The Complete Guide to Dubsado for Photographers

If you’re tired of chasing down payments, rewriting the same emails over and over, or juggling a dozen different tools just to keep your business running – Hi! You’re in the right place.

I’m sharing everything you need to know about Dubsado for photographers: how it can streamline your processes, save you hours each week, and help you deliver a consistent client experience — all without adding more stress to your plate.

My Business Before Dubsado

Before I was a web designer, I was a wedding professional like you. And like all new business owners, I was figuring things out as I went along:

• Drafting quotes in Microsoft Word
• Printing and mailing contracts
• Invoicing through Square
• Scheduling appointments with Acuity
• Retyping the same emails from scratch
• Setting reminders to remind myself to remind my clients (yes, I hear how crazy that sounds)

With every new couple, it got harder to keep track of who was where in the process, and what they needed next. I needed one system that could streamline everything and help me stay organized.

Then I found Dubsado. I became a Certified Dubsado Specialist, helped dozens of photographers streamline their processes – and even today as an SEO + Web Designer for wedding professionals, I’m still gushing about why Dubsado is the best (not perfect, but the best) system for photographers.

So let’s dive in!

Is Dubsado For Photographers?

Dubsado Was Designed for Photographers

Fun fact: Dubsado wasn’t just randomly created for small businesses – it was designed specifically for photographers. Jake and Becca Berg started it back in 2013. Becca, a photographer herself, was juggling clients, contracts, and invoices the old-school way (sound familiar?), and she wanted a system that could actually make running her business easier.

Dubsado was built to handle all those repetitive admin tasks that eat up your time, so you can spend more hours doing what you actually love: capturing precious memories for your clients.

Who Else Uses Dubsado?

While photographers were the original focus, Dubsado has grown into a tool for all kinds of wedding professionals, creatives, and small business owners. If you’re a small business solopreneur (or with a small team), Dubsado will probably work for you too. Some other businesses that thrive on Dubsado include:

• Event Planners
• Florists
• Stationery Designers
• Cake Designers
• Hair and Makeup Artists
• DJs
• Wedding Officiants
• Coaches and Consultants
• Web Designers and Copywriters
• Graphic Designers
• Interior Designers and Home Stagers
• Doulas and birth professionals
• Bookkeepers
• Accountants
• Social Media Managers

… and the list goes on!

Basically, if you’re running a business that needs contracts, invoices, forms, and client management, Dubsado can help you keep it all organized without losing your mind.

Why You’ll Love Dubsado as a Photographer

1. Workflow automations that stop tasks from falling through the cracks

Let’s start with the big guns: workflows. If you’ve never used a workflow before, it might sound intimidating, but stick with me – once you see it in action, it’s a total game-changer.

A workflow in Dubsado is basically a series of “if this, then that” instructions that run your business on autopilot. Think of it like setting up dominoes: once you tip the first one (say, a couple fills out your inquiry form), the workflow begins. Subsequent workflow actions will automatically be performed as they are triggered, too. 

Here are some things you could automate (and never have to remember to do again):

• Sending a consultation scheduler after a couple submits your inquiry form
• After a couple fills out your inquiry form, they receive an invitation to book a consultation call
• Delivering proposals, contracts, and invoices after a consultation
• Automatically updating project status from “inquiry” to “booked” when the contract is signed
• Sending your welcome guide after couples book one of your wedding collections
• Following up with couples who viewed your proposal but didn’t book right away
• Share engagement session prep tips (what to wear, timeline, location details)
• Sending a wedding day questionnaire to capture family dynamics, must-have moments, and timeline info
• Requesting vendor contacts
• Scheduling a “final details” call before the wedding
• Asking for referrals after delivering the final gallery

…and that’s just scratching the surface. Workflows can monitor contract signatures, payments, appointment scheduling, form submissions and more – and act accordingly. No more sticky notes, no more late-night panic about what you forgot to send.

Once they’re set up, your workflows work quietly in the background while you photograph weddings or edit galleries (or maybe just catch your breath for a minute).

But it’s also okay to ease into workflows

I’ve worked with so many photographers who are nervous about workflow automations. Tthe fear of something going out by mistake is real!

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to use workflows at all if you don’t want to. Dubsado works just fine manually, and sometimes it’s smarter to get comfy with your new system before jumping into automating anything.

When you’re ready, you can dip your toes in by setting workflow actions to “require approval.” This queues the action so you don’t forget it, but still gives you a chance to tweak forms or emails before they go to your couples.

