• Last Chance for a Lifetime Subscription

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 12:59 pm on February 26, 2010 | 4 comments Permalink | Comment

    Tave is a proud sponsore of Wedding And Portrait Photographers International 2010 30th Anniversary ShowThis is the last week of the lifetime subscription offer being available online!

    We’ll be removing the option from the website on Thursday (March 4th) when we leave for WPPI 2010.

    If you’re attending WPPI, you’ll have a few more days as we’ll be offering the lifetime subscriptions in person on the show floor while supplies last.  The lifetime subscription will not be discounted or prorated at the show and we’ll only have a few to offer, so your best bet is to buy online this week.

    If you aren’t attending WPPI, then you have just a few days left to take advantage of the unbeatable lifetime subscription option!

     
    • fran chelico 1:39 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      how much is the lifetime subscription?

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 1:47 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        “It depends.” :)

        The base price is $995 for the first license and $200 for each additional license.

        If you’re a paid subscriber, then the online system prorates it based on how much time is left on your paid subscription. So if you’ve only used half of an annual subscription for example, it would credit half of what you paid for that annual toward the lifetime. You can see the exact discounted price by signing in and going to Settings, and then clicking the link on the right to manage your subscription. As mentioned in the post though, we won’t be prorating or discounting at the show though.

  • Carli's 10 Tips for WPPI 2010

    By Carli 10:39 am on February 22, 2010 | 9 comments Permalink | Comment
    Tags:

    Tave is a proud sponsore of Wedding And Portrait Photographers International 2010 30th Anniversary ShowEveryone’s abuzz. It isn’t spring in the air, it’s WPPI, in Vegas, Baby!

    As you should know by now Táve is an official sponsor of this year’s Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention, lovingly referred to by all as WPPI. The first year I went I was so intimidated that I brought a non-photog friend with me. Not everyone has that luxury so if you are striking out on your own (or even with a buddy) I would like to offer some helpful info and ease your first time fears.

    1. Everyone was freaked out their first time: And if they say they weren’t they are dirty liars. The advantage to everyone’s having freaked out is that 90% of the people you run into there are willing to give you helpful advice so you don’t feel so alone. The other 10% are hacks.

    2. Wear comfy shoes: Everyone there will be wearing comfy shoes. We all know they are ugly, and we are all over it. Merrell’s, Soft, Born, etc. One year I spent 20 minutes in a vendor’s boot chatting about comfortable foot wear. MGM has some very long hallways.

    3. If there is any way you can, stay at the MGM: The long walk back to a hotel is not worth the money you save, so unless you get a killer deal or find a room across the street stay in the hotel at which you are convening.

    4. Don’t make commitments the first day of the trade show: You will go broke doing this. Grab the flyer, make a note, take some time to sit in your hotel room mulling over your options. I always make my last trade show day “shopping day.” This is unless you know exactly what you are going there for, or unless it’s Táve. Commit to that right now. ;-)

    5. Take advantage of Platform Classes: They are included in your registration so you should hit as many as you can. If they weren’t what you were needed or expecting you can always slip out the back and hit another one.

    6. Save money on food: Bring snack bars and water bottles to carry with you. There is a drugstore right down the strip if you don’t want to fly with them. I also like to find someone to split meals with. Vegas portions are huge and cheap meals are hard to find there.

    7. Leave space in your suitcase for the SWAG you’ll be taking home: Catalogs, buttons, pens, magnets, maybe some prizes or trophies. You just never know.

    8. Rockstars are people, too: Don’t act silly or giddy around the famous photographers. You will see them everywhere. They are human beings like you and I. Treat them with respect, smile and wave. Don’t whisper and point. Outside of this industry no one knows who they are. They carry around the same crappy point and shoot cameras that we do and their snapshots look just as bad.

    9. Bring business cards, lots of them: You will want to give them to vendors and other photographers you meet.

    10. Be yourself: Don’t try to be cooler than you are in real life. Dress up if you want to, but only if you will be comfortable. Everyone loves a show, unless they can tell it’s just an act.

    See you there! I will be giving out free hugs to anyone who wants one* If you have some AWESOME WPPI tips to share please do, but only AWESOME tips, please.

