17 Hats & Acuity Scheduling

17 Hats & Acuity Scheduling

Hey guys! If you follow me on Periscope I talked about a couple of the systems that really keep my life in order. 17 Hats & Acuity Scheduling.

LISTEN TO ME CAREFULLY, these two systems keep me sane.

Let’s start with 17 Hats. This is just GENIUS! I BELIEVE it was originally developed for photographers, but if you have ANY type of business where you deal with “projects” this is IDEAL for you.

I LOVE the interface.  It is SO user friendly. My favorite tab ever is for Projects.

Here is a screen shot of the test file I made for myself when I was learning:

THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS!!! You do EVERYTHING from inside of this tab.

My workflow goes like this: I send a quote, an invoice and a contract. Of course each quote is different for each client so is each invoice BUT the contract and the questionnaire remain the same until you decide to update it. So with a simple click it takes LITERALLY 5 minutes to send out client information.

They can sign the view the quote and accept the terms, sign the contract electronically AND pay their invoice all from one email.

You can see when they have viewed it and you get a notification when each step is complete.

I SWEAR BY THIS. Each client then has a folder inside the app. You click on their folder to update it, email from it. EVERYTHING. It literally changed my life. NO LIE.

This is great for a number of professions. Photographers, graphic designers, lawyers etc. It’s AMAZING. The ONLY thing I DO NOT LIKE about this is that they don’t have an app and it’s HORRIBLE to use from your phone. The iPad is OKAY but yeah lol. An app would make this perfect like Jesus. Seriously.

You should try it. If you do, use my referral link. I PROMISE its amazing.

Oh, and another thing…I print out my invoices for each project. Normally I’m designing something or buying fabric so when I’m working it’s right in front of me. I leave all the “projects” active for 6 months then delete them.

 

Moving on to Acuity Scheduling.

*Silent tears stream down my face*

This was a game changer. I don’t even know where to start.

Acuity Scheduling is A W E S O M E. Let me tell you why I started using it.

What had happened was… I had people booking left and right, then NOT showing up. I don’t have time for that. It was THE most frustrating thing. Before I discovered this I would have to check my schedule and go back and forth with a client to pick a day for them to come only for them not to show up. No ma’am. Didn’t I say I don’t have time for that?  I don’t.

The first question people asked when booking a new appointment, “how much is your consultation fee”? *RECORD SCRATCH* oh say what? I’m SUPPOSED to charge YOU to come SEE ME?

Game changer. I NEVER thought about it. If follow me on social media, you know that even though this is my 3rd year of business, it’s the FIRST full year that I’ve put my ALL into it, so I’m truly learning as I go.

Once I learned that I needed to charge a consultation fee, I would book them then send an invoice for them to pay but the appointment wasn’t confirmed until the payment had been made. Now what happens when they wait two or three days to make the payment and someone else wants that slot? A LOT more back and forth.

Enter Acuity Scheduling. GAME CHANGER Y’ALL!!

I am able to set my business hours, set different type of appointments (Initial Consultation, Fitting, Pick-up etc.) with the amount of time each one takes. Normally my initial consultation is one hour. Sometimes it takes that long, sometimes not but ATLEAST an hour. My clients are able to select which appointment type they want, schedule their appointment based on their schedule AND the time slots that are available. SIMPLE. The system does NOT let me overbook. Even when someone is coming for a fitting or to pick up there is NO OVERBOOKING. I set the amount of time for each type of appointment. They can reschedule or cancel  but they pay when they book. DONE.

Y’all this blessed my soul. If you are ANY type of service provider that works by appointments you need this in your life. I tried SEVERAL different programs before I found this and fell in love.

Oh and the icing on the cake? You get an email reminder each day about your next set of appointments. Chile…you had me at HELLO!

You should try it and if you do, you should use my referral link.

That’s it for me. I hope you have found this helpful. Let me know in the comments.

P.S This is NOT sponsored post, but if you use my referral links I will receive compensation, but I TRULY love these systems!!

Adrienne