⚠️ Quick tip: Long term, I recommend only using the approval step when you absolutely need to (like customizing a post-consultation email so it feels personalized to the couple). If you have to approve every single action, you’ll end up swamped with notifications, which slows down the entire system and defeats the point of automation.

2. Proposals That Get Couples Booked in Minutes – Not Days

Remember how I was piecing together paper contracts, Square invoices, and Word documents just to get one client booked?

When I learned that Dubsado Proposals could replace my entire chaotic system – AND get clients booked in minutes instead of hours… well, that pretty much sold me on Dubsado right then and there.

Here’s how Proposals work in Dubsado:

Part 1: The Proposal

Think of the Proposal like an interactive quote. You’ll display your collections so couples can browse and choose exactly what they want. They can even select upgrades, like rehearsal dinner coverage or additional albums. With every selection, the subtotal adjusts at the bottom of the page.

Part 2: The Contract

When your couple submits the proposal, their screen will refresh to the contract page. You might think you need to jump in and customize the contract to match their selections, but Dubsado automatically pulls everything from the proposal. No waiting, no manual updates, no postage stamp required.

Part 3: The Invoice

Hit submit again and your couple lands on the invoice. Dubsado will once again use the proposal to populate the invoice, which will mirror the exact pricing (and payment schedule) you determined within the proposal.

On the topic of invoicing, it’s worth noting here that Dubsado payments use Stripe. Stripe standard processing fees apply and Dubsado does not take an additional percentage of your invoicing.

Proposals Get Clients Booked Faster

Because the Proposal links all of your booking documents together seamlessly, clients can go from quote to signed contract to paid deposit in minutes.

The best part? You don’t lift a finger once you hit send.

No more stopping mid-booking to update contracts manually. No more back-and-forth emails about pricing details. No more waiting days for clients to “think about it” while your momentum dies.

Just send your Proposal and let your couples book themselves in – probably while you’re putting the finishing touches on last month’s wedding galleries or triple checking your camera bag.

Speaking of proposals and form design, let’s chat about ~presentation.~

3. On-Brand Everything

As photographers, you know presentation matters. Just like a wedding invitation sets the tone for the entire celebration, a beautifully branded proposal shows couples that your attention to detail extends to every aspect of their experience – even behind-the-scenes details that are often overlooked.

Fully Customizable Forms

Of course, you can upload your own logos to Dubsado and choose your primary brand color. But Dubsado’s level of customization goes way beyond that.

All Dubsado forms – quotes, proposals, contracts, questionnaires, and website inquiry forms – start from a blank page and allow you to design them from scratch. (Or if that terrifies you, they also have free templates!).

Use the drag-and-drop builder to add images, text, drop-downs — you get the idea. You can even add code blocks with custom CSS if you’re so technically inclined.

White Labeling

Another thing I love about Dubsado is that you can completely white label your account so that your couples never see Dubsado’s name or logo.

By default, clients will see Dubsado branding in the link URLs, browser tabs, and social media link previews – but it’s super easy to change these settings.

Also, don’t forget to connect your email address so that emails sent from Dubsado look like they’re coming directly from your email provider.

If you’re up for something a bit more advanced, I also suggest customizing your Dubsado URLs. That means client forms use your own URL instead of Dubsado’s in the links you share. (Mine is clients.heathergagnon.co, updated from portal.dubsado.com).

4. Integrated Appointment Scheduling

I can’t tell you how many photographers have told me their go-to method for scheduling client calls is tossing out dates over emails, waiting for a response, countering the response… and maybe settling on a date 3 days later.

Instead, imagine having a link that allows clients to choose a date and time from your current availability. You never have to worry about double booking, because your calendar is updated in real time.

Couples stop no-showing, because they automatically receive a confirmation email after scheduling, along with reminder emails leading up to the call (you can set up as many as you’d like).

That’s how easy scheduling can be when you’re using Dubsado’s integrated appointment scheduler.

Using the Scheduler with Dubsado Workflows

Having an appointment scheduler inside of Dubsado is great.

But being able to set off automations based on scheduled events? AMAZING!

Here are some things you can automate related to appointment scheduling:

• After a couple submits your inquiry form, your consultation scheduler lands in their inbox automatically
• Update the project status from “new inquiry” to “consultation” after the appointment is scheduled
• Automatically send your proposal after the consultation ends (while the excitement is still fresh and you’re top of mind)
• Send an appointment scheduler inviting couples to book their engagement session
• Send a scheduler asking couples to book a pre-wedding timeline meeting prior to their wedding – no more manual calendar reminders for you to track
• After gallery delivery, invite couples to schedule an album design consultation
• and that’s not even including confirmation and reminder emails which you can customize directly inside the appointment scheduler

Dubsado’s scheduler makes life easier for your clients, too.

