The Setup Wizard Walkthrough

The setup wizard lives at ManskiPort CRM > Portal Foundation in your WordPress dashboard. It runs automatically the first time you activate the plugin. Here’s what each step does.

Step 1: Welcome and Mode Selection

Pick your portal mode. This controls what the admin dashboard looks like and which features show up in the client portal.

• Photographer Mode – Focused on sessions, proofing galleries, print orders, and delivery. If you shoot photos professionally, pick this.
• Developer Mode – Focused on projects, files, milestones, and billing. If you build websites or do creative services work, pick this.

You can switch modes later from the Portal Foundation settings. It won’t delete your data, but it will change which menu items show up in the portal.

Step 2: License Key

Enter your license key here. It’s in your purchase confirmation email. Once validated, the plugin connects to the license server and activates. This requires an internet connection from your server. If activation fails, check the License Troubleshooting doc.

Step 3: Branding

Set your portal’s color scheme, fonts, logo, and button style. These get applied to the client-facing portal pages. Your main WordPress theme is unaffected – the portal has its own template system.

The branding settings use CSS custom properties. If you’re comfortable with CSS, you can go further by adding custom styles in the Portal Foundation settings.

Step 4: Feature Toggles

Turn features on or off. If you don’t use appointments, turn it off. If you don’t bill clients directly through the portal, turn billing off. The portal only shows what you enable. This keeps the client experience clean instead of full of empty sections.

Step 5: Page Setup

ManskiPort auto-creates the WordPress pages it needs and assigns the right shortcodes. You don’t need to do anything here unless you want the portal at a custom slug instead of /account/. Change the slug here if needed, then click Confirm and Finish.

After the wizard, you’re ready to start adding clients and projects.