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Before you go live
Use this checklist before you open your site to customers and take real money. Work through it in order. Each item says where to look.
Before you start
- Run the Setup Wizard first.
- You need an admin account.
Check each item
1. Payments
- Open Settings, then Payments.
- For your card provider (Cashflows or DNA Payments), add your details. Raffinity can help you with this.
- Work through the checklist headed Before this can take real payments. It covers saving your test details, completing a test payment, sending a test refund back to the card, and receiving a notification from the provider. Live payments cannot be switched on until it is done.
- Switch off Test mode (no real money) only when you are ready for real payments.
- Ask Raffinity to confirm that Development Testing Payments are off.
2. Emails
- Open Settings, then Email.
- On Branding, add your from name, from address, reply-to address, logo, colour and footer.
- On Delivery (SMTP), set up how your emails are sent, and send a test email.
- On Notifications, check the staff alerts. Add the addresses that should receive them. In particular:
- New Withdrawal Request. If nobody is listed here, nobody is told when a customer asks to withdraw.
- Complaint Received.
- Player Welfare Alert.
3. Company details and wording
- Open Settings, then Business & Site Settings.
- Under Company & Footer, check your company name and registration number.
- Under Free Postal Entry Route, add your postal address and your free entry terms.
- Open Website, then Site Wording. Read every item and check it describes how you really run things. They include how winners are chosen, when draws are held, refunds and complaints.
4. Entry question
If your competitions use an entry question, look at Allocate tickets for incorrect answers in Business & Site Settings, under Entry Question. It is on by default. When it is on, a customer who answers wrongly still gets their tickets, and those tickets can win. Switch it off if you want wrong answers to be blocked.
5. Legal pages
Open Website, then Pages, and look under Legal and policy pages. Read your Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy, Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Use, and make sure each says what you want.
6. Player protection
Open Settings, then Business Rules, then Player Protection. Check the monitoring switches and levels. See Player protection.
7. Your team
Make sure everyone who needs access has an account with the right role. Only Raffinity can add admins. See Your team and settings.
8. Try it as a customer
- Look at your site on a phone and on a computer.
- Create a test customer account.
- Buy tickets while payments are in test mode.
- Check the order in Orders and the emails that were sent.
9. Turn off the holding page
If you have been using a holding page:
- Open Settings, then Business & Site Settings.
- Under Holding Page, switch off Show the holding page. The page itself is titled "Site Settings Page".
While the holding page is on, nobody except staff can browse your site, sign in or register. Staff can still sign in using the "Team login" link on it. A coming soon page does not switch itself off when its launch date arrives. You must switch it off.
What your customers will see
Switching off the holding page opens your site to customers. They can see your competitions, create accounts and buy tickets.
Tips
- Do the checklist at least a day before launch, so you have time to fix anything.
- Keep your test customer account, so you can check things later.
Common questions
Can I take payments before I have finished everything? Your card provider decides when live payments can be switched on. Your site refuses to switch to live until the checklist on the Payments screen is complete.
What is the "Notify me" list? If you use a coming soon page you can collect email addresses from people who want to hear when you launch. You can download them from Launch Notify Sign-ups in the Marketing group. Your site does not email them for you. Use your own email tool.