Software for Photography Business

Photographers that are starting out might ask themselves the question, what is software for the Photography business? It’s important to have the right photography software, or you can’t serve your clients. You’ll see your competition working with software that is much more advanced than yours. The next time you are talking with another photographer, be sure to ask which kind of photography software they are using. Because our industry has gotten so competitive, it’s also important to know what style of software other photographers are investing in to see what could work best for your business.

If you’re a professional photographer you should know the importance of taking good care of your photos. The number of files that a digital camera produces is quite big and uploading them to a file server or a remote location can take up a lot of time. This is why it is important to have a software solution that will help you handle all this work without going insane. Not only will it help you organize everything, but also make it easier for you to share files with clients which can be especially important if there are more people working on your team.

Photographers can create a much better business with much less effort by using the right software. It doesn’t have to be complicated. The best tools are designed to work together in a streamlined process so you spend less time doing busy work and more time taking pictures and creating art.

Tave

Though Tave was designed specifically for photographers, it can be easily used by any other creative. Similar to the other tools described in this article, Tave is designed to handle a large part of your creative business, simplify your process, workflow and life. here a some of the great features Tave has to offer:

Automation – Send automated invoice reminders, replies to certain inquiries, etc.

Task management – To do lists, fully featured calendars, even weather maps to plan around sunny/rainy days.

Customizable, Responsive & WordPress friendly – Add your branding (logo, colors and fonts) to your client facing pages, use your sub-domain to get extra personalized pages. Easily access Tave anytime, from anywhere – one web app, which works smoothly on any device.

Client Communication – Track your emails, quotes, contracts and invoices. Create and send questionaries that automatically update your database. Automate and personalize your messages so clients receive reminders about the status of the project or upcoming billing.

Track your own results – Generate reports and fun charts to monitor and analyze your business’ performance. Use the profit Centers to track your money flows and conversion rates.

Taxes – Advanced tax reporting and options for any type of tax scenario.

Payment – Connect Tave to popular proofing and online payment gateways, e-sign your contracts and enjoy instant transactions.

Great Customer Support – Tons of great reviews, fast reply rate and Facebook Support group in addition.

Iris

Pros

Online booking management	Good Customer support
Exclusive location handling	Automated and integrated workflow

Cons

No payment plan set up with invoices

Iris doesn’t only save time but also has a nice visual appearance that is very easy for photographers to use. It is a good feature to admire as most of the photography studio management software does not have a nice look and feel.

As soon as you log in, the dashboard will show you what your business is doing today, tomorrow, and in the upcoming weeks at a single glance.

There’s also a weather widget for you to get an idea of the weather if you shoot at locations. Its major point of sale is that it has a location scouting feature that allows you to create a sort of database of the locations where you shoot and keep that data house within the system.

You can upload images, pin the location, share the location with the clients for easy collaboration.

ShootQ

Their slogan is “Shoot More, Work less”. ShootQ was designed by photographers for photographers, but does not exclude other creatives who have found it helpful for their business too (event planners, videographers, DJs, etc). They also offer top-notch client service through live phone support, as well as the classic email and 1:1 setup assistance. And here are some of the features we would like to point out:

Client Communication – Create templates and questionaries, collect useful information from clients and leads, customize and automate email templates to save time in the future. ShootQ allows you to filter contacts, to focus on the strongest sales leads first. Keep track of all past and current communication, easily review clients’ booking and order history, important dates and milestones.

Financials – Create elegant branded contracts and invoices, save time and boost your sales with the help of an online booking service that allows clients to review and sign contracts online. Collect payments faster, configure taxes and shipping costs, etc. ShootQ also allows you to share pricelists with potential customers via a link or embed on your website.

Project Management and Workflow – Never miss any deadlines, organize and filter your tasks to see what’s upcoming and prioritize for the following days. Build custom reusable workflows to smoothly complete tasks, that are both – in the pre-order and postorder stage. Set reminders, automatically send emails and questionaries.

Analytics – Generate insightful reports. Manage your data, analyze your bookings, sales & referrals with the help of graphs and statistics. Know exactly how your business is performing.

Pixifi

It all started with Tim Hussey, the Owner of Pixifi, back in 2007 when he started his wedding photography business and needed an easy and efficient way to track his leads and clients. Having a background in web development, he decided to build himself a quick database management app, which kept getting more complex as his business grew. In 2008 the Pixifi beta was launched, and after testing it with hundreds of photographers and developing the product based on the collected feedback – Pixifi as you know it was launched in 2010. Here are some of its key features that you might love:

Online booking system & Client Management – An all in one system, very flexible and available anywhere from any device. Allows your clients to book appointments, choose the type of service they are interested in, even the team member they want to work with. Your customers can pay directly through your booking system. You can sync it with your Google calendar, mark your available slots or working hours for a better experience.

Financials & Client Communication – Create contracts and have your clients digitally sign them instantly. Avoid boring contracts, choose from the multiple templates that Pixifi offers, or create custom layouts. Send invoices, track all your expenses and profits, keep tabs on taxes, etc.

Project management – Personalize your dashboard to get an overview on the things that matter the most for you. Set a timeline, add deadlines, reminders and to dos. Never forget or miss out on anything.

