Latest updates from the Dubsado team
Originally posted: October 23rd, 2019
Hey everyone!
We made a very important update to our public forms that now requires them to have first name, last name and email fields on that form.
The reason for this update was due to clients submitting your public forms and it brought in a project without a client. This caused lots of errors when trying to assign a client to the project later.
Now lead capture forms and public proposals require a first name, last name and email address (set as required and mapped) on the form to be completed. If any of your public forms are missing that information, be sure to update your template accordingly so clients can fill out your forms.
NOTE: Proposals have always been this way. This update is only changing lead captures. We have just combined now that all public forms will need this info.
Originally posted: September 15th, 2019
No more missing any failed payments on recurring invoices! With this update, when a client's invoice auto payment fails, you will get a dashboard notification and email of the failed invoice
Additionally, when payment is failed your client will get an email with a link to the invoice that lets them manually pay and update their credit card information.
You can edit what this automatic email will say to your clients under Templates >> Canned Emails >> Failed Recurring Invoice Payment.
Any questions, feel free to email or chat us. We are always happy to help!
Originally posted: August 19th, 2019
Scheduler Groups are a group of Appointment Schedulers that can be sent to your client all at once. This new feature functions like a landing page for your schedulers. You are in control with how you group them!
These groups can be made via a navigation tab on the Templates>>Schedulers page.
When making a group, you will have the ability to select any of your existing Appointment Scheduler Templates and add them to the group. After the Schedulers are selected, you can add an email that will contain a link to that scheduler page. This email is for this specific group and will not affect the schedulers that are added if you'd like to use a different email to send individually. A smart field, schedulerGroup | schedulerGroupLink for scheduler groups has been added so that a template can be created.
Once you click CREATE on your scheduler group, it will be added to that group page. That group preview will consist of a dropdown of the included schedulers, a settings button to edit, copy, or delete the group, and the Share button that will allow users a copy the direct link or get the iframe code to embed that scheduler group.
You can also create scheduler groups on the "Appointment Scheduler" tab. Use bulk actions to select a group of schedulers to quickly add them to a group.
Like individual Appointment Schedulers, Scheduler Groups can be sent out through a project manually, via a workflow, or using the public link/embedded page for templates. When sent through a project, a new copy of that group and all of the included schedulers will be added to that project rather than using the template. Groups can be added to the project via the Schedule Appointment drop down. A new section on the Pending Appointment page of a project has been added to distinguish individual schedulers and scheduler groups sent in that project. The added schedulers will also appear in card view on this page. When you click on the dropdown of attached schedulers within this card, you will have the option to edit any of the individual schedulers added to that group. To edit the group as a whole, you can press the Gear Icon at the bottom right of the card. These cards have sent flags to show when the appointment has been viewed, sent, etc. When a client books an appointment using the group, the Appointment under the confirmed tab will be from that individual scheduler not the group.
Additionally, Scheduler Groups that have been added to a project can be sent using the Add a link button on the email composer within a project. They have a blue flag with the Sched. Group tag to distinguish it from the other documents on the project. More about adding multiple form/document links to an email here.
In Workflows, the Send Appointment Scheduler option has been updated to allow groups to be sent as well. To send a group, select the Send Appointment Scheduler action and the new segmented dropdown will list the individual appointment schedulers as well as the scheduler group templates. Selecting a group will automatically load in the Send Scheduler Group canned email template, but you can select another canned email in its place.
A new workflow trigger action has been added to have actions fire off when an appointment is made off of a scheduler in that group. This will fire that action when ANY of the schedulers in the group are used (as opposed to individual actions looking for a certain scheduler to be used). If any actions are watching for an appointment and that appointment is cancelled. The workflow will pause and show an error out informing the user of that the appointment was cancelled.
