Thursday, December 8, 2016

New: Web Mobile App (Beta)


StudioCloud has drastically improved the web mobile app.


You can access the mobile web app by typing StudioCloud.com/m into your mobile browser


Direct Cloud Access
  • Access your business information directly from the cloud. No need to wait for any information to sync between the cloud and your device.
Auto Adjusting Interface
  • The new web mobile interface has been designed to auto adjust to fit the screen size of the mobile device you are using.
Clients, Prospective Clients, and Leads

In the new client view there are a lot of new features such as:
  • Save a client's social media info
  • Track unique information using custom client fields
  • Open a personalized CloudForm for a client
  • View signed and unsigned contracts for a client
  • Create a new contract for a client to eSign
Agenda

The new agenda also has a lot of new features such as:
  • Schedule sessions, events, and appointments using calendar type and calendar sub-type
  • Book clients
  • Schedule employees, equipment, and locations

CloudForms

CloudForms have been integrated directly into the mobile app. A personalized CloudForm can be opened directly from the client view. A personalized CloudForm in the mobile is ideal to have a client verify their information on a tablet or ipad and update any inaccurate information.

A non-personalized CloudForm can be opened from the list of CloudForm and is ideal for a new client to fill out a new client form on a tablet or ipad.

Please note that CloudForm can also be integrated with online booking, payments/deposits, and contracts.

Mileage Tracking

You can now enter your mileage directly from the mobile app

Contracts

You can view all of the outstanding contracts or just the signed and unsigned contracts for a specific client from the mobile app. In addition, you can also create a new contract to be esigned.

Time Card

You can clock in and clock out directly from the mobile app.

Monday, November 21, 2016

New: Contact Employee Window


StudioCloud, version 3.1.381 and later, has added a new button to the bottom of the StudioCloud program which lets you quickly contact one or more employees by email or text message. You can view what the new button looks like below.

If you click on the button it will open a new Contact Employee window which will let you email or text one or more employees.

This new window makes it very easy to notify employees of schedule changes, cancellations, or other time sensitive changes.

Click here for a tutorial on how to quickly notify employees of changes directly from StudioCloud

Friday, September 9, 2016

New: Locking Invoices And Payments

StudioCloud now supports locking and unlocking of invoices and payments. Locking of invoices and payments is ideal for situations where you want to prevent the accidental editing of an invoice or payment by an employee and/or you want to make sure that your daily accounting is correct.

StudioCloud also provides an end of day close wizard to streamline locking the invoices and payments at the end of the day.

In addition, locking of invoices and payments also have the following features
  • Security roles for deciding which employees can and can not lock or unlock invoices or payments
  • Group operations to speed up exporting locked payments and invoices to a csv file for reporting purposes

Thursday, September 8, 2016

New: 2 Way Google Calendar Sync

StudioCloud is excited to announce that we now support 2-way syncing with Google Calendar. This has been one of our most requested features and we have been working long and hard to deliver it. 

With this new feature you can create or edit an appointment in StudioCloud and it will automatically sync to Google Calendar. In addition, if you create or edit an appointment in Google Calendar it will automatically sync to StudioCloud.

Here is a list of some of the programs that google calendar supports.

  • Android Smart Phone App
  • Android Tablet App
  • iPhone Smart Phone App
  • iPad Smart Phone App
  • Web Based Google Calendar
  • Most Desktop Calendar Programs Such As Outlook or iCal
Please note that 2-way syncing with Google Calendar is currently in beta.


Please note that this feature is only available for PartnerBoost and EmployeeBoost subscribers.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

New: Scheduling Employees


With the latest update of StudioCloud, version 3.1.360, the "Resources" tab in the new and edit session, appointment, and event window has been improved to speed up scheduling. 

Below are a list of the new improvements:

Automatically Hide Resources That Aren't Used

If a StudioCloud account doesn't have any equipment or locations then the corresponding tables under the "Resources" tab will be automatically hidden to provide more space for scheduling employees.

Only Show Available Employees For Same Day Appointments

The "Available Employees" table has been improved and only shows employees as available now if they meet the following criteria:

  • They have not been added to the scheduled table for the current session
  • They are not currently booked with any other session that overlaps with the current session that is being booked.
  • They are not currently marked as unavailable according to their business hours

If you would like to view a list of all employees click the "Show All Employees" checkbox at the top of the "Resources" tab and it will display all of the employees.

