Session Status Overview

Statuses are a powerful workflow tracking feature throughout Stratus, designed to keep things from falling through the cracks by organizing the many areas of your business - clients, communications, sessions, invoices, and tasks - into custom workflows. Basically, you create a workflow by defining the steps of a process from beginning to end. These steps are your statuses.

Session Statuses are used to help you track your sessions from booking through image archiving. Each status can include a default duration (which Stratus uses to automatically generate a due date). A sample session workflow may include the following statuses:

• "Session Pending"
• "Image Capture Pending"
• "Upload to Web Pending"
• "Sales Presentation Pending"
• "Retouch Pending"
• and so on

Setting up Session Statuses

1. Go to Maintenance > Sessions > Session Statuses to open your list of session statuses.
   
   

2. Enter Statuses by Type? - Before you create session statuses, you should decide if you want to use the "Enter Statuses by Type" option. So what does that mean? It simply means that if you choose this option you will be able to set up a different set of statuses for your individual session types. For example, say your workflow for "Wedding" sessions is very different than for "Baby's First Year" sessions. Maybe your wedding sessions include an online gallery and album preview that your baby sessions don't. If this is the case, you may want to consider setting up your session statuses by session type. The screenshot above shows a sample workflow cycle that has been set up specifically for the "Portrait" session type. To see the workflow for another session type, you would click the down arrow next to the session type and choose a type from the list. See also: Using Session Types

   TIP! Once you choose to enter statuses by type, deselecting this option will cause all your session statuses to revert to one type. Try to make a decision early and stick with it!!

3. If you're using the "Enter Statuses by Type" option, choose the session type from the drop-down list.

4. Click New to add a status or click the Edit icon in the Details column to modify an existing one.
   
   

5. Complete the following fields:

   • Description - Enter a short description for the session status. If you're creating statuses by type (see step 2 above), make sure to give each status a unique description. For example, use "P-Session Pending" for a portrait status and "W-Session Pending" for a wedding status. This will come in handy when sorting on the Sessions hub.

   • Sort Order - Enter the order you want this session status to appear in your workflow.

     TIP! Whenever you need to create a sort order in Stratus, skip a few numbers between each one (i.e., use 2-4-6-8 or 5-10-15-20). This will leave you space to add another entry without reordering the entire list!

   • Typical Duration - Enter the number of business days this step normally takes. Stratus uses the duration to calculate a status due date that appears on the session. You can use status due dates to see what items are overdue and catch things that may be falling through the cracks. Find out more in the Using Session Statuses section below.

   • Initial/Final Status - Your session workflow cycle must have one step that is the Initial Status and one step that is the Final Status. To change your selection, just choose a new step as the initial/final status and Stratus will reassign it.

   • Associate With - You can associate each session status with a specific stage of the digital workflow (Stratus Standard and Professional only). Once assigned, sessions at each status will appear at the appropriate stage on the Workflow hub.

6. When finished, click OK to save your session status.

7. To maintain your session status list, you may also want to:

• Change the Typical Duration - Quickly change the typical duration of a status right from the status list.

• Make a Status Inactive - Make a session status inactive by checking the Inactive box on a status in the list.

• Set the Initial/Final Status - Quickly change the initial and/or final statuses by checking and unchecking the appropriate boxes on the status list.

• Delete a Session Status - Highlight the status and click Delete on the ribbon.

• Rearrange the List - Highlight a session status and use the Move Up and Move Down tools on the ribbon.

• Hide Inactive Statuses - Click Hide Inactive on the ribbon to hide (or reveal) any inactive statuses.

• Print the List - Click Print on the ribbon to generate a printed report of your session statuses.

• Export the List to Excel - Click Export to Excel to export an Excel file that you can download.

8. Close the session status list when finished.
   
   

Using Session Statuses

Updating Session Statuses

Follow these steps to change the status of a session:

1. Open the session.

2. On the General tab, click the Change Status ("...") button to the right of the session status line. The following Status Change window appears:

   

3. Stratus will automatically fill in some or all of the fields. Modify the information as needed.

   • Current Status - This is the current status of the session.

   • Date Completed - This will default to today's date.

   • Change to Status - This will default to the next status in the sort order you've defined. You can open the drop-down list to select a different status.

   • Due Date - Stratus will calculate the due date based on the typical duration for the status. Click the down arrow to choose a different due date for this session.

   • Status Updated By - This will default to the current user. Open the drop-down list to select another user.

4. Click OK when finished.

5. The status information will be updated on the session and Stratus will automatically log the status change into the session's Status Notes (on the Notes tab).

6. Click Save & Close on the ribbon to finish updating the session.

Tracking Statuses on a Session

Tracking Statuses on the Sessions Hub