All Help Center articles
474 articles in 10 chapters.
Getting started & settings
- What VisionScaper is
- The two entry points: Designer and Contractor Hub
- System requirements
- Install and activate the plugin
- Add the shortcodes and create your pages
- WordPress settings: business name, email and region
- WordPress settings: maps, routing and imagery
- Accounts and sign-in: email, Google and Facebook
- AI keys and daily limits
- Selling extra AI credits and storage
- Community, points and rewards settings
- Contractor tools, texting and payments settings
- First-run guide, sample data and tutorial
- Hub Settings: the five groups, 17 tabs and the search box
- Settings: Business profile
- Settings: Appearance & layout
- Settings: Social & gallery and Services
- Settings: Show me & tools (Simple or Full)
- Settings: Costs & markups
- Settings: Price book
- Settings: Terms & payments and Follow-up plan
- Settings: Invoice design
- Settings: Get paid online (Stripe) and text messages
- Settings: Crew, team & hours
- Team roles and permissions
- Settings: Messages & alerts and Reminders
- Settings: Intake questions and Quick replies
- Settings: Connected apps (Google Contacts, QuickBooks, request form)
- Plans, billing, credits and usage ("Current plan")
- Contractor approval (for the site owner)
- Caching and minify exclusions
- WP-Cron, backups and updates
The Designer
- The Designer at a glance
- Start a new design
- Take or upload a photo of your yard
- Tips for a good yard photo
- Design on a bird's-eye (aerial) view
- Try a sample yard
- Explore your home in 3D and save angles
- Add and manage views of one design
- Set the scale with "Set it up for me"
- Measure something to set the scale exactly
- Browse the plant and item library
- Search the library, including by voice
- Filter plants by goal, light, color, size and more
- Read a plant fact sheet and growth chart
- Place a plant or feature in your yard
- Move, resize, turn, flip and copy items
- The selection bar, selecting many items and layers
- Plant age and the See it grow slider
- Seasons, day and night, and sun direction
- Paint mulch, stone, lawn and pavers on the ground
- Draw beds, patios, lawns, walkways, walls and edging
- The Add an area wizard
- Outline modes and fine-tuning edges
- Clear an area (Blank canvas) and remove weeds
- Remove something from your photo
- Pick the spot: selection tools
- Add your own item from a photo
- Library packs and the Materials pack
- Design with AI
- Identify a plant from a photo
- Undo, redo and seeing the original
- Save, autosave and cloud designs
- Print, share and send a design
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Use the Designer on a phone
- Designer troubleshooting
Sales, quotes & pricing
- The Today (Overview) screen
- The "Needs you" list
- Header search and the "+ New" button
- Customers: the list, search, and adding a customer
- The customer page and properties
- Lead stages and "How they found you"
- Outside lead sources (Angi, Thumbtack, Google Local Services)
- The Sales board (pipeline)
- The Inbox: messages with customers and leads
- The request form for your website
- Intake questions for homeowner requests
- Self-booking: let visitors pick a visit time
- The Quotes list and the one-button "next step"
- Build a quote step by step
- From a design or plan to a quote (quantity takeoff)
- The AI Quoter and "Quote it with AI"
- Service templates
- Template versions and "updated since" notices
- The Price book
- Costs & markups: labor, overhead, margin, tax, deposit
- Proposal terms and the payment schedule
- Sending a proposal and customer e-signature
- The follow-up plan and reminders for unsigned quotes
- Win/loss tracking and the close-rate report
- Door-to-door canvassing
- Measure Property from above
- Landscape plans: the 10-step measured plan wizard
- Walk estimates and voice-note summaries (phone app)
- The customer portal (My Projects) and the look of proposals
- Importing customers: CSV, vCard and Google Contacts
- Your Find a Local Contractor listing and the requests it brings
- Asking customers for reviews
Jobs, crews & field work
- The Jobs screen: from signed quote to finished job
- Job costing: entering actual costs on a job
- Calendar: month view, list view and the day menu
- Appointment reminders to customers and to you
- Subscribe to your schedule in Google, Apple or Outlook calendar
- Field work overview: the tabs and who sees them
