How to look up an order?
- Invoices Hub > Search for the client. OR open the client record > invoices tab.
How to import images into a single session?
- Open the session record > Action Tab > Import Images
How to create a customer service ticket?
- First create your different types of customer service ticket categories and their statuses. That way you know what type of tickets are being reported, and what is the status of each.
- To setup the different types of tickets go to Maintenance > Task > Task Types. You can be as specific or generic as you want.
- To setup the different statuses for those types, go to Maintenance > Task > Task Statuses
- To create the actual ticket, open the client, session, or invoice that is reporting the problem. Then click New Task on the ribbon (top right of the record).
How to quickly do a quality check of images?
First create a Quality Control Check status. Generally this is before the Upload to InspiredByYou.com status. To do this, go to Maintenance > Session > Session Statuses. Then create your status. For this to work properly, associate this new status with the Capture Images step. Now go to the Workflow Hub. You should be on the Capture Images step by default. You can see this because on the right hand side there is a drop down that says capture images. Any session that is at this Quality Control Status will appear here. If images have been imported already, then you can select each session on the right to see their images. You can quickly go through each session to make sure the images are good. Pro Tip: if you use the number 3 key, it will set the selected image as a red circle or Not Selected Image. You can also choose to not upload Not Selected Images to InspiredByYou.com.
How to quickly crop images?
See previous FAQ question on quality check of images. Follow the same process, but once you have selected the session, use the crop button on the ribbon. You can use the save and next button to quickly move through the different images. To learn more about cropping images: check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Cropping Images (studioplussoftware.com)
How to do a bulk retouching in lightroom or other software?
The best time to do this is before you import the images into Stratus. Simply take the folder of images off your camera card > mass edit them in whatever bulk editing tool you prefer > then import the images into Stratus using the Bulk Image Importer.
How to send a mass email?
The Communication Wizard is the best tool to send a mass email. This can be done at Tools > Communication Wizard. Before you can send a mass email, you will need to setup your email preferences first. Maintenance > General > Email. Then you will need to setup the actual email you want to bulk send. Tools > Design Tools > HTML Email Builder. To learn more about setting up emailing, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Setting up Email (studioplussoftware.com)
How to setup automated communications?
The triggers feature is the main place to setup automated communications based on dates, statuses, or other trigger events. They can be used for marketing, reminders, customer service tickets, and other forms of communications. Triggers can be setup at Maintenance > General > Triggers. To learn more about Triggers, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | What are Triggers? (studioplussoftware.com)
How to bulk enter sessions?
Every time you take someone’s pictures, they need a session record to track that event. To bulk create sessions, go to Tools > Bulk Scheduling Wizard. To learn more about Bulk Scheduling Sessions, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Bulk Scheduling (studioplussoftware.com)
How to create templates/composites?
Composites are a great way to add changing products to your catalogue. Especially around holidays. To create your own composites, first create a PSD file in PhotoShop or a PNG file. Then go to Tools > Design Tools > Template> Composite Builder. Remember to setup a price list item for this composite for it to be made available online. To learn more about this tool, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Designing Composite Templates (studioplussoftware.com).
How to create a promotional item?
Promotional items are a great way to incentivize customers to purchase more. Stratus has a very robust tool to create your own promotions. To create a promotional item, go to Maintenance > Price List > Price Lists. Select the Price List and Group that you want to create this item in. Then click new Price List Item in the tool bar. The key to creating a promotional item is to set the Item Type to Promotional Item. Now you can use the new Promotions tab to set the details of this item. To learn more about Promotions Items, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Creating a Coupon or Promotion (studioplussoftware.com)
How to make a yearbook cd?
Once you have selected Yearbook Images for each session in an Organization (or as many as you can), then you are ready to create a Yearbook CD. To do this go to Tools > Make a Yearbook CD. To learn more about the Yearbook CD process, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Yearbook Workflow and CDs (studioplussoftware.com)
How to render out images to a folder?
