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).

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.  

Before we begin

Let’s review our terminology and core features of Táve Studio Manager:

• Contacts: Contacts are essentially address book entries.  You’ll
  never see them referred to as contacts in the application, but instead
  by the different types of contacts you can have.  Each type of contact
  has a different role to play in your business, they are:
• Clients: The most important contact you have, these contacts have jobs associated with them and therefore account balances, revenue, and other information.  When we refer to a “lead”, we’re saying the client has an unbooked job (the real “lead”). 
• Subjects: You can add as many subjects to a job as you wish.  These subjects can be actual “subjects” or just important people that you’d like to keep track of for future reference.
• Vendor Contacts: You can keep a list of contacts for a vendor.  The owner of a florist or the principal of a school are perfect examples of vendor contacts.
• Employees: The final contact type is an employee of your studio, each employee has their own login and can be managed by administrators in the Settings section.
• Jobs: Like jobs themselves, the Job Editor, is the centerpiece of the Táve Studio Manager workflow.  A job holds its own set of photo sessions, meetings, calls, conversation logs, tasks, quotes, orders, credits, payments, and other details.   A job encompasses anything you’re doing to acquire or complete a job. 
• Events: Events are best thought of as calendar entries, something that will take time on your calendar and can have a location or any number of attendees.  A job doesn’t take up any time on the calendar, but the events (such as a photo session or meeting) for that job do.  Like contacts, there are a few different types of events:
• Photography Session / Coverage: A session is any calendar event where there’s a camera involved.  For a portrait session there will likely only be one photo session attached to a job, but if you need to re-shoot, go ahead and add that session to the same job so you can track just how much time the completed job takes.  For a wedding or other event, you may well create a few sessions such as getting ready, ceremony, reception sessions or even sessions on different days such as an engagement shoot or bridal session.
• Meetings & Calls: These events are self explanitory.  Schedule them in advance or create them as they happen with the Job Editor’s “Start Unscheduled Conversation” link.
• Unavailable Time: Useful to block out time on your calendar before you know the exact schedule, blacking out workshop or tradeshow dates, or simply to prevent over-booking near a big job.
• Quotes: You can add products, discounts, taxes, payment terms, and notes to a quote.  When a client accepts a quote, the job becomes “Booked”.  Any default work or tasks added to a product will now appear in the job, deliverables are created, and you become free to change the job phase at will.
• Sales Order: The booked quote becomes a sales order once accepted.  You can no longer modify it, though you can copy it to a new quote and void the order if need be.
• Invoice: Once a quote is booked, the job then has an outstanding balance for which you can accept payments or redeem credit toward.  An invoice is a request or notice for the client to pay a portion of the outstanding balance.  Once “Client Access” is enabled, you’ll be able to ask your clients to pay these invoices online.
• Assets: Items you upload to a client or job, such as price lists, contracts, or mugshots.
• Vendors & Venues: Vendors are companies or people you work with, while venues (a type of vendor) represents a place you work.   You can quickly add them to any job to keep track of who you’ve worked with and where, useful for future outreach to the vendor.
• Products: These are the items you sell.  Another versatile part of Táve Studio Manager, you can approach products in many ways.  You can start by simply creating “manual entry line items” on your quotes and selecting to turn them into products, quickly add some high-level one-liner products, and then expand them with configurable options, default work and tasks, and various pricing as you go.    Or, to make the most of it, take the time to fully configure your products from the start.  It’s up to you, both approaches work. 

If you just read through this list of important terminology above, you already have a strong grasp of the system.  But lets walk through the process of working a lead from start to finish.

The Workflow

A lead is a prospective job, created either by the client themselves by completing your integrated contact form or by completing the yellow Quick Lead form on your Táve Studio Manager homepage.   If the lead was created with your contact form, a “New Lead” module will appear on your homepage until you view the job.

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.

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:

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.