How I use Dubsado as a Stationery Designer | What is Dubsado?

If you’re a stationery designer, you may be looking into a Client Management System (CMS or CRM) like Dubsado, Honeybook, 17Hats, or HelloBonsai. But which CRM is best for stationery designers? I have tested all of these systems, and the one I currently use in my business is Dubsado. In this post, I’ll walk you through the best features about Dubsado specifically for invitation designers, stationers, and graphic designers.

Yes, I’m an affiliate educator with Dubsado, so if you end up liking Dubsado and use my link to sign up, you can get 30% off your first month or year. I make a small commission on this at no cost to you.

Dubsado has approximately 65 million features, all of which can help your business (okay, that’s a little exaggeration, but still). However, when you’re just starting your design business I want you to focus on a few specific things that will be simple to set up and benefit you the most. Once you’re set up and comfortable with Dusbado, it’s easy to expand and grow into any other features that you like.

First, What is Dubsado?

If you’re new to client management systems, then let’s think of Dubsado as your central hub for everything client- or project-related. In Dubsado, you’ll create a “project” for each job, and within that project, you can store client info, forms, contracts, invoices, emails, notes, appointments, all kinds of things. Any contact you have with your customer can happen via Dubsado, and it will all stay in one designated place.

You may currently be using PDFs for contracts and proofs, manual invoices from Google Sheets, your email inbox to collect information for proofs, and 20 other methods of client communication. Dubsado will combine all of that into one and make things significantly easier on you. It will save you time, prevent costly mistakes, and help you look more professional to your clients. A true win-win-win. Even if you decide Dubsado isn’t right for you, I always say that a good Client Management System should be one of your first 3 investments in your business.

So what are the Best Dubsado Features for Stationery Designers?

My favorite Dubsado features for stationers are:

• Subagreements for sending design proofs
• Forms and Questionnaires
• Invoices and Proposals
• Canned Email Templates
• Automated Workflows

Let’s dive into each of these features a little more! 

Sending Design Proofs in Dubsado

One of the most important needs in a design business is the ability to have your clients legally sign off on design proofs. I will not print any invitations until my clients sign an official proof, saying everything on the proof is correct, proofread, and approved for print. So it’s important to me that my CRM has this ability. A lot of the CRMs have the ability to add a contract to a job, but Dubsado has the ability to add a “sub-agreement” which is perfect for design proofs.

A sub-agreement is basically an additional contract on the same job. This can be useful if you cancel a job, postpone a job, add services, or…send design proofs. At the bottom, they’ll have to sign, and Dubsado will capture their location, IP address, and the time they signed in case it’s needed in a legal matter. Here’s an example of what my invitation proofs look like in Dubsado:

The ability to add an additional legally-binding signature field on the subcontract really sets Dubsado apart, and makes it feasible for me to send design proofs there with confidence! Plus, I love all the customization features of Dubsado’s forms, which brings me to the next best feature: questionnaires and forms.

Dubsado Questionnaires and Forms

When you’re an invitation designer, forms are very important. There are so many details that go into any invitation design, and you don’t want to be crawling your inbox for each little detail or relying on your clients to send everything you need in an email. 

Dubsado Forms.

The Dubsado forms are divided into five categories: Contracts, Sub-agreements, Questionnaires, Proposals, and Lead Captures.

• Contracts: You can only have one per project, and it requires a signature and counter-signature
• Sub-Agreements: Requires a signature, but you can have multiples per job
• Questionnaires: No signature field required
• Proposals: Attaches to a contract and invoice, and can include your service packages
• Lead Captures: Requires a name and email address field – these are public facing (for instance, a contact form on your website) and automatically will create a Dubsado project when a client fills them out

Of course, I love contracts and sub-agreements, as we’ve talked about previously. This is such a better system for sending agreements than making your clients download and sign a PDF. 

Questionnaires

However, the Questionnaires are my second favorite part of Dubsado! I have a main Invitation Information Questionnaire that I use for every job – it gathers all the little details of the invitation text – names, dates, times, locations, wording preferences, etc. Here’s what that form looks like (please don’t submit!). Additionally, I have a similar one for day-of stationery items like escort cards, menus, etc. 