For clients, making an appointment via a Scheduler Group is largely the same as making an appointment with an individual scheduler. The only difference is that the client will be taken to a landing page that has cards of all the attached Appointment schedulers. These cards will display the name of the Scheduler, the length of the appointment, and the event location. Clicking on a card will take you to that scheduler which can be filled out normally. When a scheduler is accessed via the Scheduler Group page, a "Back" button will appear in the top left corner to take you back to the Group page.
Once an appointment is made, all of the details stored on that scheduler (Confirmation messages, reminder emails, etc.) will be that of the individual appointment scheduler, not the group.
In the client portal, Scheduler Groups will appear under the "Appointment Scheduler" section within the projects tab. They have a different icon to distinguish the Group from individual schedulers sent in the project.
Originally posted: July 29th, 2019
New Features in this release
This update makes it so certain actions can be performed to multiple items at once. The following actions can be now performed in Bulk:
On each of the pages where we have added bulk actions, you will now see a new toggle to the left of each item on the corresponding list and a checkbox at the top of the list.
Checking off the box next to any individual item will mark it as selected. Alternatively you can mark the checkbox above the list to have ALL items on that list marked as selected. Once you have all of the desired items selected you can click on the dropdown arrow in the box above (with the check all select box) to bring up a list of the actions you can perform.
Once you select an action, a confirmation message will pop-up to make sure you want to perform that action. After the action goes through, you will see a completion message appear informing the user that said action has been completed. This message will have a count of how many items that action was performed on. If there are any items where the action cannot be performed (if you try to delete projects with contracts, etc.) you will see a count of how many items that were not affected on this same message.
This feature will allow users to choose how their projects are organized by default on their projects page. Head to Projects>>Customize page to see those customizations under the Columns area.
Ways they can be organized:
We now have an extra tool to quickly learn how to use Dubsado on some basic functions. There are six tours new users can go through that each focus on a key area of Dubsado that they are interested.
The subjects of these tours are:
There is also a general walkthrough that will show the general layout of the platform.
These will allow you to click on various parts of the app to take you to the correct pages and buttons to click to perform the desired task. Each step on the tour will have a "skip" button to allow you to exit the tour at any time (tour progress will not be saved).
You can access the tour from anytime through the Help Button in the top right corner.
Hope you all enjoy these updates. Any questions, please email (hello@dubsado.com) or chat us. We are always happy to help!
Originally posted: June 26th, 2019
Everybody loves a discount! We are very excited for this release of discounts and coupon codes to your Dubsado invoices!
With this release we have added:
- Percentage based discounts that can be applied manually or via coupon code.
- Coupon codes for packages (invoices), schedulers, and proposal templates for a fixed or percentage amount off.
This release is PACKED full of tips and how-tos for this new feature. Be sure to read through its entirety and click the links to find out more information as you go along.
Before you can apply a discount to apply to a package (invoice), proposal or scheduler, you'll need to create a template. Here's how:
Here's a breakdown of the settings:
Discount name: what the discount is called, visible to clients as the line item name for fixed discounts (not percentage, i.e. $100 off).
Discount type: how the discount is calculated, fixed or percentage.
Value: the amount of the discount.
Discount code (optional): a case-sensitive code that your client can enter on a proposal or scheduler invoice to apply the discount.
Category (optional): an income category for this discount in the chart of accounts.
Max. number of uses (optional): the maximum number of times a discount can be applied through the use of a discount code.
Expiration date (optional): a fixed date and time to expire use of the discount code for this discount.
Let's take a closer look at the options for setting up your discount.
A fixed discount will subtract a specific dollar amount from the invoice total, no matter what the total is. It will be added as a negative line item to the invoice. The item name for the discount will be the Discount Name you entered while creating the template. So a fixed discount for $100.00 will show on your client's invoice like this:
A percentage discount will reduce all of the line items on the invoice by the chosen percentage. So a percentage discount for 50% will show on your client's invoice like this
After the percentage discount has been applied to the invoice, you will have the option to remove the discount from individual line items. Learn more about applying discounts to invoices here.
