If you’re a small business owner you probably understand the importance of staying organized and on top of tasks. For creatives this can often be a challenge; we want to create! Not be bogged down by book keeping, creating contracts and managing the seemingly ancillary aspects of business.

We’ve been in business for 5 years and both went full time over 3 years ago. Our organization on the back end of our business was always set up well but it took up so much of our time.

Every time we had to send out a contract it seemed like there were a million hoops to jump through. Google drive was our bread and butter. We both knew it took us too long to do simple tasks and ultimately that was affecting our customer service and the ease of use for our clients.

Two years ago we got serious about looking for different software products that could help with CRM, bookkeeping, email management, task management, invoicing, task management, and scheduling. There were a plethora of specialized tools for all of these problems but as soon as we stumbled across Dubsado we knew we had found something unique.

We tried a weekly trial and we’re instantly hooked! Even with just the basic tools set up, we were operating significantly more efficiently and with a fraction of the effort.

Now after a few years of use and even more features rolling out, we don’t ever worry about the backend of our business. We know we are providing our clients with the most painless system possible and couldn’t be happier.

So obviously we’re big Dubsado fans so let’s dive into what specific aspects we enjoy.

Price

Even at first glance, Dubsado is more affordable than other comparable systems on the market. At $350 for a year and it’s less expensive than the competition.

When you factor in all that it does, that gap widens even more. Dubsado features: a full blown CRM system, an advanced online scheduler, invoicing system with in house billing available (similar to square), email management (similar to mail chimp), smart contracts (think Docusign but better and easier), accounting software (similar to quickbooks), task management capabilities, assignable workflows, and they’re adding to their features every few months.

When we were looking at other systems similar to Dubsado we were surprised to see that no one even came close to the amount of features that Dubsado has especially for the price.

All-inclusive design

As highlighted above; Dubsado is designed to be a one stop shop for your business. Instead of paying a dozen companies a nominal monthly fee, you’re able to have one site you long into for all of your business needs.

We’re in Dubsado hourly because it has become an absolutely essential part of our business.

So far, we haven’t had to use any other type of software when it comes to the back end management portion of our business. This is a huge deal. We constantly find ourselves asking each other questions and the answer is always “check Dubsado!”

Ease of use

Everyone wants specialized software that does exactly what you need of it, but no one wants confusing menus, lack of customization, difficulty in navigation or just the general frustration of learning a new system.

If you can use google drive, you can set up Dubsado with ease. It’s incredibly intuitive and easy to integrate into all aspects of your business.

Additionally, if you’re struggling with any facet of Dubsado, their customer support is unparalleled. Gone are the days of waiting for a cryptically worded email four days after you sent in a request for assistance.

You can schedule video calls (which we’ve used several times- thanks Cameron!) as well as chat or email online. The support staff is consistently kind and constantly helpful.

Client Experience

The best backend software in the world is useless if it’s not also easy and intuitive to use for your clients.

Ultimately, any business decision is done with our clients in mind. Dubsado was no different! Instead of different PDFs or documents that clients could easily misplace or delete from their email, Dubsado has an in-depth client portal.

Issues

Not it wouldn’t be a true review if we didn’t bring up areas that we feel Dubsado could improve on.

The biggest change we would like to see is the level of customization that’s currently available. It would be nice if it was possible to tailor the look of invoicing, the client portal and clickable links that you send clients.

While you can change colors and add your logo to most things, you aren’t able to change font or really change the way these documents look most of the time.

There are a few other small areas of customization that would be nice. For example, when you send an invoice it’s only assignable to one client. Since we’re wedding photographers, our invoices are almost always sent to a couple and we wish it could have both of their names on it.

Occasionally when you modify a contract, it will take a few minutes to show up in your forms list. These issues are so far and few in between that they don’t effect the day to day performance of the site. Dubsado is also amazing at listening to what people want to change and they’re constantly rolling out updates.

After using Dubsado for a few years as our all-in-one stop for the management side to our business those are the only complaints we have. We think that’s pretty impressive! Now whenever we’re contemplating purchasing new software we always hold it to the Dubsado standard.

All in all, we can’t recommend using Dubsado enough! Running a small business is difficult as is, but Dubsado has the potential to take away much of the headache of managing your time and business.

If you have any questions about how we use Dubsado with our business please comment below or email us at: hello@allyandbobby.com

If you’re interested in using Dubsado you can click here to get started with streamlining your business!