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GoHighLevel Setup Checklist: What a Setup Should Include

By 1920 Agency Editorial Team · Reviewed by Rana Zain Usman · Published

The short answer

A complete GoHighLevel setup includes a finished business profile, a dedicated email sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and a phone number registered for A2P 10DLC before any US texting. On top of that come calendars, a pipeline, forms with SMS consent, tested workflows that stop when a lead replies, review requests, connected inboxes, payments, attribution reporting, user roles and a handover in which the business owns its logins.

What should a GoHighLevel setup include?

A GoHighLevel setup should include 18 items across ten phases, each with a plain test that proves it is finished. HighLevel documents each feature in a separate help article; this checklist puts them in order, with Google's sender rules and Twilio's carrier rules added. Use it to check a quote or your own work.

Phase Item Done when
1. Account Sub-account and business profile Legal name, address, time zone and authorized representative filled in
1. Account Owner access The business owner has their own Admin login, not a shared one
2. Email Dedicated sending domain A subdomain such as mg.yourbrand.com shows as verified
2. Email SPF, DKIM, DMARC A DNS lookup finds all three; test email shows your domain in From
3. Phone Number purchased Listed under Settings > Phone System > Phone Numbers
3. Phone A2P 10DLC brand and campaign Number shows "A2P Verified" and is linked to the campaign
4. Booking Calendars A test booking from the preview link blocks the slot
4. Sales Pipeline and opportunities A test opportunity moves through every stage to Won
5. Capture Forms, surveys, funnels or website A test submission creates a contact with a source; privacy and terms links show
5. Capture Site domain Pages load on your own domain with SSL
6. Data Custom fields, then contact import Fields exist before import; the error log has been read
7. Automation Core workflows Each is published, tested on a fresh test contact, and has a stop condition
8. Reviews Review link and requests A test request arrives with the correct review link
8. Channels Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, chat An outside account's message lands in Conversations; the reply arrives
9. Payments Stripe and invoices Stripe shows connected; a test-mode invoice is paid
9. Reporting Attribution and lead source A test lead with UTM tags shows the right source
10. People Users and permissions Every staff member has their own login with the right role
10. Handover Documentation The owner has a written list of logins and workflows

Phase 1: How do you set up the account and business profile?

Start with the sub-account's Business Profile settings (Settings > Business Profile), which HighLevel calls "critical to the way your sub-account operates".

  • [ ] General information: logo, business name, phone, website and default currency.
  • [ ] Physical address and time zone: the business time zone controls when scheduled messages go out.
  • [ ] Business information: legal entity type, industry and registration details, used for compliance and approvals.
  • [ ] Authorized representative: the person "who can verify your business during compliance reviews and carrier approvals". A2P registration depends on this being right.
  • [ ] Contact deduplication: choose whether email or phone is the primary match, so one person does not become three contacts.

How to check: the legal name and address match the registration documents exactly; carriers compare them during A2P review.

Phase 2: What does email setup need (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)?

Email setup needs a dedicated sending domain, set up under Settings > Email Services > Dedicated Domain and IP, on a subdomain used for nothing else (HighLevel's example is mg.yourbrand.com). It protects your sender reputation and makes mail come from your brand.

Without one, LC Email sends on a shared domain and rewrites the From address: HighLevel's example shows test@gohighlevel.com going out as test+gohighlevel.com@mg.msgsndr.com. Shared domains also cap volume. For agencies created on or after 27 April 2026, HighLevel's sending limits start each sub-account at 1,000 campaign emails a day, ramping to 25,000, and bulk emails past the limit "will fail" without retry. HighLevel names a dedicated domain as the faster route to higher limits.

Google's email sender guidelines require SPF or DKIM from every sender. Senders of 5,000 or more messages a day also need DMARC (p=none is accepted), an aligned From domain and one-click unsubscribe, and should keep spam rates below 0.10%, never reaching 0.30%. HighLevel's compliance article suggests starting DMARC at v=DMARC1; p=none; and notes that LC Email users must turn on the footer unsubscribe link themselves.

