Admin tour
A guided walkthrough of the tenant admin: dashboard, command palette, themes, mobile, errors.
Admin tour
This is the guided tour of the BestAI admin. It covers the dashboard, the command palette, themes, embedding, your inbox, notifications, usage, web voice, and phone integration. It is written for managers and admins who already have an account.
If you have not signed up yet, start with the getting started guide.
What you can do
- Read the dashboard and KPI cards
- Search across chatbots, sites, leads, and conversations with the command palette
- Switch between light, dark, and auto themes
- Pick from eight industry-tuned chatbot templates
- Embed the chat widget five different ways
- Triage your conversations inbox
- Configure notifications and review usage
- Set up web voice and phone
Step-by-step
1. Dashboard
After you sign in, you land on the dashboard. The four cards at the top show real numbers, not placeholders.
| Card | What it means |
|---|---|
| Today’s chats | Text conversations on your workspace today (UTC day). |
| Last 7 days | Rolling 7-day chat total, including today. |
| Unread leads | Leads with status new. They drop off once you mark them as contacted. |
| Plan usage | This month’s chat volume against your plan limit. |
Below the cards is a 7-day sparkline. Hover any point to see the date and the number.
The plan usage bar turns orange near 100% and red over 100%. We do not block your chats when you go over — you just see the warning. Get in touch if you need a higher plan.
If you have just created a workspace, you also see a 3-step setup card: create a chatbot, theme your widget, test the embed. Each step ticks off as you complete it.
2. Command palette
Press Cmd+K on a Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows or Linux to open the command palette from anywhere in the admin.
The palette searches:
- Chatbots by name and slug
- Sites by domain and name
- Leads by name, email, and summary
- Conversations with full-text search across messages
Type at least one character. Use the arrow keys to move, Enter to open the result, and Esc to close. Search results are scoped to your current workspace only.
3. Themes
The admin supports three themes: auto, light, and dark. The toggle is in the top right.
- Auto follows your operating system setting.
- Light stays light.
- Dark stays dark.
Once you sign in, your choice is saved against your account so it follows you across devices.
4. Industry templates
Open any chatbot, then go to Prompts and click Create from template. Eight industry templates are available:
| Template | Best for |
|---|---|
| Trades | Builders, plumbers, electricians, renovators |
| Beauty | Salons, spas, beauticians |
| Hospitality | Cafes, restaurants, accommodation |
| Real estate | Agencies and property managers |
| Healthcare | Clinics, dental, allied health |
| Education | Tutoring, courses, training providers |
| Fitness | Gyms, personal trainers, studios |
| Professional services | Lawyers, accountants, consultants |
Pick a template, review the suggested prompt, edit anything you want, then save. The template fills the form — you stay in full control of the final wording.
5. Embed the widget (five ways)
Open a chatbot and go to the Widget tab. The embed code section has tabs for the most common installation methods.
| Tab | When to use it |
|---|---|
| HTML | Any site where you can edit <body>. |
| WordPress | Use a child theme functions.php with wp_footer, or a plugin like Insert Headers and Footers. |
| Shopify | Edit your theme.liquid and paste before </body>. |
| Wix | Settings, then Custom Code, then add a new block in the Body End slot. |
| Google Tag Manager | Add a Custom HTML tag with the trigger set to All Pages. |
Each tab gives you a one-click copy snippet.
The right-hand side of the Widget tab also shows a live preview. Edit your colour, welcome message, or quick chips on the left and the preview updates instantly. Click Save when you are happy. There is also a Test embed button that opens the widget in a sandboxed page — no need to deploy to your real site to try it.
For step-by-step embedding, see the embedding guide.
6. Inbox
Conversations is your unified inbox. It lives at /conversations in the admin.
Conversations move through four states:
- Open — active or recent
- Pending — waiting on someone in your team
- Closed — finished; this triggers an automatic summary
- Archived — long-term storage; hidden from the default list
You can assign a conversation to any Owner, Admin, or Support team member, mark it as read, and filter by channel (chat, web voice, phone). For a deeper walkthrough, see the inbox guide.
7. Notifications
Open Notifications in the left navigation to set:
- The email address that receives notifications
- Whether new leads trigger an immediate email
- Whether you receive a daily summary email, and what hour (NZ time)
For the full setup, see the notifications guide.
8. Usage
Open Usage to see this month’s totals: chat turns, new leads, emails, web voice minutes, and phone minutes. Each card has a progress bar against your plan limit. Below that is a 30-day sparkline.
For details on how the numbers are counted and how plan limits work, see the usage guide.
9. Web voice
If your plan includes web voice, visitors can speak to your AI receptionist directly from the website widget.
- Open the chatbot, then the Widget tab.
- Find the Voice section.
- Turn on Enable web voice.
- Pick a voice provider, voice ID, and save.
A microphone button appears in your widget header on supported browsers. The visitor needs HTTPS, microphone permission, and a modern browser.
Web voice is included on Starter, Professional, and Business plans. See the web voice guide.
10. Phone
If your plan includes phone, BestAI can answer calls to your business number. To enable it, you bring your own Twilio sub-account.
- Open Integrations, then Twilio.
- Enter your Account SID, Auth Token, region, and your Twilio phone numbers.
- Open Phone numbers, click Assign number, and bind a number to a chatbot.
- In the Twilio Console, set the number’s voice webhook to the URL BestAI provides.
For the full setup, see the Twilio setup guide and the phone guide.
11. Mobile
The admin works at 320px wide and up. On phones, the side menu collapses into a hamburger drawer and tables become single-column cards. All the day-to-day actions — replying, updating leads, checking the dashboard — work on a phone.
Common questions
The dashboard numbers do not match what I expected.
Check the time zone. The dashboard counts by UTC day. NZ is UTC+12 (NZST) or UTC+13 (NZDT), so a chat that came in early in the morning your time may be counted on the previous UTC day.
The command palette cannot find my new chatbot.
There is a short cache (a few seconds). Refresh the page or wait a moment. Also confirm the chatbot status is Active.
Can I edit the industry templates?
Templates are shared across BestAI. You cannot edit the source, but once you select a template you can change anything before saving — what you save is your own prompt.
The hamburger menu does not respond on iPhone Safari.
Older versions of iOS Safari have known touch issues. Update to iOS 15 or later. If the problem persists, send us your browser version.
The test embed preview looks different from my real site.
The test embed runs in a clean iframe with no styling from your site. Once you embed on your real page, the host page CSS, fonts, and layout can affect appearance. Check z-index, font inheritance, and any global CSS reset.
Next steps
- Inbox guide — triage and reply to conversations
- Notifications guide — keep on top of leads
- Usage guide — understand plan limits
- Web voice guide — let visitors talk to your AI
- Twilio setup and phone guide — answer calls
- Need a hand? Email hello@bestai.co.nz