Even though there are five types of forms in Dubsado, they’re all edited the same way. I’ll share a video of their form builder platform below! Each of the forms can include photos, different types of questions, text, links, and all sorts of other elements to help you customize them to meet your needs. For instance, my day-of information form contains a file uploader so the client can upload their seating chart directly for me.

Invoicing and Proposals in Dubsado

I also love that Dubsado handles invoicing and proposals for me. They accept payment from Stripe, Square, PayPal, or ACH. Personally, I use Stripe payments with my Dubsado account. I love that it’s easy for my clients to pay by credit card, and that I get deposits from Stripe into my bank account every day.

There are three different ways you can do proposals in Dubsado, and I don’t want to confuse you too much here, so I’ll just share a video below of those three options in action. For all three options, the power of the “proposal” form type is that you can connect it to a contract and invoice, so the client can get through all three of those functions in basically one step. Once you send over the proposal, you’ll get notified when they submit it, when they fill out the contract, and when they pay the first payment on the invoice – without having to send them three separate things!

Canned Email Templates

Automated Workflows

Lastly, I love that Dubsado has the best automated workflow capabilities of any CRM that I’ve tested. I will say, if you’re new to CRMs – automated workflows are “next level”. They are not intro level. So first, focus on getting forms set up, get a good process in place, and then think about automating.

But if you want to keep in mind what automating can look like, here are all the different things Dubsado can automate for you: 

All of these actions you program to happen in relation to other actions. So as an example, a workflow could automatically send a canned email exactly 50 days after your project date. This is one I use for asking for reviews. So 50 days after their wedding, every couple will receive an email congratulating them, thanking them for working with me, and sharing where they can leave a review. And the best part? I don’t have to do anything. I can simply set it up one time and it will apply to all of my future projects. I often don’t know it’s happened until I get a notification of the new review!

Here’s a video about Dubsado Workflows, but just remember that if this feels a little advanced – it’s okay to start with the basics and add this in after a few months.

Using Dubsado as a Stationery Designer

Overall, Dubsado is a wonderful CRM for stationery designers, invitation creators, and graphic designers. There are so many features I didn’t even touch on in this post, but the true power of Dubsado lies in templating and consolidating so many things. Because your forms are all the same – you know exactly where to find all the info you need for every job. Since your emails are all the same – you know the client is receiving all the resources they need. All of these things save me countless hours and prevent me from making mistakes. Plus, I’m able to add in things to my process that I simply couldn’t if I had to do them manually every time.

As a reminder, if you decide to sign up with Dubsado, you can use my affiliate link for 30% off your first month or year with them! I make a small commission on this at no cost to you.

Now, Dubsado isn’t the only CRM option for stationery designers, even though it’s the one I use. What are some other options?

Dubsado Alternatives for Designers

Like I said…I’ve basically tested everything. Lots of other CRMs are good for lots of purposes. But specifically for stationery design – there are really only 3 I’d recommend. First, of course, is Dubsado. If you want a Dubsado alternative, there are a few. Basically tied for first is Honeybook. It has a lot of the same capabilities, and thanks to some recent updates has everything you absolutely need. They also have an incredible roadmap on the financial and AI side if those features are important to you.

Here’s a whole video sharing the differences between the two! I am also an educator with Honeybook, so you can use my affiliate link for 50% off your first year.

Thirdly, if the entire CRM world feels a little overwhelming to you, then I would recommend Rock Paper Coin. Their goal was to simplify everything. Rock Paper Coin will help you contract with and accept payments from your clients. They also have a portal where you can send and share documents, and even have Google Drive integration. No other system I’ve tested has this! They don’t have the complex features like workflows, forms, or subcontracts, but these may not be necessary. Especially if you are comfortable with a different proofing software and just need a place to consolidate your project info.

Probably the best thing about Rock Paper Coin is that you can literally try them out for free for a year with my affiliate link. So watch this video for an intro and if simple is what you want – give Rock Paper Coin a try! 

Hopefully this post has helped you figure out which CRM is right for you as a stationery designer. If you’re already using Dubsado, I hope I’ve given you some new tools to try out!