Another thing I’m totally obsessed with? When you send a scheduler through a workflow, Dubsado already knows who your client is. So when your couple clicks that link to book their pre-wedding check-in, they literally just pick a date and time – done.

No typing out their name, email, or phone number for the millionth time. No fumbling around on mobile trying to fill out tiny form fields. Just click, click, booked.

I cannot tell you how much this tiny detail matters! As someone who gets irrationally annoyed having to type my info into every single form I encounter, this little touch makes me (and your clients) ridiculously happy.

For these reasons, I HIGHLY encourage you to use Dubsado’s built-in scheduler over a third-party scheduler like Calendly or Acuity. But if your heart is set on using a different one, read this post to learn my hack for integrating other schedulers with Dubsado workflows.

Attaching Forms to the Dubsado Scheduler

Let’s say you’re scheduling an engagement session. Before couples can lock in a time on your calendar, you want to know their preferred location, if they’re bringing their dog (so you can scout dog-friendly spots), and whether they’d like to schedule hair and makeup beforehand.

Or, let’s say you’re scheduling a newborn session. You might need to know the baby’s due date, the parent’s preferred session style (in-home lifestyle vs. studio), and whether any siblings will be joining. That info collected upfront saves you a ton of back-and-forth and helps you show up completely prepared.

By attaching a form to the scheduler, they’ll fill out all those details as they book their session. That way, you don’t have to chase down answers later, and everything lands neatly inside their project in Dubsado.

Limitations of the Dubsado Scheduler

In total transparency: while I absolutely recommend using the Dubsado scheduler, it’s not quite on the same level as tools like Calendly or Acuity, where appointment scheduling is the entire business model. Dubsado’s scheduler has technically been in beta for years (and still hasn’t left beta), which has been a point of frustration for many Dubsado users.

Here are the main limitations to be aware of:

• Team Scheduling – There’s currently no way to connect multiple users’ calendars. If you have a team of photographers and one appointment is booked, that time slot is blocked for everyone.
  
• Text Reminders – Dubsado doesn’t offer SMS reminders. You can, however, set up unlimited email reminders leading up to the appointment.
  
• Overall Functionality – It gets the job done, but lacks some of the more advanced features you’d find in tools dedicated to scheduling.
  

That said, for most photographers, the benefits of having your scheduler fully integrated with your proposals, workflows, and client portal far outweigh the drawbacks.

5. Time-Saving Templates

Be honest – how many times have you caught yourself retyping the exact same email for the hundredth time? (“Hi! Just checking in…” Sound familiar?)

With Dubsado, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. You can create templates for just about everything – emails, contracts, questionnaires, even payment schedules. Set them up once, and then apply them to new client projects with a single click.

Instead of starting from scratch, you’ll be able to drop in your polished, pre-written templates, customize a few details if needed, and move on with your day. It’s one of those small changes that ends up saving you hours every single week.

6. A Client Portal Your Clients Will Actually Use (No More Lost Emails!)

Do you ever feel like you’re sending your clients a million different things – contracts, invoices, guides, questionnaires – and then crossing your fingers they don’t get buried in their inbox? – 

Enter the Client Portal. It’s basically a home base where your clients can log in and find ~everything~ you’ve sent them: emails, forms, invoices, contracts, and appointments – all in one tidy, convenient place.

Bonus perk: if you work with repeat clients (hello, family sessions or anniversary sessions!), the portal also stores all of their past and present projects. Which means your clients get a seamless experience every single time they work with you.

7. Project Dashboard That Keeps Your Organized

Another favorite? The dashboard. It gives you a clear view of all your projects at a glance so you always know exactly where every client is in your process. No more digging through notes, spreadsheets, or lost emails — everything is organized and right where you need it.

Project Dashboard

Dubsado is organized by projects, which means every wedding, session, or event gets its own project. The Projects Dashboard gives you a visual overview of where each project is in your process, including contract and invoice status, so nothing slips through the cracks.

Projects start in your Leads Funnel – from the moment a client inquires on your website, through their consultation, and sending their proposal.

Once a couple books, they move into your Jobs Funnel, where you manage everything leading up to their wedding or session (and beyond).

