We’re proud to announce our largest software update ever today! With over 50 new features and improvements, this update streamlines many common tasks and adds extensive new customization capabilities throughout the application, contact forms, and client access booking engine.

Our new name.  We’re now simply Táve and no longer Táve Studio Manager.  Sure, the old name was descriptive, but there’s no other Táve and with such a unique name, who needs to be descriptive?

New Client And Job profiles and editors. We completely reworked the way you view and edit clients and jobs.  Instead of going right into big bulky editors, you view a concise profile with just the relevant facts.  This also let us add useful links, for instance you can click on an address to view it in Google Maps, or click on the directions link to get directions from your studio’s address (configurable in Settings), telephone numbers will open Skype or any other voice chat software you have installed and set to use the links, and you can just click the “export vCard” link in the title bar to quickly add the contact to Address Book or Outlook and later sync to your phone if desired.

You might notice we also added a filter control to the Clients home page.  The new Job editor also includes some miniature subject editors and a new control for attaching vendors and venues without leaving the page, even creating new ones!  You’ll be seeing more of this cool new control in the future.   If you’ve attached a vendor or venue to a job, they’ll show up in the event editor’s list of possible attendees.  Speaking of vendors, you can now upload attachments to vendors.

Custom Fields. You’ve long asked to be able to create your own fields for the various profiles, and now you can.   This is extremely flexible and you can add all sorts of fields to the client, subject, job, vendor, and vendor rep profiles.  Even better, you can include these fields on your contact forms, which now also supports drag-and-drop reordering, and include the client editable fields inside Client Access, as we’ve added client profile editing in Client Access.  If your client access settings previously had the option enabled to allow clients to edit their contact information (an option that was marked as coming soon previously), the new profile editor will show up automatically.  Speaking of Client Access…

Client Access Preview. Users frequently wanted to see what their clients were seeing on their client access pages, doing so required setting a password for them and remembering to reset everything afterwards.  That was particularly ineffective if you wanted to see something like the payment page.  No more!  Head on over to the client profile page and you’ll see that the orange Client Access box now has a preview link.   Click the link and you’ll get a new window with their session.  The bar at the top includes a menu of the key pages inside their Client Access portal, so you can use it to jump directly from page to page without affecting the client at all.

Job Printouts. The new job profile viewer includes a Print button.  Click it and you can fine-tune the information you want included depending on if you’re printing it for your physical record keeping or to keep with you on the day of the job.  This printout is meant to contain all the critical aspects of the job, including attendee contact info, event locations, call notes, internal notes, financial transactions, and custom fields.    That’s just the start, as we plan to offer other types of printouts in the future, as requested in Idea Bank.

Calendar improvements include an improved Heads Up Display system which allow the HUDs to stay open when your mouse is over them, so you can now click on events or jobs and even create new events or unavailable time directly from the HUDs. You’ll notice that you can also click on a day in the availability calendar to go directly to creating a new event. We also add tentative events to the availability calendar, which you can hide or show by clicking the link in above the calendar.

Helpful but smaller improvements include your browser’s history now showing the page title, instead of the application name for every page so you can easily go back without having to guess which page was where. We’ve added a passive anti-spam system to the contact forms to help limit lead spam, if you host your own contact form please see the release notes.

Release Notes

We updated much more than the major changes above, so here’s the full list:

• New name and website addresses.
• New public website.  Note that the login link is the right-most item in the navigation and takes you to a dedicated login page now.  We’re going to be adding testimonials to the homepage soon, so if you’d like to rave about Táve, send us a testimonial, logo, and photo.
• Changed the appearance of the main search field to make it more apparent and improving compatibility with Safari.
• Added additional details about the items needing attention on the home page.
• Added tentative events to the availability calendar with a hide/show toggle in the legend.
• Made days in the availability calendar clickable to create new events.
• Added links to the events and jobs as well as to quickly create a new event or unavailable time to the availability calendar HUDs.
• Added a filter menu to the Clients home.
• Added an icon to show the user has CA (Client Access) enabled.
• Added a client profile viewer.
• Added a vCard export link.
• Added a “Mark as lost” button to match the existing one for jobs, but applying to the client, cascading to all jobs.
• Previewing the amount a client can pay in CA and explaining why it may not be the full balance.
• Linking addresses to Google Maps and adding a directions link too.
• Linking telephone numbers to phone applications like Skype with the tel:// scheme.
• Added link to the previous and next events for the client.
• Showing the first and most recent job source for a client.
• Showing the last time the client accessed their CA profile, if ever, and how many pages they loaded.
• Added a “Allow profile editing?” per-client override.
• Added a preview link which opens a new window with the CA preview for the client.
• CA preview let’s you jump between pages inside the client’s portal.
• Notes are created inline more intuitively.
• Cleaned up the client editor.
• Allowing client profile editing in Client Access if enabled in the page’s settings.
• Added job profile viewer.
• All changes on both profile viewers happen live.
• Emails and phone numbers in the client/subject HUDs are now clickable.
• Added a Print button, which allows you to configure a new all-in-one job printout, optionally showing financial details, internal notes, conversation logs, and call/event descriptions.
• Created a new “Token editor”, which lets you search, add, and create new items live.
• Created a new “live editor”, used by the token editor to quickly edit items without leaving the current page.  Expect much more use of this in the future.
• Using the token editor to create and/or attach vendors and venues to the job.
• Added quick entry forms for subjects so you no longer have to leave the editor to add subjects.
• Including any vendors attached to the job as possible attendees in the event editor.
• Updated the Product Option editor to behave similar to other editors in the application.
• Corrected currency symbol use in the Products section.
• Improved the logic used to hide/show tasks based on the status of the deliverable or job.
• Added attachments to the vendor editor.
• Added vCard export links to vendors and vendor reps.
• Fixed issue with the Helpdesk link reloading the application if your last login was a while ago.
• Added an address book vCard export to Settings (not all third-party applications support multi-contact vCards).  Use this link to export all your contacts to Address Book on Mac and sync to your phone to have your client’s info appear when they call you.
• Added a credit card authorization form in case you’d rather not use PayPal to pay for Táve.
• Added Custom Profile Fields, which can be configured as various different types of fields (date, dropdown, text field, text box), apply to different items inside Táve (clients, subjects, jobs, vendors, vendor reps), and customize the appearance and permissions for Client Access.
• Added drag and drop reordering to the Custom Profile Fields list so you can change tho order they appear throughout the application.
• Added the new Custom Profile Fields to the contact form editor when they apply to clients, defaulting them to hidden.
• Added drag and drop reordering of all contact form fields.
• Removing Táve branding and links from the new lead email and adding a reply-to so you can more easily reply directly to new leads.
• Added a passive anti-spam system to contact forms (if you host your contact form on your own site and post to us, let us know so we can disable this for your studio, as your users will receive a session error and will be told to try again).
• Added a few dynamic fields to contracts in case you wish to have items like the client’s name or job date in your contract text.
• Improved the birthday field behavior and international date handling.
• Preventing double form submit.
• Improved the display of errors in a form on submit.
• Increased overall database performance.
• Added support for Safari 4 and Internet Explorer 8 native-mode support (if you use IE7, we strongly encourage you to apply the IE8 windows update).

I had the privilege of being interviewed by Frederick Van Johnson last week for This Week in Photography podcast #94.

You’ll find the episode in iTunes or on the TWiP episode notes page, which includes a summarized transcript.  Now you’ll all have first hand knowledge of just how big of a nerd I am, if I sound a bit too upbeat, it’s probably due to all the diet Mt Dew I’ve been downing in the lead up to this weekend’s long anticipated software update.

I ended up talking a lot about all of you and completely forgot to mention how much more affordable we are than the competition and all the other cool things we do!  So please, help us spread the word!

A quick correction: I briefly mentioned the history of Táve and said that the name Táve is derived from a foreign phrase.  To be precise, Táve is a completely original mark and term both in the spelling (with the accent) and pronunciation (tah-vay).

Jason and I will be performing system maintenance and upgrades in preparation for our big software release this weekend (which does not involve any downtime).

This will be our first maintenance downtime of 2009 and should last under an hour, starting at midnight (Eastern) on Thursday, June 18th.

Update: Maintenance completed and things should be even faster than before.  Next up is the big software release over the weekend, which we can’t wait to share!

Another feature straight out of our industry’s only Idea Bank—you can now use your Authorize.net merchant account to accept payments from your clients inside Táve Studio Manager’s Client Access system without having to send your clients to PayPal, Google Checkout, or your PickPic.

