The Dubsado Features Nobody Talks About (But Everyone Should Use)

It’s no secret that I am obsessed with Dubsado. I’ve built my entire business on it, I’ve set it up for hundreds of photographers, and I still get excited when I find something inside it that most people are walking right past.

Sure, we could talk about proposals and workflows all day — and honestly, we do. But this post is about my favorite hidden gems. The features that are sitting right there in your account that either make your life easier or level up your client experience in ways you didn’t expect.

Let’s fix that.

1. Lead Capture Redirect

When someone hits submit on your contact form, that’s the moment. They just took action. They’re excited. They want to hire you.

And most Dubsado setups respond with: “Thanks for reaching out, we’ll be in touch soon!”

Which is fine. It just wastes the best moment in your entire inquiry process.

Dubsado lets you redirect that submit button to any page on your website. A custom thank-you page. One you actually designed for a warm lead who is ready to be sold on you.

Here’s what I put on that page for my clients:

1. A real confirmation — not vague reassurance, but “I got it, here’s exactly what happens next”
2. Something personal — a video, a welcome message, or even a VideoAsk so they can interact with you before you’ve even replied
3. A few of your favorite sessions — let them fall in love with your work while they wait to hear from you
4. A clear timeframe — when should they expect a response?

Some of my clients drop a VideoAsk there so the lead can interact with them before they’ve even had a conversation. Others use a simple welcome video. Either way, you’re starting to build connection before you’ve even replied — and that’

2. Requiring Payment in the Scheduler

If you use Dubsado’s scheduler to sell mini-sessions, you’ve probably attached a proposal to it.

Stop doing that.

Go into the Advanced tab and attach the invoice directly instead.

Here’s the difference: when a proposal is attached, the time slot stays open until it’s signed AND paid. Someone can claim a spot, sit on it for three days, and you’ve been holding it for them the whole time — while other people are trying to book.

When you attach the invoice directly, the spot isn’t removed from your calendar until it’s paid. That’s it. No claiming, no waiting, no chasing.

For mini-sessions especially, this one change is worth the five minutes it takes.

3. Workflow Trigger: After Form Not Completed

This is the one I find turned off in almost every account.

Most photographers send a questionnaire or a proposal and then wait. And hope. And feel weird about following up three days later.

Dubsado has a trigger that fires automatically when a form isn’t completed within whatever timeframe you set. You pick the form, set the window, and choose the action — a follow-up email, a gentle nudge, a cancellation notice, whatever makes sense for your workflow.

You’re not bugging anyone. You built a system that handles it so you don’t have to think about it.

This works for any form in a workflow. Set it once and let it run.

None of these are complicated. They’re just the kind of thing that’s easy to skip when you’re in setup mode and trying to get the basics working.

If you want someone to look at your whole setup and tell you exactly what’s broken — and what to fix first — that’s what the Client Experience Audit is for. And if you’re ready to build it out the right way from the start, Systems in Session is where we do that together.