    *Limit one per customer. Certain restrictions may apply.

     
    • Adrian Ziemkowski 2:06 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Carli isn’t kidding about the long walks! The walk from the hotel to the expo floor is so long even WPPI makes fun of it, as seen in the middle of this blog post I found on last year’s show: http://www.tanyaplonka.com/blog/2009/03/wppi-las-vegas-2009/

    • Angie Wilson 2:50 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the tips Carli! It is my first year going, and yes, I am freaked out!! (but also REALLY excited!) :) Can’t wait to meet the Tave people at the trade show.

    • Denise Mabilog 6:02 am on February 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for the helpful hints. I’m going alone and this is my first year and every time I think about it I get nervous. Good to know I’m not the only one freaked out!

    • Lauren 1:02 pm on February 23, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      So bummed that we won’t be there to meet y’all this year! But GO TAVE!!

    • Devan 3:04 pm on February 24, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I probably seem like a total stalker because I’m all over the place. Just wondering if you will be posting the new features online during WPPI for the people who can’t make it to Vegas?

    • hillary 2:00 am on February 28, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Awesome tips!!
      Not sure if WPPI is the same format as the DWF seminars, BUT my advice to everyone is WAIT on purchasing the speakers items after they speak…they will have tables in the back with their products for sale (like I said– IF it’s the same format) take a flier, get info… go back later. I have blown WAY too much money on all their stuff since you are all hyped up about it…

    • Terra Dawn 6:47 pm on March 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Great tips! I’m so excited!!!!!!!!!!!

    • feuza 6:56 pm on March 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      good stuff on here, love the ugly shoe advice, :-)

  • Táve On the Go

    By Carli 7:04 am on February 10, 2010 | 10 comments Permalink | Comment
    Tags: Android, features, iPhone, mobile, mobile app, ,

    I have to admit, unlike most of the photographic population I do not have an iPhone. Shocking since everything else I own has a little apple on it (including my van).

    I have an Android phone and my life is in it. Including Táve!

    It may be called Táve iPhone Access, but it works swimmingly in my Android browser, which is awesome when you are running late for a bridal shower and have to access your client list to postpone your location session because the rain is pouring down. The only regret is that I did not discover until recently the awesomeness of the mobile feature, which lets me access my account quickly from anywhere.

    Just visit www.tave.com in your iPhone or Android browser and you should be automatically taken to Táve iPhone Access at tave.com/iPhone.

     
    • Danny 11:35 am on February 10, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Shame you cant access tave from a Windows Mobile phone :( Tried Opera, Pocket Explorer, main website, the iphone site. Nada.

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 12:57 pm on February 10, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Yeah the “iPhone Access” site will only really work in browsers based on the webkit engine like Safari and Chrome, which are the browsers used in the iPhone and Android respectively. Mostly because it was based on what was state-of-the-art mobile tech only available in Safari when it was released a year and a half ago.

        When we revisit the mobile app to add editing, we’ll be able to make it far less webkit specific since the mobile web has progressed a lot since then…. and our Blackberry users would have words for us. :)

    • Benjamin Mooney 1:04 pm on February 10, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Its a shame this doesn’t work on my Palm Pre (webOS) All i get is the iphone access logo at the top and nothing else. The phone is itself is more than powerful enough to run it. good new is phoe is more than capable of running the full version of the site.

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 1:30 pm on February 10, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        The next version of the mobile site will be compatible with more mobile browsers. When we first wrote the iPhone Access site, there just weren’t many options for a solid mobile web experience, but that’s not the case today.

        The nice thing about using a mobile version is that it’s never as big. Our main site downloads nearly a megabyte of javascript and images during its startup phase that is slow to download even on 3G and tough on a phone even with wifi.

    • Andreas Holm 5:54 am on February 20, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I’m using the Iphone access and it works great!

    • Heather Walker 1:33 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I have a blackberry, is there any way to use the phone apps for this phone?
      Thanks!
      Heather

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 1:40 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        You can try taking your browser to http://www.tave.com/iPhone/ but chances are it won’t display properly as it uses some WebKit-specific features that the Blackberry browser wasn’t remotely capable of handling back then. Our next mobile version will be more universal as phones across the board have improved by leaps and bounds since then.

