Plain answers about your website.
Short, plain pieces on what a website needs to do, what is worth paying for, and how to get the most out of yours. Every piece we publish is here.
How to make edits on an Avistra website
7 min read
Every Avistra website has a small edit tool built in. Change the words on the page yourself, or send a screenshot of anything else, and small edits go live on the spot.
Read itHow to set up a passkey on an Avistra website
6 min read
Every admin signs in with two things: a code we email you, and a passkey. The code proves the address is yours; the passkey proves it is really you. Nothing to remember, nothing to reset.
Read itWhat the Dashboard is, and how to get around it
4 min read
The bar in the lower right is for the page in front of you. The Dashboard is the other way in: a page of its own where everything your site keeps lives, with a list down the left.
Read itHow to submit a support request on an Avistra website
5 min read
The edit tool has two ways of asking: Make an edit for what is already on the page, Support request for everything else. Attach what you need and follow it in the Request log.
Read itHow to add a blog post on an Avistra website
5 min read
The Dashboard has Blogs down its left side. Write the post the way it will read, show it a drawing or a picture, and publish it yourself.
Read itHow to add pictures, video and files to a post on an Avistra website
4 min read
Picture, Video and File put things in a post where the cursor is, and a picture you have used once is on the site for good: pick it again from the library rather than uploading it twice.
Read itHow a page shows up in search on an Avistra website
4 min read
Page settings holds the details of a page that are not its words: the title and the sentence a search result shows, the picture a link to it shows in a message, and the web address. All of it is yours to change.
Read itHow to add a page and change the menu on an Avistra website
4 min read
A new page is something you make yourself now, and so is the order of the links along the top of every page. Both live in the Dashboard, under Pages.
Read itHow to find, add and import people on an Avistra website
7 min read
People is the one list of everyone your organization knows. A member, somebody who registered for an event and a newsletter subscriber are not three lists; each is one record that shows everything.
Read itHow to add members and look after them on an Avistra website
6 min read
Paste a list of names and addresses and everyone is active straight away. After that the list tells you who is active, who has lapsed and where the dues stand, and every member has a record you can change.
Read itManaging sponsors and packages
2 min read
Sponsorship packages and sponsor organizations have their own place beneath Membership, with the point of contact, agreed amount and payments kept separate from members and event tickets.
Read itHow people join and pay on an Avistra website
5 min read
A membership type says what somebody pays and what they get, and its rank decides what they reach. Then two blocks of settings decide whether new members are approved first and which ways of paying you offer.
Read itHow membership cards work on an Avistra website
4 min read
Every member can have a card in their account, in your colors, with a code anyone can scan to check the membership is current. Print it, save it to a phone, or replace one that was lost.
Read itHow to run a poll or an election on an Avistra website
5 min read
Ask the members a question and count the answers, or run a proper election for officers. Members vote from a link in an email, and an election locks the strict settings: secret, one vote, results after it closes.
Read itHow to put an event on an Avistra website
7 min read
An event is a name, a day, a place and a few words. It goes on the events page and in the calendar, takes sign-ups, holds a limit on numbers, and asks whatever you need to know from the people coming.
Read itHow to sell tickets and check people in on an Avistra website
6 min read
Tickets with a member price, a limit on numbers, a waiting list when it fills, and a page built for a phone at the door on the day, where a search finds somebody as you type.
Read itHow to email your members from an Avistra website
8 min read
A newsletter, news about an event, a notice to the members. The kind comes first, because it decides who may receive it, and a live count says how many will get it and why the rest are left out.
Read itHow payments, receipts and refunds work on an Avistra website
7 min read
Every payment your site takes and every check you record lands in one list, each with a numbered receipt. Refunds, credit, invoices and the reports your treasurer will want are all in the same place.
Read itHow to connect your Stripe account with Avistra for paid event and membership registration
9 min read
Card payments run on your own Stripe account, so the money goes straight to you and no card number touches your site. Make one restricted key, paste it into Payments, and paid events and membership dues both work.
Read itHow your store works on an Avistra website
6 min read
Sell the things an organization actually sells: a guidebook, a shirt in four sizes, a member price on both, a download that arrives by email. Orders open on To send, oldest first, and the job is to empty it.
Read itHow to take donations on an Avistra website
6 min read
A donation page, an appeal with a goal, gifts by card or recorded from a check, monthly giving, pledges paid off over a year, and one statement per donor at the end of it.
Read itHow to give somebody access to your Avistra website
5 min read
The treasurer should see the money and the volunteer should not delete a member by accident. Admins are an address, a tick for each thing they look after, and a log of everything anybody did.
Read itHow to connect another system to your Avistra website
4 min read
Most organizations never need this. If yours does, a webhook tells another system the moment something happens, and an API key lets one read what your site already holds, only what you tick.
Read itWhat to do when a member cannot sign in
6 min read
A member says they cannot get in. The sign-in page cannot tell them a typo from a missing record, on purpose, so everything is answered on their own record. This is the order to check things in, quickest first.
Read it