Setting up your Apple and Google developer accounts

Your app goes on the App Store and Google Play under your clinic's own accounts, in your name. You own them. We build and submit the app for you, but the accounts stay yours.

Follow this in order. Do Apple first, because a number you get there is the same one Google asks for later.

Time: about 45 minutes of form filling, then waiting on Apple and Google, then a few minutes at the end.

Before you begin: have these ready

Your clinic's exact registered legal name, copied from your formation documents, whether LLC, PLLC or corporation. Not your signage or trading name. If your paperwork says "Smith Aesthetics PLLC" but your sign says "Glow Med Spa", you need the first one.
Your registered business address and phone number.
One work email on your clinic's own domain, like yourname@yourclinic.com. Use it on every form you fill in below.
Signing in to Apple is not one of those forms, so an existing personal Apple Account is fine there. Apple requires a domain address on the enrollment form itself, and Google says the addresses on a business account should not be personal or generic ones.
Your clinic's website address.
The name and email of your owner or a senior manager, if you are not the owner yourself.
A credit card. Apple charges $99 per year, Google charges $25 once.
Google takes MasterCard, Visa, American Express and, in the US, Discover. It does not take prepaid cards.

One thing to check before you start. Apple enrols organizations only if the business is a legal entity, and it does not accept DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names or branches. If your clinic is a sole proprietorship or single-person business, Apple's instruction is to enrol as an individual instead, and Apple then shows your own legal name rather than the clinic's as the seller on the App Store. Tell us before you start and we will walk you through it, or through incorporating first if you would rather the clinic's name appeared.

Part 1: Apple

Step 1. Get your Apple Account ready

An Apple Account is the same thing as an Apple ID. Your existing personal one is fine. It does not need to be a new account or a business account. Whoever signs in here becomes your clinic's Account Holder at Apple. That is the one person who renews the $99 each year and accepts Apple's agreements for the clinic, so use an account the clinic will still have access to if roles change.

Before you carry on, check it has:

A phone number on it.
Two-factor authentication turned on.
Your own legal first and last name in the name fields. Apple says an alias, a nickname or your company name there will delay approval of your enrollment.
Recommended, not required: sign in with it on an iPhone, iPad or Mac at least once. A trusted device makes the account far easier to recover if you are ever locked out, and accounts with no history behind them get treated as higher risk.

Only if you don't have an Apple Account: create one at Apple's Create Your Account page, do the three things above, then carry on to Step 2.

Step 2. Find your D-U-N-S number

A D-U-N-S number is a free nine-digit ID for your business, issued by a company called Dun & Bradstreet. Apple and Google both require one. Most businesses already have one and don't know it.

Go to Apple’s D-U-N-S lookup
Sign in with the Apple Account from Step 1.
Enter your legal entity name, headquarters address, mailing address and work contact details.
Submit. Apple tells you whether your business already has a number.
If it does not find you, that same page offers to request one for free. Use it.

Either way, keep the number somewhere you can find it. You need it twice: Apple in Step 3, Google in Step 5.

Only if you had to request one: Apple says to allow up to five business days for Dun & Bradstreet to issue it, then up to two more for Apple to see it before you start Step 3. A Dun & Bradstreet representative may get in touch about your business type or staff numbers, so keep your business registration documents to hand.

Step 3. Enrol in the Apple Developer Program

Go to Apple’s enrollment page
Click Start your enrollment.
Sign in with the same Apple Account.
If Apple asks you to review the Apple Developer Agreement, read it and accept it to carry on.
When asked what you are enrolling as, choose Company / Organization. Do not choose Individual.
Enter your legal entity name exactly as you wrote it down.
This becomes the "Seller" name shown publicly on your App Store page, so check the spelling.
Enter your D-U-N-S number.
Enter your work email (yourname@yourclinic.com), phone and website.
Confirm you have authority to sign for the business. If you are not the owner, enter your owner or senior manager as the reference.
Apple asks for this person so they can confirm you have the legal authority to enrol the business and sign for it. Give them a heads-up first.
Submit.

You do not pay yet. Apple asks for the $99 only after they approve you. If no payment screen appears, nothing has gone wrong.

Now stop. Apple has to review this, which is out of your hands. Part 2 does not depend on it, so carry straight on.

Part 2: Google

Step 4. Check which Google account you are signed in as

This is the easiest step to skip. Getting it right now saves hassle later.

Go to the Google Play Console sign-up page
The page shows which Google account you are signed in as. Read that address.
If it is not your clinic's work email address, click Switch accounts and sign in with that one.
Use the work email you put on Apple's enrollment form in Step 3. Whichever account you are signed in as becomes the owner of the Play account, so make sure it is the one you want before you carry on. If that address is not a Google account yet, you can register it as one at accounts.google.com. Choose the option to use your existing email rather than creating a new Gmail address.

Step 5. Create the Google Play account

Back on the Google Play Console sign-up page, under Who are you creating an account for?, find the panel with the Organization type dropdown.
In that dropdown, choose A company or business.
Click Get started in that same panel.
Enter your organization name, address, phone and website.
Enter a developer name.
This is the name shown on Google Play above your app. It does not have to match your legal name, so use the name your clinic is known by. You can change it later.
Enter your D-U-N-S number.
Your legal name and address must match your D-U-N-S record exactly.
Enter your contact name, email and phone.
Google sends one-time codes to verify these, so use addresses and numbers you can actually check. Google does not show these on Google Play.
Enter the developer email address and developer phone number.
These two are the ones Google shows publicly, so use your clinic's, not a personal mobile.
Review and accept the Google Play Developer Distribution Agreement. Google asks every new developer to accept this, so it is a normal part of signing up.
Pay the $25 one-time fee.