    • Devan 4:41 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Is that in this upcoming release or a future release?

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 4:57 pm on February 22, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        The iPhone Access web app was released two years ago when the iPhone debuted. It was the first studio management system for the iPhone. :)

        The Blackberry support discussed in the comments above is in reference to our next mobile version, which we don’t have an ETA on as we’re focused on Táve 3.0 itself.

        • Devan 1:13 am on February 24, 2010 Permalink | Reply

          Aw bummer. AT&T needs to get their act together so I can get an iPhone!

  • Táve Helped Me Go Green

    By Carli 10:50 am on February 1, 2010 | 2 comments Permalink | Comment
    Tags: , ,

    Carli Morgan is a wedding and portrait photographer (and Táve user) from Fresno, Ca. She loves finding and sharing new stuff with her fellow photographers and she is joining Táve’s blog to do just that.

    There are a bazillion reasons why I love Táve, and eventually I’ll share them all with you, but one of my favorite things is that it’s helping me “go green.”  A lot of people will sneer at that, but for me being green isn’t a marketing angle.  It’s how I was raised, and it’s how I live my life.  I’ve got solar panels on my house, I recycle or reuse anything I can, and I try not to waste.  Before Táve I swam in paper.  Notes to myself, phone messages, client records were stacked all over my office.  Táve allows me to store most of that in that big beautiful cloud.  My contracts are signed and stored digitally, I can add any kind of note you can imagine to the clients’ files, I can forward email correspondence directly to my client files so I have records of what I told who and when.  The best part is that I can actually FIND the information when I go looking for it.

    Not only have I decreased my paper usage, my ink usage, my trash output and my storage space needs, I am also reducing my own and my client’s carbon footprint, by using the client access system.  A new client used to mean a consultation in my home, then after their decision was made, another trip back to my house to sign paperwork and pay the deposit.  Now I send them quotes online before we meet, so they can see the system, meet with them, and explain how they can use the online system.  They go home, log in, pick their package, sign their contract, make their payment and they don’t have to make another trip.  May not sound like a lot of savings, but if each photographer saves one trip per client per year that’s a lot of gas and emissions we are eliminating.  I now email my clients their statement with a link to the client access and all of their payments can be made online.

    We’d love to hear from those of you have used Táve to “go green” and what changes it has made for you on that front.

     
    • Jason Lee 11:26 am on February 2, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      That’s such a great perspective. And your right about “goin green” and that is a great feeling. I mostly like the feeling that I save time hunting for all my lost notes and papers. (Most photographer’s I know tend to have a scatterbrained artist side)

  • Hands on Preview of Táve 3.0 at WPPI

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 12:55 pm on January 26, 2010 | 14 comments Permalink | Comment

    Our largest and most impressive release ever is just around the corner!

    Visit our booth at the WPPI trade show in Las Vegas, March 8th – 10th, to take the new Táve 3.0 for a spin yourself.

    Visit tave.com for more info and to sign-up for our Táve 3.0 newsletter.

    As a reminder; since Táve is a web-based system, all accounts are always up-to-date with the latest fixes and releases at no additional cost.   So if you subscribe now, your account will be automatically upgraded once Táve 3.0 is released.

    We’ve called it a game changer.

    We’ve talked about a few of the new features, such as the advanced new quoting system, the unlimited questionnaires, an amazing new address book, a fresh new look, and streamlining everywhere.

    But all that is only the beginning of what’s new in the most powerful studio management system, reimagined.

     
    • Kyle 2:27 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Is that Mac-like interface I see? I realize it’s a Web app, but that’s nice!

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 8:02 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

        Yeah, if T2 was Google-like, then T3 is Mac-like for sure. Darker like the pro-apps. It has a lot of uniqueness to it though. It completely tosses the pastels & goes dark and moody to fit into the photographic workflow better.

    • Chris Boyd 3:09 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Tell us more!! More more more! :-)

    • Rob Vreeland 6:41 pm on January 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Oh man, just can’t wait for this. I’m already in love with Tave and can’t imagine it not being a part of business anymore. Bring on 3.0!!