Studio Ninja

Pros

Powerful management of the workflow	Performance Metrics
Billing & Invoicing	Financial Management
Project Management	CRM
Purchasing	Good customer support

Cons

Unable to update all workflows at once

The best feature you’ll find in this photography studio management software is that you can keep your financial forecast and compare it year by year. Its fabulous integration with Quickbooks makes it best for keeping financial records. This helps you to know your performance, financial health and reveals the fact if your work methods are effective.

Creating workflows in Studio Ninja is easy which saves time and improves efficiency. You can sign contracts and pay invoices in real-time which makes it one of the reasons to implement it in your business.

The software also integrates with other useful services like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Xero. You can track your photography business affairs on the go because of its mobile application that is easy to use.

Shootzilla

Pros

Easy to setup	Order Management
Appointment Scheduling	Project Management
Client Management	Enables to transfer Spreadsheets to Shootzilla

Cons

No invoicing option
Scarce marketing features

Shootzilla is one of those photography studio management software that keeps your business organized and in control. As it integrates all your clients, workflow, documents, and emails in one system which are also customizable, it takes away the burden of remembering the details.

The software provides a plethora of templates for quick and easy selection along with the fun features like color-coding and assigning icons to the to-do list of your work.

Booksteam

Booksteam specializes primarily in customer booking and scheduling, so if you’re mostly looking for photography client management software instead of workflow management tools, this might be more your speed.

Booksteam allows clients to make appointments through a (customizable!) booking platform, manage their bookings, and keep their info up-to-date. Additionally, Booksteam can also generate client invoices and collect payments (through Paypal or Stripe) and includes a financial report feature that will give you data-based overviews of your business.

Other features Booksteam offers that a more organizationally-oriented CRM won’t: A built-in review collection platform and display, discount codes, gift certificates and the option to buy bundled packages of services.

Honeybook

Honeybook offers a customizable workflow area that lets you create your own templated task timeline for different types of projects (and shows you clearly where your projects are in the cycle). The tasks from your workflow are sent to an all-in-one dashboard area that lets you send emails, questionnaires and more from the same place. Honeybook also allows you to customize and add your branding to invoices, contracts, contact forms, and much more.

Those looking for accounting software for photographers will also appreciate Honeybook’s ability to create reports using your customer data (including reports on profits and losses, where your leads are coming from, and your customer conversion rate). In addition to its own iOS and Android apps, Honeybook integrates with Calendly and Google Calendar, Gmail, Zapier, and QuickBooks.

17Hats

17Hats is a well-rounded app that was made for creative people who don’t have a lot of knowledge in running a business. They claim that users of their services spend, on average, only 10 minutes to get all their business done for the day.

There won’t be a need to check on your transactions individually as the software can sync with your preferred email platform like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. This allows it to check all your transactions as it categorizes them into the right project file for your clients.

Improve your client transactions with its Customer Management System. With this, you can segregate your connections into different categories: Prospects, Clients, and other groups as you see fit. You can also design personalized templates for quotes, emails, receipts, or contracts.

Dubsado

Dubsado is a hub for all kinds of business activities, a place where you can easily keep track of everything that’s going on with your business.

Dubsado allows you to enclose lead forms so as to easily gather information about prospects as well as keeping up-to-date with all the entries with lead funnels, keeping in touch with them at the proper time.

With its great management abilities, you can remain in the loop with all your bookings so you can know what’s going and when things are happening for each client. To truly enjoy the tool, you can set workflows by working on automation on your emails, contracts, invoices, and many more. You can even integrate your calendar!

You can make quotes to allow clients to choose from the services that you offer. They can simply sign the contract digitally and pay the invoice in that one form. To gather feedback on how you can improve your services, questionnaires can be sent to prospects and clients before or after they sign the contract.

With Dubsado, you can rest assured that you will receive proper payment in any currency, as well as receiving extra tips! If you’re running a subscription-based business, you can setup up returning invoices as well as allow clients auto-deductions

Here are some features you should keep in mind when selecting a photography CRM:

• Workflows that keep track of project stages and assist with automating tasks. Workflow software will generally offer templated workflows — many of them designed specifically with different photography gigs in mind, but you can modify or design your own to suit your needs.
• Schedule and calendar management: A CRM can keep track of appointments and meetings, either through information input directly into the system (via a client booking portal, for example) or by syncing with a different calendar client like Google Calendar or iCal.
• Generating and managing leads: You can harvest interested clients and setup the automation process to follow up through email. Some CRMs will create their own forms, while others will use a line of code or a widget for this. A few will even generate leads through your social media accounts.
• Invoicing and payment: This, predictably, is a main use case for many professional photographers. Without any additional action from you, many CRMs are able to accept payments (e.g. just following up on past unpaid invoices with Square, Stripe or PayPal). Some can also automatically follow up on unpaid bills for you.
• Client portals that will allow customers to submit and modify bookings.
• Financial management tools: Some CRMs can supplement, even replace accounting software for photographers. Photography CRMs that offer expense and revenue tracking can be especially useful when it’s time to file taxes while offering financial reports that give a bird’s eye view of the financial health of your business.

Conclusion

If you are passionate about the idea of turning photography into a business, then I am sure that there are moments where you wonder how on earth you can manage to keep your business up and running. The truth of the matter is that photography is not exactly the most profitable of businesses to be in, so it stands to reason that there are going to be lots of challenges for you to face along the way. However, once you get over these challenges, you will have no doubt benefited from some great rewards.