Updates to Clients

The last few updates have seen some new features related to clients. The first now allows you to see additional information about a client when you are adding them to a session. The second will help you find that one specific client according to their phone number.

Do you have two clients with the same name or even close to the same name? That can make it really hard to assign them a session. So we have added an icon in the "Search for Customers" that you can click. When you click the icon you will see additional information like home, cell, and work phone, email, address, and notes. Hopefully this will prevent you from using the good old guess and check method.

The second updated related to clients is in the search field at the bottom of the client/prospective client list. Using the search field at the bottom of the client list has just become a little more powerful. You can now search for clients by phone number. If you have "All Fields" selected from the search box then it will include the home, cell, and work phone of your clients in the search. Or you can now select the home, cell, or work phone numbers to search in specifically. Hopefully this will help you find that one specific client even more quickly.

Sending Email Reminders

A new feature was added some time ago but we forgot to blog about it. Many of you have expressed to us the need to send appointment reminders for appointments other than sessions. So several weeks ago the developers made that request a reality. You can now have appointment reminders sent for any type of calendar event.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Update to Calendar Export

Not to long ago we gave you the ability to export your StudioCloud calendar to iCal and Outlook (http://blog.studiocloud.com/2008/05/export-your-calendar-to-ical-and.html). However, many of you found that the times you were seeing in Outlook did not match the times you were seeing in the Basic or Professional Suite. Our developers have been working hard to resolve this issue and they finally tracked it down to a problem with the way Outlook handles the time zones. They worked even harder to figure out a work around for this issue and that was included in last night's update. We recommend that everyone refresh their calendar and see if that resolves the time difference between Outlook and the Basic/Professional Suite calendar. If it is still not resolved you may need to delete the internet calendar and then re-subscribe to it following the steps in the original blog post (http://blog.studiocloud.com/2008/05/export-your-calendar-to-ical-and.html).

If after tonight's update, there is still a discrepancy in the two calendar times then please check that your computer's time zone and daylight savings settings are set correctly. You can always contact us as well and we will see what we can do to resolve the problem.

Print Your Schedule

Last night's update brought another commonly requested feature, printing your schedule. If you go to the Calendar section of the Basic/Professional Suite and go to the tab labeled Agenda there is a button near the bottom that is labeled "Print Agenda". When you click this button it will show you a popup where you can select a start and end date for your printout. By default the start date is the current date and the end date is 30 days from the start date. Once you have selected your start date and end date click the "Print Agenda" button and a PDF of your Agenda will be created an opened up.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Export Your Calendar to iCal and Outlook

The latest addition to the Basic/Professional Suite is the ability to export your calendar to Outlook and iCal. To do this go to the Calendar section of the Basic/Professional Suite and select the tab labeled Calendar Settings. On the right side of this section there is a heading labeled "Calendar Export Settings". Click the checkbox underneath this heading that is labeled "Export my studio's calendar to Outlook and iCal" When you do this you will get a popup that tells you that your settings have been saved. After that you can download your calendar using the web address in the box below the checkbox.

To view your calendar in Outlook 2007 follow the proceeding steps:

1. Open Outlook 2007
2. Click on the menu option labeled "Tools"
3. Select the option labeled "Account Settings"
4. In the "Account Settings" window select the tab named "Internet Calendars"
5. On the "Internet Calendars" tab click the button labeled "New"
6. Copy and paste the web address from the Basic/Professional Suite into the "New Internet Calendar Subscription" popup
7. Change the "Folder Name" from ICSFeed to "StudioCloud" or something similar
8. Click the button labeled "OK"
9. Click the "Close" button on the "Account Settings" popup window
10. Go to the Calendars section of Outlook
11. You should see your calendar either under "My Calendars" or "Other Calendars"

To view your Calendar in iCal follow the proceeding steps:

1. Open iCal
2. At the top of the screen select Calendar and Subscribe
   
3. Copy and paste the webaddress from the Basic/Professional Suite into the window that pops up and click the button labeled Subscribe
4. Change the name of the calendar from Untitled to something like StudioCloud or StudioCloud Calendar
5. Change any of the other settings that you desire
6. Click the OK button
7. You should now see your calendar under "Subscriptions"
   