Digital Wedding Forum members, you can use your members-only DWF Credit Card Processing solution, as it includes an Authorize.net account. 

To set it up, just head on over to Settings and look for the payments link.  Once you enable Authorize.net, it’ll ask for a few pieces of information from your Authorize.net account.  As always with new Client Access features, we suggest creating a test client and booking it online (perhaps with a $1 payment) to get a feel for what your clients will see.  You’ll be able to preview client access behavior in our next release.

Recently Released

While most of our work is going into our big mid-April release, with some huge new features and great usability improvements, we’ve managed to release a few other little bits since last week’s post:

• Email Reminders. Just set a date and time and we’ll send you a reminder by email.
• Get rid of your sample data. There’s always the “Delete Sample Data” link on the left, but if you’re ready to get started and you want a clean slate, including all the stuff you created during the trial, you can use the “purge account” tool in Settings, with the new “Re-create sample data” option unchecked. This tool is like formatting your hard drive; once you do it the data will never come back even if you’re browsing deleted data.
• Extend your trial. If you have less than a week left on your trial, or it’s already expired, and you’re not quite sold yet, just head on over to the “purge account” tool. Whenever it runs, we now make sure you have at least a week left on your trial, extending it if needed. And then why don’t you give us a call at 800-560-TAVE or Skype-to-Skype user TaveStudio and we’ll walk you through the system and answer any questions you have.
• An updated look! Okay, it’s not that big of deal, but we think that it makes the application a lot less drab and easier to follow.

You joined the revolution and told us you wanted integration with Intuit QuickBooks® in the photography industry’s only Idea Bank:

So without further ado, we’re pleased to announce the immediate availability of QuickBooks® export.   Just head on over to the Settings section and you’ll find it in the data management section with our other export tools.

We believe it’s your data and we’re just providing better ways to make use of it, so you can look forward to even more import and export options in the future.

Welcome to our new blog!

The blog’s design is inspired by our upcoming website refresh and merges our old blog with the “New Features” blog that was previously only available inside Táve Studio Manager.  Users will notice that the old “New Features” tab inside the application has been replaced with a “News & Updates” tab that will highlight any time this blog is updated.   If you still want to be the first to know about new features, visit the Idea Bank and edit your email preferences.

We’re so excited about the new website’s testimonials page that we just couldn’t wait for it to be released, so we made it part of the blog! Check out what our users are saying about us!

Recent Updates

We’re keeping busy with some pretty substantial improvements to the application but haven’t let that stop us from publishing a number of useful updates in the past week or so:

• Drag & Drop in Quotes.  You’ve been asking for it for a while now and we delivered.   You can now rearrange the items in a quote  by simply dragging and dropping the items.  Just look for the grips on the left of the quote, click when your cursor changes, and move it around.
• Availability Calendar.  We’ve improved the usefulness of the availability calendar by having separate colors for meetings and sessions.
• Getting more from Idea Bank.  You can now change your email preferences inside the Idea Bank to hear about any new idea that get suggested or to hear when any idea is commented on or released.  By default you’ll hear about ideas you’ve voted in favor of.   We also added “Coming Soon” and “Started” tags so you can get even more insight into what we’re doing.  Just visit Idea Bank and click on the “Coming Soon” list to see them all.  Note that we only tag ideas submitted by users (so what are you waiting for?  If there’s something you want, let us know!), our actual project plan may contain other features not listed in Idea Bank.
• Google Analytics integration.  We’ve always supported Google Analytics but you had to add the tracking code to your themes manually before we’d take advantage of it.   The theme editor now has a field to enter in the website ID to use and does the rest for you without requiring you to use the advanced HTML editor.
• Fixes and little things.  The time dropdown now defaults to the middle of the list at noon, so you don’t have to scroll through the wee early hours to set a time in the evening.  IE users can now use Client Access systems that have been embedded with an IFRAME.  The client’s email address was added to the quick search results.  Transaction ID and Check Number have been added to the payment editor.

All that and we’re still making steady progress on a complete rework of the client editor, implementing custom fields, adding Authorize.net integration, and working on the other items tagged as “Started” in the Idea Bank.   It’s hard to stop when you love what you’re doing!

IMPROVED: PayPal Website Payments Basic.  When using the PayPal payment gateway, your clients’ payments will automatically appear inside Táve Studio Manager so you’ll no longer have to manually enter the payments.