This new feature only applies to single day events and not to multi-day events. Multi-day events display the entire list of employees.

Requires The PartnerBoost or EmployeeBoost Subscription

Scheduling employees is only available for PartnerBoost and EmployeeBoost subscribers and, as such, this feature requires a PartnerBoost or EmployeeBoost subscription.

Click here to subscribe to the PartnerBoost or EmployeeBoost

Monday, June 6, 2016

New CloudAlert Options

StudioCloud has updated CloudAlerts with the following new functionality.

New Quick Method To Setup CloudAlerts For Sessions

StudioCloud now supports creating CloudAlerts from the Calendar Type window. This option also supports pre-setup CloudAlerts for session reminders, thank you's, etc.

Click here for a tutorial on how to use the new Setup CloudAlerts For Sessions method

New Session Scheduled CloudAlert

CloudAlert emails and text messages can now be automatically sent out a specific time after a session is created.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup CloudAlert Session Messages

New Session Confirmed CloudAlert

CloudAlert emails and text messages can now be automatically sent out a specific time after a session is confirmed.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup CloudAlert Session Messages

New Session Cancelled CloudAlert

CloudAlert emails and text messages can now be automatically sent out a specific time after a session has been cancelled.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup CloudAlert Session Messages

New Lead Created CloudAlert

CloudAlert emails and text messages can now be automatically sent out a specific time after a lead has been created. Once the lead has been converted to a client or a prospective client they will not receive additional lead CloudAlerts.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup messages for new leads

CloudAlert Email Template Change

CloudAlerts now use the same email and sms text message templates that are used elsewhere in StudioCloud. Previously, CloudAlerts required that a slightly different template be used.

Click here for an overview on how to setup CloudAlerts

If you would like to add the ability to have clients automatically receive personalized session reminder email or text messages, personalized thank you emails, happy birthday or anniversary emails or text messages and more, sign up for CloudAlerts for $10 a month.

Get CloudAlerts

Friday, May 20, 2016

Tip: Background Image



Did you know you have always been able to customize the look and feel of StudioCloud by changing the background image?  Don’t like boring gray? Icons aren’t your thing?  Click on the small pointer at the very top of your screen to take away the icons.

To select a new background image go to Settings, under General Settings, and click on the "Change Background Image"button.  This will allow you to choose a new background image that is refreshing and inspiring to you and your brand.

Quick Tip: Do a quick google search for any type of free background image.  There are thousands to choose from!  Search for purple background, hardwood background, bright blue background, etc. The options are endless! It is best to use a solid image since it will stretch to fit your screens configurations. 

Friday, May 6, 2016

Tip: Spam Prevention

With the latest release of StudioCloud you can now add a ReCaptcha to any CloudForm.

Above is an example of a ReCaptcha
A ReCaptcha is used to prevent spam by requiring that a person selects the "I'm not a robot" checkbox. This checkbox will then perform various calculations to verify that an actual person clicked the checkbox rather than a computer.

StudioCloud recommends that a ReCaptcha be added to CloudForms that can be accessed from a website.

The above ReCaptcha can be added to any form by going to the Actions tab and clicking on the "Add ReCaptcha" under the "Spam Prevention" header.

Click here for a tutorial on how to use CloudForms.

If you would like to add the ability to have clients sign contracts with eSignatures, collect valuable information before a sitting, capture leads from your website and more, sign up for CloudForms for $10 a month.

Get CloudForms

Friday, April 29, 2016

Tip: CloudForms On The Go


Using StudioCloud's new CloudForms features, you can save custom CloudForm's to your iPhone or iPad homepage.

This feature lets you integrate CloudForms automation directly into your mobile experience.

Here are just a few ways that people are using the new features of CloudForms.
  • Track leads by entering their contact info into a CloudForm from your phone. Then let the CloudForm automatically send them a welcome email with a "Book a Session" Personalized CloudForm in the welcome email.
  • Schedule a client directly from your phone using a private CloudForm that shows your available sessions.
  • Have a client eSign a contract from your phone and have it email them the signed contract.
  • Have a client pay a deposit from your phone and have it automatically create an invoice for the client.



Monday, April 11, 2016

New: Personalized CloudForms

StudioCloud is excited to release our new CloudForms update called Personalized CloudForms. Personalized CloudForms are forms that are associated with an already existing client or with a session/appointment/event. The personalized CloudForms will pre-populate the forms and let the customer update them to meet their needs.

