Getting started

When you sign up, you tell us what kind of business you run and land straight in it. First, three short safety steps unlock your account. Then a few steps at the top of the page get you ready to sell.

Unlock your account: three safety steps

For everyone’s safety, every business on SME AI Office finishes three short steps. It stops scammers using our emails and websites, which keeps your own emails out of junk folders and keeps customers trusting a smeaio.com link. It takes about a minute, in a box that opens by itself, and you can look around everywhere while you do it. Press Later to close it; the yellow Unlock your account bar at the top of each page opens it again.

1. What do you run? Pick your business, or Just the back office. If you answered this when you signed up, it is already ticked.

2. Confirm your email. Press Send my code and type the 6-digit code we email you. It works for 15 minutes. Not there? Check your Junk or Spam folder. You can ask for a new code after 60 seconds. If you signed up with Google, this step is already ticked.

3. Your business name and WhatsApp number. They show on your website and invoices. Your sign-up email becomes your business email. Change any of them later in Business details (Settings, or any Website page).

Until the three are done, these wait: your new website going public, emails to your customers, adding payment details (PayNow, HitPay, Aspire) and inviting staff. Everything else works. Accounts made before 2 October 2026 have until 16 October, and their website stays open either way.

Get ready to sell: three steps

The first page of your business (Today, Schedule, or the Prep list for F&B) starts with Your website is already live and your link, like smeaio.com/s/your-name. Tap it to see it, or press Copy link and put it in your Instagram bio or WhatsApp status.

Under it are three steps. Each one turns green by itself when it is done, so you never tick anything:

1. Your website. If it is not switched on yet, press Switch it on. It is the same switch as on your Website page. If you have not chosen your name yet, the step takes you there first.

2. The first thing you sell. A menu item, a product, a class, or a session with the hours clients can book, in your business’s own words. It turns green only when a customer can really buy it: a shop’s product must be on your website and in stock, and a Learning Centre needs a term as well as a class.

3. How customers pay you. Type your PayNow number, or connect your own HitPay account on Payments so customers can pay by card or PayNow that confirms itself, with no platform fee from us (how). Either one ticks this step. A Fitness Studio or Learning Centre needs a PayNow number here, because class packs, passes and term fees are paid by PayNow for now. Under it we recommend two free accounts: an Aspire business account, so every PayNow payment confirms itself (how), and a HitPay account for card payments.

When all three are green, the list goes away and you are ready to sell. Every sale, booking or enrolment then goes into your accounts by itself. The same list sits at the top of your business’s Set up page, so you can always come back to it.

A Membership club has no website, so its three steps are: name your organisation, add your membership categories, and say how members pay you.

A Personal Coach, Fitness Studio or Learning Centre that has nothing to sell yet also sees a Start here card on its first screen: the one thing to add first (a session, or a room and a class), with an example, and one button to do it.

Rather we set it up for you? (free setup)

What it is. For a limited time, our team sets up your account for you, at no cost, on every plan. Instead of typing everything in yourself, you tell us where your business is now, and we put in your products, customers, photos and website for you.

How it works.

1. Sign up, free, no card.

2. Tell us how to reach you: your business name and WhatsApp number. If you already gave them in Unlock your account, there is nothing to type.

3. Tell us about your business. Free setup is the first line of your setup list: press Ask for free setup and fill in the page. You can also open it any time at Free setup. No need to message us.

4. We set it all up and tell you by email when it is ready. You only add how customers pay you.

Rather do it yourself? Press Hide this on the free setup line and it leaves your setup list. To bring it back, open your business’s Set up page and press Show it on this list again. If you only use the back office, the same line sits at the top of your Dashboard.

If you have not given us your business name and WhatsApp number yet, the page asks for them first (they also count as that step of Unlock your account). Then it asks for what we need to do the work:

• Where your business is now. Your website, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Google Maps listing, or the shop or booking page you use now (Shopify, Wix, Fresha, GrabFood and so on). Any you have.

• Files. A spreadsheet from your old system (most let you download your products or customers as a CSV or Excel file), your menu or price list, your logo and photos. Up to 10 files, 10 MB each.

• What to move. Everything is ticked; untick anything you would rather do yourself.

• Websites you like the look of. Up to three links, any website at all, and what you like about each. We pick the closest look and match your colours.

• Anything else, like a second outlet coming or your own domain name.

Press Send to our team. You do not need to finish Unlock your account first: a business name and a WhatsApp number are enough for us to start.

What we set up: your products or menu (or classes, sessions and packages) with prices and photos, your customer list, your logo, colours and words, your address and opening hours, delivery and pickup, and your website. You see them appear in your account, and the steps turn green by themselves.

What only you do: add how customers pay you, your PayNow number or your own HitPay or Aspire account. The money goes straight to you, so we never set that up for you.

Checking how far we are. Come back to the same page. It shows Sent, Setting up and Done, and the first line of your setup list says the same. If we have a question, our note shows there and we email you; add what we asked and send it again. When it is done we email you too, and a button takes you to your business to carry on.

• Your old system stays open until you are happy. Past orders stay there too.

• Your place in the queue. Once you send it, your Free setup page shows your number in the queue. Pro 365 accounts go first; Free plan accounts are set up too, just after. We usually finish by the next working day; when the queue is long, the page says it may take a few working days.

• In Singapore and every country we serve (Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand and India).

The top bar: every business, then Back office

The black bar at the top shows every business: F&B, Retail, Personal Coach, Fitness Studio and Learning Centre, with the one you signed up for first. Then Back office (your accounts, GST, invoices, payroll, HR, compliance, customers and the Team Board), then ··· for Membership.

• Nothing to set up. Every business is always in the bar. While you are in Membership, it shows in the bar too.

• Pages your business uses stay inside it. An F&B owner reading an online order, or a studio looking at a booking, still sees their own business lit in the bar.

• Compliance is part of Back office, with your accounts and payroll.

The left menu: one line for each part

The menu on the left has one line for each part of your business, in the same order for every business: Today, what you sell, your customers, Website, Money, Set up and Back office. Each line uses your trade’s words: an F&B owner sees Menu, a shop sees Products, a coach sees Schedule and Clients.

• Only the part you are in opens. Press Products and the screens under it (stock in, transfers, stock takes…) appear underneath. The other parts stay one line each, so the menu stays short.

• A number means something is waiting for you. For example, Today 3 means three orders still need you, such as a PayNow order to confirm or an order to make. It is never a total.

• Set up and Back office stay at the bottom, like Settings in other apps.

• Back office works the same way: Accounts, Payroll & HR, Compliance, Customers and Settings, each one line until you open it.

Questions

Next: Payments · ← Help