    • hillary 2:04 am on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I’m so excited!!!! Can’t wait to see Tave @ wppi!!!! And I love the new layout design!!!!!

    • Chris Hartwig 5:24 am on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      I can’t wait to see what you put in the new release!

      I’m a recent adopter, and I think it’s one of the wisest moves I’ve done recently!

    • Craig Single 9:19 am on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      As always I am sure it will be awesome!

    • Dave Cone 8:09 pm on January 27, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      This is such a tease. We really have to wait until March?!? Why not pop the cork with current users? :)

    • Joe Pulcinella 2:39 pm on February 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Drat! I won’t be at WPPI. How about a web simulcast?

    • Sara Kelley 8:34 pm on February 4, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      When will this be released? Will they be releasing a beta test version of it first? Please give us a little information on the timeframe at least….

    • Geoff Ball 1:21 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      Hey guys. I just wanted to second Sara’s question — at what point in the process will the next version be released? Before, during, or after WPPI?

    • Adrian Ziemkowski 1:31 pm on February 26, 2010 Permalink | Reply

      We’re previewing a few of the huge new features/improvements mentioned in the post at the show. We won’t be showing the rest of Táve 3.0 until we offer a public beta to our subscribers. We don’t have a timeline to announce for the beta.

  • Lifetime Subscriptions for small studios

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 9:06 pm on November 18, 2009 | 4 comments Permalink

    We’ve improved the lifetime subscription option for studios with fewer than 5 employees.  Instead of starting with the 5-user bundle, you can now purchase the lifetime membership at the low single-user base price and add on any additional users à la carte. Studios with five users won’t see a change in price, but for studios with fewer than five users; the savings are massive!

    Lifetime Subscriptions now start at $995

    Additional user accounts on the lifetime plan are just $200 each.

    If you bought a lifetime subscription and have fewer than 5 employees, we’re going to refund the difference.  Yeah, we’re cool like that.

    If you have an active monthly or annual subscription and your term isn’t over yet, we’re now prorating any unused pre-paid time you have and applying it to the lifetime subscription, so it’ll actually be cheaper than $995 for you.  Click here to see the rate for your studio.

    Limited Time Only

    The lifetime option isn’t going to stick around forever, so be sure to upgrade now.

     
    • david spence 11:15 pm on November 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      so, if we have yearly subscription and might want to do the lifetime, do we have to first cancel yearly, then add lifetime? right? no? love my tave, btw! yes!

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 5:54 pm on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Yes at some point your existing subscription has to be canceled; there’s a link to do that in the subscription editor. If we notice it’s still there after you create a new subscription, we go in and cancel it from our side, but it’s definitely best to do that step yourself. The prorated discount is based on your payment history, so canceling it first won’t change that discount.

        Glad you’re enjoying Táve! If you’re going to WPPI, be sure to visit us in person.

    • Craig Single 12:15 pm on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Ha…I didn’t even realize there was a lifetime subscription! Now I have to think about this!

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 5:43 pm on November 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        :) We offered this to a few larger studios that requested it, and figured we might as well make it an official option that anybody could take advantage of. That’s also why it started as a bundle.

  • Sponsors of For the Love

    By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 12:12 pm on November 17, 2009 | 1 Permalink
    Tags: sponsorships, workshops

    Táve is happy to sponsor the For the Love Workshop being held this February in beautiful Tennessee:

    fortheloveworkshopThis is a very different type of workshop from your usual photography workshop. “For the Love” is designed as an All-Inclusive retreat with the benefits of photography workshop. If you are longing for a break from the stress and a place for inspiration, then you should consider coming to “For the Love”.  This workshop will renew your mind, refresh your spirit, rejuvenate creativity, and open your eyes to new ways of seeing things.  You will remember why you signed up for this amazing career.  You will remember that it was all for the love…the love of God…the love of life…the love of creativity…the love of photography.

    If this sounds like something you’re interested in, please make sure you visit the For the Love website and see if this workshop is right for you!

