StudioCloud Helping To Streamline Processes

The purpose of StudioCloud software is to make running your studio as easy as possible. So the development team has recently added some new features to StudioCloud Desktop to help you streamline your processes.

First, when you are creating or editing a client you can quickly create a new session or invoice for that client. There are two new buttons at the bottom of the form labeled "Create Session" and "Create Invoice" that should help stream line this process. In addition, a similar "Create Session" button has also been added to the form for creating and editing your a prospective client.

Second, when you are creating or editing a session you can now edit the client information just by clicking the edit icon. Any changes you make will be updated in that session and all other sessions. In addition, you have always had the ability to create a new invoice based on a session that you are creating. With the most recent updates the new invoice will actually popup so that you can edit it after the session is saved. This will allow you to add and down payments or session fees right then and there.

Finally, when creating or editing an invoice you can edit the client information. There is now a button just to the right of the "Select Customer" field. When clicked it will open up a window to edit that clients information.

StudioCloud hopes that these changes will make you and your employees just a little bit faster. That way you can spend more time doing what you love.

StudioCloud. It’s just that easy

Updates to StudioCloud Desktop and Browser

There have been some recent updates to StudioCloud Desktop and StudioCloud Browser.

1. The development team has begun integrating with internet payment gateways. The first gateway we have integrated with is Authorize.net. If you currently use a merchant account that process credit cards through Authorize.net then you can setup your merchant account information in StudioCloud Desktop in the Settings section so that when you have a payment that is being made on a credit card you can process it right then and there. *
2. Orders made from the StudioCloud Online Proofing have always been automatically added to your list of workflow orders. However, with the recent updates you will even be able to view the thumbnails of the images that were ordered in StudioCloud Online Proofing. This should make it easier for you to process your orders. *
3. The graphical view of the calendar that allows you to quickly view when your appointments are was recently updated to include additional information both in the appointment and the tooltip. (This update only affects Professional Suite users.) You will now see the photographers, assistants, equipment, and locations that are scheduled for a session both on the calendar and in the tooltip.
4. The button that used to be in the reports section of StudioCloud Desktop and StudioCloud Browser that allowed you to print a list of your clients has been removed. Instead there is now a button on both the clients section and the prospective clients section that allows you to print this report. This should make it easier for your to find this information when you need it.
5. The development team recently implemented a new feedback system. For the most part, you will not see any huge changes. The difference is that this new system allows you to respond to our support team from within the StudioCloud programs. In addition, you can see the conversation history of a particular item of feedback. That way you don't have to go searching through your emails to find out what a member of the support team said in their last email. We believe that this will make it easier for you to communicate with us and vice versa.

StudioCloud. It’s just that easy

* Affects only StudioCloud Desktop

Online Proofing 2.0 Updates

On December 30th, 2008 the development team released an updated version of StudioCloud Online Proofing 2.0 and StudioCloud PSG 2.0. They made some changes that we believe everyone will be happy to hear about.

First, the development team updated the sorting of images in Online Proofing to be even more efficient.

Second, the compare photos, order photos, and browser for image interfaces were updated. Essentially the development team reduce the complexity to make it easier for your customers to use StudioCloud Online Proofing.

Third, in the Basic/Professional Suites you can now limit the number of poses that can be purchased in a package. To edit the number of poses allowed in a package simply edit the package in either StudioCloud Desktop or StudioCloud Browser, click the "Limit Package Poses" checkbox and enter the total number of poses you that package is allowed. This helps make the Online Proofing more flexible to fit your needs.

Last but not least is the addition of image options. You no longer have to upload three different images to show your customers color, black and white, and sepia. When your customers view the larger image or go to purchase a particular image they now have an option to view the image in black and white or sepia. If they choose to purchase a photo in black and white or sepia then a note is added to that particular product to let you and your customer know. These image options are optional on a per album basis on the Settings tab when uploading a new album. If you want to have the images options enabled by default then when you are publishing a new album just remember to enable the image options and click the "Save Settings As Default" button.

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

StudioCloud Desktop Updates

We’ve done a lot of improvements to StudioCloud Desktop with this new update and we want to make sure you know about them. Below is a list of the changes that have been made in the latest StudioCloud Desktop update.

1. We have improved the agenda widget on the overview page. We renamed agenda to “Time Sensitive Items” and added in leads, orders, and a tasks tab to the widget. Only items with a pickup date are shown in the tabs.

2. You can now change the agenda day to view the events for any day.

3. Leads/Prospective Customers now have an event type and estimated date field to help you manage your leads better.

4. Workflow has been substantially improved. Previously the product pipelines and order pipelines were created and managed on the same page. That was confusing. As such the product pipelines is now available on the Products page under Point of Sale. The Workflow page still contains the order pipelines. We have also added in a service pipeline as well on the Services Page page under Point of Sale.

