Getting Started for Users

This guide is for photographers using a studio that has already been set up. You'll need the studio's website address and an invitation from its owner. If you're installing the system yourself, start with Getting Started for Owners.

Open your studio's /admin address. Enter the email address the owner invited, follow the sign-in link in your email and set up or enter the code from your authenticator app. Use the studio's website for this; the documentation subdomain has no studio sign-in.

If you cannot get in, ask the owner to check your invitation and email address. The sign-in screen does not reveal whether an address belongs to the studio.

2. Find your way around

The Overview shows upcoming sessions, income and work waiting on clients. Projects is the starting point for individual jobs. Contacts holds the people you work with, and Photos holds your images in albums.

Use the studio search box to jump to a page. The in-app Help page has short walkthroughs, and question-mark help explains individual controls.

Owners manage the team and service connections, as well as owner-only work such as package changes, marketing sends and shop setup. If a control is unavailable, your owner may need to handle that step.

3. Check your studio's setup

Before real client work, confirm that the studio's business details, packages, working hours and calendar are ready. These apply across the studio, so coordinate changes with your team.

You can begin with an inquiry that arrived through the website, or enter a job agreed by phone or email. Website inquiries create a contact and project for you.

4. Create your first project

Open Contacts and find or add the client. Use an email address they can receive sign-in links at.
Open Projects → New project, choose the primary contact, name the job and enter the session details you know.
Add any other people involved. Each person who needs a client page needs their own access invitation.
Add an internal note with useful context for your team.

For a rehearsal, use a contact and inbox you control. Sending documents or invitations sends real email when your studio's email service is connected.

5. Agree the work and reserve the time

From the project, choose New estimate. Add your items or use a package, review the deposit and dates, then send it. Your client can accept or decline on their client page.

Create a contract from the project, review the wording and signers, and send it for signature. If your studio countersigns, finish that step after the client signatures.

Create the booking. You can confirm a session or hold the time while waiting for a deposit, a signed contract or both. A held time is reserved, but it becomes a confirmed session only when the requirements are met or your team confirms it.

See Estimates, Contracts and Bookings.

6. Invoice and record payment

On an accepted estimate, choose Create invoice. Check its payment plan and instructions, then issue and email it. For work without an estimate, create an invoice directly from the project.

Clients can pay by card when Stripe is connected. For money you receive by cash, cheque or transfer, record the payment on the invoice. Use Income → Record income for money that has no invoice behind it.

See Invoices & income.

7. Deliver your photographs

Upload the finished photographs into their own album in Photos and wait for processing. From the project, choose New gallery and select that album. Decide whether to allow original downloads, offer prints or set an expiry date.

Copy the gallery passcode when it is shown, preview the gallery and share its link and passcode with the client. Keep private client albums separate from albums used on the public website.

See Photos & albums and Client galleries.

8. Keep the job moving

Return to the project to see progress, the suggested next step and outstanding items. Use View as to check what an invited client can see. Use Messages for the conversation and the Overview's Waiting on clients list to follow up.

Automatic reminders help with unanswered estimates, unsigned agreements and unpaid invoices. You can pause client reminders on an individual project while making other arrangements.

You now have the main workflow. Explore how the concepts fit together, then read the sections relevant to your studio.