     
  • New Feature & Status of the Next Release

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 6:01 pm on November 1, 2009 | 4 comments Permalink
    Tags:

    Email BCC Feature Released

    If you’ve pulled up a job profile in the past couple days you may have noticed something new in the conversation module…

    Tave Email BCC feature

    Each job now has a dedicated email address that lets you send emails directly to the profile from any email client by adding the email address as a BCC to an email to your client or simply forwarding an email that your client sent you.

    Once you send an email to the BCC address, you should be able to pull it up again directly inside your email application based on the job name.

    You can also go to settings and click on the “vCard Job BCC Addresses” link (or the combined export) in the yellow box on the right.  As with all vCard imports, we suggest importing the contacts into their own folder/group to make it easier to manage them later. Once imported, you’ll be able to pull up the BCC address directly from your email client without visiting Táve first.

    Other Email Features

    The email bcc feature is meant as a convenience and is not what we’ve been referring to as “Email Integration”.  Full email integration (with templates, themes, reply and bounce handling, auto replies, parsing, etc) is still coming in a future release.

    This feature was created outside of our normal development process so we could get it out there quickly (since we’ve had many requests for it) without having to wait for the next big release…

    Our Next Releases are Game Changers

    We’ve mentioned that Questionnaires (our top requested feature) is very close to rolling out, but we’re going to hold back for a bit and merge it into the next release.

    Why?

    Two main reasons.  First, we don’t want to change Client Access that much in the middle of what is a busy holiday season for many of our studios, and second, our Questionnaires go so far beyond anything available today that we expect a huge surge in new users, and that’s not something we want just yet.

    Wait, what?!?!

    We’re doing some amazing things right now.  Some of the upgrades are so impressive and so massive, that many won’t even recognize the application when they stop by our booth at WPPI in March, that’s how huge the next few months are going to be for us.  We’re improving the way you work, the way things are organized, and the speed at which you can work.  More emphasis is being put on jobs; from the way client access is set up and managed to the way you create and propose quotes.  We’re making the whole application more intuitive, the workflow faster and far more flexible, and a whole lot easier to start using from the get go.  Not to mention, we’re adding the most requested features from our users like Questionnaires, Email Integration, and more.

    So even though it’ll remain fairly quiet on the Táve front for a bit longer, know that it’s because of some truly revolutionary improvements coming up.

     
    • Craig Single 11:59 am on November 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Great news…what a tease you are!…not that you need any more game changers, it is already better than anything on the market. Can’t wait to get the questionnaires so I can be completely green and paperless in my studio!

    • Darcie Brown 7:17 pm on November 3, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      The BCC is great! It’s nice not to have to go searching through my email account to find old messages. I’m looking forward to seeing what else you come out with.

    • oe Pulcinella 2:39 pm on November 10, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      The email feature is great. Now if we could only have “Next” and “Prev” buttons to page through emails. :o )

    • Marianne Taylor 8:01 am on November 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Sounds brilliant… I guess I will wait for a while for the new release and then *really* try to take the time to get to grips with it, I just completely ran out of time last time. Is there a chance of getting another trial run if I’ve already had my 30 days earlier in the year?

  • What if someone cancels after paying a retainer?

    By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 10:25 am on August 26, 2009 | 2 comments Permalink
    Tags: cancellations, ,

    Unfortunately, sometimes our clients cancel our services after they have already paid a retainer towards a wedding, event, or session. Retainers tend to be non-refundable, so thankfully we’re not completely out the money for the date that we’ve blocked out!

    So, what happens in Táve when a client cancels the job? Let’s take a look at the following booking below.

    tave.cancel1

    In this case, the client has ordered coverage for a birthday party and has paid $200 for a retainer. Now they’ve called and said they’d like to cancel while they still have a $224 balance.

    Táve tells you that you can’t delete or cancel a job with a non-zero balance.  Simply deleting the order and recording a refund like the popup suggests isn’t appropriate here because you’ve received a retainer and you want it to still show up as revenue. If they had not paid a retainer, you could in fact follow the advice in the popup and stopped there.

    So, what do you do? How do you cancel the job while still still showing the retainer revenue?

    First, click “New Quote” in the orange Quotes and Sales Orders Section.