5. We have also added in a default pipeline checkbox to both the product pipelines and order pipelines. If an order default pipeline checkbox is selected any order that doesn't have a pipeline assigned to it will automatically be assigned the default pipeline. Likewise for product pipelines. This should speed up the workflow process.

6. We have renamed Task Lists to Categories and added in an individual task view on the Tasks page under Workflow. The individual task view allows you to see all of your tasks and filter them by categories.

7. We added a New Task button to the quick task window.

8. We also added in a Import from ICS (calendars) button on the Agenda Page under Calendar. This will import calendar appointments from third party calendars.

9. We added in a Last Modified By and Last Modified Date column under the View Columns button under invoices. These columns show who last edited the invoice and when it was last edited.

10. We added in a Select a Date Range to the Print Time Card Report for those studios who want to see all of the time card entries for a given time period outside of the Pay Periods Range.

StudioCloud. It’s just that easy

StudioCloud Enterprise Desktop

StudioCloud Enterprise Desktop

StudioCloud is excited to announce the beta release of the Enterprise Desktop. This product allows franchises and chains the ability to manage multiple Professional/Basic suites from one central application. If you want to learn more about the Enterprise Desktop go to the following link:

StudioCloud.com/EnterpriseDesktop.html

Tip of the Week-StudioCloud 2.0 Official Release

StudioCloud is proud to announce its official 2.0 release of its family of studio management products. This release brings photographers state of the art features that have never been seen before.

The StudioCloud Basic/Professional Suites can now be accessed through a redesigned browser version, a brand new desktop version, or using the redesigned mobile version. The new desktop version has built in offline capabilities, which means that if your Internet has problems your studio can keep operating until the Internet comes back online.

In addition, the Online Proofing has been redesigned specifically to increase your studio’s sales. It now has new features like drag and drop ordering, side-by-side comparisons, multiple online galleries, and much more.

To read the official press release click the link below:

http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=109

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Tip of the Week-Online Proofing 2.0 Beta

We are excited to inform you that our Online Proofing 2.0 has made it through internal testing and is ready for open beta testing. We would like to invite you to experience the new StudioCloud Online Proofing 2.0. Please email support@studiocloud.com with any problems or questions. If you experience a problem please provide us with as much information as you can about the problem so we can resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

To start using the new Online Proofing 2.0 download the new StudioCloud PSG 2.0 at
Online Proofing

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Tip of the Week-StudioCloud Mobile

This week’s Tip of the Week has to do with accessing your studio while on the go. StudioCloud is excited to announce the new and improved StudioCloud Mobile 2.0. The new StudioCloud Mobile 2.0 gives photographers the ability to add new appointments and clients from any Internet enabled device such as an iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, etc. Having the ability to check your schedule as well as adding new appointments while on the go will help you to improve your studio’s time management.

http://www.studiocloud.com/m2

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Tip of the Week -Tags

This week’s Tip of the Week has to do with Client Tags. Client Tags are an important part of creating profitable marketing campaigns. Tags allow you to create marketing campaigns that focus on specific types of clients. Every client might seem different but many of them have similarities that you can use to create that perfect marketing campaign. For example, similarities such as interests, hobbies, events, lifestyle, estimated income level, employment, etc. can all be used to identify which customers a specific marketing campaign would appeal to the most.

StudioCloud provides you with intuitive, easy to use, tagging functionality that enables you to create that perfect marketing campaign for your clients. Tags also help you to effectively organize your clients to create an even more efficient studio.

To get more information regarding how to setup and use tags refer to the link below:

http://app1.studiocloud.com/support/index.php?/category/135/0/10/

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Tip of the Week - Workflow

This week’s Tip of the Week is focused on increasing your studios efficiency. The key to being efficient is establishing simple and intuitive workflow processes for you and your employees.

To assist you in this, StudioCloud offers advanced workflow features in the Desktop application that allow you to easily setup and maintain your studios product and order workflow. The product workflow is the actual status of each individual product in an order while the order workflow is the status of an entire order.

To get step-by-step instructions on how to setup your studios workflow click the link below.

What is a Pipeline?
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=105

Workflow Instructions:
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=106

As your workflow efficiency increases your order turnaround time will decrease and you will be able to get more work done in less time.

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Tip of the Week – Email Marketing Campaigns

This week’s Tip of the Week has to do with email campaigns. Email campaigns are one of the most cost effective marketing tools available to photographers. However, caution should be used not to send too many emails to a client or to have an email message be too generic.

To help you avoid sending generic emails, StudioCloud allows you to create marketing campaigns based upon session types, dates, tags, relationships, organizations, and numerous other criteria. By utilizing StudioCloud’s email marketing tools you will be able to craft a custom message for a specific group of clients. Not only will StudioCloud let you create email marketing campaigns but it will also send those emails out for you.

