Start

Your first
week.

From the invite in your inbox to the first session that pays you. Do these in order and you will not have to undo anything.

Day one: the account

You will have an invite by email. It is single-use and it lasts fourteen days.

Accept the invite and secure the account
Do it yourself
  1. Open the invite link and set your password.
  2. Turn on two-factor authentication when prompted. The admin console will not let you past sign-in without it, and that is deliberate.
  3. Check the name on the account is the one you want on payout records.
Or just ask EVII™
Not this one. Sign-in and two-factor are the one thing you do by hand, because they are what proves it is you.

Two-factor covers the admin side only. Your driver account, if you have one, is separate and unaffected.

The admin sign-in screen titled Set up two-factor authentication, under the EV Initiative logo, with the instruction to scan the code with an authenticator app and then enter the 6-digit code it shows. In this screenshot the QR code and the manual setup key are covered by grey placeholders, so nothing on the image can be scanned. Below them are the Verification code field and the Verify and enable button, greyed out until six digits are entered.
Two-factor setup on first sign-in to the admin console: scan the code with an authenticator app, then enter the 6-digit code it shows. The code and setup key are covered in this capture. Sample screen with test data.
You are two people now

If you also charge a car, you are a driver and an admin on the same email. Admin power is a grant layered on your driver account, and it only wakes on the admin console behind two-factor. Removing the admin grant later leaves your driver account and your charging history completely untouched. That is two separate levers on purpose.

Day two: the site

A location is a physical place with an address and an electricity rate. Chargers hang off it. Get the location right first, because the address is geocoded and everything downstream reports against it.

Create the location
Do it yourself
  1. Go to Stations, Sites and use Add Site.
  2. Enter the street address. It is geocoded and normalised, so do not hand-type the state or the country.
  3. Set the site type and save.
  4. Open the location and set your electricity rate on its Electricity Reimbursement card. The rate is what makes your margin figures real rather than gross. If the site is reimbursed for its electricity, it is also the rate we reimburse at.
Or just ask EVII™
Create a location at 500 Wilson Avenue, it is a condo building.
Set the electricity rate at Balboa to 14 cents a kilowatt-hour.
Stations, Sites list for a test Operator: 4 sites in your network, with an Add Site button and a search box. The table lists Sample Towers (sample data) and Sample Lofts (sample data) as Multi-Family, Sample Inn (sample data) as Commercial and Sample Fleet Depot (sample data) as Fleet, all in Testville, CA, each with 2 chargers, its 30-day start timeouts, an Active status and a delete icon.
Locations live under Overview, Stations, Sites, with Add Site at the top right. Sample screen with test data.
The Add Site dialog, opened from Stations, Sites by a test Operator, in manual address entry. Location Name is Sample Plaza (sample data) and Type is Multi-Family. The address is 500 Sample Avenue, Testville, CA 90000, country US, with optional Latitude and Longitude fields left empty, showing the form’s grey example values, and a note that blank coordinates are geocoded on the server. Cancel and Create Location buttons are at the bottom. Nothing was submitted.
Add Site: the location name, the type and the address. The electricity rate is set afterwards, on the location’s Electricity Reimbursement card. The live console starts with an address search; this capture shows manual entry. Sample screen with test data.
Add each charger
Do it yourself
  1. Open the location and add a charger.
  2. Copy the identity from the unit’s own configuration screen. Do not read it off a label and type it.
  3. Set the connector types and the power rating.
  4. Save. When the electrician points the unit at the network, it announces itself and connects on its own.
Or just ask EVII™
Add a charger at Balboa. I will paste the identity.

There is no provisioning step and no ticket. The charger announces itself when it connects, and commissioning finishes on site after a tested plug-in and launch approval.

