myStratus Database Structure

CLIENT > SESSION > INVOICE > PAYMENTS

This is a lot! But I really lay it out for you including recommendations on what you should setup.

High Volume Setup - Just setup, not how to use the software. How to’s are next!

1. Complete the Preferences Wizard. Maintenance > Preferences > Preferences Wizard. This will get a lot of the basics out of the way.
2. Create your Client Statuses. Maintenance > Client > Client Statuses. We recommend a School status, a Student status, a Prospect status, and a Customer status.
3. Create your schools. This step is a two part step.
   1. First, create each of your schools as Organizations. This will allow you to choose the school when entering students into the system. Maintenance > Client > Organizations
   2. Second, create a client record for your schools. This will allow you to track your relationship with that school. There you can enter picture days, contracts, important contacts, track communications, etc. There are many ways to create a client record. Ctrl + N is the keyboard shortcut. Or click New Client on the Clients Hub.
      1. Set the client status to School
      2. Do not choose an Organization. Use the Organization tab only for students
      3. For more information about client records, click here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Creating a Client (studioplussoftware.com)

          

         You are all set to enter client records into the system. The next step is setting up the system to create session records.

      4. You can use our HTML Email builder to create more complex emails. The fun graphical ones you see everywhere. Our HTML Email builder isn’t a builder per se. We recommend you create the emails elsewhere then copy and paste them into our system. Don’t forget the merge fields when you do!
         1. Here is how to import your emails into our HTML Email builder: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | HTML Email Builder (studioplussoftware.com)
         2. Our recommended free builder is Sendgrid. Here is more information on setting up with them: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | FAQ: How to export SendGrid HTML Emails and use them in Stratus (studioplussoftware.com)
         3. For reference, Tools > Design Tools > HTML Email Builder
   3. You need a price list to use online. This will be covered shortly in another section as the Price List is a big setup piece. But for reference, here is the help page on what needs to be done for IBY: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 5: InspiredByYou Price List (studioplussoftware.com)
   4. Setup the software to send text messages. If you want to send text messages using our system, then you will need to signup for a texting plan. We highly recommend trying it out. It’s our most popular add on for a reason! You can learn more here: Stratus - SMS Text Messaging | StudioPlus Software
   5. Setup emails to send. Remember that workflow sheet you made? Hopefully you listed all the communications that you want to send to your customers and when. If not we highly recommend that you do that. We need to enter each one of those emails/text messages as messages into the software.
      1. You can use our Form Letter builder to create simple text emails and text messages. The Form Letter Builder does not support images. It’s more of a text editor. Great for simple emails or text messages. You can learn more about the Form Letter Builder here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Form Letter Builder (studioplussoftware.com)
         1. For reference, Tools > Design Tools > Form Letter Builder
   6. Next we need to setup the automation to send out these emails and texts automatically. To do this, you need to use our trigger feature. Basically, when something happens, a Trigger will trigger something else to happen. Ex: When it’s two days before their session, then trigger this email to go. We highly recommend that you learn this feature well. This is the feature that will save you lots of time and money!
      1. There are quite a few template triggers already setup. If you want to use any of them, you just need to tweak them and make them active.
      2. To learn more about triggers, click here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Triggers (studioplussoftware.com)

          

         Great! We are almost done! Two sections left. This section is on Production setup:

   7. Create a Render Job to automatically render out the Render Profile you created. Set the job to use your profile and set the job to use a status to kick off that Render Profile.
      1. Maintenance > Preferences > Production > Render Jobs. To learn more about Render Jobs, check out this help page: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Render Jobs (studioplussoftware.com)
4. Setup your Session Statuses. This is your workflow for a session. We recommend you write out your entire workflow for your studio. Include each communication that you want to send to the customer along the way (this will be used later). Based on the workflow, create statuses for each important step that you want to track. Maintenance > Session > Session Statuses
   1. If you are using our Ecommerce site, we recommend that you setup a couple statuses: Upload to IBY status, Images Uploaded, Image Upload Failed. You will need these later on.
5. Setup Online Booking if you want to use that route. There are quite a few steps needed to customize your online booking to fit what you need. This includes: session types, website setup, and scheduling time slots. You can find more information on Online Booking setup here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Getting Started with Online Booking (studioplussoftware.com)
   1. If you want to take payments through the site, you need our Credit Card provider. You can pre-apply here: Getting Help - Credit Card Processing | StudioPlus Software
6. Bulk Scheduling of sessions. There is nothing extra you need to setup for this route. However, you will need to remember to setup emails communicating their date and time. More on that later.

    

   You are now able to create sessions for all of your students. Next, we need to be able to import images into the system.

7. To be able to import images, you need to setup your image paths. We need to know where on your server or hard drive should we store the images. You can set this up at Maintenance > Preferences > Company Preferences > Digital Tab > Image Paths section.
8. If you want to use Perfectly Clear to automatically retouch your images, you need to sign up for a license here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Perfectly Clear Plug-in (studioplussoftware.com)
9. If you want to edit your images, then you will need to setup the Lightroom integration or the Photoshop integration. Here are the pages to do that:

                   PhotoShop: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | FAQ - Linking with Photoshop™ or Other Imaging Software (studioplussoftware.com)

                   Lightroom: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Lightroom Integration (studioplussoftware.com)

    

   You are now ready to import and edit images. Next, we will discuss how to upload images to InspiredByYou.com (IBY). We will also discuss In-Studio Sales Presentation.