- Field work Today: your daily dashboard
- Assign crew and use suggested times
- Review and approve hours worked
- Add employees and crews, and link their phones
- Clock in and out from My work (time tracking)
- Export approved hours for payroll
- Team location (GPS): live map, a person's day and privacy switches
- Route planner: plan one crew's day
- Route planner distances: Google keys, OSRM and estimates
- Purchase orders: order, send, receive and close
- Vendors: your supplier list and terms
- Supplier bills: enter, approve and record payments
- Inventory: items, places, counts and moves
- Inventory: low stock, reorder drafts and spreadsheet import
- Plan vs actual and profit alerts
- Expenses: add, receipts and approvals
- Job profit: estimated vs actual by job and project
- Overhead budget: work out your overhead per labor hour
- Equipment and maintenance reminders
- Tasks: one to-do list for you and your team
- Training: build, publish and assign courses
- Training reports, certificates and automatic assignment
- Phone app dispatch: assign, move jobs and keep a route order
- Employee goals and written reviews
- Company library: how-tos and policies your team must agree to
- Checklists and field forms for your crew
- Photos and documents on jobs: take, share and mark up
- Private notes on each employee
- Taking training in My work (for employees)
Invoices & payments
- Invoices at a glance
- Create an invoice
- Line items, discounts and custom fields
- Design your invoice
- Send an invoice
- Due dates and payment terms
- Recurring invoices
- Sales tax on invoices
- The invoice reminder plan
- Record payments, void invoices and refunds
- Unpaid invoices and late reminders
- Autopay
- Set up Stripe for your site (site owner)
- Connect your Stripe account
- Payment methods your customers can use
- Processing fee settings (site owner)
- Deposits and payment schedules
- Connect QuickBooks Online
- Send invoices and payments to QuickBooks
- Send customers, invoices and payments to Xero
- Profit and loss report
- Customer financing
- Card reader and Tap to Pay
- Sell AI credit packs and extra storage (site owner)
- Your plan and billing (contractors)
- Set up contractor plans and billing (site owner)
- The customer payment page
- Export your data
Marketing & messaging
- How messaging works in VisionScaper
- Set up Twilio for texting
- Set up Telnyx for texting
- Set up your email service
- Get ready to text (A2P 10DLC)
- Incoming message webhook addresses
- Check your email sender (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Site-wide safety switches and monthly limits
- Use the Messages inbox
- Two-way text conversations
- Write quick replies
- Edit message templates and alerts
- Appointment reminders to customers
- Consent and opt-outs
- Record consent you already have
- Automatic text replies and the AI notice
- A tour of the Marketing page
- Create and send a campaign
- Choose who gets a campaign
- Automations: follow-ups that run themselves
- The AI marketing assistant and Approvals
- Marketing safety checks, sending limits and usage
- Marketing results and group-posting reminders
- Ask customers for reviews
- Draft replies to reviews with AI
- Send postcards with tracked QR codes
- Bring in leads from Angi, Thumbtack and Google Local Services
- Set up the AI Receptionist
- AI Receptionist calls, campaigns and minutes
- Add the website chat widget
- Add social links and a work gallery
- Put the request form on your website and stop spam
API keys & connections
- API keys and services checklist
- Google Maps keys (browser key and server key)
- Turning on Explore in 3D
- Google sign-in for customers
- Facebook sign-in for customers
- fal.ai key and what it powers
- Black Forest Labs FLUX key and model
- Vision model setting
- Pl@ntNet key for plant identification
- Twilio text messaging setup
- Telnyx text messaging and failover
- Stripe setup (credits, storage and contractor payments)
- Email providers (Postmark, Resend, SendGrid, Amazon SES, site mail)
- AI Receptionist provider keys (Retell, Vapi, Bland, ElevenLabs and more)
- Expo access token for the phone app
- Connecting QuickBooks Online
- Connecting Xero
- Google Contacts sync and calendar feeds
- OSRM routing server address
- Map tiles and aerial imagery settings
- Connect other tools overview (access keys, alerts, Zapier)
- Creating access keys and choosing scopes
- API authentication and base URL
