Registering your workshop

You sign up from the website, on the page for workshops: the create-account button opens a form that stays in the same window throughout, with a back button on every step. You can correct anything you've typed right up to the last moment.

The account doesn't exist until you confirm your email. If you close the window before that, you haven't left a half-finished workshop lying around: you simply start again.

Your workshop details#

The first step collects the bare minimum.

• Workshop name — the name your customers know you by. Up to 60 characters, and you can change it later.
• Your name — the person administering the account. You become the first user, with the Administrator role.
• App address — see the section below.
• Email — the verification code goes here, and from then on everything about your subscription.
• Password — at least 8 characters, one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter and one number. The requirements tick off as you type, and a second field checks that both passwords match.
• Invite code — optional, hidden behind a link. If another workshop invited you, the code is checked as you type and tells you straight away whether it's valid.

Your workshop's address, town and phone are not asked for here. They aren't needed to sign up and they aren't needed to work: the app asks for them the first time you print a document, because that's where they're used — in the letterhead. See Your first 15 minutes.

Your app address#

It's the part before .crankpal.com: pick bianchi-cycles and your workshop's address becomes bianchi-cycles.crankpal.com. Choose carefully, because it is a public address: it is the shop front your customers see and book from, and it is the address you'll end up printing on your business card. You and your staff use the same address followed by /login to get into the app.

The field fills itself in from the workshop name, and you can rewrite it. As you type, the site checks whether it's free and tells you immediately: green if available, red if not.

The rules are few: 2 to 30 characters, only lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, and never a hyphen at the start or the end. Some addresses are reserved and can't be used. If the address is already taken, pick another — adding the town or the neighbourhood is the easiest fix.

Your country and your plan#

Above the fields, the form states where you're signing up — "You're signing up in: Italy" — working it out from your connection. Next to it is a change country link: press it and the text becomes a search box across the countries where CrankPal is open, written in the local language (Italia, Deutschland, France, Nederland…).

It isn't a detail for the records. Your country decides which plans you're offered, which tax rules apply and which currency your subscription would be charged in. If you're signing up while abroad — or if your connection places you somewhere else — correct it here: the country is fixed at sign-up and can't be changed from the settings afterwards.

The next step is the plan, and it has just two cards: start free, or try the best plan available where you are. There's no price list to study now and the choice isn't final — you change plan whenever you need to, from inside the app. Where no paid plan is open yet, the second card is greyed out with a "coming soon" label and you can ask to be told when it launches. See Choosing your plan.

Terms, privacy and consents#

The third step shows the three documents in full, readable inside the form, each with a link to open it in a separate tab and the version in force: the Terms and Conditions of Service, the DPA — the data processing agreement by which you appoint CrankPal as processor of your customers' data, and the Privacy Notice.

There are three tick boxes and each one is recorded separately.

1. A declaration that you have read the privacy notice and that you accept the Terms and the DPA. Required.
2. Specific approval of the clauses under articles 1341 and 1342 of the Italian civil code: they are listed one by one in the text of the box. Required.
3. Consent to receive marketing communications. Optional, and revocable at any time.

The button that creates the account stays disabled until both required boxes are ticked.

The email verification code#

As soon as you confirm the consents we send a six-digit code to the address you entered. It is valid for fifteen minutes.

You get five attempts: five wrong codes invalidate it and you have to request a new one with the resend button below the field. A new code resets the attempts.

When the code is right, your workshop and your user account are created at that instant. If somebody else has claimed the app address you picked in the meantime, we tell you here and you can change it before finishing.

The final step#

The last screen shows your app address and the button to go in. You log in with the email and password you just chose: no temporary credentials, no activation email to wait for.

In some countries, if you picked a paid plan, the form to register a card also appears here. It's the payment provider's own form and the card details never pass through CrankPal. You can postpone it — there's a link to do it later from the app — but you will be asked to register the card at first login, before you can work: see First login.

Common problems#

Once that's done, the next step is logging in and doing your first job.