Project Statuses

Within your Funnels, you can create fully customizable project statuses. Whether you want stages like New Inquiry → Consultation → Booked → Upcoming Weddings or something totally different, you can design them to match the different stages of your client experience.

Tags

For extra organization, add tags like Wedding, Engagement, Family Session, or whatever makes sense for your business. Tags give you another way to quickly filter projects to find what you need

8. Reporting Features

Dubsado isn’t meant to replace your bookkeeping software (so yes, keep your QuickBooks subscription!), but it does give you some useful reporting tools that provide a quick snapshot of how your business is performing.

As long as you categorize your invoices properly, you can run reports to see things like:

• Revenue by category (weddings vs. portrait sessions vs. branding sessions)
• Total income for a specific time period
• Where your inquiries are finding you (Instagram, Google Search, TikTok, etc.)
  

It’s not a full-on accounting software, but having these insights right inside Dubsado means you can check the health of your business at a glance.

Dubsado for Photographers: Pricing

How Much Does Dubsado Cost?

Dubsado has 2 plans (Starter and Premier), each with monthly or annual payment options.

• Starter Plan: $20/month or $200/year.
• Premier Plan: $40/month or $400/year.

Here’s how Dubsado displays their pricing on their website:

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→ PRO TIP: You can lock in an even better rate by signing up during one of Dubsado’s 3 annual sales and using my discount code HEATHERGAGNON for 30% off your first month or year. (Yes, you can stack them!)

Is Dubsado Free?

Nope, Dubsado isn’t free – but they do offer one of the most generous free trials out there.

Instead of giving you a limited number of days (which usually expire before you even have time to properly test the software 🙃), Dubsado’s trial is based on clients. You can fully explore the platform with up to 3 clients/projects before you ever have to pay.

Do you have a Dubsado discount code?

Yes! Use code HEATHERGAGNON to save 30% off your first month or year.

→ Bonus: You can stack this code on top of sale pricing (scroll down for details on when Dubsado runs sales).

Dubsado Plans Breakdown

Dubsado has 2 plans (Starter and Premier), each with monthly or annual payment options.

Starter Plan ($20/month or $200/year):

The Starter Plan is perfect if you just want the basics to manage your clients and get projects moving.

What you get:

• Send invoices with automated reminder emails
• Design contracts, proposals, and questionnaires
• Create 1 inquiry form for your website
• Save email templates
• Unlimited projects and clients
  

What you don’t get:

• Appointment scheduling
• Automated workflows (this one’s huge)
• Public Proposals (reusable links that let clients book themselves – different from regular proposals)
• Zapier integrations for advanced automations (like automatically sending a task to your project management tool when a payment is received – eg: “prep wedding day timeline”)
  

Best for photographers who:

• Have used up the free trial but aren’t ready for full automation
• Only need 1 inquiry form on their website
• Are newer to business and still figuring out processes

Premier Plan ($40/month or $400/year):

This plan unlocks all of Dubsado’s features, and it’s the one I recommend for more established photographers.

What you get (everything in Starter, plus):

• Appointment scheduling
• Automated workflows
• Public Proposals
• Zapier integration for next-level automations
  

Best for photographers who:

• Have repeatable processes and want to run them on autopilot
• Are tired of manual admin tasks eating your time
• Want every client to have a consistent, elevated experience
• Are ready to streamline and scale
  

In my opinion, the workflows alone are worth the upgrade. But I love that Dubsado offers the Starter Plan so you can start small and upgrade when you’re ready.

Does Dubado ever go on sale?

Yes! I’ve been using Dubsado since 2017, and I’ve noticed they typically run 3 sales per year:

• Birthday Sale (February)
• Summer Sale (July)
• The Black Friday Sale (November)

Recent sales have dropped pricing to $35/month or $350/year. And the best part? You can use my code HEATHERGAGNON for an additional 30% off your first payment.

If it works out for you, signing up during a sale is the best time to switch. Not only do you get the discount upfront, but you also lock in that lower rate for life. (The 30% code only applies to your first payment, but the sale price sticks forever!)

Ready to simplify your photography business with Dubsado?

You’ve seen how much easier running your business can be when you’re not buried in admin tasks. Here are a few ways I can help you take the next step:

→ Sign up for a free trial of Dubsado to try it out for yourself!

→ Use my discount code HEATHERGAGNON to save 30% off your Dubsado subscription. (Pro tip: stack it with one of Dubsado’s 3 annual sales to lock in your lowest rate!)