Updates from May, 2010

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  Deliverables & Tasks in 2.8.1

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 9:49 am on May 21, 2010 | 5 comments Permalink
  Tags: deliverables, tasks (3)

  Perhaps the most visible change in last week’s Táve 2.8.0 release, and even more so with yesterday’s release of 2.8.1, is the completely revamped Deliverables section of the job viewer.

  Prior to this release, we showed all tasks for a deliverable in two places in the job viewer; collapsed under each deliverable and also in the general task list. The idea behind it was you’d want to see all of your tasks for a job in one place and yet be able to dig into the individual progress of a deliverable. In reality, it meant that the task list would often get too cluttered to be usable and downright confusing if the same task was created for different items.

  Here’s an example of the Tasks and Deliverables sections prior to 2.8.0, courtesy of Karen Lisa:

  

  Now with 2.8, your general task list for a job is limited to tasks you create manually and tasks created when non-deliverable products are ordered.

  Here’s a look at at the same deliverables and tasks above in 2.8.1 (Karen has delivered some of the items since the screenshot above was taken):

  

  You’ll notice that we now group the deliverables by order and include a handy progress meter. In this case, Karen has 3 orders with deliverables booked for this job.

  To make it easier to see what tasks are coming up next for an order, we show the next task for each deliverable even when collapsed.  Click on the deliverable name and it expands to show all tasks and even the item configuration:

  

  The “next task” is based on the task order, so you can always drag and drop the tasks into a new order by grabbing the dotted grips on the left side of the tasks (any time you see those dotted grips in Táve it means you can drag the item using it).

   

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  What if someone cancels after paying a retainer?

  By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 10:25 am on August 26, 2009 | 2 comments Permalink
  Tags: cancellations, clients (4), jobs (4)

  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.

  

  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:

  

  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.

  

  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.

  

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

  

   
• 

  Adding venues and locations to a job

  By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 4:40 pm on August 25, 2009 | 2 comments Permalink
  Tags: jobs (4), 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.

  

  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.

  

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

  

  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!

   
• 

  Adding a new lead in Táve

  By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 10:55 am on August 20, 2009 | 1 Permalink
  Tags: clients (4), jobs (4)

  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.

  

  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.

   
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  Workflow Tips & Tricks

  By Karen Lisa Ziemkowski 5:54 pm on August 5, 2009 | 4 comments Permalink
  Tags: products (3), tasks (3)

  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!

  

  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.

  
  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.

  

  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!

   
• 

  Client Access - Online booking, payment, and contracting!

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 6:32 pm on February 16, 2009 | 0 Permalink
  Tags: booking, client access (5), clients (4), screencast

   

  

  That’s right, Client Access is live and ready for use.  You can now have your clients approve a quote, sign your contract, and pay online… and this is just the first set of Client Access features to be released, many more are coming soon.

  The best way to get started is to watch Karen fully configure her Client Access system and run through the booking process in this 15 minute (50MB) video:

  
   
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  Overview of the Táve Studio Manager workflow

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 2:15 pm on December 10, 2008 | 2 comments Permalink
  

  Táve Studio Manager is rather versatile, allowing you to use it in whatever way you find best for your needs.  This tutorial is meant to highlight the workflow that we design around.

  We’ll review some of the basic terminology used in Táve Studio Manager and then proceed through the process of entering a lead, adding events and quotes, booking the job, and then working through completion of the job.

  (More …)

   
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  Just Released: Track your deliverables

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 6:03 am on September 17, 2008 | 0 Permalink
  

  When you book a quote, Táve Studio Manager not only creates the default work and tasks you created for your products, but now we add all the products that were ordered to a new “Deliverables” section on the job editor.

  This
  list helps you keep track of the status of individual products that the
  client ordered.   We’ve grouped all those default tasks with the
  deliverables so you can easily see which tasks are responsible for
  which deliverables.  On top of that, you can now create new tasks for a
  deliverable product after they’ve been sold.