Here are some examples of when you could use personalized CloudForms.

Lead Tracking With Personalized CloudForms

In the welcome email that you send to a lead, you want to have them verify the contact information that you entered for them and have them correct it if a mistake was made. You can do that be sending them a personalized CloudForm.

Verify Session Details Using Personalized CloudForms

When you schedule a session, you want to send an email to the client which contains a personalized CloudForm pre-populated with the session start date and start time. They can confirm that the session information is correct by selecting a checkbox in the CloudForm.

Verify Contact Info From Tablet or Ipad

You can have a customer verify their contact info from a tablet or ipad using a personalized CloudForm.

Automating Booking A Sales Session Using Personalized CloudForms and CloudAlerts

After a session has been completed, you want to automatically have a CloudAlert email sent to the client, two days after the session, with a link in it to a personalized CloudForm. Their information will already be pre-populated in the CloudForm, and they can schedule a sales session directly from the CloudForm.

You can do all of the above items and more using Personalized CloudForms!




Monday, April 4, 2016

New: Automatically Set Up Pipelines, Templates, etc.

StudioCloud has added a new setup option to the Setup Wizard. This option will automatically set up your StudioCloud account with the information needed to quickly get up and going for your type of business.

New or existing clients can use these features. If you go under Settings, Setup Wizard, you can use the automatic setup without compromising your current data. Please be aware that if you have already set some things up yourself, this may create some duplicates. You can always go in a do a group operation to delete any items you do not want to use.

Below are some of the features that the setup wizard can automatically setup for you if it applies to your business type.

Automation Associated with Scheduling

The setup wizard will automatically create calendar types and calendar sub-types for you and will also create email and text message templates for the calendar types, so that when you schedule a session, appointment, or event it will automatically email or text message the customer.

You will be able to preview and customize the emails and text messages before they are sent to a customer.

Automated CloudAlert Emails and Text Messages

The setup wizard will automatically setup email and text messages for you. However, you will need to activate the CloudAlerts before any messages are automatically sent to customers. You can also go in and further customize them.

Click this link to learn how to activate CloudAlerts.

The setup wizard will setup the following items if they apply to your business:

  • Set up emails to be sent a few days before the session or event to remind the client of it.
  • Setup text messages to be sent a few hours before the session or event to remind the client of it.
  • Setup email and text message thank yous for the sessions or events which will include a link to a CloudForm where the client can schedule their Sales Session from the CloudForm.
  • Setup Birthday and Anniversary emails and text messages
Lead Tracking

The setup wizard will automatically setup lead tracking with client pipelines. The client pipelines include a welcome email and text message template when the lead is initially scheduled. You can go in and further customize these.

Event Tracking

The setup wizard will automatically setup event tracking for tracking what needs to be done before or after an event using event pipelines. It includes having an email sent to the client, with a personalized CloudForm, which will require that a client eSign a pre-built contract when a wedding session is created. You can also set it up to take a deposit at this point.

Order Tracking

The setup wizard will automatically setup order tracking for tracking the overall status of the items that a customer has ordered. It also includes email and text message templates for when an order is either shipped or ready for a customer to pickup.

CloudForms

The setup wizard will automatically setup a Contact Us Form that can be added to your website. The contact us form also includes an email template that will be automatically sent to the customer when they fill out the contact us form.

All of these items can and should be further customized by you, to work for your business and personal branding. This is meant to set things up, so you can visually see how StudioCloud works, and see how to get your workflow started. It is meant to reduce the learning curve and to get you up and going more quickly!

Click here to add CloudAlerts, CloudForms, or CloudBooking to your StudioCloud account

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

New: HTML CloudBooking/CloudForms Update!

With the latest version of StudioCloud we have rebuilt and redesigned the CloudBooking to be html based so that it can be accessed from any browser based device such as a smart phone, ipad, tablet, or internet browser.

The New Integration Options
In addition, we have also integrated the CloudBooking directly into the CloudForms. This powerful new integration lets you create unlimited forms where each form can have a unique online booking scheduling system associated with it.

On top of the above features we have also integrated invoice creation, contract signing, and payment options into the forms as well, which provides even more seamless CloudForm options.

In addition, when a client pays a deposit or makes a payment in a CloudForm their credit card will automatically be saved so that you can, if you so desire, setup a payment plan that will automatically charge their saved credit card on the desired plan dates.


