How to Use Dubsado Workflows + Tips
We’re very excited for this post today because we’ve been writing about Dubsado for a while, and we always find some way to sneak in workflows because they’re our absolutely favorite feature of the software. Finally, we’re here to dedicate a whole post just to workflows!
Workflows in Dubsado give you the opportunity to automate so many processes of your usual client workflow. In turn, this frees up so much space in your calendar for you to be able to focus on caring for your clients, completing their projects, and giving them the attention they need without worrying about the techy stuff that happens on the backend.
We’ve heard from many people that workflows allow Dubsado to serve as their VA of sorts because they can set and forget so many different things. So, keep reading to learn more about workflows, how they work, what you should do before creating them, and how you can be using them in your business right now!
What Are Workflows?
Workflows are a powerful Project Management tool that automates your client process all within Dubsado. When you apply a workflow to a client, called a “project” in Dubsado, Dubsado will automatically run every step for you. They can send forms, emails, scheduling invites, and more to your client through a project. A workflow can even create a todo for your task list and change a project's status. The possibilities are nearly endless, which is what makes them our favorite feature of Dubsado. The goal with workflows is to automate your entire client process, from the initial reach-out to the final farewell.
What You Need Before Building Workflows
There are some steps you should take before creating workflows to make the process easier for you. No two businesses will have the same processes, so it’s important that you take the preparation to build workflows that will work for you and your business.
STEP 1: WRITE OUT YOUR PROCESS
Write out every step in the process of working with your clients. You might have multiple processes if you offer multiple services, but start with the easiest one. Each of these steps will serve at the basis of your workflows, so really think hard about this to make sure you’re including every step. Note each and every package, form, email, scheduler, payment schedule, and manual task that is involved, as well as the timing of each step.
Pro Tip: You might want to jot these down as you work with clients, because it’s sometimes difficult to think back on all these steps after the fact.
STEP 2: CREATE YOUR MATERIALS
Based on the processes you have outlined, highlight each piece of material that you’ll need to set up in Dubsado, if you haven’t done so already. This will include:
Every form in your process (lead capture forms, questionnaires, proposals, and contracts). For done-for-you form templates that are one-click add to your Dubsado account, check these out.
Any schedulers you’ll need. This is plural because you may have a scheduler with a lead capture form or one that is just the scheduler.
Emails you send that can be canned responses. Remember that canned doesn’t mean they can’t change, which is what we’ll discuss later in this post.
Payment schedules, if applicable.
STEP 3: TEST YOUR PROCESS MANUALLY
We’d recommend creating a sample client an email address of yours that you can run through your process with manually at first as both the client and business owner. Understand how the system works this way by filling out a lead capture form as the sample client first and noting how this is inputted into Dubsado, as well as sending the sample client your proposal, contract, and invoice.
When you run through the process manually, you have more confidence and a better understanding of how your workflow will actually work. Dubsado will just be completing the same steps automatically that you already know how to do yourself. This also gives you the opportunity to catch mistakes or missing steps in your process, as well as take notes on any content that may need to change.
Note: When completing forms as the client, be sure to open it in an incognito window, or else Dubsado will recognize you as the business owner. When wanting to simulate paying an invoice, you can manually apply one within the sample client’s invoice tab without having to actually pay yourself.
Building Workflows
Now comes actually building out your workflow. This may seem intimidating at first, but remember that this is all just trial and error! Don’t worry about the first time being absolutely perfect– treat it more like a rough draft. Build it out with the basic steps to get the structure in place first. Remember that you don’t have to do very much guessing at this stage since you’ve already written out your usual client process beforehand. What you’re doing now is basically just plugging in the steps.
THE FIRST STEP
The first step of your workflow will depend on what it’s for. If this is for onboarding, chances are that it will start once a lead capture form is completed. Note that you won’t be able to add the trigger for it within the workflow builder. Instead, you’ll need to build the workflow from the first step that will happen after the form is completed. Then, go to the form’s settings and apply the workflow to it. The same goes for any forms that will trigger a workflow.
APPROVING STEPS
You might be thinking, “But what if I want to edit an email first before it automatically sends?” Don’t worry, you’ll be able to edit any emails before they send off by marking the step as “Require approval before completing this action”. This is super useful for canned responses that you want to make more personal to the client, especially if it’s an inquiry reachout email responding to their lead capture form submission. You can also mark any steps of your workflow as needing approval first, not just emails.
Pro Tip: Instead of having to manually keep track of whose workflow emails need approving, add a workflow step “Create todo” before the email step, and name it something like “Edit {{client.firstName}}’s inquiry email” (The name will auto-populate to the client’s name). Dubsado will automatically create the task for you, so that you can easily see in your task list whose email needs to be edited. Then, you can go into their workflow, edit the email, and approve it so that it’ll send.
REFINING YOUR WORKFLOW
If you want to refine your workflow even further, you can by adding project statuses, tags, and todos to your workflow. Project statuses allow you to organize your projects even further by categorizing them into different statuses of your choosing, like “Proposal Sent”, “Deposit Paid”, “Contract Sent”, etc. Otherwise, they’ll only be classified by the default statuses in Dubsado, Lead and Job.
Tags allow you to take that organization one step further. With these, you can classify projects basically however you want, but many people find it helpful to create tags based on the type of project they are/the type of package they purchased. Check out this blog post we wrote that’s all about project statuses, tagging, and todos if you want more help.
TEST YOUR WORKFLOW
Once you feel somewhat confident in the structure of your workflow, test it out on your sample project, but remove the forms that you applied when manually testing your process first. You can enter the workflow as a sample one of two ways:
If this workflow is going to start immediately once your lead capture form is submitted, you could fill out the lead capture form as the sample client (using the same email address as before to ensure you don’t use up all your clients, if you’re still on the free trial). Then, the workflow will be applied to their project for you and start running.
Manually apply the workflow by going to your sample client project > Workflows > Choose the workflow form the drop-down menu > Apply. This way, you’ll need to manually start the workflow by clicking Force Now.
Either way is fine, but the first option will give you the chance to see how it functions as “genuinely” as possible.
Rinse and Repeat
Now that you have your first workflow built and tested (Yay!), you’re ready to build out any additional workflows that you may need. Like we said before, it’s all about trial and error, rinsing and repeating, so don’t worry if you find that things change. As you get better accustomed to the system, odds are that you’ll find more ways you can refine your workflows even further.
If this is your first time hearing about Dubsado and want to try it out, you can learn more about it and save 30% on your first month or first year right here.