  When you’re done
  with a task, you can complete or delete it as usual, and when you’ve
  delivered the product you can do the same.   

  

  We follow the “release early, release often” approach at Táve, so there’s more to come!   Additional
  refinements are in the works, such as setting individual due dates,
  tagging them with customizable labels, and an updated iPhone Access job
  viewer.

   
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  Tutorial: Automatically adding tasks and work to a job

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 12:11 pm on July 18, 2008 | 1 Permalink
  

  Did you know that you can have the system automatically add tasks and work to a job when a client accepts a quote?   Use this under-utilized default work system to track more of your work while spending less time setting up the job.

  When you edit a product, look for the “Work to create when ordered” module at the bottom left, as seen in this screenshot from the “Sample Album” product included in the sample data when you create your studio:

  

  Use the “Add Work or Task” link to create the items.   However they look when you edit them here, is how they’ll look when you sell the products.

  When you set a Job Phase for the item, the task won’t be due until the job reaches that phase.  As always, once a job is booked (when a client accepts a quote), you can set the phase of the job just by clicking the progress bar at the top of the Job Editor:

  

  Here the user is changing the job phase to Fulfillment, which would cause the four work and task items shown above to become current.
   
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  Subscribing to your calendar with Mac's iCal, Google Calendar, or Vista's Windows Calendar

  By Adrian Ziemkowski 5:03 pm on June 26, 2008 | 0 Permalink
  

  Publishing your calendar feed

  To publish your calendar, visit the Calendar section and find the “Publish your calendar…” link in the top toolbar:

  

  You’ll be taken to the application settings page, which has this calendar settings module:

  

  Here’s where you create the URL for your calendar.

  Select the “Publish” dropdown and select “Extended Information” and then save your settings.

  After you save, the “Calendar Publishing” section should look something like this:

  

  Click on the URL text box and select the text and copy it.  It’s a long URL, so you should use your computer’s Select All function (Apple-A on Mac, Control-A in Windows) so you don’t miss any of it and copy that text.

  Just like the warning states, this URL is public and doesn’t require any sort of authentication to access, so be careful who you hand it to as the “Extended Information” feed includes sensitive contact information such as physical addresses, emails, and phone numbers.

  Clicking on the Reset URL and saving will give you a brand new URL and kill any old subscriptions, forcing you to repeat the steps below.

  Subscribing to your calendar with Mac’s iCal

  If, like most of our users, you’re a Mac user, you probably use iCal already.   After completing the first step above and copying the URL for your feed, open up iCal and select Subscribe from the Calendar menu:

  

  Paste the URL into the address “Calendar URL” field that pops up and click the Subscribe button.   iCal will add your Táve calendar on the left, just like your other calendars.

  We don’t currently export your tasks and reminders in the feed, but plan to in the future.  To receive these when we add them, select the calendar on the left and go to File > Get Info.  You can then un-check the boxes to remove these items as shown below.   You can also change how frequently iCal refreshes the feed:

  

  Now, you’ll see all your events, meetings, and scheduled calls in your calendar.  Double click an entry to see more information about it, including a direct link back to Táve Studio Manager so you can update or view the full details:

  

  Your actual events will contain even more information.
  
  Subscribing to your calendar with Vista’s Windows Calendar

  Windows Calendar is basically Microsoft’s version of iCal and likewise included with Vista out of the box.   To add your feed, go to Share > Subscribe as shown here:

  

  A window will appear and ask for the URL.  Enter it and subscribe.  Your events will appear in Windows Calendar shortly:

  

  You can edit the feed settings, such as how frequently it updates or whether or not to include tasks and reminders (which are coming soon), by clicking on the calendar name on the left:

  

  Subscribing to your calendar with Google Calendar

  If you’re a fan of Google Calendar and want to subscribe to your Táve Studio Manager calendar there, it’s as easy as clicking on the Add button above your calendars, selecting “Add by URL”, and pasting in the else just works as you expect.  There aren’t any configurable options for the calendar, such as update frequency or including tasks.