CloudForm Examples

Do you have a situation where you want to run a special with a lot of short term photo shoots and have the clients pay ahead of time? 

No problem. Just create a CloudForm for it and send it out in an email blast to your clients. Whether they are on their computer, phone, or tablet they will be able to book a session and pay for it right then.

Do you want to be able to send a form to a prospective wedding client, have them fill out the form to collect information for the wedding, schedule the wedding date from the form, eSign the wedding contract, pay a deposit for their wedding, and setup a payment plan to automatically charge their credit card for the rest of their balance due?

No problem. You can utilize any combination of these features depending on your processes. Just create a CloudForm and set it up either with a pre-selected wedding package or a list of wedding packages they can choose from. Then select to either have a payment entered as a fixed amount regardless of the package or as a percentage of the total package amount they selected. Finally select which contract you want to have sent to the client when they fill out the form.

To add in a payment plan all you need to do is edit the invoice that was automatically created for the client when they filled out the form and follow the instructions at the bottom of this blog post to add a payment plan to the invoice.

The credit card they used to fill out the form was automatically saved for you so you can, if you want, use that credit card for the payment plan.

Do you need to book different sessions on different days?

No problem. You can create one form where the client can select their desired session or you can create two different forms with the desired session locked into each form. If you need different information for each session then creating two different CloudForms is the way to go.

Do you have a situation where a customer wants to book a specific photographer?

No problem. Just create a CloudForm for just that photographer or, if you want, for all of the photographers and have the client select their desired photographer. If this is a situation that is only done on a pre-request basis just create an email template with the CloudForm link in it and email the CloudForm to a client whenever it is requested.

Do you want to schedule a client on your calendar from your iphone internet browser?

No problem. Just create a CloudForm just for you and bookmark it in your iphone internet browser. Then just pull up that page and fill out the form. It will only let you book sessions when you are available so you don't even need to look at your calendar.

Do you want to hand a client an iPad and have them confirm their information, select a package and have them pay for it on the iPad?

No problem. Just create a CloudForm for it and book mark it on the iPad's internet browser. Then just hand the iPad to the customer and they can fill out the rest.

Do you want to do all of the above items at the exact same time?

No problem. You have unlimited forms and the ability to schedule in all of the above manners as well as many more.

How Do You Get Started

To add invoice creation, payment/deposits, or online booking to a form create a new form or edit an existing form and click on the actions tab followed by the "Add Invoice, Payment, Online Booking" button.

This will open a window which will allow you to customize the invoice, payment and online booking options as well as the wording and look and feel of the online booking fields.

Tutorials

Click here for a tutorial on how to create cloudforms.

Click here for a tutorial on how to add the html online booking to a cloudform.

Click here for a tutorial on how to setup payment plans to automatically charge a saved credit card.

Monday, February 1, 2016

Update: CloudForms



With the latest version of StudioCloud we have added quite a few new updates and improvements to the CloudForms. Make sure to get the latest update when launching StudioCloud or go under Settings and click on 'check for updates'. Please note that current customers will not be affected by any of the changes unless they edit the form.

For those of you who don't currently use CloudForms, they can help you collect important information before an appointment, capture and convert leads, and gives you the ability to have your clients digitally sign contracts. 

The CloudForms have been updated to support fonts, font colors and text box colors. Below are sample contact us forms with different font and color setups. The forms with the white background are transparent, so if you embed them in your website the background color will be the same as your website.



The CloudForms form creation interface has also been updated to support dragging and dropping of components to sort them. Below are examples of the clicking to sort method and the dragging and dropping to sort method. Both methods are now supported.

