Hey photographers! Maybe you’re at the same place I was at a few years ago… I just started booking weddings, and between contracts, invoice, questionnaires, bookkeeping, and more… I was losing it. Everything was all over the place, and trying to remember who paid when and who needs to sign something was a mess. It didn’t take long for me to NEED something to organize it all in one place (I love being organized. If I’m not in one aspect, my whole life feels chaotic… so you can imagine why this was extra important for me. :) ).

The BEST thing you could ever do to manage your business is to get a business managing software. There are so many on the market right now (Honeybook, 17Hats, Dubsado, Shootflow, etc), so I know even choosing that can be a little overwhelming. All of them are absolutely incredible, so you really can’t go wrong with any of them!

However, for my business, I chose early on to go with 17Hats to manage everything in my business on the back end. I continue to use it to this day and absolutely LOVE it, so I’d love to share a little bit about what I use it for and how it keeps me sane. :)

17Hats does it all, which is one thing I love about it. I use it for contracts, invoices, questionnaires, bookkeeping, my calendar, and for parts of my wedding/engagement workflows. When I log in, here is the main screen…

Notice all the little “tabs” on the left hand side. This is how I navigate to each part of the site, like the bookkeeping and contracts.

CONTACTS & WORKFLOWS

When I book a new client, the first thing I do is make a “Contact” that has all their information in it, including the Bride & Groom’s name, emails, phone numbers, and mailing address. In each Contact, you can add “Workflows”. You can pre-create a template of these workflows that will automatically set certain things to happen at a certain amount of time before their wedding date. For example, I always send out a questionnaire 2 months before a couple’s wedding date. The template I created for my Wedding Workflow will automatically remind me to send one out 2 months before the wedding date I designate for each couple.

These workflows are SUPER HELPFUL because I don’t have to remember when to do these things for every wedding. I just created a “template” workflow, and base it off of a date. For every new couple, I insert their date, and bam! It’s all set up and ready to go. :) Pretty nifty. It’s probably my favorite feature.

INVOICES

The next thing I LOVE is the invoices. Oh, they are so wonderful. I can create an Invoice for each couple and automatically set up their payments and when each payment is due. On my end, I don’t even have to worry about reminding my couples to pay- the system does it for me.

BOOKKEEPING

One part I use the most is the bookkeeping tab. What’s nice about this is my business bank account is connected to it, so all I have to do is refresh, then I can see everything on my bank account statement! :) You can then separate every transaction into different categories and rename them according to what the expense or income was. I typically do this once a month, so at the end of the year, I have everything categorized and ready to go. Makes it SUPER easy when it’s time for taxes!!

QUESTIONNAIRES

The last part I utilize the most is the questionnaires section. These are typically built into my workflows, but they are amazing. I use them to gather information about my couples’ wedding days a couple months beforehand, including the timeline, family formals shot list, vendors they’re using, and more. It’s so nice to have as a way to quickly and effectively communicate with my couples on important details, to ensure we’re on the same page when their wedding day comes.

If you have any questions or want more information on how any of 17Hats works, feel free to contact me! I’d love to chat about it more. :)