Required organisation step

An account without an organisation must create one before normal dashboard use. Enter an organisation name and the optional description. This step has no Skip or Close control. Profile, sign-out, and the setup page's recovery, support, and legal links remain available.

Creating an organisation does not start a charge. Every new organisation created while Pay as you go is on sale uses the first-site-free terms: one free site, and a verified card before any more. People who join an existing organisation by invitation are not affected. Account-only registrations (only where billing or Pay as you go is off) proceed to the optional first site. An offered PAYG or Agency test registration first completes its separate card verification step. An unpurchased paid choice saved before this change is reset to account setup when the new organisation is created. The first site can also be blocked by the current activation safeguards. See Current account setup limits. Sign-up saves your browser's time zone on your Profile; change it there if it is wrong.

New account setup shows Account, Organisation, Security alerts and Site. Billing also appears, after Organisation, for new card setup and for an existing pending legacy paid setup.

Optional security alerts step

After you create the organisation (and finish billing, for a paid plan), the page Choose who gets security alerts asks who should receive security alert emails. Only the person who just created the organisation sees it, and it appears once each time you sign in, in that browser tab. People who join by invitation do not see it, and signing out ends it.

The page shows a sample alert, "Security update needed for Example website", and says alerts usually arrive on Thursday morning Melbourne time (see Security alerts on release day). Choose one:

Email all members (the default): everyone in the organisation gets security alerts and cannot turn them off.
Email administrators only; members can opt in: administrators always get them, and other members can turn them on under Email preferences in Profile. Members are also asked once when they next open the dashboard.

Select Save and continue to save your choice, then go to the optional first site (or the dashboard). Select Skip for now to save nothing and keep the current setting, which is all members for a new organisation. Slack is not set up in this step; connect it later in Integrations. Change the choice later with Security alert audience: email all members in Settings → General.

If the page says We could not load your organisation, choose Try again or Skip for now. If saving is refused because your account no longer has permission, the page says so and you can skip.

If the request fails, the form keeps your details. Retry the same flow. If the organisation was created but cannot be opened, retry access before creating another one. If you expected an invitation, ask its administrator to check it.

New card verification and activation

These steps apply when PAYG or Agency is offered. In a test environment no real charge is made; where live PAYG is switched on, the card is a real card.

On Verify your PAYG card or Verify your Agency card, check the billing currency and selected offer. A short list on the page explains what happens next: nothing is charged on this step, every charge gets its own quote, and PAYG’s first site stays free. On PAYG a First site free label shows (it is hidden while you replace a card); on Agency the label says the package is paid from the first site. The verified card becomes the billing account’s default for future invoices and approved subscription renewals. This is required in new PAYG/Agency setup. Read the separate future-payment consent and tick its initially empty checkbox, then select Save and verify card.
If the card screen shows an error instead of loading, select Try again. This starts card setup afresh; nothing was saved, charged or accepted by the failed attempt. Enter the card through Stripe and complete any bank verification. After a redirect, select Check card verification. If card collection succeeded but setup did not finish or you lost the response, select Check existing card verification. This checks the saved setup and earlier consent; it does not accept a new mandate or activate a site. After signing in through a fresh browser, successful verification also reopens the optional site step for your current authorised organisation. If an interrupted bank check keeps returning to the old card, select Start again with a different card. Read and tick the fresh mandate before entering the replacement card. The old setup can no longer complete Sentinel verification; any pending site approval and invoice remain unchanged. Sentinel must verify success before setup continues. Leaving or cancelling card entry does not activate a site; you can resume setup. An unverified setup does not lock the account’s offer or currency. Choosing a corrected offer replaces older pending choices, so finish the latest setup rather than returning to an earlier bank screen. Until a card is verified, the card step offers Change currency to the other currency. Replacing a card keeps the recorded offer and currency. After verification the currency can still be changed, by the owner from Billing → Overview or by asking Support, but only while nothing has been billed: no subscription, no approved site other than the free first site, and nothing billed. A change expires open quotes and clears the verified card and mandate, so you must verify a card again in the new currency before the free site resumes. No email is sent. Once anything has been billed, the currency is fixed.
At the site step, create the inactive site record. Review site activation shows the site with a First site free label when a free PAYG first site applies, then Pay now and renewal amounts. Open Quote details for the exact sites, site addresses and organisations, active sites before and after, billable sites, the price per billable site (or the Agency package base), immediate and renewal totals with tax and discounts, tax basis, effective time, next renewal and quote expiry. The quote reference is at the bottom. Check these details even when the amount is zero. If the quote cannot be loaded, select Try again. The review also explains the timing. With an existing subscription, the amount due now is pro rata: it covers the days left until the renewal date, from that date your monthly bill is the renewal amount, and your billing date does not change. For the first paid site, with no subscription yet, the page says this starts your monthly subscription today, that it renews on the stated date and on the same date every month after, and that sites you add later are charged pro rata to that date, so it never moves. On the review you can open Have a voucher code? (it is already open and filled in when you entered a code at signup or checked one on Billing). A code that cannot be used for this quote is dropped and the sites are quoted without it, with the reason shown. For example, if only your free site is in the quote, the code is kept for your next paid site; a Black code must be redeemed on Billing; and with an existing subscription a discount code is applied on Billing instead.
Read the operation consent, tick its separate checkbox, and select Confirm and pay for the displayed amount. Until confirmation you can select Cancel activation; the saved site remains inactive.
While payment is pending the page reads Waiting for your bank with a Payment pending label. If the operation needs recovery, the label reads Action needed and the page explains in plain language what to do. Select Check payment and complete verification and complete any bank challenge. If the card needs attention, select Replace or verify the payment card, complete card verification, then return to the same operation. This keeps the original invoice and approval; it does not start another purchase. Keep the operation reference. Sentinel rechecks the card and payment before activation. A pending operation cannot be cancelled as an unconfirmed quote; check its recorded result before trying another purchase.