Marketing just got a lot easier.

To get step-by-step instructions on how to create an email marketing campaign click the link below

http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=101

StudioCloud, It’s just that easy.

Client Numbers

Last night our development team stayed up late to bring you the new Client Number feature. StudioCloud wants to thank those of you that have been patiently waiting for us to add this new feature.

StudioCloud, It’s just that Easy

Customizable Invoice Numbers and Online Gallery PayPal Support

We have a lot of customers who have been asking why the blog has been quiet lately. The blog's focus has been on new features and products. The development team has been working diligently on getting them released and they expect them to be available in the next few weeks. A lot of the updates over the last few weeks have been in preparation for those new features. Hopefully you will be excited as we are about the new features when they are announced.

Last night’s update added some exciting new features. The first feature is primarily for international users, QuickBooks users, and new StudioCloud studios. You can now change the invoice number so that it matches with your current studios invoice number allowing you to continue using the same invoice numbering system you have always been using. It will make the transition to StudioCloud just that much easier.

To learn more about editing Invoice Numbers click on the following link:
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=91

Those of you who are detail oriented will also have noticed that the developers added a few visual items to speed up your processes. The title bar when you edit an invoice now contains the invoice date as well as the invoice number.

StudioCloud is also pleased to announce that the Online Gallery now has the capability of accepting credit cards through PayPal. This new feature gives your clients a simple and efficient way to purchase those must have images. This new PayPal capability is an option that can be turned on or off on a per album basis.

To learn more about Online Gallery’s new PayPal capability click on the following link:
http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=93

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

More Flexibility To Your Calendar

Have you ever made a prospective customer a client on accident? Saturday nights update gives you an easy way to convert those clients back to prospective customers. To make the change go to the clients name and click on the Convert to Prospective Customer in the bottom left corner.

This weekend’s update also gives your calendar even more flexibility by allowing you to add new calendar types. This new feature allows you to customize types of appointments without distorting the reporting functions that StudioCloud offers. To add this flexibility to your calendar click on the Calendar Types Offered By Studio, on the bottom right there is an Add New Calendar Type button that will allow you to customize your appointments.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Recent Updates

Last night's update included one important change for prospective customers. You can now include prospective customers when scheduling events on the calendar. This will allow for you to meet with those prospective customers and discuss their needs before they are added as actual customers for your studio.

To add prospective customers to a calendar event open up an event and click the button that reads "Select Customers" and where you would normally see your list of customers you will now see two tabs. One labeled "Clients" and the second labeled "Prospective Clients". You can double-click and drag and drop the prospective clients into the list of selected clients.

Also, creating new products and services just became easier with the new "Duplicate" button available in Point of Sale. If you need to add a new product or service that's similar to an existing product, simply click "Duplicate" and an "Add New Product" form will pop up pre-populated with the existing product's information.

Finally, Brazilian currency is now available in Basic and Professional Suites, the Online Gallery, and PSG application.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Measuring Your Studio's Success

There are many ways to measure your studio's success. One of them is to look at your profit and loss. So the developers have added in a new report labeled "Profit/Loss Report". To find it go to the Reports section of the Basic/Professional Suite and then select the tab labeled "PDF Reports". In both the Basic and Professional Suite it is the last report in the list.

Take a look at it and let us know what you think. We love to hear your feedback and we will do our best to meet your needs. The development team is working on additional reports that we will announce on the blog when they become available as well.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

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.

Quickly Adding Expenses

Have you ever need to quickly add an expense to your books? Well now you can. We have added a button to the Quick Tasks Window that shows up on the left of the Basic and Professional Suites labeled "New Expense". This will allow you to quickly and easily add a new expense to the system. Although this is something very small, we hope that it will help to increase your studio's efficiency.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Quickly Find Client's Order Status

Are you tired of searching through a long list of invoices or a pile of paperwork to determine what the status is of your client's order when they call up on the phone? Well now you don't have to. The update last night included a new column in the Customer History section of the Basic and Professional Suites that will allow you to quickly check the status of the order.

To use this new feature log in to the Basic or Professional Suite, open a client, click on the tab labeled "Customer History" and look for an icon that looks like:

Import/Export Clients

Last night's update brought the latest changes to the Address Book in the Basic and Professional Suite. Previously you have only been able to import clients into the Basic/Professional Suite. With the update you can now import both clients and prospective clients. You can also export your client list including clients, archived clients, and prospective clients.

If you need more advanced exporting then you should try out the StudioCloud CRM. That will allow you to filter clients according to other information such as organizations, dates, etc.... before you export them.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Last Week's Updates

At the end of last week the StudioCloud development team made some updates that we just wanted to let you know about. The first update was to the login process. The development team has sped up the login in process considerable.