If you provide your client with a discount code, they can enter it on their invoice after completing a proposal or scheduler with a required deposit. This is a great tool for running promotions and rewarding loyal customers!
Simply enter the code you would like to use in the Discount Code field while creating your discount template. Please note that the code is case-sensitive!
Once enabled on your proposal template or scheduler template, your client will see a field on the invoice where they can enter their discount code:
Discount codes are not compatible with invoices you have created manually. Learn more about enabling a discount code on a proposal or enabling a discount code on your scheduler with required deposit!
Assign an income category to your discount here. The category will be visible under Reporting >> Chart of Accounts.
Discounts will be logged as negative income, per standard accounting practices. By creating a separate category for each discount, you'll be able to see how much income you've discounted per code under Reporting >> Chart of Accounts.
The following settings will automatically deactivate the discount code for your clients to use. However, discounts can be applied manually to an invoice by you at any time, even if they are expired or maxed out based on these settings.
This setting will allow you to limit application of the discount code to a fixed number of uses. For example, if you enter the number "10" here, the discount code for this discount will only work 10 times. The 11th time the code is used, the client will receive an error message and the discount will not be applied.
TIP: As soon as a client applies this discount code to an invoice, that will be logged as a use of the code, even if they do not ultimately pay. To recover uses of a discount code, you can increase the max number you set in the discount template or manually remove the applied discount from an unpaid invoice.
Setting an expiration date will deactivate the discount code at the specified date and time in your time zone. If a client attempts to use the discount code after the expiration date, they will receive an error message and the discount will not be applied.
- Manually adding a negative line item to an invoice will no longer reflect in the subtotal. So any open invoices that have negative line items should be removed and replaced with a proper discount. This also affects the previous workaround for balancing invoices with refunds. Bottom line: do not add negative line items to your invoices. Use a proper refund or discount feature instead since it is available. Any past paid invoices are fine. Just for future use, do not use negative line items to reflect discounts or refunds. Use the proper discount and refund features now!
- If you are using smart fields in your contracts, forms or emails, and would like for them to also reflect discounts, be sure to readd the smart field to the document due to this update.
Deleting a discount template will not affect any invoices to which the discount has already been applied. Once a discount template is deleted, its discount code (if set) will no longer be valid and you will not be able to manually apply the discount to an invoice.
No, only one type of discount code can be applied to an invoice at a time.
Originally posted: June 20th, 2019
This is phase one of our Project Activity Tracker feature. The goal with activity tracker is to give you more insight to the "history" on your account. With this feature, you will be able to see what a user or workflow does on a project. As this feature develops, you will be able to see actions, removal of items, adding of items, etc... on that project. Especially when working with teams, it will give you the heads up on what is done.
Example:
With this phase one release, you can keep track of the following items:
- Adding/Removing tags from a project (within workflows as well)
- Changing the project status (within workflows as well)
- Changing the notes or call logs within a project
- Changing the project title
- Changing the project date
One of my favorite parts of this feature is you can see what user is doing what and if it was done via workflow, it will show that as well
Head to any project. Click notes and then activity log:
This is not retroactive. It will start tracking the above items from now on.
In future releases of this feature we will be launching:
- when appointment created
- when appointment updated
- when appointment deleted
- when appointment scheduler template added
- applied invoice
- sent invoice
- updated invoice
- email replied
- email deleted
- applied line item
- applied package
- removed invoice item
- created payment scheduler
- sent payment reminder
- approved workflow action
- update workflow action
- completed workflow action
- forced workflow action
You get the idea...basically all that you can do within in a project, will be recorded. We cannot wait for the full release on this!
Originally posted: May 30th, 2019
We have added the ability to edit the email and a few other options on the SEND APPOINTMENT SCHEDULE action in workflow.