- API routes reference (api/v1 and zap)
- API request and response examples
- API errors, 402 and 429, and rate limits
- Idempotency-Key for safe retries
- Alerts (webhooks): setup and events
- Verifying an alert's HMAC-SHA256 signature
- Alert retries, auto-disable and delivery logs
- Connecting Zapier (triggers and actions)
- Security: two-step sign-in, login history and signing out devices
- Customer records, data export, erasing and privacy requests
- Cron, WP-CLI, caching, SSL and REST troubleshooting (401, 403, 404)
Apps, community & FAQ
- The VisionScaper phone app: what it does
- Signing in to the phone app and managing signed-in phones
- The crew app: My day, Time and Messages
- Tasks, reports and weather on the phone
- Customers, schedule and dispatch on the phone
- Quotes, invoices, payments and expenses on the phone
- Customer messages, field triggers and voice notes on the phone
- My Projects: quotes, hires, invoices and reviews
- My Calendar and Messages for homeowners
- Find a Local Contractor and Request quotes
- The Inspiration Board
- The VisionScaper Browser: browsing and sharing designs
- Ratings, comments, follows, friends and messages in the community
- Points, levels, badges, titles and rewards
- Community moderation and settings (for the site owner)
- AI credits, storage packs and the shop
- Customer accounts and sign-in
- View as customer: try a customer's plan
- The Plans admin page: billing, trials and failed payments
- The Entitlements admin page
- The Contractors admin page: approve, suspend or reject
- The Appearance admin page: site look and emergency reset
- The Terms admin page: edit your Terms of Service
- The Customer Records admin page (contractor-only records)
- FAQ: accounts and privacy
- FAQ: designs, photos and AI
- FAQ: plans, billing and payments
- FAQ: messages, texts and email
- Glossary of VisionScaper terms
- What's new in versions 2.45 to 2.51
- Keyboard and gesture cheat sheet
- Troubleshooting: blank studio, camera not working, caching and minify
- Troubleshooting: REST errors and Stripe webhooks not received
- Troubleshooting: texts not sending and emails going to spam
Admin screens, field by field
- Start here: every admin screen, step by step
- Settings → VisionScaper: Basics, emails and maps
- Settings → VisionScaper: Customer accounts and sign-in
- Settings → VisionScaper: AI keys and daily limit
- Settings → VisionScaper: Selling extra AI credits
- Settings → VisionScaper: Selling extra library storage
- Settings → VisionScaper: Community switches
- Settings → VisionScaper: Points and rewards
- Settings → VisionScaper: Contractor tools and Twilio
- Settings → VisionScaper: Phone app, voice, walk and autopay switches
- Settings → VisionScaper: Door-to-door map and aerial imagery
- Employee and crew member form, pay rate and permissions
- Vendor and purchase order forms
- Supplier bill form
- Inventory forms: item, count, move, set aside, place, import
- Task form, quick expense and clock-in forms
- Service template form
- Equipment item and maintenance forms
- Checklist (field form) editor
- Marketing campaign, audience and automation forms
- Training course builder and Assign dialog
- Settings → VisionScaper: Contractor payments and fees
- Door-to-door house form and Measure property forms
- Designer: Mulch, stone & lawn brush controls
- Designer: Draw beds & patios (Shapes) controls
- Designer: Selected plant or feature panel
- Designer: Scale and eye-level controls
- Designer: Crop, straighten and Adjust controls
- Designer: Measure & zones and the scene bar
- Designer: Plant library search, filters and zone finder
- Designer: Add my own item and Plant ID fields
- Designer: Remove it, Pick the spot and fill controls
- Settings → VisionScaper: Library packs, photos and recent purchases
- Designer: Design with AI controls
- Designer: Layers, saved versions, My designs and tags
- Designer: Send my design, Share and consultation forms
- Designer: Sign in, create account and My Account fields
- Request quotes: every question in the wizard
- Find a Local Contractor, property photos, reviews and homeowner screens
- Inspiration Board, Community Browser and post fields
- AI Quoter: every field and button
- Hub search box, New button and guided tours
- Customer financing: every setting and button
- Community screen: overview and totals
- Route planner: every field and button
- Website chat: every setting and button
