How to Streamline Projects and Tasks Using Dubsado
One thing about us is that we’re always looking for ways to improve our systems and processes to keep things streamlined and running smoothly. And a favorite system of ours that allows you to do this very thing with your client processes is Dubsado.
When we were a service-based business that dealt with one on one clients, Dubsado was our absolute favorite CRM, and that was back when they were fairly new and weren’t as robust as they are now. Since they’ve made total updates and added new features, they’ve become every business owners dream system.
So, today, we’re going to share with you different ways that you can use Dubsado to streamline your projects and tasks!
Project Statuses in Dubsado
This one is going to be a major game changer when keeping track of the progress you’re making with your clients’ projects. Think of project statuses as milestones that each client will reach, and these markers are how you keep up with where your clients projects are currently.
Projects in Dubsado are split into two categories: Leads and Jobs. For example, if you’re a photographer, your project status workflow could go something like this:
(This is where they’re still a Lead in Dubsado) New Inquiry > Proposal Sent > Contract Signed > Deposit Paid (This is where they become a Job) > Waiting to Shoot > Editing Images > Images Sent
You know your own workflow best, so that was just an example, but imagine you have 10 or more clients per month, so you’re working on various projects. With just a peak at your Projects in Dubsado, all could be laid out to get a quick view of the progress for each client’s project.
HOW TO CREATE PROJECT STATUSES in dubsado
From your Projects page in Dubsado, click on the “Customize” button on the far right. From there, you’re able to create new project statuses that are categorized as either a Lead or a Job. Once you’re finished creating them for both categories, you can also drag and drop their order around, so don’t worry about needing to create them in exactly the order you’ll need them to be.
HOW TO ADD TAGS TO PROJECTS in Dubsado
From this page, you’re also able to change how your columns are sorted, as well as create new tags for your projects. Tags can be used to help you organize your projects even further. They could be named according to the packages you offer, so that you can see which projects have which package, or they could be something entirely different. Projects are able to have multiple tags under them, so feel free to get creative with this in whatever way works best for your business!
Tasks in Dubsado
Dubsado has a couple of different to-do list options and ways to make those streamlined. We’ll start with their general tasks list which is in the left-hand menu under Calendar. From a glance, you’re able to see all of your tasks, what project they’re for, who they’re assigned to (if you have other users on your Dubsado account), and the due date. There’s also an option to view tasks only assigned to you and your task boards.
You can filter these tasks to view by each assignee, complete or incomplete tasks, as well as add new tasks. When you add a new task or “todo” as Dubsado calls it, you’re able to enter what the task is, the due date (or you have the option to check “All day”), what project it’s for, the assignee, as well as if you want to make the task private or not.
If the private checkbox is left unmarked, the task will show up in the client’s portal, which could be an amazing option if you want to keep your clients in the loop with how their project’s progress is going.
HOW TO USE TASK BOARDS in dubsado
From the same Tasks menu, if you click over to Boards, you’re able to view all boards, general boards, or project-specific boards. This is great for getting a bird’s eye view of boards for each project, and clicking on one will take you to the board inside of that project.
General boards can be used for your personal tasks. They’re super similar to Trello when it comes to boards, lists, and cards, so if you’ve used Trello, you can most definitely get accustomed to Dubado’s boards. Inside each board, you can create a column, and then add tasks under each column.
Inside the tasks, you can assign a due date, assignee, decide what board and column to add it to (though this will auto-populate depending on which column you added the task to), and add files and comments. Remember, these are your personal boards, so clients won’t be able to see these.
HOW TO CREATE PROJECT TASKS AND BOARDS in dubsado
For each specific client A.K.A. project, there is a “Tasks” column that’s identical to the main Tasks page in the menu, except these tasks are specific to the project. All of the functionalities work the same as the other menu here.
When you create a board and have it opened, there’s an arrow on the right-hand side that will give you the option to either delete the board or change the privacy settings, meaning you can keep the board restricted to only the admin of your team and assigned users (or if it’s just you, then this will keep it private to you), or you can add it to the client portal in the same way you can add to-do lists to their portal.
Note that this will give the client the ability to create and edit tasks on the board, which is fine if you have collaborative projects with your clients, but your client will also just be able to check in on how things are going.
How to Automate Tasks, Tags, and Statuses in Dubsado
Hands-down one of our favorite features of Dubsado is workflows. We could go on and on all day about how much we love them (which we just might do in a future blog post), but for now, we’ll keep it simple. Inside workflows, you’re able to add steps that will automatically create a new task or change a project’s status.
What this means for you is that instead of having to manually change a project’s status and add tags and to-dos, that can happen on the backend inside of the workflow. Using the project statuses example from earlier, here’s another example of how those could flow together in a workflow:
When someone completes your lead capture form, a workflow is assigned.
The first step of the workflow is to change the project status to New Inquiry
Create to-do “Review Client Name’s lead capture form” (The name field can be auto-generated using Dubsado’s custom fields, so you know exactly which client this task is for)
Email is sent reaching out and sales conversation is had (The specific steps here will vary depending on your process)
Email is sent sending a scheduler link to schedule their shoot (which will then automatically show up on your Dubsado calendar or Google Calendar integrated with Dubsado)
Create to-do “Create Client Name’s proposal”
Email is sent sending the proposal
Change project status to Proposal Sent
Contracts automatically come after the proposal in Dubsado’s 3-step process, so once contract is signed, change project status to Contract Signed
When first invoice is paid, change project status to Deposit Paid
Add tag “Example Package Tier 1”
Send reminder emails about their upcoming shoot
Change project status to Waiting to Shoot
Create to-do “Edit Client Name’s images”
Send email with final images
Now, this is totally just an example workflow to show how you can use workflows to create to-dos that are common with each client and change project statuses/add tags automatically. Honestly, we think that’s one of our fav parts about workflows. Even if you have a VA that works with you, Dubsado will take care of even those minor actions within workflows, freeing up tons of time for you to focus on actually taking care of them.
Well, there you have it! Those were the ways in which you can streamline your projects and tasks all within Dubsado. We call it the all-in-one for business owners who need a CRM that’s quite a bit more than just your everyday CRM.
If you want to read even more about Dubsado and take it on a test run, you can learn more and save 30% off your first month or first year here.