10. If you want to use our ecommerce site InspiredByYou.com, then there are some setup pieces that need to be taken care of.
    1. Create a control center job to upload the images based on the session upload status. This is the automation that will grab the images from your images folders and upload the images for you automatically. Utilities > Control Center > New Job button > Image Upload job. For more information about this setup, click here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 6: Syncing Sessions to show online (studioplussoftware.com)
    2. There are quite a few customizations that you can setup for IBY. Here are the major ones:
       1. Online Portal Preferences: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 2: Online Portal Preferences (studioplussoftware.com)
       2. InspiredByYou.com Preferences: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 3: InspiredByYou.com Preferences (studioplussoftware.com)
       3. Shipping Methods: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 4: Shipping Methods (studioplussoftware.com)
       4. Digital Delivery of Images (optional): Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Digital Delivery (studioplussoftware.com)
11. If you want to use our Sales Presentation tool, there isn’t a lot that needs to be setup for it.
12. If you want to take invoices with the software, there are a number of setup pieces that need to happen. The big one is the Price List. You can find your Price List at Maintenance > Price List > Price Lists. We don’t recommend that you create your entire price list in our tool. We recommend that you create your price list in an excel file then bulk import it. You can find a Price List template to use attached to the email with this document. If not, contact tech support for one. Support@StudioPlusSoftware.com. If you sell packages, we recommend that you create each component of the package as its own item. Also create the main package item. Then after the import, you will need to use the components tab of the main package item to link all the items into one package.
    1. We recommend that you create two price lists. One for In-Studio Sales and one for online ecommerce using IBY. Generally, your online price list is simpler and designed for customers who won’t have a sales rep to help them.
    2. Then you can import your price list using the price list importer. Utilities > Price List Import. For more help on how to import your price list, click here: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Importing a Price List (studioplussoftware.com).
    3. If you want to use IBY, then make sure to follow the additional steps to make sure your price list is ready for online: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Step 5: InspiredByYou Price List (studioplussoftware.com)
    4. For reference: Maintenance > Price List > Price Lists
13. If you want to take payments in the software, then you need to setup payments methods. You will also need to setup an account with Global Payments Integrated (formerly called Tsys).
    1. Payment Methods can be setup at Maintenance > Invoice > Payment Methods.
    2. We have created a special integration with Global Payments integrated. The integration makes sure that at no point does Credit Card information ever touch your system. This makes it much easier to be PCI compliant. Global Payments Integrated is also very good at meeting or beating the rates you have now, so we highly recommend you apply.
       1. Here is the link to apply: Getting Help - Credit Card Processing | StudioPlus Software
       2. Here is where you setup your Credit Card settings if you do sign up:
          1. Spectra/myStratus Desktop | TSYS (Cayan) Credit Card Processing (US) (studioplussoftware.com)
          2. Here are some recommendations we have from working with credit card companies.
             1. We highly recommend that you keep an eye on your statements. Ask your rep if any fees are required. Also keep an eye on the bottom of your statement for notices about upcoming fees. We will do our best to let you know of new fees coming. The credit card industry is changing rapidly. A big increase in fraud has led to a lot of extra services and fees. You don’t need to use all of them.
             2. If you have trouble contacting them, let us know. We have our own Rep that can contact to try to push things through. However, the entire Credit Card industry is very short staffed.
             3. When it comes time to fill out the PCI Compliance form. Global Payments Integrated has a team that you can work with to make the process a lot easier! Contact their PCI Compliance team to help you fill out the forms. It’s included with your fees.

                 

                With all that setup, you should be ready to take invoices in the software or online. Next let’s discus how to setup communications so your customers know what’s going on, how to login, or that their session is coming up.

14. If you want to email or text your customers, there are a couple of setup pieces you need to do.
    1. Setup your email in our software. Here is how to do that: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Setting up Email (studioplussoftware.com)
       1. You can use your own email provider in our system to send emails for free (at least free on our side). But we also have a paid service you should consider. It has open rates, click rates, unsubscribes, and confirmation buttons. You can actually see if a customer opened or clicked on an email! Here is more information about our StudioPlus Mail service: StudioPlus Mail Service | StudioPlus Software
15. The software can create production orders based on the invoices coming in. These production orders can be used to help facilitate orders to your different labs. They can also help track in-house production steps that need to happen. Example: Based on an invoice, we will create a production order for all the prints and a production order for your frames. The prints production order can have a status for retouching. And a step for ordering from the lab.
    1. Create your production order types like Frames, Prints, Albums, etc. If it needs its own workflow, it needs its own type. Maintenance > Production > Production Types.
    2. Create your production statuses for each of those types. You need a status for each step that you want to track in the software for each type. Maintenance > Production > Production Statuses.
    3. Vendors: you need to setup vendors to choose for each item. This can be done at Maintenance > Production > Vendor
    4. Create a Render Profile to render out the final ordered images to the Render folder.
       1. Maintenance > Preferences > Render Profile. For more information on Render profiles, check out this help page: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Render Profiles (studioplussoftware.com)

This last section is on setting up reports.

You can create a Dashboard of reports to look at to know how your business is doing. It’s great to see how your sales are, your bookings, what orders are falling behind, etc. You can even subscribe to the important reports to get a copy in your email on regular basis. To learn more about Dashboard setup, check out this help page: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Dashboard Overview (studioplussoftware.com)

Along with reports is accounting. We have an integration with QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. To learn more about setting this up, please check out this page: Spectra/myStratus Desktop | Setting up the Accounting Link - NEW to 2021 - QuickBooks Online (studioplussoftware.com)

SETUP IS DONE!!!! CELEBRATE TIME!!