- Security screen: two-step sign-in, history and activity log
- Card reader and Review replies: every field and button
- Public forms: website request form, review page and sign-in code
- AI Receptionist in the Hub: the six setup steps and Settings tab
- AI Receptionist in the Hub: calls, campaigns, safety and do-not-call
- Marketing Safety: consent, sending rules, auto-replies and carrier registration
- Hub Marketing settings: controls, limits, design, reviews and automations
- Field work Settings tab: hours, late jobs, photos, job costing and alerts
- Community: the Needs review table
- Landscape plan wizard: customer, scope, measurements, scale, site details and style
- Community: the Latest posts table
- Marketing reminders: group-posting rules (Add a group)
- Marketing reminders: personal reminders and the post helper
- Marketing campaigns: template picker, Insert detail, blocks and design extras
- Marketing consent tab: sign-up link, search, ask by text, paste a list, proof
- Training: Assigned list, extra quiz attempts, To check (grading) and certificates
- Training: Talks (toolbox talks), Library procedures and file uploads
- Training: New hires checklists, People (skills, roles) and Reports
- Training settings: reminders, renewals, badges and automatic assignment rules
- Training course builder: step kinds, captions, files, move and remove controls
- Training for employees (My work): practical hand-in, quizzes, procedures, rating, record
- Community: Members, Ban, Unban and Give points
- Goals and reviews: every box for goals, progress notes and written reviews
- Company library: documents, who must agree, version notes and reminders
- Equipment, Inventory and Request sources: custom fields, parts note, who did it, search and CSV
- Postcards: audience, card text, QR code, cost approval and settings
- Review request page: star buttons, private feedback box and what happens after
- How community moderation actions work
- Site plan editor: toolbar, drawing options and item properties
- Plan wizard steps 3 and 4: bird's-eye base map and tracing the property
- Plan wizard steps 6, 9 and 10: site photos, designs and generate
- Invoice editor extras: line details, discount label, custom fields, footer and licence line
- Hub customer, quote, job and search boxes: the hint text in each box
- Quick add forms, door-to-door hints and the homeowner property capture
- Search, find and name boxes: message details, intake examples, key name, Xero fields, appearance
- Designer boxes: design name, hardiness zone, spacing, notes, tags, angles and compare slider
- Public pages: proposal sign page, join-the-list page and unsubscribe page
- Website quote shortcode form: Request my quote
- Contractors screen: approve, suspend or reject applications
- Visitor chat window: Your name, Phone, Email, How can we help, Type a message
- Plant ID: whole plant, leaf, flower, fruit or bark (the organs value)
- Admin pages re-scan: where every remaining input is documented
- Contractor statuses and the emails they trigger
- Terms editor: the Save terms form
- Terms: formatting codes and how acceptance is recorded
- Records screen: look up a customer
- Records screen: Disputed, Active, Removed and Save
- Appearance screen: status and emergency buttons
- Messaging settings: Texts section
- Messaging settings: Email section
- Messaging settings: Safety section
- Messaging settings: Prices and message packs
- Messaging settings: Businesses waiting for text approval
- AI Receptionist settings: Keys section
- AI Receptionist settings: Prices and packs
- AI Receptionist settings: Privacy and safety
- Marketing settings: Email service and sender
- Marketing settings: Texts and missed calls
- Marketing settings: Costs and limits
- Plans page: billing switch, free trial and trial allowances
- Plans page: what happens when a payment fails
- Plans page: Stripe setup list and the Save and Create buttons
- Plans page: plan names, taglines, badge, included lists, prices and Stripe IDs
- Plans page: the limit rows (credits, storage, customers, employees and more)
- Plans page: the feature switch rows (checkboxes per plan)
- Plans page: the Contractors table and owner actions
- Entitlements page: how VisionScaper decides who may do what
- Entitlements page: how to read the plan matrix (feature registry)
- Entitlements page: Plan matrix number boxes (limits and monthly allowances)
- Entitlements page: Plan matrix checkboxes (feature switches)
