Step-by-step guides for running your drone business on SkySuite — organized the way the app is. New here? Start with Your First Job, End to End.
How a project and its missions carry one job from plan to paid, and where each part sits on the project page.
Follow 6 steps →The whole path through SkySuite in one guide: create a Project for the client, plan and fly the Mission, process the imagery into maps, deliver to the client, and invoice — all on one record. Start here if you're new.
Read the guide →Start the record for one client job, pick its type of work and file it in your own business folder.
Follow 8 steps →Switch between Office and Field, open a menu group, and use the "New" and "Snippet Ticket" buttons at the top of the left menu.
Follow 6 steps →Add a mission to a project, find the site, draw the area, pick your drone and height, and send the plan to DJI.
Follow 12 steps →Add a contact with their company, then link them to a project as its point of contact.
Follow 8 steps →Add a drone with its specs filled in for you, then its batteries and controller, so the planner and your flight log can use them.
Follow 7 steps →Build an invoice with line items and tax and send it to your client.
Follow 9 steps →Mark an invoice paid, or part paid, when the money lands.
Follow 5 steps →Price a job, send the quote, and turn it into a contract once the client accepts.
Follow 12 steps →Put a shoot or a meeting on your calendar, with a reminder, and block the time from online booking.
Follow 6 steps →Keep your own pilots, editors and contractors on one list, ready to put on a job.
Follow 7 steps →Ask Sky a question, send another pilot a direct message, and join a group channel.
Follow 6 steps →Build a form for your website and answer every new lead automatically with an auto-responder.
Follow 10 steps →Record your screen or upload a video showing how you do something, and send it in for review and points.
Follow 9 steps →Send a report with a screenshot of the page you're on, then follow it on My Tickets.
Follow 6 steps →The Squawk Box is one page with three tabs — What's New, the Build Board, and My Tickets. It's where you see what shipped, what's being built next, and the status of every report you've filed, all in one place under Community.
Read the guide →Get your receptionist number on Office › Work › Office › AI Receptionist, then ask your phone company to forward your existing line to it: every call, or only the calls you don't answer. A SignalWire or Twilio number can do the same with a call flow that rings your cell first. Moving (porting) your number to SkySuite isn't available yet.
Read the guide →Snippet Ticket files a real support ticket from the page you're on, with a screenshot and the page's console errors already attached — no jumping to a separate form. It earns you Flight Path points when the report is accepted.
Read the guide →Easy Pickins is a short list of known rough edges you can claim and help fix. "Roger up" to put your name on one, then "File your fix" to open a ticket linked to it — that ticket is what earns you Flight Path points. You can claim one pickin an hour.
Read the guide →Tutorials is the community video library — watch how other pilots do things, and record your own screen walkthroughs to teach the room. Accepted tutorials publish to the library and earn you Flight Path points based on length.
Read the guide →Flight Path is the pilot rank ladder — ten ranks from Recruit to General. You climb by earning activity points and clearing each rank's requirements, the Leaderboard shows the community standings, and a weekly muster re-seats the limited ranks by standing.
Read the guide →Teams are pilot communities inside SkySuite — find one to join, or start your own. They're separate from job-staffing Crews: a Team is a group you belong to, with its own members and an optional group chat.
Read the guide →The Calendar keeps your events in one place, syncs both ways with Google Calendar, and includes a booking tool so clients can pick a time from your availability. Create events, RSVP, and publish a booking page.
Read the guide →Chat is SkySuite's built-in messaging — direct messages, group channels, and your personal System Chat where Sky, the in-app assistant, answers questions. See who's online, mute a noisy thread, and get help without leaving the app.
Read the guide →Set your working hours, create something clients can book, and publish a booking page with its own link.
Follow 12 steps →The CRM (Office › CRM) is where prospects become leads, leads become clients, and everything about the people you work with lives. Add contacts and companies, move deals through a pipeline, and send quotes and contracts.
Read the guide →Invoicing lives under Office › Money › Invoices. Build an invoice with line items and tax, send it to your client, and record the payment when it lands — the ledger keeps your books in step the whole way.
Read the guide →Equipment is where your whole kit lives — drones, batteries, controllers, cameras, and more — with maintenance logs, a parts inventory, field checklists, and gear rentals all hanging off the same list.
Read the guide →SkySuite can't pull flights from your DJI account: DJI keeps US flight records on the controller or phone. Copy the FlightRecord folder off the device, then open Office › Equipment › Flight Log, click "Upload Flight Logs" and upload the files, the whole folder or a .zip of it.
Read the guide →Open Settings › Finance › Payments, click "Connect Stripe" and paste your Stripe secret or restricted key into "Secret key" (a test key connects in "Test mode", a live key goes "Live"). Clients then get a pay page on every invoice with "Pay with Card" (and "Pay with PayPal" if you connect PayPal). Quotes have no pay button; bill the accepted work with an invoice.
Read the guide →A crew is the people on one job. Build it on Office › Work › Field › Crews from your roster or one of your Teams, then assign missions in the project's "Team" box and watch each pilot's progress there. Each pilot uses their own SkySuite login, sees the job under Field › Missions › Assigned to me, and doesn't need a seat. Seats on Settings › Team › Members & Seats are for people who work inside your account; removing a member opens one up.
