A 5 Step Checklist to Get Your Business Dubsado Ready

You’ve decided Dubsado is the tool you need in your business…now what?

I am a Dubsado die-hard—that’s not news. But I have to admit that the setup process can get a little tricky for first-time users. The platform is super user-friendly and incredibly time-saving once you have it set up, but getting there can be overwhelming. 

There are a lot of moving parts to connect in the system and you don’t want to miss a detail that creates headaches down the road for you or your clients. When I take a client through the Dubsado setup process, we always start with meticulous prep work to avoid any hangups. 

Because Dubsado allows you to manage your client relationships end to end, thinking through your entire client journey and everything you need to guide them through is imperative. When you get your ducks in a row before you get into the Dubsado setup, your automation processes and implementation become so much easier. Get ready to say goodbye to disconnected spreadsheets and manual communications. With this five-step checklist, you’ll have everything you need to start a DIY Dubsado setup or work with a Dubsado setup pro (yes, that’s me). 

Gather Your Brand Assets

A client’s first impression of your business backend can either build trust and connection or leave them wondering if they’re paying the right person. Your Dubsado should be at least lightly customized to reflect your brand and ideally fully personalized to represent you. 

Save all of your brand assets in a Google Drive folder for Dubsado. I ask my clients for their:

• Logo
• Color scheme (with HEX color codes of course)
• Key images

Any elements you want to incorporate into your forms, contracts, emails, or other templates should be ready. These assets help to tie your client management system into the rest of your website, business, and brand to create a cohesive client experience. 

Outline Your Offers

Clients can buy your services and pay invoices right on the Dubsado platform. That means no more Stripe and Paypal invoices separate from the rest of your client communications, contracts, and onboarding. What a dream!

Create a clear list of the services you offer and the pricing of those packages. Include basic details about what’s included such as the number of sessions a client gets in their package. From this list, you (or your Dubsado pro) will get these items pre-loaded into your Dubsado so you can send quotes, proposals, and invoices with only a few clicks later.

Plan Your Client Runway

If you already have an outline of your client onboarding process, you’ll be one step ahead. If you still need to figure this out, write down your step-by-step process as it is. If you need help with your onboarding flow, no worries! If we work together, I can always support you in improving this process. 

Your outline should include every point of contact you typically have with a client just before and as you begin working together. For instance, if you start every client relationship with a free consultation call, send a proposal, send an invoice, get paid, and then send a welcome packet with a link to schedule their first call—all of that needs to be written out.

Your onboarding outline will serve as a guide to create your automated workflows in Dubsado. When I set up my clients’ onboarding procedures I test each step and ensure that the quality of your client experience is maintained throughout. With a smooth setup, clients won’t know the difference between you sending out their new client information and Dubsado doing it for you.

…and make sure these pieces of paperwork are ready!

• Questionnaires you need prospective clients to fill out about their business and interest in working with you. These will be entered into Dubsado as custom questionnaires.

• Contracts you need new clients to sign before you can start working together. If you are missing some contracts you know you need, your Dubsado pro can help you find the right templates or create them with you.

• Forms you need paid clients to fill out once they start working with you. Your forms might be similar to this checklist, prompting clients to gather certain assets and information you need to get their project or program started.

• Welcome packets and any other documentation necessary in your onboarding process. 

Get Your Comms on Lock

To start preparing your email communications and automation, review your onboarding process. Which emails need to be sent out to your clients time and time again? Then, consider the duration of your working relationship with your client and how you routinely communicate and check in with them. Email templates you’ll need to write include, but aren’t necessarily limited to: 

• Inquiry responses — when someone contacts you, do you have a typical reply you can customize for each inquiry? Dubsado will allow you to customize your templates before they’re sent out!

• Scheduling responses — when a prospect or client requests a call, have a canned response that directs them to your calendar. 

• Onboarding instructions — Let your client know what to expect as they begin working with you.

• Prompt emails — From sending you necessary information to booking their next call with you, having prompt emails written ahead of time makes checking in more efficient.

• Payment emails — If a client is late on a payment or holding up progress with an unpaid invoice, a friendly payment reminder email is great to have on hand. To make sure you use this template as infrequently as possible, cover your payment terms and project progress terms in your contract, too!

• Project updates — Providing your clients with a project timeline and consistently formatting updates can really help everyone stay on the same page.

• Thank-you notes — Your offboarding and post-project communications are important, too. Make sure you have a thank you email in your stash!

Assess Your Availability

If you’re already using scheduling software, this step will just be a matter of penciling out when you offer your availability to prospective clients, new clients, and existing clients for sessions and meetings. If you’re still manually scheduling everything, you’ll need to take a few minutes to write down your scheduling preferences. 

To determine your availability, ask yourself what days/times you want to…

• take sales calls and prospective client consultations?
• dive into new client onboarding calls and intensives to kick off projects?
• offer to my clients for their regular session calls?
• leave open for networking meetings, podcast interviews, and the like?

Once your calendar availability is set up, Dubsado will allow us to sync your Google calendar to control your ongoing availability and add client-scheduled appointments to it. 

Have you made your list and checked it twice? Then you’re eager to start and have your Dubsado system working STAT! I’m ready to dive in with you if that means enlisting support. Just click here to contact me about working together, and my team will be in touch with how we can help!