts with three steps for the owner — business type, owner, then location and sales tax — and a checklist that ticks itself off as your stock, services and first order arrive. Your business type fills the import templates with sample products from your trade and offers a starter price book of services.
From a new account to the first order
Three tabs: Step 1. Knowing Basics, five short cards on how UpChannels fits together; Step 2. Profile Setting, the owner’s wizard; and Step 3. Prepare to Sell, the go-live checklist.
Three steps
for the owner.
The owner picks a business type, enters their name, mobile phone, time zone and business name, then the first location’s name, phone and street address, and the sales tax profile and rate. If something is missing, an amber box says exactly what. Nothing is saved until Complete Setup, and saving again updates the same location and tax rate rather than adding another.
A template that already
looks like your stock.
Inventory Setup opens Procurement Orders → Import. Download a template and it comes filled with sample products from your trade — jewelry, appliances, furniture, HVAC and more, or general merchandise — so you can see what each column wants. Replace the sample rows with your stock and upload the file, up to 10 MB. Barcodes and serial numbers are kept exactly as typed.
Your services,
started for you.
Services → Starter services lists what a store like yours usually sells, from UpChannels’ starter price book: a jewelry store’s ring sizing, prong retipping and watch batteries, for example. Add the ones you offer, price each one and switch it on. Every business type has a book; Other / General Business gets the general one.
A checklist
that ticks itself off.
The go-live checklist checks itself: open it and each card reads Done, Pending or Locked from what is really in your store. A product-only shop can skip services, and a services-only business can skip inventory. Each Start button opens the page where the work is done.
You are never locked out.
An unfinished setup never redirects you or greys out the sidebar. Owners get nudges instead: a one-line setup strip at the top of the page, a pinned row in the sidebar with the same next step, and a note on Create Order when an order cannot be built yet. All of them stop for good once the store has its first order. Most pages also have a Demo button with sample data, to look around before your own data is in.
What your business type sets up
Fourteen types: Appliance Repair, Appliance Store, Auto Repair Shop, Beauty Salon & Spa, Clothing Store, Electronics Store, Furniture Store, HVAC Services, Jewelry Store, Landscaping & Lawn Care, Liquidation Store, Plumbing Services, Restaurant & Cafe, Other / General Business. Saving a type links it; nothing you have set up is copied over or overwritten.
- Sales tax
- A default rate, filled in on the first setup only
- Import templates
- Sample products from your trade in Template A and B
- Starter services
- The services your trade usually sells, by type
- Partner Network
- Partner types and outreach emails for your trade
- Local Vibes
- News and events search terms
- Lost Sales
- The starting reason, source and complaint lists, until you set your own
- Dashboard
- Appliance benchmarks for Appliance Store and Appliance Repair
What setup does not do
- Only an owner can run the setup wizard. Everyone else sees “Owner Access Required”.
- The wizard does not set opening hours or the location type. A new location is saved as a Store, open Monday–Saturday 9:00–17:00, until you change it in Settings → Locations.
- Prices are in US dollars, and addresses are matched in the US and Canada.
- Starter services arrive switched off and without a price. You price each one before it can be sold.
- A template uploaded unchanged imports the sample products. Delete the sample rows first.
- There are fourteen business types. A trade that is not listed starts from Other / General Business.
Setup questions, answered
How long does setup take?
Which business types can I choose?
What does the business type change?
Can I bring my products in from a spreadsheet?
Do I have to finish setup before I can use UpChannels?
Is there a free trial?
Onboarding & Setup is one part of UpChannels
UpChannels sets a new store up in three guided steps for the owner — business type, owner details and time zone, then the first location's address and sales tax rate — followed by a Prepare to Sell checklist that marks itself done as stock, services and the first order appear. The business type, one of fourteen from Appliance Store to Restaurant & Cafe or Other / General Business, fills in a default tax rate and chooses the sample products in the Excel and CSV import templates, the starter price book of services, Partner Network's partner types and Local Vibes' search terms. The whole app is open from the first minute; owners get gentle nudges until the first order. It is the same on every plan and on the 14-day free trial.
UpChannels is an all-in-one platform for small retailers and service businesses — sales, inventory, customers, scheduling, delivery, payments and finance in one system — and a real team that builds your website, runs your ads, and automates the busywork. The parts below share one set of records, so there is no integration to wire up between them; the pricing page shows which plan includes each one.
The product moves faster than this page. UpChannels ships updates most weeks, so a description here can lag what is already in the software. Where the two disagree, the running product is the current version — tell us if you find one and we will correct the page.
Ready to run your
whole business on one system?
Start your free trial today. No credit card required.
One system for the counter, the schedule, the truck and the books. A team to build the website, run the ads and take the busywork off you. Start with the trial, or let us walk you through it first.