Read the guide →The CRM runs in one order: Search Tool, Prospects, Leads (Office › CRM › Sales), then a client with a company, a quote (Office › Money › Quotes), a contract, a project and an invoice (Office › Money › Invoices). The number on a prospect is its match score, 0 to 100; the "Score" on a lead starts at 0 and grows as you work it. Office › CRM › Dashboard shows it all at once.
Read the guide →Plan a flight on the map: search the site address, draw the area, set GSD, altitude and overlaps, pick a drone and camera from your own fleet, and push the plan to Pilot 2 Cloud for the controller. The flight path draws live with area, distance, duration and photo-count readouts.
Read the guide →See today's go or no-go for your site, the weather that decides it, and the missions still waiting for a fly date.
Follow 5 steps →Open the mission list on your phone or tablet, find the one you're flying and get its plan onto the controller.
Follow 5 steps →Forecast turns the weather into a straight answer — GO, CAUTION, or NO-FLY — for your site, hour by hour. It checks wind, gusts, rain, cloud, and light against your own flying limits so you can pick a good window.
Read the guide →Read GO, CAUTION or NO-FLY for your site against your own limits and pick the best hour to fly.
Follow 6 steps →See what airspace your site sits in and how high you can get approved through LAANC.
Follow 5 steps →Pick a ready-made checklist from the library, then tick it off on site before take-off.
Follow 7 steps →To fly a mission again on a schedule, open Office › Work › Field › DSP, the project, the mission card's menu and "Repeat this mission…". Office › Work › Field › Repeat plans (if your menu has it) is different: a job your client approves once, with each visit invoiced. On Field › Missions › Missions, "Stow" puts a mission away on the "Stowed" shelf without deleting anything; "↩ Unstow" brings it back.
Read the guide →SkySuite does not file airspace authorizations: in the planner, "Op details" on the "Details" tab opens an FAA-approved LAANC provider's site where you request it yourself, and "Airspace" on the "Checks" tab gives a GO, AUTHORIZATION NEEDED, NO-GO or CAN'T CONFIRM answer. On Field › Tools › Airspace, "Airspace data unavailable" means some FAA layers did not load: click "Try again", and check B4UFLY or a LAANC provider first.
Read the guide →Turn raw drone photos into an orthomosaic, elevation models, contours, a point cloud and a 3D model in the cloud. Drag in everything from the drone — photos and GNSS files together — see the cost up front, click "Upload & Process", and come back when it's Ready.
Read the guide →Anchor your survey to known coordinates with ground control points, let the Guided GCP setup place them on your photos for you, and prove your accuracy with an independent checkpoint report — horizontal and vertical RMSE with NSSDA 95% values.
Read the guide →Hand finished work to your client through a private portal link — no login needed on their end. Organize files per flight, release exactly what they should see, send the branded email, and let them view maps, download everything as a zip, and pay the invoice online.
Read the guide →Upload the drone's photos to the mission, check the quality and the cost first, and start SkyPLX-9 processing.
Follow 9 steps →Upload finished files to a project's delivery and email your client the private link to them.
Follow 7 steps →Find a finished map from its project, switch between the flat map and the 3D model, and measure.
Follow 9 steps →Open the project from Office › Work › Field › DSP, click the mission's "⋯" and "Open the map page". The map page has "Deliverable Report" (accuracy included), "Reports from pins & measurements", "Export PDF", "Download in State Plane", and the "Quality report" under "Download deliverables". "Share with Client" sends your client a link to the map and its files.
Read the guide →SkyPLX-9 makes maps in WGS 84 / UTM (or EPSG:4326 if you chose it). For State Plane, open the project from Office › Work › Field › DSP, use the mission's "⋯" menu › "Open the map page", then click "Download in State Plane" in the "Download deliverables" box. It is greyed out until the map is finished. A GCP CSV needs a name, northing/easting or latitude/longitude, and elevation.
Read the guide →Open the project from Office › Work › Field › DSP; on the mission's card, step 7 "Make the map" shows "Making the map" and "View progress". SkyPLX-9 runs nine stages, and stages 4 to 7 can sit still for a long time while still working: the line under the stage name says whether it is. A run that fails or that you stop is not charged: the credit hold is released.
Read the guide →Answer the setup questions once so your profile, pilot details and business are filled in.
Follow 7 steps →Add your name, photo, business name and logo so clients see who you are.
Follow 6 steps →SkySuite has one credit wallet. Credits pay for AI features and for map processing alike, and your subscription plan sets how many you are given each month. This guide explains how the wallet works, what each plan includes, and where to buy more.
Read the guide →Change your password, turn on two-step sign-in, and add a passkey or security key.
Follow 8 steps →Connect Google Calendar so jobs and events sync both ways.
Follow 6 steps →Open Settings › Account › Profile and click the "Portfolio" tab. Switch on "Publish my portfolio", match your site under "Look", then copy the code under "Embed on your own website": "Script (matches your site)" needs no iframe and uses your site's own fonts and background. "Request a quote" goes where "Contact button goes to" says.
Read the guide →