Card verification alone starts no subscription or trial and buys no site. General Terms, permission to store/use the card for approved future payments, and each site's activation confirmation are separate. PAYG’s free first site still requires verification and explicit approval. Agency has no free site: its first activation requires confirmation and payment for the configured package. Agency renews at its selected monthly or annual period. Approved additional PAYG sites renew monthly; additions are charged pro rata immediately and removals reduce the next renewal. After setup, use Add site on the Sites page (see Adding sites to a pay as you go or Agency plan). If the operation says Payment failed. Review a fresh quote before trying again., or the quote is stale, expired or cancelled, select Review a fresh quote, check the new details and tick the new consent box before confirming. If the page cannot recover the operation, keep the reference and contact Support. Do not retry through an older checkout screen. If the operation remains in recovery, contact Support with its reference. A partially paid invoice, changed subscription or unresolved credit cannot be retried as a new purchase until reconciled. A failed increase does not cancel your previously approved subscription.

Billing step for retained legacy paid plans

This screen is for an existing legacy account with pending paid setup only. New accounts do not see a Free plan or trial; the Free choices below apply only to that legacy setup. It returns you here from other dashboard pages until billing setup is finished or you choose Free. These legacy checkout instructions do not apply to the shared new PAYG/Agency card flow above. Choosing Free does not unlock PAYG site activation. Your profile, sign-out, and the setup page's support and legal links remain available.

Review the plan and billing period. Your registration choice is selected; you can choose another paid plan or period.
Read the renewal terms and tick the consent box. If you change the plan, tick the box again.
Select Continue to secure checkout and add a card on Stripe's checkout page.

Checkout always asks for a card. If this organisation can still have a free trial, the trial starts (usually 14 days; the page shows the length) and you are not charged until it ends. You can cancel from Billing before then. If the trial has already been used for this organisation or email address, the page heading says Start your plan and the plan is charged when you complete checkout.

When you return from checkout, the page says Confirming your trial with Stripe… and then moves to the optional first site or the dashboard. If Stripe has not confirmed yet, wait a moment and select Check again. If you closed checkout before finishing, the page says nothing was charged; continue when you are ready or choose Free.

To skip payment, select Continue on the Free plan. The page shows how many sites Free covers. Free needs no payment details. For an established legacy account, Plans shows its available subscription options.

The billing step does not apply to account setup registrations, to people who join an existing organisation by invitation, or to accounts that finished setup before this step was introduced. It also does not appear when the service does not offer billing.

Optional first site

After creating the organisation, or finishing the billing step for a paid plan, enter a site name and full site address. Use an HTTP or HTTPS address. Select the create action to add it, or Skip for now to go to Sites without creating a site. You can add it later.

Slack channels are not chosen here. After the site exists, connect the workspace in Settings → Integrations and choose channels in Edit site.

In an enabled PAYG or Agency test flow, a note on the form says the site is saved first and activated on the next screen after you review the quote. Creating the site saves it inactive and opens the separate activation review above. Cancelling approval leaves that record inactive. Where billing or Pay as you go is off, an account setup registration covers one active site, so its first site is added straight away. Select Skip for now where available or contact Support. A site record alone does not send Drupal data; complete the Connection steps after approved activation.

If creating the site loses its response, keep the setup page and retry there. The tab keeps the attempted name and address across reloads. Before another creation, Sentinel checks that organisation’s saved inventory for the same address. A saved inactive site returns to activation review; an already active site can continue. Recovering a saved site does not approve a payment. If the page cannot safely identify it, keep the details and contact Support instead of creating a replacement.