You get into the console straight away. Google still has to verify your identity, and that part is not automatic. You have to complete it yourself when Google asks.

For a business account Google wants two things: a document showing the business is registered, such as an IRS letter or your certificate of incorporation, and a government photo ID for whoever represents the clinic. The organization name and address on those documents have to match the ones on your account. This must be finished before an app can go live, so do it when it comes up rather than leaving it. Tell us when it appears and we will help you through it.

Step 6. Add us to Google Play

Open Users and permissions in Play Console. Sign in if you are asked to.
Enter developer@velarya.com as the email address for the new user.
Open the Account permissions tab, not App permissions.
Tick Admin (all permissions).
Click Invite user.

There is nothing to send us from Google. Tell us when this is done and we take it from there.

Later, once your app exists in Play Console, we will send you one more address to invite. It is a service account that uploads builds automatically. We will send it when the time comes.

Part 3: While you wait

Nothing to do. This is only here so quiet days don't feel like something is broken.

Dun & Bradstreet may call or email you. Answer it.
Apple checks that you can sign for the business. If you are not the owner, that is what the reference you named is for.
Apple may ask for business documents, occasionally notarized copies.
Google will ask you to upload documents. Play Console prompts you when it is time, and only the account owner can do it, so use the account from Step 4. Send us anything Google sends you.

Neither Apple nor Google publishes how long their review takes, so rather than invent a number: you can see where your Apple enrollment stands at any time by signing in to your account on the Apple Developer website with the Apple Account you enrolled with. If a full week passes and nothing has moved, tell us and we will help you chase it.

Part 4: Once Apple approves you

Step 7. Pay Apple

When Apple tells you your enrollment is verified, sign in to your account, review the license agreement and complete the $99 purchase. Your account is not active until this is done.

This renews every year. The card does not have to belong to whoever enrolled, and if you ever pay from an iPhone or iPad it appears alongside your other Apple subscriptions.

Step 8. Add us to App Store Connect

Open Users and Access in App Store Connect and sign in.
If you land on the App Store Connect home page instead, select Users and Access.
Under People, click the plus (+) button.
Enter Velarya as the first name, Developer as the last name, and developer@velarya.com as the email address.
For role, tick Admin.
Click Next, then Invite.
The invitation expires after 3 days. If we have not accepted by then, just send it again.

That is everything. Once we accept the invitation we create the publishing key ourselves, so there is nothing for you to generate, download or send us.

What if something goes wrong?

"Your organization is not listed as a legal entity." Apple's explanation: your business is either in the Dun & Bradstreet database with a different legal status, such as a sole proprietorship, or its legal status has not been verified. Check you used your registered legal name and not a trading name. If it still fails, contact Dun & Bradstreet with your business registration documents to correct their record, then allow two more business days before retrying Apple.

Apple rejected your website. It must be a real, public website on your own domain. A Facebook or Instagram page will not be accepted, and neither will a holding page.

Apple rejected your email address. On the enrollment form it has to be on your clinic's own domain, like yourname@yourclinic.com. This is only the address on the form. The Apple Account you sign in with can stay as it is.

Google verification failed. Google tells you why. Play Console shows the reason and Google emails the account owner with more detail. Send that to us and we will work through it with you. Google's own guide lists the usual causes: a document that is not on its list of accepted documents, one that has expired or is too blurry to read, an organization document whose name does not match your Dun & Bradstreet profile, and the name typed on the form not matching the ID uploaded with it.

Google could not match your D-U-N-S number and address. This one is about your Dun & Bradstreet record rather than your documents. Get the address corrected with Dun & Bradstreet, then try again.

Nothing has happened for a week. You can check where your Apple enrollment stands by signing in to your account on the Apple Developer website with the Apple Account you enrolled with. Either way, tell us and we will help you chase it.

Anything at all, email us. We would rather sort it out in ten minutes than have you lose a week.

Who should you invite, and with what access?

You only ever invite one Velarya person, and it is the same address for both stores. We add and remove our own developers from there, so you never have to manage our team. Google needs one more address later for automated publishing, and that one is a machine account rather than a person.

Apple, in App Store Connect

Address: developer@velarya.com
Role: Admin
Admin lets us build and submit your app, create the publishing key, and add or remove our own developers, so you never have to manage our team.
Signing agreements stays with you. Apple reserves that for the Account Holder, so you accept the agreements and renew the membership each year yourself.
Admin can open the Business section, where tax and banking details would live. In practice yours will be empty: your app takes payment through Stripe for treatments in the clinic, not through Apple, so you never sign Apple's Paid Apps Agreement and never enter bank details at all.

Google Play Console

Address: developer@velarya.com
Under Account permissions, give it Admin (all permissions)
Admin is Google's top level below you. It lets us release your app, manage its store presence, and add or remove our own developers. Your Payments settings stay with you: Google reserves that page for the account owner.

Google Play, automated publishing (later, not now)

A service account address we will send you once your app record exists
Under App permissions for your app, not Account permissions. We will tell you exactly which boxes to tick when we send you the address.
It is a machine account rather than a person, so it will look like a long generated address. That is normal.