How to check: - [ ] The domain shows verified in HighLevel (DNS can take up to 24 hours). - [ ] A lookup tool shows one SPF record, a DKIM record and a _dmarc TXT record. - [ ] A test email to Gmail shows your domain in From, not msgsndr.com, with the unsubscribe footer on.

Phase 3: How do phone numbers and A2P 10DLC registration work?

Any business texting US customers from a local 10-digit number must complete A2P 10DLC registration first. HighLevel defines it as the carrier framework that verifies who is sending, why, and how recipients consented. Texts from a number not linked to an approved campaign fail with error 30034, which Twilio documents as a block on unregistered 10DLC traffic to US numbers. Toll-free numbers use a separate verification.

The steps (registration lives under Settings > Phone System > Trust Center):

  1. Buy the number. On LC Phone, a first +1 purchase can require a one-time ID and selfie check, which "does not complete or replace A2P 10DLC registration."
  2. Register the brand (who is sending): Standard if the business has an EIN or tax ID, Sole Proprietor only for very small businesses without one.
  3. Register the campaign (what is sent and why): use case, sample messages, website and opt-in process.
  4. After approval, confirm the "A2P Verified" label and link the number to the campaign.

HighLevel's fee page lists these charges:

Registration type One-time fee (brand, first campaign vetting, Fast Track) Daily limit
Sole Proprietor $22.50 1 number, 3,000 segments
Low Volume Standard $22.50 Multiple numbers, 6,000 segments
High Volume Standard $64.00 Multiple numbers, 600,000 segments

Each active campaign also has a monthly fee: $2.00 for a Sole Proprietor campaign, $1.50 for low volume mixed use, and $10.00 for standard use cases. Each extra campaign under the same brand costs $15.00 to vet. Carrier and per-message fees come on top.

Many of the rejection causes HighLevel lists sit on the website and its forms. HighLevel's 2026 approval guide requires privacy policy and terms links in every form footer, separate unchecked consent boxes for marketing and non-marketing texts, no forced consent to submit, campaign wording that matches the checkboxes, and contact details that match the brand registration. Carrier approval is not legal clearance: for marketing texts, ask counsel about US consent law too. Canadian and Australian numbers have their own rules in HighLevel's help center.

Phase 4: How should calendars and pipelines be set up?

Calendars and pipelines should mirror how the business books and sells, and come before workflows, which act on them.

Calendars. Per HighLevel's booking calendar guide, create the calendar under Calendar Settings (Personal Booking for one-to-one meetings), set duration and hours, and connect the owner's own calendar in the Connections tab. Confirmations and reminders come from the "Appointment Confirmation + Reminder" workflow recipe.

Pipelines. Create the pipeline under Opportunities > Pipelines, with one stage per real step in the sale (HighLevel's pipeline guide). Won and Lost are created automatically. Deleting a stage later moves its opportunities to another stage, so get the stages right early.

How to check: - [ ] Book from the calendar's Preview link in a private window. The slot disappears and the owner's calendar shows the event. - [ ] Run the Troubleshoot Calendar tool if slots are missing. - [ ] Drag a test opportunity through every stage to Won.

Phase 5: Which forms, funnels and websites are needed?

You need a capture point per lead source: a contact form, a booking page, and a landing page for paid traffic. Build them in HighLevel where you can, because attribution is recorded on HighLevel forms, surveys, calendars, chat widgets and order forms. Third-party forms need External Tracking.

Connect the site domain under Settings > Domains. HighLevel's domain guide treats website and email domains as separate types whose DNS records "should not automatically be reused" for each other.

How to check: submit every form once with test details. A contact appears with the right source, the consent boxes start unchecked, and the privacy and terms links are visible.

Phase 6: How do you import contacts and set up custom fields?

Create custom fields first, then import. HighLevel's CSV import guide says columns map to custom fields "only if those fields are already created in your account", and unmapped columns are skipped.