    On the Quote page, you’ll select to add a Manual Entry item, and add something like what I’ve created below:

    tave.manualcancel

    When you’re done, click “Save” at the top of the page to return to the Quote.

    In the price section, as you can see below, I’ve created a negative amount opposite of the balance that was still due when they canceled. In this case the client owed an additional $224 towards her event coverage so I entered -224.

    tave.cancelorder

    Now, save your work and click the “Client Accepted; Book it!” button on the top of the page.

    Now your orange financials box will look like the one below. It will show the money that you were paid, and the remaining balance will be zeroed out, which means we can now cancel the job.

    tave.cancel2

    Then you can go ahead and mark the job as cancelled.

    tave.cancelledjob

     
    • Paul Hazon 2:05 pm on August 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks Karen! I ran into this problem for the first time recently. I was scratching my head over it for a few days and then the client called back to say they do still want to use our services after all, just a new day! But, this is good to know for the future… not that anyone’s going to cancel on us again :)

    • Nate 2:43 pm on August 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Clever! Never really knew how to go about that. Thank you! :)

  • Adding venues and locations to a job

    By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 4:40 pm on August 25, 2009 | 2 comments Permalink
    Tags: , locations, venues

    Sometimes we need to keep track of various locations when we book a job.

    You can add locations to any job, but let’s consider adding locations to a wedding. In this example, we have a rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and a day-after session at different locations.

    First, find the “Edit Profile” button at the top of the Job Overview page.

    tave.editprofile

    Once you’re in Edit mode, you can do lots of things! You can change the way the “name” of the wedding is displayed, for example: Maya & Sparky’s wedding. You can edit which brand you’re using, change which type of session it is, and also edit the date. And most importantly, you can edit the Venues, Vendors, and Source. Venues are the locations you’re shooting at for the job you’ve booked. Vendors are the other companies that you’ll be working with – such as Florists, Caterers, Entertainment, Makeup, Hair, etc. The Source is how the client found you, and the sources listed in the drop down menu can be customized in the Settings section.

    In this case, we’re adding Venues. If you’ve already added some venues, the ones you’ve added will show up as soon as you start to type their names. If you’re adding one that you’ve never added before, our system will prompt you to add them. You can always go back and fill in the information later by visiting the Vendors section if you’re working quickly with a client on the phone or in front of you in your studio.

    tave.addvenue

    Now that we’ve added additional Venues as shown above, it’s time to add them to our sessions as Locations.

    tave.addlocation

    In this case, I’ve added a Session for the rehearsal dinner for this wedding. I can see all of the possible locations that I’ve added to the job when I click on the Location drop down menu, and I’m able to select the correct location for this particular session. The other locations I’ve added are for the wedding itself and for the day-after session.

    Hope this mini-tutorial helps when setting up multiple-day and multiple-location jobs!

     
    • Simeon 8:31 am on August 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Excellent. It’s great to see these different features demonstrated. Thanks

      • Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 11:34 am on August 26, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks! I’m really glad these mini-tutorials have been helpful! Please let me know if there are any in particular that you’d like to see posted.

  • Adding a new lead in Táve

    By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 10:55 am on August 20, 2009 | 1 Permalink
    Tags: ,

    There are a few ways to create a new client or a new lead, but by far the fastest way to enter a lead into Táve is to use the yellow “New Lead” box on the Home Page.

    tave.newlead

    When you use the New Lead box, it will automatically create both the client and job entries (Note: If you’re simply adding previous clients, and do NOT wish to add jobs, just use the “New Client” button inside the Clients section).

    In order to add a new lead, all you need to enter is the person’s name and the Job Type (e.g. Wedding, Portrait, etc). From there, you can continue to edit the details of the job or jump right into a quote. Other information such as the lead’s contact information, event location, additional subjects, and more, can be collected later inside the Job profile as you chat with your prospective client.

    Aside from being a quick way to get started with a client, it’s also quite useful.  Once you enter a date, a mini-agenda for the date will appear in the right half of the New Lead box, quickly telling you if you already have something on your schedule for the date, so you never run the risk of double-booking yourself.

    It’s a good idea to select the Source as soon as possible, as it can be easy for your client to forget, but is huge for you, especially with our reports that break down your revenue and leads by source.