The Register Charger dialog, opened with Add Charger from Stations, Chargers by a test Operator. Location is Sample Towers (sample data), Identity is TEST-TWR-03 with the hint OCPP chargepoint ID, max 20 characters, no spaces, OCPP Version is 1.6, Vendor is Sample Charger Co. and Model is SC-7. One connector row reads number 1, type J1772, 7.2 kW, with an Add connector button below. Cancel and Register Charger buttons are at the bottom. Nothing was submitted.
Register Charger, from Add charger on the location’s page or Add Charger on Stations, Chargers: the identity pasted from the unit, the OCPP version, vendor and model, and each connector’s type and power. Opened from Stations, Chargers, as here, it also asks for the location. Sample screen with test data.
The mistake that cannot be undone from a desk

The charger identity is whatever the hardware announces. If it is typed twice and the two do not match, the charger is refused at the socket and becomes permanently unreachable, with no error message anywhere. It will simply never appear. Copy and paste it from the unit’s own configuration, every time, and if a charger never shows up this is the first thing to check.

Day three: money

Connect the payout account
Do it yourself
  1. Go to System, Settings and use Start setup on the Payouts card.
  2. Stripe asks for the legal entity, an address, identity verification and a bank account.
  3. Finish it. Until it is complete, earnings accrue but nothing can be paid out.
Or just ask EVII™
Is my payout account finished, or is Stripe still waiting on something?

Revenue is not lost by delaying this. It accrues and is held, and it cannot move until Stripe has verified you. A building’s electricity reimbursement is the exception: its bank account must be connected within 60 days of launch. See Connecting your bank.

The Payouts card on System, Settings for a test Tenant Admin with no payout account yet. It reads: Connect your bank account to receive payouts from EVI. We use Stripe Express, so you sign up directly with Stripe and we hand off payment routing through your account. A Start setup button opens Stripe. No bank details are shown.
Payout setup is the Payouts card under System, Settings. Start setup hands you to Stripe. Sample screen with test data.
Set what drivers pay
Do it yourself
  1. Create the price under Manage, Tariffs with Add Tariff: Flat, Time of Use or Tiered, billed per kWh or per hour. A rate of 0 is free.
  2. Open the charger, use Edit, and pick it under Tariff. Or tick Set as default tariff for this tenant in the tariff form.
  3. Save. It is live immediately for every session that starts after it.
Or just ask EVII™
Set the visitor chargers at Balboa to 42 cents a kilowatt-hour.
What would I make per kilowatt-hour if I charged 45 cents?

There is no session fee for you to set. EV Initiative’s connection fee is set per charger by EV Initiative and shown to the driver before they start.

The New Tariff dialog over Tariff Plans, opened with Add Tariff by a test Tenant Admin; the list behind it shows Resident (sample data), marked Default, and Off-peak nights (sample data). In the dialog, Name is Visitor (sample data); Type is Flat, single per-kWh rate, the select that also offers Time of Use and Tiered; Unit is cents per kWh, billed by kWh delivered, with cents per hour as the other choice; Energy rate is 42 cents per kWh and Tax rate is 0.0875, which is 8.75 percent. The optional Idle fee field is empty, so Idle grace (15 minutes, 5 to 30 allowed) is greyed out. A box Set as default tariff for this tenant is unticked, above Cancel and Create Tariff buttons. Nothing was saved.
New Tariff, from Add Tariff under Manage, Tariffs: the name, the type (Flat, Time of Use or Tiered), the unit, the rate in cents and the tax rate, with an optional idle fee. Sample screen with test data.
The top of the Edit charger form on the charger page for TEST-TWR-01, opened with Edit by a test Tenant Admin. Vendor is Sample Charger Co., Model is SC-7, OCPP version is OCPP 1.6 and Location is Sample Towers (sample data), Testville, CA. The Tariff select is set to Visitor 42¢ per kWh (sample data), next to the Active switch, which reads Charger is live and accepting sessions.
On the charger’s page, Edit opens the charger form, where the Tariff select sets what drivers pay at this charger. Sample screen with test data.

Free is a real setting, not a workaround. A free charger still reports, still gets watched, still load-manages, and in Canada still generates carbon credits. See Pricing and money for the split and how payouts actually land.