The second update was in the Bookkeeping section of the Basic and Professional Suites. If you go to the tab labeled "Accounts" in the Bookkeeping section and edit or create a new account you can now add a starting balance for that account. Currently all of your accounts will have a starting balance of zero but if you add in a starting balance then the account balance will be calculated based on that starting balance.

The last change was in the Search functionality of the Client section of the Basic and Professional Suite. Last week we added in the ability to assign "tags" to customers to help track additional information. Now in the search box on the bottom of the client and prospective client lists you can search for tags that have been assigned to customers. This is one way of finding your customers even more quickly.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

StudioCloud On-Location is Now Available

The StudioCloud development team has been hard at work and has just released the much anticipated StudioCloud On-Location into open Beta.

StudioCloud On-Location automatically detects whether or not you have an internet connection and, if you don't, it will automatically save your changes to your computer until you have an internet connection. This allows you to continue to operate if your internet goes down. In addition, you can also go to events where there isn't an internet connection, such as a school or wedding, and add prospective customers or create new invoices.

StudioCloud On-Location has a new sync page which will show you a table of everything you have done while offline. When you get an internet connection just go to the sync page and click on the sync button and it will sync everything up with your Basic/Professional Suite.

Note: StudioCloud On-Location is still in beta which means that the program might still have some unknown bugs in it. We recommend doing a trial run of using the On-Location without an internet connection before going to an event to confirm that it worked as expected.

StudioCloud. It’s just that easy

Track More Customer Information

Last night's update included more client information updates. You can now save different types of dates that you want to track. By default we have entered Anniversary, Birthday, and Graduation as dates for your to track. You can edit or delete those default date types and add your own by going to the Clients section of the Basic and Professional Suite and then clicking on the tab labeled "Settings".

Next to the "Date Types" tab is the new "Tags" tab. The tags tab allows you to add tags that will help you quickly find customers for marketing campaigns. For example, you might have a tag for "Newborn pictures" or something similar.

Once you have added types of dates and tags that you want to keep track of you can add that information to your clients and prospective clients in the Basic and Professional Suite.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

Tracking Relationships

Last night's update included the ability to track relationships between people in your client list. In the Clients section on the Settings tab you can enter the types of relationships that you track in your studio. Then when you create a new client or update an existing one you can add relationships for that client. Whether it is a grandparent, spouse, child, or even a pet you will be able to track those types of relationships.

The relationships tracking will be used for creating marketing campaigns in an upcoming update to the CRM. Check back here for the latest updates.

Printing Your Tax ID Number

Because StudioCloud is an internationally used program we have tried to make sure that we are meeting our customers' needs around the world. Many countries require that the printed invoice include the business's tax identification number and, as such, we have now made it possible to include your business's tax id on your invoices in the Basic and Professional Suite as well.

To setup your tax id login to your StudioCloud account and go to Point of Sale. Click on the Settings tab and look in the section labeled "Tax Options". On the bottom left of that section you can save what you want to be printed on the invoice and select whether or not you want it included on your invoices. For example, if you are in Canada you might enter something like "GST #" and then your number or if you are in England it might be something like "VAT #" and your number.

If the "Show Tax ID on Invoice" checkbox is selected then this number will be included on all invoices just below your Studio's information.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

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

Keep Track of Your Referrals

Have you ever wanted to be able to keep track of where your customer's are coming from? Maybe you want to offer referral rewards to existing customers or you need to know whether or not a marketing campaign is working for you studio? Well now you can do it all right inside of StudioCloud. Last night's update included a referral field in the create/edit client and prospective client. Simply click the button labeled "Update Referral" and you will see three options to choose from:

1. Client was referred by another customer


2. Client was referred by a marketing campaign


3. Client was referred by something or someone else

The first two options allow you to select a client or marketing campaign from your lists. The last option gives you a blank text field to type anything you want.

You can set up marketing campaigns in the just released Customer Relationship Manager (CRM). To learn how to use the CRM we encourage you to watch the video tutorial that will step you through the current functionality of the CRM and how to use it. Don't forget to setup your email accounts so you can use the email marketing that is built in to the CRM.

Check back soon for reports that will give you an idea of where your customers are coming from.

StudioCloud, It's just that Easy

More Website Integration

The development team has brought even more integration to your studio's website. Our last post (http://blog.studiocloud.com/2008/05/integrate-studiocloud-into-your-website.html) was about the new feature of embedding the StudioCloud Update Information Module into your website. Well now you can embed the Contact Us Module as well. The Contact Us Module is similar to a typical contact us form that is fairly common on most websites. However, not only does it send you an email with the message in it, but it also stores the message in your Basic/Professional Suite.