To render out a new batch of Low Res Preview Files or Hi Res Images, you need to use Render Profiles. First you need to setup a Render Profile. Maintenance > Digital > Render Profiles. There you can setup the details of how you want these images rendered out. Once that’s done, you can get to the profile by opening an invoice record > Action Tab > Render Ordered Images. To learn more about Render Profiles, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Render Profiles (studioplussoftware.com)
How to setup an automatic render?
If you want to render out a batch of sessions at the same time, it’s best to setup an automatic render job. This job can render out images for proofing, images to order from the lab, or some other option. To setup an automatic render job, first you need to create the render profile (see question above this one for details). Then you can setup the automatic job to run based on a status. Go to Maintenance > Digital > Render Jobs. To bulk advance session statuses, see question after this one. To learn more about Render Profiles, check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Render Jobs (studioplussoftware.com)
How do I mass advance a group of session statuses?
To advance the status of a group of sessions, go to the sessions hub. Do a search to pull up the group of sessions that you want. Highlight them all by single clicking the first session > hold the shift key > single clicking the last one. With them all highlighted, click the Advance Status button on the tool bar.
How to login to a customer’s ecommerce site?
Open the client record > Online tab > Login to Site.
How to create a webform for online booking or other uses?
Maintenance > Web Forms > Webforms. To learn more check out this page: Spectra/Stratus Desktop | Introduction to Web Forms (studioplussoftware.com)
How to edit crops of ordered images?
To edit crops of ordered images in bulk, you can set a Production Order status to show on the Workflow hub. To do this set the Association column of the Production Order Status in the maintenance menu. Maintenance > Production > Production Order Status. Then any production orders at that status will show on that step of the workflow hub. By clicking that production order, you can see the ordered images and quickly crop the images one after another. See FAQ Question above on cropping for more details.
To open a specific Production Order or Invoice and see the crop, first open the invoice or production order and go to the order detail tab. Then maximize the form using the maximize button in the top right corner of the record. It’s next to the close “X” button. This will expand the screen and add a new image preview panel. Select the invoice detail line for each ordered product. This will change the previewed image and show the ordered crop. Click the modify crop button to change the crop.
How to create a client record for a school to track your relationship with a school?
First make sure you have a client status for a school. Maintenance > Client > Client Statuses. Then you can create a client record with that status. To do this, click New Client on the toolbar of most hubs, or you can use the Ctrl + N hotkey. Make sure to set the client record to Business and not Consumer. Now your family members will be called contacts. To change the default relationship options for your contacts, go to Maintenance > Client > Family Member Relationships. Now you can use this client record to email the school, track information about the school, and to book picture day sessions.
How to book a session record for a school for internal purposes?
First create a Session Type used for this picture day that’s only meant for internal purposes. Basically, we need a session type for the school separate from your student session types. Maintenance > Session > Session Types > Add a new session type. Ex: School Picture Day (Internal). Use the Description on Calendar tab to set how this session will show up on your calendar. A pro tip is to have the photographer displayed first. This will help if you setup a Master Calendar (see next FAQ question)
To actually create the session record, first open the school client record. Then click New Session on the tool bar. Make sure to choose your new session type.
How to have a calendar for my photographers?
First create a calendar to be used as the master calendar for photographers. We recommend setting up a user for this. Maintenance > General > Users. You can also setup a Google Calendar sync when you create the user. Then whenever you book an internal appointment or session for your picture day, set the assistant to be this user. You can still set the photographer to whomever, but by having the assistant set to your master calendar user, it will show up on the master calendar.
It’s recommended to create a session record on the school client record for your own internal use. That way only one session is showing up for this booking on your master calendar. If you set the assistant on each of the student’s sessions, you will have hundreds of sessions showing on your master calendar.
How to print a job sheet for photographers?
First create a session record on your school client record. Make sure to enter all the information you need for your photographers. Then create a job sheet form letter that you can print or email. Feel free to use the default Photographer Job Sheet Form Letter in your database. To create a job sheet, go to Tools > Design Tools > Form Letter Builder. To print off a single job sheet, open the session record > Communications tab of the ribbon > Print drop down > Form Letter > your job sheet. To print off a group of job sheets, go to Tools > Communication Wizard. To set up an automatic printing every day, create a trigger to print the job sheet, Maintenance > General > Triggers.