We will post video tutorials on how to export your StudioCloud calendar to Outlook and iCal soon. When we do we will announce it here on the blog.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Changes to StudioCloud Mobile

We would like to thank everyone for their feedback on StudioCloud Mobile. We are working hard to provide you with a viable solution for mobile devices. In last night's update the next step in the mobile calendar arrived. Previously you were only able to see your sessions and appointments for the current day. Obviously this isn't as helpful as a mobile calendar should be. As a result, the developers have been working hard to allow you to see more information. Now when you first login to StudioCloud Mobile you will see not only today's appointments and sessions but all of the appointments and sessions for the next six days. Moreover, you can now move forward and backward seven days at a time and view even more information.

There is still more to come for StudioCloud Mobile but we are taking one step at a time. Check back here often for the latest updates.

Reminders and Taxes

There have been several new features added in recent updates to StudioCloud products. Two of those updates are for appointment reminders and invoice taxes.

As you all know you can have StudioCloud send out automatic email messages to your customers to remind them of upcoming appointments. You can now have StudioCloud send your studio a summary of all the reminders that were sent out each day. If you go into the Calendar section of the Basic or Professional Suite there is a tab labeled "Calendar Settings". On that tab is a checkbox that reads "Send a summary of email reminders to my studio email address" If you click that checkbox and then click the button that reads "Update Calendar Settings" you have enabled this feature. This means that every day any appointment reminders are sent to your customers, you will receive an email with a summary of the customers that were contacted that night.

Another of the latest features is a change to invoice taxes. There are some states and many countries around the world that have complicated tax systems. As such, StudioCloud has given you the ability to define three different taxes and customize the name and percentage rate for each. These three taxes are additive, meaning that each one is added to each invoice. If you only use one tax then there aren’t any changes that you need to make. You can continue using StudioCloud products the way you have in the past. However, if you have a more complex tax system, then StudioCloud’s advanced taxes are for you.

Another change related to the invoice tax system is the "Tax Status" of products and services. You can now classify each product and service as either "Tax Exempt" or "Standard". Standard is just a way of saying that the product or service should be taxed normally. If you specify an item as Tax Exempt then each time it is added to an invoice its amount will not be included when calculating the taxes.

On the Settings tab in the Point of Sale section for the Basic/Professional suites you can update your invoice tax settings. If you click the checkbox that is labeled "Enable Tax Status Option" then you can change the "Tax Status" of a product or service in an invoice as you are creating or editing. One of the most important features related to "Tax Status" is reporting. A new report has been added that prints out all of the products and services that you have sold that have been categorized as "Tax Exempt".

One thing to note about "Tax Status" is that there is a third category called "Zero Tax". For all intents and purposes, this is the same as "Tax Exempt"; however, some places do have two different classifications. If you are not familiar with "Zero Tax" then you probably do not need to worry about it.

Windows and Daylight Savings Time

The support team has recently received several reports from customers seeing the incorrect time for their appointments on Microsoft Windows computers. It is especially noticeable if you use both Windows and Mac computers. After investigation the team found that this problem is due to Microsoft Windows not correctly updating to accommodate the recent changes to Daylight Savings Time. This year, in the United States and Canada, Daylight Savings Time began earlier than normal. Most likely your computer updated correctly and you won't have a problem. However, if you are seeing incorrect times in your calendar then we encourage you to follow the instructions on this Microsoft support page: http://support.microsoft.com/DST2007 If you have any questions please contact support.

Mobile Access

You can now view the current day's schedule from any mobile device that has internet access. Coming soon you will be able to view any day's schedule, schedule appointments, add/view clients, and view price lists from your mobile devices. Go to studiocloud.com/m with your cell phone/mobile device to check things out.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Assign Colors To Sessions

You now have a larger selection of colors to choose from when scheduling appointments and can choose a default color to save for your session types. Go under the calendar and click on the tab session types offered by studio. Here it will allow you to choose a default color.