- Entitlements page: Prices & upgrade destination
- Entitlements page: give one account a feature or take it away
- Entitlements page: the catch-up window
- Entitlements page: Audit log and Recent refusals
- View as customer: test the Hub on any plan or billing state
- Settings → Business profile: every field
- Settings → Appearance & layout: scope, search and Look tab
- Settings → Appearance & layout: Colors tab (all 33 colors)
- Settings → Appearance & layout: Text and Shape & spacing tabs
- Settings → Appearance & layout: Layout tab
- Settings → Appearance & layout: save, publish, history and site controls
- Settings → Social & gallery: links and work gallery
- Settings → Services: templates list, versions and job profit
- Service template editor: every field
- Settings → Show me & tools: Simple/Full and ten tool switches
- Settings → Costs & markups: every cost, markup and tax box
- Settings → Price book: beds, stone, edging, sod, seed, grading, delivery, cleanup
- Settings → Price book: pavers, gravel path, retaining wall, boulders, fence
- Settings → Price book: plants, removals, landscape lighting
- Settings → Terms & payments: proposal terms and payment schedule
- Hub Settings: groups, tabs and the search box
- Settings → Follow-up plan: every field explained
- Settings → Invoice design: look, sections and details
- Settings → Invoice design: default content and reminder plan
- Settings → Get paid online: Stripe, Instant Payout and text messages
- Settings → Crew, team & hours: crew list, private notes and working hours
- Settings → Crew, team & hours: team permissions grid
- Settings → Messages & alerts: the message editor, field by field
- Settings → Messages & alerts: every message and every detail code
- Settings → Reminders: every field explained
- Settings → Intake questions: every field explained
- Settings → Quick replies: every field explained
- Settings → Connected apps: overview and Google Contacts
- Settings → Connected apps: QuickBooks Online and Send to QuickBooks
- Settings → Connected apps: Xero card, field by field
- Settings → Connected apps: Request form, self-booking and spam protection
- Zapier & API keys: Access keys and Alerts to other tools
- Zapier & API keys: the Zapier and How it works tabs
- Current plan, usage and credits: every control explained
- Customer form: every field
- Property and activity-note forms
- Lead and request intake: Request sources
- Quote builder: customer, design and estimate lines
- Quote builder: customer proposal, payments and terms
- Quote builder: Send for signature and follow-ups
- Job card and job costing fields
- Calendar visit and booking form
- Invoice form: every box
Get your API keys
- API keys: start here, every key and where it goes
- Get your Google Maps keys (address autocomplete, 3D, route planner)
- Get your Google sign-in Client ID and secret
- Get your Google Contacts Client ID and secret
- Get your Facebook App ID and App secret
- Sign in with Apple (not included in VisionScaper)
- Get your fal.ai API key
- Get your Black Forest Labs (FLUX) API key
- Get your Pl@ntNet API key
- Set up the vision model (no separate key)
- Get an Expo access token (optional)
- Get your Retell AI keys
- Get your Vapi keys
- Get your Bland keys
- Get your ElevenLabs key
- Get your Cartesia key
- Get your Deepgram key
- Get your Stripe secret key
- Get your Stripe webhook signing secret
- Set up Stripe Connect for contractor payments
- Stripe test mode and live mode
- Replace or rotate a Stripe key
- Get your Twilio Account SID and Auth Token
- Buy a Twilio phone number for texting
- Create a Twilio Messaging Service
- Register for A2P 10DLC on Twilio
- Twilio campaign type for marketing texts
- Point Twilio at VisionScaper
- Get your Telnyx API key
- Telnyx number and messaging profile
- Register for 10DLC on Telnyx
- Telnyx webhook address and secret
- Get your Postmark Server API token
- Postmark webhook for bounces and complaints
- Get your Resend API key
- Resend webhook address and secret
- Get your SendGrid API key
- SendGrid Event Webhook and secret
- Get your Amazon SES access key, secret key and region
- Verify your domain in Amazon SES
- Move Amazon SES out of the sandbox
- Amazon SES SMTP credentials versus API keys
- Get your QuickBooks Client ID and Client Secret
- QuickBooks webhook and Security key
- Get your Xero Client ID and Client Secret
- Make a VisionScaper access key for Zapier
- Use VisionScaper with Zapier