NEW: PickPic payments.  You can now process payments through your PickPic system.  When enabled here, users will be sent to your PickPic cart with the amount already added to their cart.   You’ll then be able to process the payment as you normally would inside PickPic.  These payments will not automatically appear inside Táve Studio Manager, so you will have to log the payments manually.

NEW: Google Checkout.  Basic Google Checkout support has been added and can be enabled here.  Once the “integrated cart” feature is completed, payments will automatically appear inside Táve Studio Manager.  Until that time, you’ll need to manually add the payments. 

While several users have voted for Google Checkout support in Idea Bank, there has been some debate in our users-only forum about using Google Checkout because of potential issues with their seller policies.  Also, if you wish to only accept the retainer through Client Access, you’ll find a new setting for that in the page editor.

We just released the Idea Bank, which you’ll find on the left side of Táve Studio Manager above the New Features link you just clicked on.   Our goal is for Táve Studio Manager to be the best system possible for our users and hope this new system for suggesting, voting, and commenting on ideas will keep us moving forward toward that end.  It’s time to join the revolution!

To celebrate the photographers investing in their craft this week at
the WPPI convention in Las Vegas, we’re offering a huge discount to all new annual subscriptions created through February 22nd.

Save 20% on an annual subscription!

To take advantage of this great deal, just register for your free 30-day trial now and then subscribe before the offer ends.  

Already a monthly subscriber?

Existing
monthly subscribers are welcome to take advantage of the annual
subscription special too!  If you’d like to upgrade your monthly
subscription to an annual to save 20%, sign in and cancel your existing PayPal subscription (if you paid inside Táve Studio Manager instead of with PayPal, you’ll need to use the Contact page to ask us to cancel that subscription). 

Once the existing subscription is canceled, you’ll then be able to take advantage of the offer.  You won’t lose any days either, as the new annual subscription won’t take affect until your next scheduled monthly payment was to go through.

Be sure to act by Sunday! 
This special will be history on Monday and we’re not planning any other specials in 2009!

We just released a small but extremely useful update to default work and tasks, the feature located in the Product Editor that lets you automatically create work, events, or tasks for a job when a client books a quote with the product in it.

You can have Táve Studio Manager automatically set the due date (or for events, the start date) based on the Job’s event date or when a Job’s phase begins.

Visit the Settings section and you’ll see we’ve added a link to the blue Client Access module, called “Track agreements.” Click on the link to create contracts and amendments.

Once you publish a contract for use, you can attach it to a job, mark it as signed, and print it from the job editor’s Financials module.

When the full Client Access system is released in the coming days, your clients will be able to electronically sign their contract online!

If you’re a fan of all the great ways Táve Studio Manager can help your photography business succeed, why not join us around the web and share your enthusiasm?

These four testimonials are straight off of our facebook page.   If you have a facebook, just cilck on “Become a fan” on the right side of the page once you’re signed in.

Have you jumped into the world of microblogging?  If so, don’t be shy, go ahead and follow our brand-new twitter account and say hello with a tweet starting with @tavestudio in the message!

It’s time to join!

We’ll be announcing a special trade-show rate for Imaging USA next week!

Go ahead and register for our free 30-day trial now, so you’re ready to take advantage of the one-week-only sale, and then follow our twitter or facebook so you don’t miss out!

Among the many small changes we don’t list here was the addition of a “Mark as Lost” button to the Job Editor.   Using the button, you can select the reason the job was lost, such as being spam or the lead went stale.   A frequent question was, “How do I find lost or deleted jobs later?”  

Besides using the extremely powerful search field at the top of the application or exporting your contact list, you can now customize what exactly gets shown on the Jobs homepage by using a filter similar to the one we use in Reports.

(the Type displayed in this screenshot is in honor of Karen and Adrian’s newborn son and future photographer, Zachary Jacob)

A similar filter will be added to the Tasks and Clients home pages soon.  As always, if you have any ideas or suggestions, join the user forum and let us know!

We just expanded the Conversation Log module in the Job Editor to include a form for entering emails that you send or receive.  Now it’s even easier to track your email conversations with a client by clicking on the “Log Email” link at the top of the purple module.

Coming Soon:  This release is just the first of our email integration features to be published.  Fully integrated email sending and receiving, including the ability to create themes and “Quick Reply” templates, are in active development.