Setting up Pricing can seem like a lot of effort when you just want to get in and start working with the program but, like many things in ShootQ, that little bit of time invested up front getting your account properly set up will translate into better information on your profitability and a stronger hold on the day-to-day needs of your business.
To Set up your Pricing in ShootQ, you need to visit this page:
Settings > Pricing
The basic idea behind the Pricing system in ShootQ is that you will start by adding the Products and Services your company offers. These will include every Product your company sells (such as Albums or Canvases) and any Service you provide (like an hour of coverage or a second photographer), whether they are contents of your standard Packages or simply a la carte offerings. These Products and Services will then be put together with quantities to create the Packages that you offer to your clients. Even after you set up your standard Packages, you will always have the opportunity to add or remove contents to build a custom Package to meet the needs of your client.
Products can be categorized for your own organizational purposes. The category filtering system on the far left side will allow you to quickly find the item you are looking for at any time. For example, you can display just products categorized as "Albums" or "Prints". Products can also be added to multiple categories if you wish.
If a product has been previously ordered or presented in an online booking, you cannot permanently delete it from the system. You can, however, discontinue the product and it will be moved from your active products to the Discontinued section. Discontinued products can always be restored if necessary.
To add or delete categories, or change a category name, click the Manage Categories link.
If you want to create a product from scratch, click the Sell a New Product link and then choose Add A New Product. You will then be prompted to name your item.
When you press the OK button, you will see the area where you can configure your product.
You can upload a photo of your product by browsing your hard drive. This photo to be displayed to the client for that individual item either on pricing pages or on a proposal.
Below the Name you previously designated, you can define whether the item is a Product or Service with the Type drop-down menu. It's important to designate your item correctly because taxes and discounts can be applied to products or services or both when you are creating an order. "Products" are typically physical products like an Acrylic Print, Coffee Table Book, DVD, etc. "Services" may include an hour of shooting time, photo restoration, second photographer fee, etc.
You can also provide a brief description of the product if you choose. This will also be visible to the client on the proposal and pricing pages.
Below this, you will see the section where you can define the pricing information for this item. It is beneficial to think only of the individual item at this point and not concentrate on its place within any eventual Package. The Selling Price should be representative of what you would charge the client for this Product or Service if it were ordered by itself. The Cost of Goods Sold is the estimated amount that this item costs your business. The Shipping Cost is there if you charge your client a flat rate for the cost of shipping the item. If you enter that cost here, ShootQ will automatically add this amount to the invoice. Instead of setting a flat shipping rate, you can also create shipping charges when someone actually orders the product.
Finally, the figures entered here will generate a Gross Profit dollar amount and Gross Profit Margin percentage to help you make the most informed decisions about your Pricing and its profitability.
Down below you can designate options (i.e. size, color, etc) for your product if you want. Just click the Add An Option link to to create a name for your option (i.e. Size). You can also make it required which means the client must choose one of the Values for the option (i.e you want to force the client to choose a size). You can add Values (i.e. 12x18, 20x24, 20x30) for an option by clicking the Add More Values button.
The Extra Price and Extra C.O.G.S. columns directly relate to your Selling Price and Cost of Goods up above. You are defining, for each value, how much more the selling price will be and how much more the extra cost of goods sold will be. In the example below, if my Selling Price was $100.00 and my Cost of Goods was $40.00, the price of my 12x18 prints would be the same because there is no extra cost for either. However, the 20x24 print would cost $130.00 because the Extra Price is $30.00 ($100 + $30 extra). Similarly, the Cost of Goods for that same print size would be $50.00 ($40 + $10 extra).
You can add as many options for a product as necessary. And those options can also have as many Values as needed. When choosing an Add-On your client will then be able to select from these product options.
Once you have entered this information, it is good to assign Categories to the item to help you group similar items so that they can be easily located when you build your Packages or if you should need to change the Prices for an item next year. You can add a product to multiple categories if you like. To remove a product from a category, simply click on the category name.
