Business help

Getting started with Business

Business adds the client side to GearDex: Pipeline, Scheduling, Clients, Site, Money and Shoot Plans, all in the sidebar under Business.

1. 1.Open Site, add your sections and contact form, then publish it. Your Site is where inquiries and bookings start.
2. 2.Add your business details and payment link to your studio profile. You're asked for them the first time you create an invoice.
3. 3.In Scheduling, create a session type, set your availability, and mark the session type bookable.
4. 4.Share your Site or booking page. New inquiries and bookings show up in Pipeline.

• Empty screens show the next step to take, even when that step lives in another module.

Pipeline inbox and email replies

Pipeline is the inbox for everything a client sends you: Site inquiries, booking requests and their replies.

1. 1.Open Pipeline. Inbox holds what needs you; Waiting holds conversations where the client owes you an answer.
2. 2.Open an inquiry and write your reply. It goes to the client by email from GearDex.
3. 3.When the client answers by email, the reply is filed in the same conversation and the inquiry returns to Inbox, unread. Quoted history is trimmed off.
4. 4.Turn an inquiry into a client and a job when it's real, or archive it when it isn't.

• You also get an email heads-up when a client replies.
• Attachments are listed by name; open the original email to download them.

Booking and availability

Clients book themselves from your Site. Session types say what they can book, and availability says when.

1. 1.In Scheduling, open Session Types and add one with a length, a price, an optional deposit and a contract. Buffers, minimum notice and how far ahead clients can book are set here too.
2. 2.Open Availability and set your weekly hours.
3. 3.Use Mini-Sessions for a single day of short, back-to-back slots. When it fills, clients can join the waitlist.
4. 4.Open Calendar Sync and connect Google Calendar. Busy times on the calendars you choose are kept off your booking page, and new bookings are added to your calendar.
5. 5.Add Prep Guides and Automations so clients get the right information before the shoot.

• Reminder emails run once a day, so a reminder arrives on the day it's due rather than at an exact hour.
• Clients can reschedule or cancel from the link in their confirmation email, within the rules you set.

Quotes, contracts and e-signatures

Quote the work, get it accepted online, and get the contract signed by both sides.

1. 1.In Money, open Packages and save the services you sell most, with prices.
2. 2.Open Quotes and create a quote from those packages, with discounts and tax as needed. Send it, and the client accepts it from a private link.
3. 3.Open Templates and write your contract once. Fields like the client's name and the shoot date fill in for each job.
4. 4.Send a contract from a job or a booking. The client reviews it, agrees to sign electronically and types their name to sign.

• Every signed contract keeps an audit record: the signer's name and email, the time, their consent, and a fingerprint of the exact text they signed.
• GearDex provides the signing tools, not legal advice. Have your contract template reviewed for where you work.

Invoices and your payment link

Invoices tell the client what they owe and link them to where they pay you. GearDex never handles client payments.

1. 1.Add your payment link to your studio profile: a Stripe payment link, PayPal, Venmo, Square, Cash App or any https link.
2. 2.In Money, open Invoices and create one, or let a session type with a deposit create the deposit invoice when someone books.
3. 3.Send the invoice. The client opens it and pays through your link.
4. 4.When the money arrives, open the invoice and choose Record payment.

• Payments go straight from your client to you. GearDex never sees them and takes no cut.
• Because the payment happens outside GearDex, record payments yourself.

Clients and jobs

Every person and company you work with, and every job you do for them, on one record.

1. 1.Open Clients. Everyone lists every person; Leads, Active and Past filter by where they are with you.
2. 2.Click a name anywhere in Business to open their record in a side panel; Cmd-click opens the full page.
3. 3.Add calls, notes and emails to the activity log, and record who referred them.
4. 4.Open Jobs to see the work itself. People are linked to each job by their role, such as client, second shooter or planner.

• Contacts and Companies hold the people and businesses you work with who aren't clients.

Plans for Business

Business is spread across the paid plans. Starter keeps a showcase Site for your kit.

1. 1.Starter: a showcase Site for your kit.
2. 2.Pro: Clients, companies and jobs, the activity log and referrals, one Calendar for shoots, loans and service, and a themed Site.
3. 3.Studio: everything in Pro, plus Pipeline with email replies, online booking, mini-sessions, Google Calendar sync, prep guides and automations, quotes, contracts with e-signatures, invoices paid through your payment link, client shoot pages, and the full Site without the GearDex badge.