But wait there's more. When someone submits a message through the Contact Us Module, StudioCloud tries to match and associate the message to one of your existing customers. And if it can't find the email anywhere in your customer list, then StudioCloud automatically creates a new "Prospective Customer" and associates the message with that new prospective customer. We hope that this will help your studio run even more efficiency.

But if that is not enough for you, then there is more. You can now embed the StudioCloud Online Gallery into your studio's website. That way your customers come to your website and never leave. As far as they can tell you just have a fantastic, professional looking online gallery. Just one more thing to help build your studio and make it more of a success than it already is.

We do have several articles in our support section on these topics:
StudioCloud Update Information Module
StudioCloud Contact Us Module
StudioCloud Online Gallery

Integrate StudioCloud into your website

Have you ever wanted your clients to be able update their contact information through your website? Wouldn't it be even better if those changes would go straight into your StudioCloud account? What if you could allow your customers to see the status of an order?

Well now you can! Our development team has been hard at work creating new ways to integrate with your website and make your life simpler. You can now include a StudioCloud component on your website that will allow your customers to login view and update their personal information. If you choose they can even view the status of any orders they have made with you.

To use this components follow the instructions on our support page http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=60

Send Custom Emails

Do you want your emails to your clients to have a little bit more personalized feel? Well now you can! The development team recently implemented the ability to use your own email address to send emails to customers. This includes sending invoices, reminders, and Online Gallery invitations. We believe that this will decrease the probability that emails will be marked as spam or glanced over. For instructions on setting up your own email accounts see our support article at http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=61

You can use your own emails to send reminders, email customers directly from StudioCloud Basic and Professional Suites, send invoices, and even more features will be available in the upcoming CRM.

Advanced Task List

For quite some time we have had a much more advanced task system in the Workflow Manager. However, we realized that this same advanced system should also be included in the Basic and Professional Suites. So last night's update included the more advanced task system. You can now set due dates and mark task lists and tasks as completed in the Basic and Professional Suite.

Email From StudioCloud

Have you ever been looking at your client list and realize that you need to email one of your clients about his/her upcoming session, balance due, or pictures? Now you can email them directly from the Basic/Professional Suite directly from your own personal email address.

Last night's update included the ability to add one or more email accounts to the Basic/Professional Suite so that all email correspondence are from you and not from StudioCloud. You can currently add email accounts that require a secure (encrypted) connection and then click a button in the "Edit Client" window that allows you to email customers directly. Soon the ability to add email accounts that use non-secure connections will be available as well.

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.

Complete Your Invoices

Last nights update included a new feature that will allow you to more efficiently view and sort your invoices. Once an invoice has been fulfilled you simply click the checkbox on that row to mark it complete. By default only invoices that have not been marked complete are visible. So once you mark an invoice complete it will no longer be visible in the Point of Sale section. However, if you need to find that invoice you can click the checkbox on the bottom left of the Invoices tab to "Show Completed Invoices".


This feature should make it much easier to work with your most current invoices.


StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Quickly Switch Taxes

A while back we upgraded the invoicing system to include multiple additive taxes. We received lots of great feedback and realized that there was one more thing missing for many studios, the ability to quickly switch between different taxes. Last nights update added in what we are calling "Tax Profiles". Tax profiles allow you to create different profiles for your different tax situations. For example, you may have profiles for "Local Tax", "Out of State Tax", or "International Tax". Then once you are creating or editing an invoice you can quickly populate the the necessary taxes using a drop-down box. We believe that this will help you become even more efficient.


To begin using tax profiles, go to the Point of Sale section of the Basic/Professional Suite and select the tab labeled "Settings". Your current tax settings will remain your "Default Tax Profile". Then in the table next to the tax options you can setup as many tax profiles as you will need.


In case you are wondering, the Workflow Pipelines that used to be on the "Settings" tab has moved to the tab labeled "Workflow".


StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Tracking Prospective Clients

Last night's update provided an additional client list to keep track of your "Prospective Clients". You can add/edit/delete prospective clients from your list and easily convert them to regular clients. Keeping your clients and prospective clients separate will keep your client list from getting disorganized.

Separating prospective clients from clients will also come in handy when preparing marketing campaigns in the upcoming CRM. That way you can easily target your marketing specifically to potential customers.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

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!

Embedded Workflow

Last nights update made some important changes to the Basic and Professional Suites. One of those changes is the inclusion of workflow functionality. As you all know, by default a workflow order is made whenever you create an invoice. This allows you to keep track of where the order is in your studio's processes. Until now you have had to track the workflow processes in the Workflow Manager. However, with last nights update you can now update and view the status of your orders in the Basic and Professional Suite.