The added options on the SEND APPOINTMENT SCHEDULER action in workflow now allow you to apply the scheduler to the portal and send an email, apply to portal only, or apply to project only. This feature is just like the forms and contracts have in workflows as well.
We also added the ability to customize the email that is sent out via workflow for the appointment scheduler.
Little update, but a nice one!
Originally posted: May 7th, 2019
There is no "one" title for this update. Just a bunch of littler updates with a few bigger ones at the end relating to emails and easy rescheduling ;)
We made some text changes within projects. Anywhere it said "jobs" before, it now says "project". This way it can relate to both jobs and leads. No functionality has changed here.
Just a few examples of what the changes look like:
We have updated the canned email search bar to only search the email subject and title. It will no longer search the wording the body of the email anymore. This is so you can have more precise and clean searches.
You can now rearrange the order of your scheduler templates by clicking and dragging them around.
We have added the ability on the SCHEDULER >> TEMPLATES page to see the full title of the scheduler if it is cut off. Simply hover over the scheduler title to see more.
We noticed that some users might have been using the feature wrong. Within the scheduler template under the basic settings there is a "Once booked, show me as" text. This means, once someone books that slot on your scheduler, would you like it mark you as busy (so that no one else can book that slot) or to mark you as available (so that your clients can overlap each other)
There is an added tool tip there to further explain that as well.
Emails, prior to this update, were only brought into Dubsado if they were sent through a project. With this update, as long as the client is in your address book any email from them will now be forwarded to Dubsado. So say a client that you have in Dubsado emails you out of the blue or out of thread...that email will now be populated within the system since your email is synced and they are in your address book.
Emails sent this way will only be placed in the Dubsado Inbox when it is initially brought in. You then have the option to assign emails to a project / client via the dropdown in the top left menu.
Gmail is fully launched, but if you are connecting via SMTP it is still in BETA.
This does not remove current functionality and emails sent via dubsado will have their replies populated properly.
You can now send your clients a manual reschedule request. Prior to this update, reschedules had to be done via the confirmation email on the client’s end. Now if the you or your client cannot make the appointment, you can simply can select the appointment on the calendar or from within the project and reschedule. There will be a few buttons on top of the modal: 1) the cancel button on the right (replacing the button that said (cancel appointment) and 2) the reschedule request button. Clicking this button will bring up the email composer with a regenerated email with the reschedule link.
Originally posted: May 6th, 2019
We have made some updates to workflow trigger speeds. They will now trigger very close to immediately for 0 days after XX triggers. Force now is also another action that will happen pretty much right away now.
We are excited for this update and getting your workflows running faster for you!
If you'd like to learn more about how to make workflows work for you, be sure to read our help article about it as well as download our guide here: https://help.dubsado.com/workflow/how-to-create-workflows
Originally posted: April 30th, 2019
Phase 2 of project reporting has launched. With this feature launch a new charts page is added. This will allow you to see how many of what type of inquiry are done within the X amount date range.
The new page for this feature can be found under REPORTING >> PROJECT BREAKDOWN
Within that page, you will see some added charts to show the number of inquires you are receiving over a period of time. If you are using a custom date range on the PROJECT BREAKDOWN page, it must be at least a 7 day date range.
If you would like to only filter by a source you can as well. In REPORTING >> PROJECT BREAKDOWN click FILTER on the right side of that page.
This is the number of projects that you have brought in on a per week average. This only accounts for those projects you brought in WITH sources. It will not count any projects / leads brought in without a project source. If you haven't yet, start adding in those project sources to your lead captures or questionnaires so you can start generating those metrics.
This is the net income from the selected project sources. It accounts for all invoices and expenses on those projects with that project source.
If you would like to export this report you can do so on the PROJECTS page, click FILTER, choose your sources and then export:
To learn more about Project Sources and setting them up on your Dubsado account here.
As time goes on, this page will be added to with more metrics and deeper insights to your lead to booking to closing conversion.
Any questions, feel free to email or chat us and we are happy to help!