     
  • Workflow Tips & Tricks

    By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 5:54 pm on August 5, 2009 | 4 comments Permalink
    Tags: ,

    When I talk to Táve users on the phone, one of the most important features that they want to learn about is setting up their workflow. They are surprised when they find out how easy it can be!   Our product editor is a cornerstone of the application and definitely worth digging into, especially with the recently released Cost of Goods Sold feature (which was recently updated to show your profit margin percentage as well).

    Product-based automation

    The first step in setting up your workflow is to create a product. Let’s assume that you’re creating an album. For your album, you have 4 steps – to design the album, send the client a proof, order from your vendor, and deliver the album once it arrives. This is easily set up in the brown box labeled “work to create when ordered.”

    You can set which job phase you want the tasks to start in – Booked, Processing, Presentation, Fulfillment, or Completed. In this case, I chose for some tasks to start in the Presentation phase and one in the Fulfillment phase. When editing each task, you can also set more precise due dates if you prefer. It just depends on what you are comfortable with in your workflow!

    Work to Create When Ordered

    Quickly creating similar products

    When creating similar products that have the same tasks, I’ve found a really great tip. On the Products page, we include a “duplicate” button for each product. It’s the one that you see below that looks like two boxes, a blue one on top of a white one.

    Duplicating a Product
    If you click this button, it will duplicate the product and all information inside of it, including your workflow tasks. This will save you some time for items that are similar, as you’ll simply need to click on the copied item and edit it to be a separate product.

    Not only is this helpful for your workflow tasks, but if the items are very similar but just differ in price, then adding all of the options or add-ons is one less thing you’ll have to do to set up the next item on your product sheet!

    Job-specific tasks with Deliverables

    The next time a client books a quote with this product, a Deliverable will be created for the product inside the Job’s task module.  As you progress through the job phases, the tasks will automatically appear.

    Deliverables with Tasks

    As clients request special work for the album, just click on the New Task link to create a new task for the deliverable to keep it all organized.

    I hope this little tutorial helps as you set up your products and workflow a bit faster!

     
    • Heather Espana 7:56 pm on August 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks for this! Very easy to understand, and helpful! I did not notice the “copy” button before — that will save me a lot of time as I’m updating my products.

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 10:36 pm on August 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        FWIW, we try to put descriptive info in the icons, so if you leave your mouse over an icon for a while, often times they’ll explain a bit more with what they’ve done. The product editor is the oldest part of the application, so it might not, but just in generally it’s a good trick for learning about our system.

    • Cherie 11:04 pm on August 5, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I love this feature, and I was just telling a wedding planner friend of mine that she could put this to work for her business, as well! She manages her business in a binder, and this would help her to streamline her task list and keep on top of everything. It certainly has helped me! I love the daily reminders.

    • Cindy Lee 4:39 am on August 6, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Fantastic help as I’ve come to appreciate from Tave staff. Thank you :D

  • Custom Domains & Cost of Goods Sold

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 3:32 pm on July 20, 2009 | 3 comments Permalink
    Tags: clie,

    We’re proud to announce our latest new features:

    Custom Domain Names for Contact Forms and Client Access

    We don’t think your client interaction is a time for your studio management software to be advertising itself.  That’s why our contact forms are hosted on studiocontact.net and our client access system is hosted on studioreservations.net instead of tave.com.

    We’re taking that even further now as you can set up any domain you want for each of your pages.

    One low price.  
    Unlimited brands.  
    Unlimited forms.  
    Unlimited client access sites.  
    Your own domain names.  

    Setting up your custom domain

    By default, our system suggests contact.yourstudio.com for contact forms and book.yourstudio.com for Client Access.  You’re free to use any domain you want, it doesn’t even need to be a subdomain.  All you need to do is tell us about it and point the domain to us.

    To tell us what domain you’re going to use, visit Settings and click on the link to edit your Pages.  From there, go on to edit your contact forms or client access pages.  Both editors now include the “Custom domain” field and have some info about how it works.  Enter in your domain (without http://) and save your changes.