Day four: the test

Do not skip this. One real session tells you more than every status light on the dashboard.

  1. Plug a car in yourself and start a session from the app.
    Pre-session screen a guest driver sees after opening the charger link or QR at Sample Hotel Garage (sample data), 300 Example Road, Testville, with a Back button and a pale Available status pill on the green header. Stall HOTEL1, connector J1772, max power 7.2 kW. The rate row is expanded: 45¢/kWh; idle fee: after charging, 15 min free, then 40¢/min, up to 60 min; connection fee (EVI) $1.00, charged once per paid session by EV Initiative and not paid to the charger’s host. Session limits: max duration No cap, idle fee 40¢/min with the same grace rule, connection fee (EVI) $1.00. Payment method visa ending 4242, a test card; Card is selected, and Loyalty Wallet shows a $0 balance. The hold line reads We hold $25.00 to start.
    What a driver sees after opening the charger in the app, shown here at a different sample site: the stall, connector and power, the price and fees, the payment method and the hold. Sample screen with test data.
  2. Watch it appear on Sessions, Active tab, with energy climbing.
    Sessions, Active tab, for a test Operator: 1 active, with an Export CSV button. The table has one live session with a pulsing Active badge: started 48 minutes earlier, 5.74 kWh delivered so far, 7.1 kW power, 48 minutes, no RFID tag, a running total of $1.61 and no payment yet. Clicking the row opens the session.
    Sessions, Active tab: the running session’s energy so far, power, duration and running total. Click the row to open the session. Sample screen with test data.
  3. Stop it. Check the session record shows the right energy and the right price, and that the split shows on Reports, Payouts.
    The session page for Session #2038 on Garage bay 1 (TEST-TWR-01) at Sample Towers (sample data), status Completed, seen by a test Operator. Summary cards read Energy 12.48 kWh, Duration 1h 48m, Peak 7.2 kW and Total $5.74. The Cost breakdown lists Energy cost $4.74, Idle or time fee $0.00, Connection fee (EVI) $1.00, Tax $0.00 and Total $5.74, then the start and end times, the RFID tag TEST-TAG-02, meter start and stop in watt-hours and the Stripe payment reference, a sample test id. On the right, eight meter readings climb from 1.56 to 12.48 kWh, one about every 13 minutes across the session, each at 7.2 kW and 240 V.
    The session record: energy, duration, peak power and total, then the cost breakdown, the RFID tag and the Stripe payment reference, with the meter readings beside them. Sample screen with test data.
  4. Check the hold on your card released.
Tell every driver this one thing

Plug in first, then start. A certified charger deauthorises within about two minutes if nothing is connected, and that limit is set by weights-and-measures law rather than by us. It is the single biggest cause of failed charges on the whole network, and drivers who plug in first never see it.

Then hand it over

Invite the people who will actually run it
Do it yourself
  1. Go to Team and invite each person.
  2. Give them the narrowest role that lets them do their job.
  3. Scope them to their own building or region.
Or just ask EVII™
Invite sam@example.com as a building admin for Balboa only.

You cannot grant anything above your own level, so there is no way to accidentally create someone more powerful than you.

Invite teammate dialog opened from Manage, Users, Team by a test Tenant Admin. Name is New Manager (test), email new.manager@example.test, and Role is Property Manager, with a hint that roles drive what the teammate can do and that station and charger scope can be fine-tuned on the Access Management page. Under Where can they work?, the Sample Towers (sample data) station and both of its chargers, TEST-TWR-01 and TEST-TWR-02, are ticked, while Sample Lofts, Sample Inn and Sample Fleet Depot (all sample data) are left unticked. Cancel and Send invite buttons are at the bottom.
Invite teammate, from Manage, Users, Team: the name, email and role, then the stations and chargers they can work at. Sample screen with test data.

After that, the useful next read is the fault playbook, because it is the page that stops you calling us.