My 7 Favorite HoneyBook Features in 2024

It’s 2024, and HoneyBook has been sharing new updates and features like crazy this year! As a Honeybook Educator, I was privileged to be invited to their partners summit last December and hear about some of the things on the roadmap that are super exciting too (let me just say – HoneyBook accounting features are about to pop off!). 

The interesting thing about HoneyBook, and all CRMs, though, is that some of the most powerful features are the simplest. When talking to their CEO, I mentioned that I hadn’t even started using a couple of the new features yet in my business, because I just like to keep my processes simple and clean for my clients. While all the bells and whistles are amazing, not everyone needs all of them.

7 Best HoneyBook Features for Entrepreneurs

Contact and Lead Forms in HoneyBook

Contact forms are a simple feature in HoneyBook, but they make the booking process so much easier. A contact form is exactly what it sounds like – a form someone can use to contact you. Think of any old Contact Form on a website. The power in HoneyBook contact forms, though, is that they can be embedded anywhere, and they connect back with HoneyBook.

What does this mean? It means that any time someone fills out your contact form, HoneyBook automatically creates a project with all of their information in it for you.

Now why did I say Contact AND Lead Forms? Lead forms are a new feature in HoneyBook this year that will slowly replace Contact Forms. You’ll be able to use them the same way as a contact form, but also in a lot of new ways too. 

HoneyBook’s lead forms can create a new project with the client’s information, yes, but they can also attach to things like a scheduler, invoice, proposal, or even a digital download. So a client can book a session with you, sign your contract, pay, and schedule that session – without you even having to lift a finger. While you’re in another session with a different client. Or sleeping, even (here’s the video showing you how!).

HoneyBook is the only CRM that I’ve seen that can sell a one-time digital download product, with the help of their new Lead Forms!

Invoicing in HoneyBook

I’ve always loved invoicing in HoneyBook. It’s just clean and simple compared to other CRMs. I like that you can add photos, change quantities easily, and set up packages that are easy to bring into new projects and/or templates. While it’s a simple feature, it’s very important to any small business. Plus, HoneyBook is its own payment processor (via Stripe) so you don’t have to set up an outside account to take payments.

HoneyBook Features: The Scheduler

If you schedule a lot of appointments, you’ll love the HoneyBook scheduler! It gives you so much flexibility to set different types of appointment options, say when you’re busy and when you’re not, and even give yourself an automatic buffer between appointments.

With the Lead Forms capability, you can even send an appointment scheduler to a brand new client, or simply embed it on a website for new clients, and require them to pay and/or sign a contract before booking their appointment. 

HoneyBook Calendar can integrate with any Google, iCloud, or Outlook calendar!

Smart Files in HoneyBook

Smart files are kind of hard to explain, but they are basically the new core of HoneyBook features. I like to think of them as building blocks that you can put together in any way that makes sense in your business. 

Smart files can consist of any combination of the following blocks:

• Text
• Image
• Accessory blocks like dividers, file uploaders, etc.
• Contract
• Invoice
• Proposal
• Services
• Scheduler
• Questionnaire

So if your business needs a questionnaire before an invoice and contract, then you can set that up. If you want to put together a services package, that can be clicked through to a corresponding invoice and contract, you can set that up. If you just want to make a pretty brochure with your services listed, you can set that up. One example I use is combining text, image, and question blocks with a contract block to use as an invitation design proof for my clients. Basically any type of form you could need or want – HoneyBook Smart Files can do it. And the best part is that once you create a form, you can use it with as many clients as you want without having to recreate it ever again!

Here’s a video if that helps to visualize!

HoneyBook Features: Templates and Template Gallery

Once you start to see the magic of HoneyBook Smart Files, you’ll want to create about a million templates! Luckily, HoneyBook will save them all so that you can use your templates on as many jobs as you want without having to recreate that work.

Once you add a template to a job, you can make adjustments that will only apply to that job (say you need to customize the client’s color palette or something!). The template will remain unaffected, and you can continue to use it for a million more jobs if you want.

Plus, if you’re not sure where to start, or just want to drum up some inspiration for your templates, there’s a whole template gallery you can check out! You can download certain templates created by different designers, and customize them to fit your business needs. 

One cool new feature is that you can share templates for free – as a special treat, here’s a link to my Client Lookbook Template if you want to download it directly into your account and use it.

HoneyBook’s Chrome Extension

Listen – if you use Gmail for your business email, you have got to try this out. It’s a game-changer for HoneyBook. They have a Chrome Extension that will basically bring HoneyBook into your Gmail inbox.

When you get an email from a client, you can access their project directly from your inbox. When you get a new lead, you can create the project for HoneyBook…directly from your inbox. It cuts out so much of the back-and-forth switching between these two systems, and I just love it. Unfortunately, I don’t use Gmail for my business, but if I did, I would be so stuck on HoneyBook just for this reason! Of course – I have a little video to show you this in action. 

Batch Emails from HoneyBook

Another cool emailing feature in HoneyBook is batch emails. Most CRMs remain wholly separate from email marketing platforms, because they’re more focused on projects that you’re currently working on. Not marketing. But HoneyBook allows you to batch email which you can use for a number of reasons!

Now, this isn’t a full-blown email marketing solution. But it allows you to separate out clients and contacts (for instance, other industry colleagues), and email them en masse. You can use this feature to send out a newsletter, announce something new, or share your holiday deals for instance! 

Just make sure that you’re following GDPR email regulations, as well as not spamming your clients inappropriately. We don’t want to use sketchy business practices!

Overall, there are so many HoneyBook features I couldn’t even begin to share them all here. You can see allllmost all of the big ones in our 14-part Free Course on Youtube. Check it out here! And I’d love it if you use my link for 35% off your subscription with HoneyBook. The Starter Plan is a great option for those just getting into using a CRM, and all of the features I talked about are available on the Essentials Plan!