Top 10 17hats Features for Photography Businesses

17hats is no secret to the photography industry, and I've had the pleasure of helping to set up systems for quite a few photographers.

Whether you're here to learn more about the platform before purchasing, or to learn more about how to optimize your current subscription, I'm so happy to share with you what I think are 10 of the best features of 17hats for photography businesses:

Here's a preview of what we'll cover:

1. 3-in-1 quote, contract & invoice

2. Quote options for upsells

3. Pipelines for a bird's eye view of all projects

4. Start a workflow from a product or service

5. Workflow from a drop-down selection on the lead capture form

6. Online scheduling for all the consults, shoots and appointments

7. Custom fields for personalization

8. Zapier integration

9. Questionnaire options & if/then logic

10. Automatically updating calendar from "pending" to "booked"

#1 3-in-1 quote, contract & invoice

Hands down, my favorite feature. It streamlines things in your process so much!

The 3-in-1 documents let your clients approve a quote (more on those later), sign a contract and pay an invoice all from one email. It can all happen in a matter of seconds, rather than days.

For photographers, this is HUGE. Think about it: A bride emails you on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, you send your wedding package quote with contract and deposit invoice attached. By Wednesday afternoon, she's booked, signed and paid. Event confirmed on the calendar. Done.

Access this by starting a new quote template and connecting (or creating) the corresponding contract template. Whatever they select in the quote will automatically get created as the invoice!

#2 Quote options for upsells

You can create up to three different sections within your quotes:

1. Using the standard quote items section, quote out exactly what your clients asked for

2. Using the "choose one" section, let them choose from different package levels (Gold, Platinum, Diamond)

3. Using the "choose any" section, you can recommend and upsell some additional options that pair well with their package. They may choose some or none of what you include here. Ideas include:

   • Album upgrade

   • Extra hours of coverage

   • Prints package

     
     

You can build your quote using any combination of these sections, or with only one type of section. And as we've already seen, if you send the quote along with an invoice, anything they select from these choices will transfer into their invoice!

I love this because it's another way to ask questions without the back and forth emails.

#3 Pipelines for a bird's eye view of all projects

Pipelines give you a visual board showing exactly where each client (or lead) is in your workflow.

You can track every project from inquiry to delivery by moving clients through stages like: Inquiry → Consult Booked → Deposit Paid → Session Complete → Photos Delivered. You’ll never lose track of who needs a follow-up or which sessions are ready to edit.

#4 Start a workflow from a product or service

Now that we've seen how you can build your quotes in creative ways, let's talk about another thing that can happen from a well-built quote…

You also have the option of automatically starting a workflow for a particular item when the invoice is paid. This is especially helpful if you have products or services with special fulfillment processes.

If your client adds an engagement session to their wedding package, you could have a workflow start automatically that:

1. Sends them a questionnaire about their engagement session vision

2. Reminds you to scout their chosen location

3. Sends them a what-to-wear guide 2 weeks before

4. Sends session reminders

All automated. Zero manual work from you.

#5 Workflow from a drop-down selection on the lead capture form

Similar to starting a workflow from a product or service, you can start a workflow specific to a drop-down selection your clients choose in your lead capture form.

This is perfect for things like:

• Wedding clients get a different auto-reply and workflow than senior portrait clients

• Returning clients get a "welcome back" email instead of the standard inquiry response

• Clients booking mini-sessions get directed to your online scheduler instead of a custom quote

Make this workflow magic happen when you add questions to your lead capture form such as "what type of session are you interested in?". In that process, you'll be able to direct certain answers to start your different workflows.

#6 Online scheduling for all the consults, shoots and appointments

17hats’ built-in scheduling eliminates the back-and-forth of appointments. Create separate booking services for consultations, engagement sessions, wedding planning calls, album delivery meetings and more.

Clients see your real availability (thanks to calendar cross-checking), book their time slot and get automatic confirmations and reminders.

You can also set buffer times between sessions, block out editing days and sync it all to your Google Calendar… so double-bookings become impossible.

Oh, and for headshots or team photo shoots… the group scheduling feature will be your friend.

#7 Custom fields for personalization

Custom fields for your contacts or projects will become tokens that can really add a nice personal touch to your emails and documents.

Now, it's easy to get carried away with these custom fields (I've been guilty myself!), so I'd recommend taking these steps before creating any new custom fields:

1. Know the default fields that already exist

2. Ask yourself whether this custom field will add really useful personalization

3. Ask yourself whether this custom field will save you any copy/pasting throughout your process

A few great custom fields for photographers are:

1. Partner/fiancé name (for wedding photographers) - makes your emails feel personal: "Hi Sarah & Tom!"

2. Kids' names & ages (for family photographers) - "I can't wait to see how much Emma and Jackson have grown!"

Custom project fields will also populate nicely along the right side of your screen while viewing your project. To get started with custom fields, head to Account Settings > Custom Fields (under Account Templates).

#8 Zapier integration

Zapier is another awesome tool for streamlining your business. It connects many common business platforms together with automation.

Its integration with 17hats will copy new contacts to and from other sources automatically. Helpful uses for photographers include:

1. Sending new 17hats contacts to your email service provider (Flodesk, Mailchimp, etc.)

2. Creating new 17hats contacts based on entries from another web form you have

3. Creating new Google Drive or Dropbox folders where you'll eventually store their images

   
   

This will mean you no longer have to manually copy and paste your new contacts back and forth across all your tech!

#9 Questionnaire options & if/then logic

Questionnaires have slowly become my second-favorite type of document within 17hats! They're similar to lead capture forms in the way they collect information from your clients (and map that info to your tokens), but they offer even more capability.

Questionnaires can also allow for inputting related contacts, displaying images and asking follow-up questions depending on the answers you get in previous questions.

Good uses for photographers would be things like:

1. Collect vendor contact info (florist, coordinator, venue) for wedding day timeline

2. Show off your work (and get them excited to book you) by displaying your own images

3. For wedding photographers: If they say they're having a first look, ask follow-up questions about timing and location

The if/then logic alone makes questionnaires incredibly powerful for photographers with complex workflows!

#10 Automatically updating calendar from "pending" to "booked"

If you appreciate a color-coded calendar as much as me, this one is great! It will allow you to know at a glance what your project schedule is like on any given day.

It starts by sending new contacts to your "inquired clients" calendar (or some other name like "leads", "pending" or "potential"). This is done in the settings of your lead capture form or online scheduling.

When a client pays their deposit through 17hats, their calendar event can automatically update from ‘Pending’ to ‘Booked’ status.

This means your availability opens back up until they commit, preventing you from holding dates for clients who ghost.

Conclusion: 17hats Features for Photography Businesses

This list only scratches the surface of what 17hats features help Photography Businesses streamline their workflows.

If you find that you're ready to give the platform a try, feel free to grab my referral link to get 50% off your 1st year!

I'm also here to help set it up for your photography business with resources like My Little Black Book of 17hats Tips, and service options, too.