Set up your agency

Follow the Get started checklist to set up your agency, from your own profile to your first completed appointment.

For agency owners and admins Web app, mobile app and email 4 min read Last updated October 20, 2026

What you'll learn

  • How to use the checklist that walks you through setting up Fluent after you first create your agency's account.
  • How to set up billing when you're ready to invoice customers and pay interpreters.

Open the checklist

Your agency's Owner and Admins see the Get started checklist after their first sign-in. It shows what's left to set up, from your own profile to your first completed appointment, and takes you to each step.

  • Required steps: Its 6 required steps check themselves off as you go.
  • When it opens: Until every required step is done, it opens on its own each time you sign in, after the Welcome to Fluent tour closes.
  • Open it yourself: Click the ring at the bottom of the sidebar. The ring shows how many steps are done, for example 2/6.
  • Reopen the tour: Go to Settings › Welcome tour.
  • No agency yet: To create your agency first, see Sign up for Fluent.

Work through the required steps

Do the 6 steps in order, and click a step in the checklist to start it. An appointment needs a customer and an interpreter, and the last step needs a finished appointment.

  1. Add your own details. Click Complete your profile, then Edit profile, add a photo, a phone number, or an address, and click Save changes. If you interpret yourself, turning on Interpreter on your own Edit Profile page and adding a language pair also completes the step. See Your profile and Login & Devices.
  2. Add the first customer you interpret for. Click Add your first customer, enter the customer's name and email, and click Save. See Managing customers.
  3. Invite your first interpreter. Click Invite an interpreter, enter their name and email, add at least 1 language pair, and click Send invite. The step shows Invite pending until they accept. See Invite interpreters, or Bulk invite interpreters to invite many from a CSV file.
  4. Set the weekly hours your interpreters work, so Fluent knows when to offer them appointments. Click Set up interpreter availability, then set an interpreter's hours on their profile, even while their invite is pending. The step checks off once any interpreter has hours, including hours they set in the Fluent mobile app. See Manage interpreter availability and time off.
  5. Book your first appointment for that customer. Click Create your first appointment, fill in the customer, date and time, language, and service, and click Save on the Summary step. You can assign your interpreter even while their invite is pending, but Fluent doesn't notify them, so tell them yourself. See Create an appointment.
  6. Finish that appointment with a voucher, the record of when the interpreter worked. After the appointment, the interpreter submits it in the mobile app. If they don't, open the appointment in the web app, click Voucher, enter the times, and click Save. See Submit a voucher and Enter or correct a voucher.

When the voucher is in, the checklist shows "You're all set" and "First appointment completed and ready to bill. This checklist won't show again." Under Worth doing next, it lists the optional steps you haven't done.

New Appointment Details step with Date & Time, Customer, and Service Details filled in

Optional steps

Below the required steps, the checklist shows the optional steps your plan allows, each marked Optional. Do them whenever you're ready.

Agency and Agency Teams plans

Invite your team

Invite the people who schedule and manage appointments with you, and give each one a role. See Managing team members.

Agency Teams plan only

Set up teams

Split your agency into teams, such as offices or regions, in Settings › Teams. Your agency starts with 1 team, "{Agency name} - Main", and the step checks off when 2 teams are active. See Teams.

Your plan also sets how many team members you can invite. Each plan's limits are in Plans and your subscription.

  • Who counts: Every team member is a seat, the Owner and Admins included, and pending invites count.
  • Who doesn't: Interpreters never count.
Team › Team Members invite dialog on the role step showing the Admin, Manager, and Scheduler cards

Set up billing

Billing isn't on the checklist. Set it up when you're ready to bill for your agency's work.

  • Prices: Create a rate card with the prices you bill your customers. See Customer rate cards.
  • Schedule: Set the schedule that turns completed appointments into invoice runs and pay runs. See Set up billing runs.
  • QuickBooks: To sync invoices and customers to QuickBooks Online, go to Settings › QuickBooks and click Connect QuickBooks.

Rules and limits

  • Hide at the bottom of the checklist removes it for good, for everyone at your agency.
  • Closing the "You're all set" card in any way, including opening a step from it, also removes the checklist for good.
  • Without a signed Business Associate Agreement (BAA), the appointment form shows "Patient details are hidden until your agency signs the Business Associate Agreement (BAA)." See Legal agreements and documents.

Troubleshooting

The checklist's Invite an interpreter step isn't checked off

No interpreter has accepted an invite, or your only interpreter is an Owner or Admin who turned on Interpreter. Turning on Interpreter counts for Complete your profile, not this step.

Ask your interpreter to click Accept invite in the invite email. If they can't find it, or the link expired, go to Team › Interpreters, open the ⋯ menu on their Invited row, and click Resend Invite.

I don't see the setup checklist

Only the Owner and Admins see the checklist. Once anyone at your agency clicks Hide or closes the "You're all set" card, Fluent doesn't show it again.