To view/update the workflow order in the Basic/Professional Suite you go to the Point of Sale section of the Basic/Professional Suite and click on the Workflow Manager icon. A sample of the Workflow Manager is provided below.

Update to the Address Book

After our recent change to the address book that removed notes from the clients section we received feedback from some of you that you really needed the notes field for sorting and finding specific information. So the developers put their heads together and came up with a solution that they believe will work for everyone.

The first change is that the notes field has been added back into the clients section of the Basic/Professional Suite. However, rather than showing you the entire notes section, which was very long for some studios and made the clients table unusable, it only shows you approximately the first 50 characters. This allows you to see some of the information, sort the table by the notes field, and view the full notes field by clicking on the magnifying glass.

The second addition is an update to the search functionality in the clients section. Previously when you typed anything into the search field below the table it would search a variety of the client information. But it wasn't clear what part of a clients information was matching your search. As a result, the developers updated the search section. They have added in a drop-down box that has various options in it including All Fields, First Name, Last Name, Business, Email, and Notes. When you select one of these options you are specifically searching through that field of your clients information. We hope this will help all of you get more out of the clients section and to be able to use it more efficiently.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Customize Your Suite

Many of you know that you can customize many aspects of StudioCloud. Well the developers just released an update to StudioCloud that allows you to customize your Basic/Professional Suite even more. You can now upload your own image to use as the background of your Suite. If you login to the Basic/Professional Suite and go to the Settings section. There is a new button on the tab labeled "Select Background". The button is labeled "Select Custom Background" and it will have you select an image to upload and use.

There are some restrictions on what you can upload. The image must be smaller than 1 MB (1024 KB). In addition, the size of the image that you can upload is also dependant on your internet speed.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Small Changes to Address Book

It has been brought to our attention that many StudioCloud users are storing large amounts of information in the notes section for their clients. This can result in each row in the client list taking up a lot of space and making it difficult to find the client they are looking for. As a result, the developers have moved the notes section into a popup. Now in the third column from the left there is a little magnifying class. When you click that magnifying glass it will popup the notes for that customer.

View Your Contacts Anytime, Anywhere

The StudioCloud Mobile development team is at it again. Just a few days ago I wrote about the extended abilities of the calendar in the StudioCloud Mobile interface. Well last night the developers released the latest installment of StudioCloud Mobile, the address book. You can now access your StudioCloud address book anytime, anywhere through the StudioCloud Mobile interface. Once you have logged in to StudioCloud Mobile, the link, that was previously labeled "Coming Soon", is now active. When you click on the link it gives you a break down of your address book according to the first letter in your contact's last name. You can click on any of the characters to find the contact you are looking for and view all of the information you have saved in StudioCloud.



StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Updates to the Online Gallery

The developers have been working hard to make the StudioCloud Online Gallery even better. Recently they have introduced several new features, variable slideshow speed, the ability to save favorites, and additional confirmations for your customers.

Back on April 9th Tara blogged about the ability to set the slideshow speed. Well the developers have taken this feature one step further. Previously you could select slow, medium or fast speeds. Now you can select a custom speed and specify the number of seconds that each picture is viewed in the slideshow.

The StudioCloud Online Gallery has had a place for your customers to place their favorites for quite some time. But they could never save their favorites so they could come back and view them later or share them with their friends and family. Well now they can! Your customers can select a group of favorites and save them so that they can come back and view them later or they can share their favorites with Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa. Also after you upload the pictures to an online gallery you, the photographer, can login and create a group of favorites for your customers to see.

The final addition helps to provide your customers with a sense of security. After they have placed an order a popup message will be displayed that tells them what invoice number their order was assigned. This will help them to know what to reference if they have any questions for you. Secondly, a simple email is sent to your customers that gives them a summary of what they purchase. These two additions will make them feel more comfortable with their purchase.

These are three of great new features that have been added to an already incredible product. And just think you haven't had to pay any additional money to take advantage of them.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Introducing Employee Time Tracking

Last night's update included the latest StudioCloud feature, employee time tracking. Employee time tracking is a Professional Suite feature and is not available in the Basic Suite. However, the Professional Suite is currently in beta and everyone can try out the Professional Suite.

So here is how it works. In the Professional Suite go to the Employees section and find the Settings tab. On the Settings tab click the button that reads "Change Pay Period Settings". This will bring up a popup where you can select the first day of the current pay period and the length of your pay period. So for example your current pay period might run from April 19th to May 2nd. This means you would set the first day of the pay period to April 19th and the length of the pay period to 14 days. Then click the button that reads "Save Pay Period Settings." This is the first step in setting up employee time tracking. Now if you go to the tab that is labeled "Time Cards" you can enter and edit time cards for your employees and print out a time card report for the pay period.