You will also have the ability to designate an item as an Add-On and define the maximum quantity of the item that the client can purchase. Add-Ons are a feature in ShootQ that you can enable to allow the client to customize their Package at booking time or after booking time through your Public Pricing Page. Items can be designated for Pre- Booking or Post-Booking pricing pages. If you allow your client to choose Add-Ons during the booking process, products designated as an Add-Ons would then be available for the client to choose.
Finally, you can delve into the Advanced Settings to assign a Product Workflow to an item. This is a way to keep track of where that item is on the road to being fulfilled and have Automatic Correspondence as part of that flow, if needed. The "Share a Single List of Tasks..." checkbox is great for items that have a very similar workflow and are ordered in large quantities, like prints. Checking this will consolidate all of those individual items' Product Workflows into a single one. Then you will not get duplicate task reminders when fulfilling the products. For example, if the client orders two acrylic prints, checking this box will only display a single list of tasks in your task manager for fulfilling both products. You will essentially be fulfilling both acrylics at the same time.
If you ever need to edit, copy, or delete a product, just select it in your product list.
You can also always change the prices for your products in bulk by clicking the Adjust My Prices button. You can adjust them by Percentage or Amount. You can also select the checkbox to change your package prices to maintain their profit margins. The columns next to your products will show your old price, new price, cost of goods sold, and shipping rate. You can also manually change these fields for specific products. Just remember to Save your changes.
When you have finished setting up all of the items your company offers, it is time to move on to creating Packages using all of those Products and Services you just entered. Start by navigating to the Packages section of the page.
Settings > Pricing > Packages
You will see the same type of Category filtering options as on the Products and Services page for filtering your different Package in the list beside it. You can also apply bulk actions to your packages by clicking on the checkbox next to them. In the "Select an Action..." drop-down menu you will have the option to discontinue or delete your selected packages. Discontinuing a Package will allow you to remove the Package from view without disrupting the billing statistics for any of the existing Shoots that may make use of that package. Deleting Packages is generally only reserved for Packages that were mistakenly created or have never been used. You can also add or remove packages from categories in the Select an Action drop-down menu
Clicking on a specific Package's name will give you an overview of the details of that Package.
Choosing to Create a New Package or Edit an existing one will call up the settings screen, where you can enter in the details for that Package. First you can choose a Name and provide a brief Description of the Package and decide if you would like the individual Contents of that Package to be displayed at the time the client books the shoot (these Contents will always be displayed on the final invoice).
Selecting the package's availability options will determine whether or not that package will be an option for you when constructing Public Pricing Pages. These are pages that you can email a client (before or after booking) when they inquire about your pricing. The pages feature your packages and prices, and allow the client to request a quote. By selecting the check boxes, you are designating this package as an option for yourself when you build these pages.
Now, it is time to put those Products and Services into play by using them to build your Package Contents. Simply choose an item in the product drop-down list and click the Add button. This will add the product to the package. You can then define the quantity for that item and arrange the Package Contents into the order you prefer by dragging and dropping them. You can view the unit price, total, cost of goods sold, and profit for each of your products.
The subtotal will display the price compiled from each of the products. However, you can then set the Package Price directly underneath. This is the price that the client will pay when choosing this package. You can configure taxes and shipping charges for your package when you create orders for clients.
You can choose to hide the package's individual prices of products and services on the client's invoices by selecting the Mask Invoices checkbox located at the bottom of the screen under Settings > Invoices & Payments > Invoice Settings. ShootQ will automatically hide the individual product prices on invoices if the Package Price is more than the Subtotal.
Some studios, like those specializing in portraiture, may need to book clients when there has not been a Package selected. In these cases it is best to set up a Retainer Package, since you can always add orders from the Billing and Legal section of the Shoot.
Once you have your packages created you may want to set up Shared Pricing Pages so that you can email your clients your packages and pricing when they inquire about your services.
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