Client management software for photographers

A wedding booked in March gets shot in October and paid in two or three parts, and between those dates the couple sends a dozen emails asking what's next. A family session is the opposite: booked on a Tuesday, shot on Saturday, delivered the week after. SoloWOS covers both shapes of job without a separate CRM, contract tool and invoicing app.

A wedding inquiry, step by step

1. The couple taps the link in your Instagram bio. Your Link in Bio page lists your packages, your inquiry form and your booking page, and can collect email signups for your mini-session announcements.
2. They fill out an inquiry form with the date, the venue and the type of session. Conditional questions only ask for the guest count if they picked a wedding, and the form can send them to a "Wedding consult" meeting type while portrait clients land on a different one.
3. The consult happens at a time they picked on your booking page. Put your video-call link in the meeting type's location and it appears in the confirmation and the reminder sent 24 hours before.
4. You send a proposal with each package as a line item and a deposit percentage. You see when they open it, and they accept online with their name.
5. The accepted proposal can create a signature request for your contract. Add your model release to the same PDF if you use one; each signer signs from a phone and you keep the certificate with the audit trail.
6. Create the retainer invoice from the accepted proposal: SoloWOS fills in the deposit line, and later the balance for the rest. Clients pay by card through your own Stripe account, and optional reminders go out 3 days before and 3 and 7 days after the due date.
7. After the wedding, upload the album layout as a PDF or a JPG for approval in their client portal. They comment, pin a spot on an image or approve a version with their name. Each file can be up to 25 MB, with up to 50 versions kept in the history.

Mini sessions and portraits

For a fall mini-session day, create a 20-minute meeting type with a 10-minute buffer, turn on charge to book and ask for the full price or a deposit when people pick a slot. Cancellations inside your refund window are refunded on their own. Print a QR code from Short Links on the flyer at the café where you shoot, and if the location changes, edit where the short link points without reprinting.

A typical week

• Monday: two inquiries came in over the weekend. One was routed to the wedding consult and already booked a call; the other got the automatic thank-you with your price guide.
• Tuesday: the consult couple accepts the proposal. The contract goes out for signature and the retainer invoice is created from the proposal in two clicks.
• Wednesday: you upload the second version of an album layout. The client pins a comment on page 4 asking for a different photo of the grandparents.
• Thursday: the balance invoice for last month's wedding gets paid by card and marks itself Paid. You log the second-shooter fee and a new lens in Expenses with the receipts.
• Saturday: mini-session day, 12 paid slots booked from the QR flyer. An hour after each slot ends, the meeting type's follow-up email thanks the family, asks for a review and links to the next booking.

All 13 tools, one by one

Scheduling, Proposals and E-Signatures do most of the admin on a shoot. Here is what each tool adds for a photographer, including the two you'll barely use:

• Link in Bio: the same link goes in your Instagram bio, your TikTok profile and your email signature, and the click stats show which button people tap most.
• Short Links: one short link per printed piece (the café flyer, the card in each album box, the sticker on your camera bag), so the click counts show which one brings in sessions.
• Forms: a questionnaire for booked family sessions: names and ages of the kids, the outfits planned, anyone who'd rather stay out of the photos. The answers land on the client's contact.
• Scheduling: separate meeting types for the free wedding consult, paid portraits and the engagement shoot, each with its own length, buffer and price, with your Google or Outlook calendar blocking the times you're already busy.
• Proposals: one proposal per wedding with coverage hours, the second shooter and the album as separate lines, so the couple sees what each part costs before they pick a package.
• E-Signatures: both partners can sign the wedding contract in order, and the agreement with a second shooter or assistant you hire for the day goes out the same way.
• Document Tracking: share your price guide or wedding planning guide as a tracked PDF and see whether the couple read the packages page before the consult.
• Screen Recording: it records your computer screen, so it doesn't help at a shoot. Use it to walk a couple through the album layout or show a family how to download from your gallery site.
• Notes & Boards: a board with a card for each wedding of the season, due dates for the timeline call and the album deadline, and a page with your shot-list template.
• Time Tracking: rarely needed on flat-rate packages. Run it for a few weddings to learn how many editing hours each one really takes, then check your package prices.
• Invoicing: beyond the retainer and the balance, invoice the prints a family orders after the session, an album upgrade, or a wedding you second-shoot for another photographer.
• Expenses: editing and gallery subscriptions, insurance, backup drives and travel to venues, with receipts. The profit report counts paid invoices as income, so money taken at booking for mini sessions doesn't show there.
• Automations: when the contract is fully signed, an automation can move the couple to Won in your pipeline and create a "Send the planning questionnaire" task on your board.

Start with these three

Set up Scheduling with one paid meeting type, Proposals with your packages saved as a template, and E-Signatures for your contract. That covers getting booked and getting the retainer. Add the inquiry form and proof approvals once those run.

Free tools for photographers

• QR code generator for flyers and session cards (point it at a short link if you might change the page later).
• Mileage deduction calculator for the drives to venues and locations.
• Project cost calculator to check that a wedding package covers editing hours, a second shooter and the album.
• Freelance rate calculator to work out what a portrait session needs to cost.
• Free proposal template with scope, timeline and terms you can adapt to packages.

What SoloWOS won't do for a photographer

• No client galleries, downloads of full shoots or print sales. Approvals take one file per version (PNG, JPG, WebP or PDF up to 25 MB), and storage is 5 GB on Solo, so deliver the gallery from Pixieset, Pic-Time or ShootProof.
• No payment plans on one invoice: the retainer and balance invoices come from the proposal, and a couple who pays the rest in monthly parts gets a recurring invoice set to end after the last one.
• Reminders go by email only, not SMS or WhatsApp.
• Forms have no file uploads, so clients can't send a shot list or inspiration photos through the inquiry form.