    To point your domain to us, you’ll have to access your domain name manager or DNS system.  Every registrar and setup is different, so if you’re not familiar with this process you’ll want to ask your system administrator or webmaster.  You’ll want to create a CNAME record pointing to clientpages.tave.com.   Once you save the DNS and your DNS cache updates, your custom domain should be live!

    To check out a real world example, visit Karen’s actual contact form at contact.karenlisa.com.

    Special considerations for Client Access

    In order to provide a secure environment, Client Access pages are encrypted.  This means Client Access custom domains must forward to your standard URL unless you’ve purchased Custom SSL service from us.  The way the internet works requires every secure website to have its own reserved IP address and a commercial certificates signed by a known authority (like Network Solutions or VeriSign).  Our $99/year Custom SSL service uses one of our reserved IP addresses and takes care of purchasing, installing, and renewing your certificate each year.

    Cost of Goods Sold

    Tracking and managing your expenses is a huge part of running a successful business, so we’re adding a suite of tools to help you do just that, becoming the first online studio management system to include “Cost of goods sold” and ad-hoc expense tracking so you can get a clear idea of how your business is performing.

    We’re known for our small frequent feature updates, constantly improving Táve, rather than publishing large major versions here and there like most applications.  The great part of this “agile” philosophy is that we get to release the most important features early, and fill in the blanks later, which is exactly what we’re doing with our series of financial updates.

    Profit margins in the Product EditorSince configuring your products can be a time consuming process, and one we’d rather you not have to revisit later, we’ve added a “Cost of Goods” field to the Product editor so you can get a head start as we add these exciting new tools.  Already you’ll get a sense of things as we show you the base profit for any product configuration, and soon we’ll use this to help you build more profitable packages and quotes.

    Just around the corner in this financial update series is a streamlined quote builder where you’ll be able to visualize your costs and profits as you configure each item in the quote, live without leaving the quote editor.   In the tough economic environment we face today, knowing exactly how you can cut down a quote to meet your client’s needs is an extremely valuable asset.

    Email updates

    We’ve changed the name of Themes to Brands and added a few more settings.    Accordingly, we’ve added a brand dropdown to the Client and Job profile editors.

    If you visit the brand editor, you’ll find we added some email settings.   You can now set your own Reply-To address and an email address to BCC any emails our system sends on your behalf.   The advanced design section also has a new email template to use for the brand.    If you have Authorize.net or PayPal as your payment method, you can have us use these settings to send an email confirmation by editing your Client Access page settings and checking the box for this (it’s currently the last option at the bottom of the editor).

     
  • Major new software update

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 10:09 pm on June 22, 2009 | 7 comments Permalink

    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.

    Tave logo
    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?
    Job editor changes

    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 indexCustom 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 PreviewClient 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 HUDsCalendar 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).
     
    • Karen Lisa 10:26 pm on June 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      I love all the new updates! You guys have been working SO hard on this release and it shows….. I’m so excited to use all the new features! :)

    • Tommy Gaio 10:52 pm on June 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Looking great! We’re in Italy right now for a wedding…but I will fully check it out when we get back…I’m excited!

    • Ricardo Serpa 11:00 pm on June 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Lots of improvements, and I haven’t had the time (yet) to check them all, of course, but I really like the changes in the calendar. Way more flexible now… Looking good, Adrian, way to go!

    • Jose Febus 11:04 pm on June 22, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Looks GREAT!!! I am in love with TAVE!

    • Akwoo 12:45 am on June 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Very sweet guys

    • Cherie 11:15 am on June 23, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Love, Love, Love the new updates. You just took Tave from Good to Great! You are making my life so much easier.

    • Wayne Bradt 12:37 am on August 3, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      This update sold me

  • "This week in Photography" podcast interview

    By Adrian Ziemkowski 4:04 pm on June 20, 2009 | 2 comments Permalink

    This Week in PhotographyI 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).

     
    • Wayne Bradt 12:37 am on August 3, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Fantastic podcast, nice job

      • Adrian Ziemkowski 5:27 pm on August 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply

        Thanks! Clearly I had the community features on the mind the day of the interview… forgot to mention some of our other big selling points or how much more affordable we are. Live and learn!

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