This section of the Professional Suite is meant as a management tool. To allow your employees to record their hours worked we have created a easy to use application called the StudioCloud Time Card which can be downloaded and installed from our support page. At the very bottom of the page you will see a link to download the Time Card program. Once you have installed the StudioCloud Time Card program your employees can quickly login and clock in/out.

It is important to know that this is the first release of this feature and although we have tried very hard to remove any bugs from the program you may still encounter a few. Please be patient as we improve this feature and work out the kinks.

As always we love to get your feedback on what works and doesn't work for your studio.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

StudioCloud Bookkeeping

In last night's update there was a change to the bookkeeping section of the Basic and Professional Suites. In the bookkeeping section there is a tab named "Income/Expense Tracking". Previously this tab listed all of your bookkeeping entries in one table. However, we realize that you need to see specific information on a per account basis. As a result, the developers updated this area last night. When you first login you will not see any entries in the table on the "Income/Expense Tracking" tab. But you will see a drop-down box labeled "Account:" That drop-down box contains a list of all of your accounts. When you select an account in the drop-down box the bookkeeping entries that have been associated with that account will appear.

One final note, there are occasions when some bookkeeping entries have not been assigned to an account. As a result there is one option in the drop-down box that is labeled "Unspecified." Selecting this option will show you all of the bookkeeping entries that have not been associated with an account.

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.

Changes to Overview Graph

One of the changes in last night's update was to the graph that appears in the Overview section of the Basic and Professional Suites. There have been many questions regarding the graph and it was decided that the information it displayed was simply not intuitive enough. The graph now displays two columns that are labeled Sales and Income. The Sales column is calculated by summing the totals of all of your invoices from the first of the month until now. The Income column is calculated by summing the total payments received on Invoices from the first of the month until now.

If you have any questions about the changes to the graph, please let us know through the Feedback section of any of the StudioCloud products.

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.

Online Gallery & Workflow Updates

You now have the option of adding music to your Online Galleries and can set the slideshow speed.

A new version of the beta Workflow Manager has also been released that has most bugs fixed. Please let us know if you run into any problems.


StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Feature Updates

1) A change to printing and emailing invoices
a. After you click print or email it will pop up a box with various options. If you click email, one of those options is to modify the email address you want to send it to
b. To print an invoice with notes you click print/email and click the box that asks about notes
c. You can print your entire packages information in the invoice or just the basic package info

2) When you add a new client from any of the create/edit calendar session windows it automatically adds the client to the list for the session you are scheduling.

3) Track Organizations
a. Under Clients there is a tab Organizations where you can track different organizations and the individual clients that are associated with that organization. For example, you can assign seniors to the high school they attend. This will allow you to run reports in the CRM (coming soon) to track your most profitable school, send out targeted mail/email campaigns, and find the average sale per school.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Congratulations WPPI Winners!

Congratulations to Shauna Stansell of Visionyard Studios Photography in Phoenix, AZ. She is the winner of the IPod Touch from the WPPI drawing.

Also, Congratulations to Bob Beaver of Village Studio of Hunterdon in High Bridge, NJ who is the winner of the 2 year subscription to StudioCloud's products.

Thank you to everyone who participated. We look forward to seeing you next January in Phoenix at Imaging USA and then in February in Vegas at MGM for WPPI.

Take care!

New Offline Reader

The Offline Reader has been updated to work with the Professional Suite and has a new interface. For those of you not currently using the Offlline Reader you can download it at http://studiocloud.com/BasicOfflineReader.html. This will allow you to access all of your data when you do not have an internet connection. Make sure you frequently open the program so that all of your data can refresh.

Keep your eye out for the On-Location product coming soon. This product looks just like your Basic/Professional Suite but is on your desktop. You can take it anywhere without internet access and then when you get internet access it will sync your information with your online suite.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

WPPI IPod Touch Drawing & Free Gift

Hello Everyone,

Our team enjoyed meeting you at WPPI. We hope you all had a safe trip home and that your businesses are doing well.

We just wanted to remind everyone to sign up for their free 30 day trial at https://studiocloud.com/ before March 30th to get another entry into the drawing that will be held on March 31st. On the lefthand side you will see a Setup Your Studio Here button. Two names will be drawn, one will win an IPod Touch and the other will win a free two year subscription to StudioCloud's products.

If you won another 1 or 3 month subscription from the prize wheel, go ahead and sign up for the 30 day trial now and you will receive a separate email later that will extend your trial.

For those of you who may have lost the link to your free gift (StudioCloud's Clothing Assistant) you can download it at http://studiocloud.com/ClothingAssistant.html

You can keep up to date on the latest StudioCloud news and product updates at http://blog.studiocloud.com
We look forward to working with you and hearing any feedback you may have.