  • [ ] Fields: create them under Settings > Custom Fields on the right object. A field's object cannot be switched after creation, so put deal values on the opportunity.
  • [ ] File: CSV only, one sheet, under 30 MB, with a name, email or phone on every row.
  • [ ] Duplicates: HighLevel matches existing records by Contact ID, then email, then phone.
  • [ ] Workflows: the import can add contacts to a workflow. Leave that off unless you mean to message the whole list.

How to check: open Bulk Actions, view the stats and download the error log.

Phase 7: Which workflows does a small business need first?

Start with five: speed-to-lead, missed-call text-back, appointment reminders, review requests and a nurture sequence. Each needs a trigger, actions and a stop rule, and runs only once published.

  1. Speed-to-lead: a form submission triggers an instant SMS or email reply, a Send Internal Notification to the owner, Assign to User, and Create/Update Opportunity. Our guide to automating lead follow-up covers the messages.
  2. Missed-call text-back: this is a setting, not a workflow, under Settings > Phone System > Voice > Voicemail & Missed Call Text Back. HighLevel warns that it "triggers an SMS notification for every missed call" and fails unless the account has a number verified to send SMS. It suggests a 10 to 20 second ring timeout.
  3. Appointment reminders: the "Appointment Confirmation + Reminder" recipe, edited with your meeting details.
  4. Review requests: the Review Request action after a job is marked complete (Phase 8).
  5. Nurture: Wait steps, If Else branches and a Goal Event that pulls a contact out when they book or pay.

Set the workflow settings on each one: Stop on Response ends it when the contact replies to one of its messages, Allow Re-entry controls repeats, and Time Window keeps texts inside sensible hours. Opt-outs are handled by Do Not Disturb: a STOP reply turns on SMS DND for that contact.

If a step needs a tool HighLevel does not connect to, an outside platform fills the gap; our n8n vs Make vs Zapier comparison explains the trade-offs. 1920 Agency runs its own operations on automation (daily SEO monitoring, ad checks, reports posted to team channels), and the rule we apply is that every automation reports its failures to a person.

Phase 8: How do reviews and conversation channels get connected?

Review platforms and Facebook and Instagram connect under Settings > Integrations, and every channel needs a live test.

Reviews. The Guided Review Setup wizard connects Google Business Profile or Facebook and sets the review link under Settings > Review Link. The Review Request workflow action sends it. Ask every customer, not only happy ones: Google's review policy prohibits businesses from trying to "selectively solicit positive reviews from customers".

Channels. Connect Facebook and Instagram through the Page linked to the Instagram account. WhatsApp runs on a subscription, and HighLevel's FAQ says messages "cannot be sent or received" while it is inactive. Google Business Messages is no longer an option: HighLevel's notice confirms Google removed chat from Business Profiles on July 31, 2024.

How to check: send a message from a different personal account to each channel, confirm it lands in Conversations, and reply.

Phase 9: What do payments and reporting need?

Payments need one connected processor, and reporting needs every lead tagged with a source.

Payments. Connect Stripe under Payments > Integrations. Each sub-account connects one Stripe account, which then powers invoices, payment links, order forms and calendar payments. Past Stripe payments are not imported. Test in Stripe's test mode before switching to live.

Reporting. HighLevel stores a first and a latest attribution source on every contact. UTM tags must match exactly and are case-sensitive. The Lead Source Report dashboard widget counts opportunities by source, and anything without a source falls into an "N/A" row.

How to check: submit a form from a URL with test UTM tags and confirm the contact's attribution matches.

Phase 10: How do you finish with users, testing and handover?

Finish with the right logins, end-to-end tests and a written record of what was built.

  • [ ] Users: add each person under Settings > Users. Sub-account roles are Admin or User, and "Only Assigned Data" limits staff to their own contacts and deals.
  • [ ] Test contact: run every workflow on a named test contact that has never entered it, as HighLevel advises, then read the execution history.
  • [ ] Handover document: logins, domains, phone numbers, each workflow's trigger and stop rule, and who fixes what.

When the owner needs help with any of this, our AI and automation services cover GoHighLevel setup, from mapping the sales process to testing every workflow. 1920 Agency is an independent agency; it is not a HighLevel partner or reseller.

