Shop settings

Fill in Business Info. Shop Name is required — it's the name on every document. Add your Legal Name (DBA or incorporated name) and Federal Tax ID (EIN) if they differ from the everyday name.

Fill in Contact and Address. Phone, Fax, Email, Website, and your street address all print on estimates and invoices, and they're what customers see on the customer portal.

Check your Timezone. It sits at the bottom of the Address card, and each option shows the current time there so you can confirm at a glance.

This is more important than it looks: it decides which day and which accounting period a transaction belongs to. A ticket closed at 6:30pm on the 31st belongs to that month — without the right timezone it can land in the next one.

If Meridian shows an amber note saying this was worked out from your address rather than chosen, check it's right and save the page. Saving is all it takes to confirm it.

Set your Past Dates policy. Two dropdowns — one for Appointments, one for Purchase order expected date — each set to Allow, Warn or Block. Both start on Warn. Dates are judged against today in your shop's timezone.

In practice Warn and Block both refuse the save today; the difference is the wording. Warn asks whether you meant it, Block says the shop doesn't allow backdating. Choose Allow if your team routinely books dates that have already passed.

Set your Work Order Settings. Four choices that shape every order:

• Order Number Prefix — text prepended to all order numbers (e.g. WO-000123). Leave blank for plain numbers.
• Default Tax Area Code — the tax area applied to new orders. Create the area first (below), then enter its code here.
• Auto-invoice on complete — automatically move orders to Invoiced when marked Completed.
• Require mileage on close — warn technicians if mileage-out is not entered before closing.

Write your Invoice Footer Text. A short message printed at the bottom of every invoice — warranty terms, a thank-you, whatever you'd stamp on paper.

Click Save changes. A bar appears at the bottom of the screen whenever you have unsaved edits — Save changes commits them, Discard throws them away. Nothing is saved until you click Save.

Open Settings → Tax Areas and click New Tax Area.

Enter a code and name. The code (e.g. TX-MAIN) is what you'll reference on orders and in the Default Tax Area Code field; the description is for humans.

Enter the rates. Parts Rate % and Labor Rate % are separate because many states tax them differently — leave labor blank if your state doesn't tax it. Save the row.

Fill in the Jurisdiction if you want it on the list. City, County and State are optional, and show as a single column in the table. Leave them blank and the column shows a dash.

To change one later, click the pencil on its row. Every field edits freely — except the Code once it's in use. If customers, orders or recurring bills already point at that code, Meridian refuses the rename and tells you how many of each are attached, because changing the code would disconnect them. Edit the other fields instead, or make a new area and retire this one.

To retire one, click the trash icon. If nothing references it, it's deleted. If anything does, Meridian deactivates it instead and says so — the row stays in the list marked Inactive, it no longer applies to new work, and the history that points at it stays intact.

Open Settings → Labor Rates and click New Rate.

Enter a code, description, and rate per hour. For example STD / Standard Labor / 115.00. Add one row per rate you bill at — standard, fleet, warranty, mobile.

Set a default. Check Set as default on the rate most orders should start from — it's marked with a star in the list. Advisors can still pick a different rate on any labor line.