Dragging and dropping to sort


Clicking to sort

Here is a complete list of the new and updated CloudForm features in the latest version of StudioCloud:
  • User Interface Changes
    • The addition of descriptions in the form creation interface to answer common questions.
    • The fields management section in a form now has the entire window space height to make it easier to sort and organize the fields.
    • The fields in a form now support drag and drop reordering as shown above.
    • The client fields now tell you where the information will be saved in StudioCloud. For example, the first name field tells you when you create or edit a component that the information added to the field will be added to the client first name field in StudioCloud.
  • Customer facing form changes
    • The forms now support choosing from 14 different browser supported fonts
    • The forms now support changing the form text color either by selecting the color from a list or by entering an html hex color.
    • The forms now support changing the input form background color either by selecting the color from a list or by entering an html hex color.
    • The label field has been updated to support two different widths
    • A line break field has been added in to support spacing in the form.
    • An html link option has been added in allow the client to click on a link and have it open a new tab. 
      • This is useful for situations where you want the client to view a page such as your terms of use policy but you don't want the client to leave the form.
    • An html link option has been added in to allow the client to click on a link and the client will leave the form and go to a different webpage. 
      • This is useful if the client is filling out the wrong cloudform and you need to have them leave the form and go to a different web link.
    • The 3 new custom fields in StudioCloud are now supported in the CloudForms.
      • To receive this feature please update to the latest minor release by going to settings and clicking on the "show major and minor releases" then clicking update.
  • Actions after the client fills out the form
    • The forms now support having a client automatically tagged when they fill out a form for future marketing purposes.
    • The forms now support having a client pipeline automatically assigned to a client for lead tracking. Client pipelines must be enabled to view this option when creating a form.
    • The forms now support selecting whether a client will be added to StudioCloud as a client, prospective client, or lead


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

New: Setup Wizard

Setup Wizard



StudioCloud has added a new Setup Wizard which steps customers through the setup process step by step.

If you are a new StudioCloud customer the setup wizard will automatically open the first time that you login. If you are an existing StudioCloud customer you can open the setup wizard by going to settings and clicking on the "Setup Wizard" button.

Monday, January 18, 2016

Feature Update: Pipelines

Pipeline Updates

Note: The following changes do not affect current customers with the only exceptions listed under "Current StudioCloud Accounts".

New Features

StudioCloud has added in the ability to hide and show different types of pipelines depending on how your business manages its workflow.

Changes To Current Features

Previously, StudioCloud allowed client pipelines, event pipelines, and invoice pipelines to be displayed as an option for a project. To reduce complexity StudioCloud now only allows new pipelines to be attached to their respective resource. Below is a breakdown of the new changes.
  • Project Pipelines are only used to track the status of a project
  • Client Pipelines are only be used to track the status of a client. 
    • Client Pipelines can no longer be used to track the status of a project
  • Event Pipelines are only be used to track the status of an event.
    • Event Pipelines can no longer be used to track the status of a project
  • Invoice Pipelines are only be used to track the status of an invoice.
    • Invoice Pipelines can no longer be used to track the status of a project
  • Job Pipelines are only used to track the status of a job.
  • Task Pipelines are only be used to track the status of a task.
Current StudioCloud Accounts

If a StudioCloud account already has a pipeline workflow in place the above changes do not apply. In other words, current StudioCloud accounts are unaffected by the above change except for in the following exceptions:
  • If a current customer is not seeing their preferred pipelines they need to go to the link below and enable their pipeline
  • If a current StudioCloud account creates a new pipeline the above changes apply.
  • If a current StudioCloud account needs to edit an existing pipeline the above changes apply.
    • They will simply need to change their client, event, or invoice pipeline to be a project pipeline
StudioCloud Tutorials




Feature Update: Tags

Client And System Tags



StudioCloud has previously offered a system to track clients, events, invoices, bookkeeping, projects and tasks using tags. With the latest update of StudioCloud still offers the exact same solution but we have conceptually divided the tags into two different categories. Client Tags and System Tags. Below is a definition for both of them.

Client Tags: Client tags are used to group clients for various reasons such as marketing purposes, quickly contacting them by email or text, reporting purposes, etc. Clients support unlimited tags.

System Tags: System tags are used to group resources such as events, invoices, bookkeeping, projects, and tasks for reporting purposes. A combo box with the label of tag is shown when system tags are enabled. Resources only support one system tag per resource.

By default a new StudioCloud account will have the system tags disabled to reduce the initial complexity of the StudioCloud program. Current StudioCloud accounts will, by default, have the system tags enabled.


New Feature: Custom Fields

Custom Client Fields




StudioCloud now supports up to 3 custom client fields in the new and edit client window. These fields can be used to store any information regarding a client that you want. In addition, the client fields label's can also be renamed. For example, if you want to save a client's fax number you could rename the "Custom Field 1" to be "Fax" and then record the fax number.

The Custom Field's are also display in the client tables as well but must be first selected from the "View Columns" menu option.



New Feature: Custom Client Windows

Custom Client Windows



StudioCloud now supports customizing the client, prospective client, and lead windows to display only the fields that you use. The above image shows a few sample examples of new client windows that have been customized.