Best Regards,

Cindy Edwards
StudioCloud Team

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!

Come See Us At WPPI

If any of you are attending Wedding & Portrait Photographers International make sure to stop by and say hi to part of our team. We will be in venue booth 10A.

Come on over to have multiple chances to win an IPod Touch, a 2 year free subscription, and pick up your $20 gift just for stopping by. Also, for any of our current subscribers you can stop by to pick up some StudioCloud discount cards that have a place for your code.

Please be patient next week with response times to feedback, emails, and phone calls because of the reduced staff here in the office. If you need immediate assistance please email support@studiocloud.com.

Take Care!

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Edit Online Albums

You can now edit your online albums that are already published. This means you can add pictures, delete pictures, and change the settings without having to republish the entire album. You cannot watermark or change the size of the pics that are already published but you can choose those options for the new pics you are adding to the album.

To edit your albums just click on the edit icon next to the album you want to modify. Let us know if you have any questions.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Adobe Air 1.0

Adobe has officially released The Adobe® AIR™ runtime 1.0. This means that StudioCloud's Online Gallery is now compatible with the Leopard operating system. For any of you who have not been able to try out the Online Gallery due to this compatibility issue please let us know and we can extend your trial. Other minor bugs have also been resolved due to this AIR release.

StudioCloud, It's Just That Easy!

Packages Have Arrived

We have listened to your requests for a better way to handle packages and it is now available.

Under Point of Sale you will see a tab that says Packages. Here you can create customized packages that you can offer to your customers from your Online Gallery and make invoicing simplified in your Basic/Professional Suite.

Your customers will be able to view a customized description (for example: how many poses they are allowed for each package) and also a detailed breakdown of what the package includes. Then when they select a package it will automatically populate what images are included in that package and they can select the images to go with each print in the package.

The packages will automatically be added to your “All Products” price list but make sure to add them to the other Price Lists you would like them included on.

We look forward to your feedback!

New PSG (Previously In-Studio Gallery) Features

You can now export contacts to csv – for mailing lists in the PSG. This use to only be in the Offline Reader.

You can also select payment options for albums in the online gallery. Select either credit card or in-studio accepted payments or both.

New Website & In-Studio Gallery Name Change

The name of the In-Studio Gallery has been changed to Proofing, Sales, & Gallery Manager (PSG). Also, make sure to check out the changes to our website at studiocloud.com. Here you can find the new information on our upcoming products and the pricing for those products. We welcome any feedback you may have!

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.

Export Contacts

At this time you can export your contacts for mailers, etc by using the Offline Reader. You can export in either CSV or XML. In the future you will be able to use StudioCloud CRM for doing targeted marketing mailer and email campaigns.

Online and In-Studio Gallery Updates

The new In-Studio gallery does the following:

1. Supports Ordered images when uploading
2. Redesigned publish page to get more space
3. You can now get a personalized studiocloud.net url for your online gallery. Go to
the support section of the In-Studio gallery to select your url.
4. You can open an album by double clicking on it. StudioCloud albums have the extension .scq

The new Online Gallery does the following:
1. Has a favorites tab/folder (can order directly from favorites)
2. Has shopping cart tab/folder
3. Has an improved look and feel

The new Online Gallery is only available on the studiocloud.net personalized url. The studiocloud.com/OnlineGallery.php url will no longer be used. Instead, customers can either select a personalized url or they will get an auto generated url which will be their login name.

Let us know if you have any questions. Also if you do not currently subscribe to the Online Gallery but would like to try out the new version, let us know and we will set you up with another trial run.

ProSelect and Lightroom Integration

To help reduce your workload the Basic Suite now integrates with both ProSelect and Lightroom. You can now export your catalogs from Lightroom directly into the In-Studio Gallery or publish them online. Go to http://studiocloud.com/support/?View=entry&EntryID=33
to download and install the exporter.

You can also import your invoices from Proselect directly into the Basic Suite. You will find the option under the orders menu, Export Orders. At this time you will need to select one of the other programs until StudioCloud is an option. They all use the same export file.

Tutorials will be coming soon. Let us know if you have any questions. Stay tuned for many new features being released soon!

Gallery Update

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and fun New Year. Just a little update for the In-Studio and Online Gallery. Some of you may have occasionally experienced a problem when uploading albums. It would ask you to retry and then it would freeze and you would have to repost the album. This problem is now resolved so make sure you upgrade to the latest and greatest Gallery. It should ask you if you would like to update and install the newest version. A few people have received an error or misconfiguration when trying to update. If this happens, just uninstall your In-Studio Gallery (on a PC) or drag the application in the trash (Macs) and download it from the website at http://studiocloud.com/preview.html

Please let me know if you have any questions about getting updated or need help with anything else. Thanks!