Dubsado: The Best Client Management Software for Photographers

Let’s be honest, running a business isn’t easy. Whether you are just starting your journey as an amateur photographer or you’re a seasoned pro, owning a wedding photography business is a lot of work. You wear every hat: coordinator, accountant, seamstress, marriage therapist, boutonniere expert, chauffeur, writer, social media manager, cake connoisseurs, cheerleaders, life coach, comedian, and sometimes even magicians. With all of these responsibilities, keeping track of emails, leads, contracts, and invoices are just a few more things on your plate. This is where the best client management software for photographers comes into play… it can take the burden of these managing these tasks and put them all in one spot, all with less room for error. Just imagine, no more using pen and paper and scanning things back and forth to keep track of everything! Having a system in place will give you more time to focus on the creative side of your business that made you fell in love with photography in the first place.

I looked into other Client Relation Management (CRM) programs for creatives like 17hats, HoneyBook, ShootFlow, Tave, ShootQ, and Sprout Studio but after comparing these options, I ultimately decided on using Dubsado. Here are just a few of the many reasons why I love Dubsado!

12 Reasons Why Dubsado is the Best Client Management System for Photographers & Creatives

1. Brand Customization
   One thing I really liked about Dubsado over the other programs was the ability to customize it for your brand, using your logo and colors wherever you choose. Dubsado does not slap their logo on everything and it’s hardly traceable, so to your clients, it comes across as very high-end and organized from your company brand as if it’s your very own software. You can even set it up so all communication is sent from your email address!
2. Sync with iCal or Google Calendar
   Your leads and booked jobs are automatically synced with your iCal or Google calendar. What this means is that you can have peace of mind when checking for an available date on your calendar so as not to double book a wedding date. It also adds any appointments and sessions you schedule with clients so it’s easily viewable on your calendar.
3. Lead Capture
   Easily embed a contact form on your website to collect as much or a little information as you want and have it populate in Dubsado to use when sending emails, questionnaires, and contracts. You can even create multiple lead forms for different types of inquiries (weddings, families, headshots, etc.). So when you get multiple inquiries from Facebook, Instagram, email, etc. you can just send them to your lead form, making sure no one slips through the cracks!
4. Online Contracts
   No more scanning or mailing contracts back and forth… Create beautiful contracts and email to clients that they can easily e-sign or initial where you need them to. You can use variables in your forms that will allow the contract to automatically fill in all of the details for you such as event date, client names, contact info, wedding package, pricing, and payment schedules. And it’s all just as legally binding and a physically signed copy.
5. The Client Portal
   You have the option to create a password-protected portal for your clients, which houses all of your email communication, contracts, invoices, questionnaires, and appointments in one place. It’s completely customizable with the ability to add your own photos and logo at the top. It’s a secret little nook made just for them, just adding to a wonderful experience for your clients.
6. Integration with QuickBooks
   This client management program makes working with QuickBooks Online quick and simple by syncing your invoices and payments to QuickBooks. It’s a clean approach to bookkeeping with auto-applied categories, making tax time a breeze!
7. Easy Invoicing & Payments
   You can quickly and easily receive safe and secure payments via Square, Stripe, or PayPal… no more waiting for checks to arrive (or get lost) in the mail! They don’t take commission so it’s only the standard processing fee of 2.9% + .30 cents per transaction or (my favorite) e-check/ACH bank transfers with a rate of only 0.8% with a max cap fee of $5! 
8. Email Templates
   Save time by saving emails that you’ve carefully crafted and consistently send to your clients in canned email templates. You can have as many as you want and easily populate them when writing new emails, such as initial lead responses, reminders, requests for reviews, etc. all with the ability to tweak and customize them before sending.
9. Automation
   Send automated invoice reminders with a payment schedule, emails, and reminders for appointments. There is no need to go chasing your clients for payments when you set up payment schedules. Reminders of how much and when their payment is due is automatically be sent to your clients so there’s no need to keep track of just one more thing. You can also choose to set up automated emails at certain points during your workflow that contain smart fields so its personalized with their names.
10. Customizable Forms & Questionnaires
    Collect information from your clients easily with custom questionnaires that are easy and intuitive to set up. I have get-to-know-you, engagement session, and wedding day questionnaires as well as ones specific to ordering and choosing options for their albums or print products. You can open and save them as PDFs so you can easily print or share them with others… I love doing this when sending wedding day timelines to my planners. And you can have as many as you want too!
11. Project Management & Workflows
    Dubsado has features such as to do task lists, appointments, and customizable workflows. A software like this with customer lead tracking and relationship management enables you to store information about past and current clients, like their email address, phone numbers, all of their questionnaires, plus little notes you would like to remember about each client. Under “jobs” you can quickly get a snapshot of their wedding date, whether or not they’ve signed their contract, and if they’ve paid in full or in part. You can keep the dashboard up every day with your daily workflow.
12. The BEST Customer Service
    And I don’t use the word BEST lightly. When I say the best, I mean top-notch, the crème de la crème. Not only are they super quick (like within minutes to a few hours) to respond to all technical questions easily communicated to them via a chat box on their website, but they actually listen to what you are asking and address any problems you are having without sending you off on a wild internet goose chase to figure it out yourself or leave you guessing with what to do next. One of my favorite reason to use Dubsado is their online Facebook community where there is no shortage of people who clearly love Dubsado who share tips and tricks for using the software. The Dubsado team is constantly coming out with new features ALL the time and are completely transparent with what they are working on with a new features coming to Dubsado list. I’m mostly looking forward to an online scheduling system (like Acuity and Calendly) and a phone app (although using on the Safari/internet app is actually pretty impressive for now).

Why I ultimately decided to go with Dubsado was the combination of all of these features and customization, ease of use, their kick-a** customer service. And on top of this, as a trained graphic designer, I wanted something that looked visually appealing with a streamlined look both on the back-end and for my clients. Plus their pricing is competitive, if not better than all of the other competing client management systems. You can try Dubsado for free, with up to 3 clients to test it with and no time limit for using the trial!

If you found this content helpful and are ready to sign up and change your life for the better with best client management software for photographers, I would love if you could use my affiliate link or Dubsado coupon code “pureinart” with absolutely no cost to you. You will receive 20% off either one month OR one year, I recommend the year of course! www.dubsado.com/?c=pureinart