Dubsado | Client Management Program for Creatives
I love being organized and I like everything to have it’s own place. So when I heard I could have all my client information, invoices and workflow systems all in one place, I was instantly sold! However the price of these management systems can get quite pricey! And I couldn’t afford to spend $40/month for a management system. I did a lot of free trials. From 17hats, shootQ, pixifi, Tave, Honeybook and of course Dubsado!
All had great features! But as soon as I tried Dubsado I was instantly in love! Sad to say it was actually the last one I tried, since I hadn’t heard about it before. I had just found out that Honeybook didn’t offer Canadian accounts, THEN. Now they do! So I was desperately searching for a program that was a good fit for me and was available in Canada. I seen a comment on Facebook about Dubsado and have never looked elsewhere!
Here’s a walkthrough of all the amazing things Dubsado has to offer!
DASHBOARD
Below is your dashboard, this is what you will see when you first log in. You have your to do list, your financial overview and a weekly calendar of upcoming events! Along the lefthand side is where you have your navigation menu. Just hover over and choose where you want to go next! Along the top right hand corner you have your inbox, your notifications and your brand settings.
Dashboard
Hovering over Side Bar
Clicked Notifications
Clicked my Brand
LEADS
The cool thing about Dubsado, you can link your contact form from your website straight to your management system!! It saves you a bunch of time! They’re now in your address book and Dubsado has created a lead for you in your Leads section! All is right with the world!
My Contact Form
Viewing all my Leads and their Statuses
JOBS
I love seeing all my clients information all in one place. And with Dubsado you stay organized with minimal work! All your clients are all in one place. See which client has an outstanding balance or contract that needs to be signed. All without even going into their own job! Within your jobs, you can send clients invoices, contracts, questionnaires and email them as well! No more sorting through your inbox! It also lets you know what has be sent and what has been signed.
Current Jobs
A Single Job
Above is an example of what each JOB looks like. When you first open up a job, it will direct you to the EMAIL tab. That is where you can see all the emails you’ve sent and see if your client has read them or not. There is also a handy chat option in there as well so you can respond to specific emails they have questions about! But one of the most important aspects of any job is the INVOICE. Here you can add packages from prints, to services to any additional items! Add your tax, a payment schedule and your set! The payment schedule is handy, as Dubsado will automatically send your clients a reminder email about a payment! But make sure you have this setup, otherwise you might be waiting for a payment for longer then you bargained for! I also haven’t taken advantage of the time tracker option yet so I don’t have much to say about that!
But with the invoice, if you have your Dubsado account so that clients can make payments through Dubsado, then their invoice will automatically update! If you’re like me, then you’ll just manually put in a payment by hitting the APPLY button! You can also use this button to APPLY refunds if need be.
CLIENT PORTAL
So this is all great from your end, but what do your clients see? When you send a client their client portal link, they will have a similar backend to what you see but a little different! My clients love the client portal aspect of Dubsado! They can see all their contracts/forms, their invoice and have all our corresponding emails accessible to them!! Now their client portal will come with default colours and no images or logo. But that can all be updated in your brand settings!
My Client’s AP Portal
BOOKKEEPING
Keep track of all your expenses and income all in one place! Although they don’t have banking integrations…right now! They might one day!! They are always adding new features! However, I don’t mind manually typing in my expenses as I keep all my receipts anyways! And you should too! Being audited without them would be a nightmare! As soon as I make a purchase related to my business, I add it in!! Plus you can export all this at the end of the year to make it easy for tax season, because tax season is hard enough!!
My Financial Overview
There is so much more I could touch base on, but this post is already so lengthy. I could literally be her all day explain how awesome Dubsado is! To sum it all up, Dubsado offers everything any creative needs to stay organized and manage their business. From workflow to bookkeeping, they give us more freedom! Who doesn’t love that?! Not only do they have a management and workflow system all in one, you no longer have to use an additional program for invoicing or keeping track of expenses!! Or if your like me, I manually created every invoice because I couldn’t afford Quickbooks. So now I don’t have to panic and fluster about creating every single document in so many different locations!!
Your probably thinking, okay this all sounds great but what’s the catch? It will probably cost an arm and a leg…But that’s where else Dubsado benefits you. The price is affordable! You won’t be paying $40/month or have a limit of clients you can add. For a simple monthly plan with everything unlimited, it is just $25/month!
Want a discount off your first month?! Use my referral code: AMYPETERS20*CASE SENSITIVE* And get 20% off your first monthly payment! Dubsado also offers an annual plan for $250/year.
Dubsado | 2018 Plans
If you are still debating whether or not to make the switch or whether or not it’s worth it, stop right there. Dubsado is amazing, it’s affordable it’s an all in one system and the customer service is great! Jake and Becca are super quick and friendly to respond to any question. And I mean quick! Once you sign up, you get to be a part of the Dubsado community on Facebook and it literally takes them minutes to jump in and offer help! And if they aren’t around at the moment to help, there are always others willing to help! Dubsado is more then just another management system, Jake and Becca truly want to see other creatives get their freedom back!
Referral Code: use AMYPETERS20 (case sensitive) to get 20% your first month when you sign up for the monthly or yearly plan!
*Jake and Becca at Dubsado did not ask me to post this review, they are just so awesome and Dubsado has changed my life that I want everyone to know about it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy is a photographer based out of Eden, Ontario. She is married to the love of her life Johnny, she’s been with him for more than 8 years! Amy has been in business since 2015, and loves to serve her clients and she does it so well!! This beautiful lady is a detail-oriented photographer that wants to make the whole experience absolutely amazing for her clients.