Which GoHighLevel setup mistakes break things later?

The costly mistakes work on day one and fail weeks later. Each below is documented by HighLevel, Google or Twilio, or follows directly from their documentation.

Mistake What breaks later Evidence
Sending from the shared domain Rewritten From address; new agencies start at 1,000 bulk emails a day, and emails past the limit fail without retry HighLevel, limits
Texting before A2P approval US messages blocked (error 30034); missed-call text-back fails Twilio, HighLevel
Forms without separate, unchecked consent boxes A2P campaign rejected HighLevel
Workflows without Stop on Response or a goal Leads keep getting automated texts after they reply or book HighLevel
Missed-call text-back with no filter One caller who rings three times gets three texts HighLevel
Testing on real leads No clean test record; re-entry rules hide failures HighLevel
Importing before creating custom fields Unmapped columns are skipped, so that data never arrives HighLevel
Asking only happy customers for reviews Breaks Google's review policy Google
Treating a snapshot as the setup Contacts, integrations and Stripe do not copy HighLevel
The agency holds every login Moving the sub-account deletes integrations; domains must be re-added HighLevel

The last row matters most. HighLevel's transfer article says that when a sub-account moves to a new agency, "all auth connections will be deleted", Stripe fields are cleared, add-ons such as WhatsApp must be cancelled first, and domains must be re-added. LeadConnector numbers keep their A2P status; Twilio numbers do not move automatically. So the business should own its domain registrar, Stripe account, Facebook Page and Google Business Profile, and grant the agency access, not the reverse.

Should you set up GoHighLevel yourself or pay for it?

Do it yourself if DNS records, carrier forms and testing suit you. Pay for help if a failed A2P review or a misfiring workflow would cost more than the setup fee.

The subscription is published: HighLevel's pricing page lists Starter at $97 a month ($970 a year) with 3 sub-accounts and a 14-day free trial, Unlimited at $297 and Agency Pro at $497. It notes that "usage based charges apply", such as phone numbers, SMS and email, and A2P fees come on top.

Setup labor varies by scope. Our breakdown of GoHighLevel setup cost gives the market ranges, and what automation agencies charge covers ongoing support. Whoever does it, hold them to the "done when" column above.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

What should a GoHighLevel setup include?

At minimum: a sub-account with a complete business profile, a dedicated sending domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, an A2P-registered phone number for US texting, calendars, a pipeline, forms with consent, tested core workflows, review requests, connected inboxes, payments, attribution reporting, user roles and a written handover.

Can I send text messages from GoHighLevel before A2P 10DLC approval?

Not to US recipients from a local 10-digit number. Twilio, which documents the error HighLevel reports, blocks messages to US numbers sent from a 10DLC number that is not linked to an approved A2P campaign (error 30034).

How long does A2P 10DLC approval take in GoHighLevel?

HighLevel's fee page says the $3 Fast Track step, included in the one-time registration bundle, is meant to expedite approval within 3 business days. HighLevel also notes carriers may need several more business days to receive the registration after approval, so plan texting launches with that buffer.

Do I need a dedicated sending domain in GoHighLevel?

HighLevel recommends one. Without it, LC Email sends through a shared domain and rewrites your From address, and agencies created since 27 April 2026 start each shared-domain sub-account at 1,000 campaign emails a day.

Does a GoHighLevel snapshot do the setup for me?

Only part of it. HighLevel says snapshots copy configuration such as workflows and calendars, but not contacts, conversations, integrations or Stripe connections, so domains, phone registration, integrations and testing still have to be done in each account.

Is Google Business Messages still a channel in GoHighLevel?

No. Google removed chat from Google Business Profile on July 31, 2024, and HighLevel's notice recommends showing a business phone number on the profile instead.

How much does GoHighLevel cost per month?

HighLevel's pricing page lists Starter at $97 a month, Unlimited at $297 and Agency Pro at $497, with usage-based charges for phone, SMS and email on top. Setup work is a separate cost.