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!