Everything You Need to Know About Dubsado Before You Buy
There’s definitely no shortage of CRMs available out there for service providers, but the difficulty is choosing which one. If you’ve already started your research, chances are you’ve seen Dubsado pop up quite a few times as being one of the top CRMs. We’ll be the first to back up those claims and say they’re absolutely true!
Dubsado is the #1 CRM that we personally recommend to every service provider who’s struggling to maintain an organized system of managing and streamlining their client processes. However, what makes Dubsado different from the rest, and what are some things you need to know about Dubsado before you even buy?
Dubsado Pricing + Free Trial
Dubsado is one of the most inexpensive tools out there, sitting pretty at $35/month or $350/year. When you first sign up, you have virtually all the time in the world to upgrade, though, because they give you a 3-client free trial. There’s no time limit on the trial— It just depends on how quickly you can land 3 clients! You can take your time creating forms, building workflows, testing your process, and really getting used to the software.
The free trial alone blows so many other CRMs out of the water. You often see 7 day trials, but in reality, 7 days is nowhere near long enough to really dive in, use the software, run through your client processes, and decide whether or not you want to upgrade.
Pro tip: Use our link to create your free account, and save 30% off the price of your first month or first year!
MULTI-USER PRICING
Yes, you do have the availability to add more users to your account! You can add 3 users at no extra cost, and you’re also able to choose what role they play on your account/how much access you want to give them.
Basic users only have access to the tasks and projects that are assigned to them.
Accountant users can only access the invoices, chart of accounts, transactions, and reports under your financial Reporting tools.
Admin users can access almost everything, minus your billing info, other multi-users’ calendars, nor can they connect their own email address.
Three users may be enough for the size of your business, but if not, you can include 4-10 users for additional $25/month, 11-20 for $45/month, or 21-30 for $60/month.
ADDITIONAL BRAND PRICING
Along with multi-users, you can also create brand add-ons to your account. Say you have multiple businesses, but you want to only be billed from one Dubsado account. Instead of paying $35/month for one account and $35/month for another account, you can add another brand for only an additional $10/month!
This could also be useful if you need team members to have more flexibility and access to your Dubsado account than multi-users can allow. For example, creating a brand add-on for a team member allows them to have their own space in Dubsado— their own projects, connecting their own email address, their own schedulers, etc. If you need team members to be able to manage their own clients, this would be the best choice because they would still be operating from your main brand.
Dubsado Interface
Compared to other CRMs, we actually really enjoy Dubsado’s interface. It’s simple, yet the bold pops of color and especially the layout of the dashboard are really pleasing for us visual folk. It’s super easy to navigate, features are easy to find, and nothing is hidden in any weird spots that you wouldn’t expect. You also have the ability to change the default color scheme. Our dashboard below is blue, but you can go green, purple, orange, black, or red.
Dubsado Features
Now for the extra fun part: Dubsado’s features! Honestly, their features are what ultimately won us over in the long run. Dubsado has taken the time to come up with features that service providers actually need to make their processes more efficient. Although we wrote a super in-depth blog post about all of their features here, we’ll give you a basic rundown of our favorite/the most popular features.
BUILT-IN SCHEDULER
Instead of using a third-party scheduler like Calendly or Acuity, Dubsado has a built-in native scheduler that you can use instead. You’re able to link your own external calendar to the Dubsado calendar, so if you have events on your Google Calendar, for example, clients won’t be able to schedule calls during those times.
You can create public schedulers that you embed on your website or share the link publicly, or you can send private schedulers just to certain leads or clients. If sharing a public scheduler, you can even choose to connect a lead capture form or some other form to it. Not to mention that if you charge for consultations, you can attach an invoice and collect payment.
DUBSADO FORMS
Dubsado offers lead capture forms, proposals, questionnaires, contracts, and sub-agreements. With their form builder, you can drag-and-drop text boxes, images, questions, file uploaders, HTML blocks, and tons of other elements to customize your forms and make them all yours!
The best part is that Dubsado keeps their branding completely off of everything you create, so you don’t have to worry about annoying watermarks or logos that aren’t yours. You can even connect your own web domain and change the favicon, so no one would ever know you’re using Dubsado.
AUTOMATE WITH WORKFLOWS
Once you have your manual process down pat, you can translate into workflows to automate emails, project status changes, send forms, activate portals, and so much more without so much as the blink of an eye. We love automation with all our hearts, so this was a winner winner chicken dinner feature for us! Here’s a real example of how we use workflows with The Boss Project Incubator:
Workflow #1: Our default workflow that new applications are added to sends a “Thanks for applying!” email.
Workflow #2: If an application is accepted, we manually apply our acceptance workflow, which changes the project status to Approved, sends an email, and starts our contract workflow.
Workflow #3: If an application is rejected, we manually apply the denial workflow which changes the project status to Denied, sends an email, and archives the project.
Workflow #4: This is the contract workflow that starts after the acceptance workflow. This workflow sends the contract, then the onboarding guide after the contract is signed, activates their portal, and includes a few project status changes as well.
Check out this blog post we wrote that goes ever how to use Dubsado Workflows and tips for more support!
DUBSADO CLIENT PORTAL
The client portal is a central hub just for your clients! You give them their own login, and they can access the portal to view:
Your contact info
Documents and links
Forms you’ve applied to the portal
Upcoming appointments
Open invoices
Email communication between you two
The contact info you have on file for them + the ability to edit it
You can embed the portal on your website with the embed code Dubsado gives you, plus you can share a public link. Using the public link, clients will need a password in order to log in. There’s also the option of sending private portal links for each individual client, so they’ll only have to enter their email address to log in.
Dubsado allows you to upload your own portal banners for desktop and mobile, plus you can change the theme of the dashboard to one of your own brand colors to make it 100% your brand’s. Just take a look at our portal!
Dubsado Help, Customer Support, and Education
One of the best parts of Dubsado is that you honestly feel like you’re joining a family! Anywhere you turn, there’s a member with open arms ready to help you with any questions, advice, or support you need. They have an engaged Facebook group where you can go to share wins or seek tips from their team and other Dubsado users.
DUBSADO CUSTOMER SUPPORT
When it comes to learning the platform, they make sure you’re never overwhelmed. There are countless help articles that will answer pretty much all questions you may have, and if you’re ever in doubt while working on something in your account, there’s a live chat support option always visible in the corner! In our experience, they never take more than just a couple hours to respond, if that.
FREE DUBSADO COURSES
And on top of all of that, they have free courses you can take that will teach you pretty much everything there is to know about Dubsado! They offer three courses— beginner, intermediate, and advanced. If you have a little knowledge or experience with Dubsado for whatever reason and aren’t sure which course is the best fit, they offer a free placement quiz that will recommend where to start. (Although, we highly recommend starting with the beginner course anyway to make sure you aren’t missing a thing.)
MIGRATION FROM ANOTHER CRM
If you’re already using another CRM but you’re thinking Dubsado might be a better fit, you don’t have to be absolutely dreading the thought of migrating. Dubsado offers White Glove Migration where a member of their team will come in and transfer clients, jobs, and invoices up to 2 years back, along with any filled forms and signed contracts from your old software.
Ready to Dive in Now?
Now that we’ve told you everything you need to know about Dubsado before you get started, are you ready to sign up for your free account? No card information is required to get started. All you have to do is head here to sign up now and save 30% on your first month or first year when it’s finally time to upgrade!
