User guide › Creative studios (design, web, social media, branding)

Creative studios (design, web, social media, branding)

Graphic designers, web designers, social media marketers, branding studios, photographers and writers run on projects, not stock. Choose a creative kind when you set up (graphic design, web design and development, social media marketing, branding and identity, photography and video, content writing, printing and signage design, or other creative work) and the studio gets its own screens. Stock, tills, purchases, the online shop and branches are not shown. A studio account stays a studio: a shop or a restaurant needs its own account.

The plan: one plan with everything, KES 500 a month, for you and 3 people. Each extra person is KES 100 a month. Every new studio gets 14 days free first, with no card, and can try a team of up to 10 people during that time. Pay by M-Pesa in Subscription & Billing, or a year for the price of 10 months.
Extra people: when you pay, choose how many extra people to pay for (the app suggests the people already on your team). A team of you and 5 people is KES 500 + 2 × KES 100 = KES 700 a month. To add someone in the middle of a paid period, open Subscription & Billing, Your team, Add people: you pay only for the days left (2 people with 15 days left costs KES 100), and later payments carry them on. If you pay for fewer people than you have, the people added last are paused until you add seats; nothing they recorded is deleted.
If the plan ends: every project, invoice and client stays and you can still see them; new work waits until the plan is paid.
Services & prices: your usual services and prices are ready from the start, for the kind you chose (for example Logo design, Website design, Social media management). Change them or add your own.
New project (Projects or the Dashboard): the client (an existing one, or a new name and phone), the project name, the brief, the deadline, who works on it, the revision rounds included, the deposit to start, and the price lines. Each line starts from one of your services; change its wording and price for this client.
Stages: Brief, In progress, With client (for review), Changes, Delivered. The big button on a project moves it on: Start work, Send for review, Mark delivered. Moving from review to changes counts a revision round. The board shows every open project by stage; the Dashboard shows what is due this week and what is late.
Updates: post what you did, with a link to the files (Google Drive, Figma, Dropbox, the test website). Switch off Client can see it to keep a note inside the studio. Internal notes, hours and costs never show to the client.
The client link: Send the client link opens WhatsApp with a private link to the project. There the client sees the stage, the deadline, the brief, the work you shared, the quote, and the invoice with how to pay. They can accept the quote, approve the work or ask for changes, or send a message; you are told at once and it shows on the project and the Dashboard. From the project's menu you can switch the link off, or make a new link so the old one stops working.
Quote, invoice and payments: Send quote sends the link with the quote. Client accepted records a yes given by phone. Make invoice makes the invoice from the price lines, with the deposit if one was paid; the rest is what the client owes. Record payment adds later payments; the client's balance, reminders and statements are in Clients & payments, and every invoice is in Invoices & quotes.
Time and costs: log hours (everyone, for their own work) and costs (printing, stock photos, fonts, ads paid for the client) on each project. The owner sees what the project earned after costs.
Retainers: monthly work such as social media management or website care. Choose the client, the amount and the day of the month (1 to 28): the invoice is made by itself on that day every month, and can be texted to the client. Invoice now makes the next one today; Pause stops it.
Team: a Designer sees only the projects given to them, without prices or money, and can post updates, move the stage and log hours. A Studio Manager runs every project, the invoices, payments and retainers. Expenses, the accounting books and Hours & pay work as for a shop.

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