Why I Finally Moved onto Dubsado (from Bonsai) Even Though I Strongly Resisted
EDIT: Despite the below, I hate Dubsado. Use Honeybook.
If you’ve been in my circles, any Facebook groups with me, or been a colleague, at some point you will have heard my rant about Dubsado.
“I know it’s functional,” I would say. “But it’s really, really ugly and confusing.”
I still think that (Sorry, makers of Dubsado, if you’re reading this - it really does need a UI overhaul) and I’m not a fan of how complicated it is to set up and how you need many training videos to even start to understand it. But, now that I’ve finally invested in setup, I can’t argue that Dubsado is literally a powerhouse of workflows and automation.
There are AMPLE blogs that describe how wonderful it is and why it’s the preferred system for designers and service providers. If you’ve hired anyone in the industry in the past few years, chances are you’ve paid invoices through Dubsado, signed contracts, and gone through entire projects and workflows in the platform.
There are so many blogs, in fact, that even the mere mention of Dubsado and Google will serve you probably a hundred reviews about the platform. There are also templates for proposals, CSS courses, workflow courses, seminars, coaching sessions, and more all surrounding the platform. Some people make their LIVING setting up Dubsado for others, or creating templates (I purchased one here and I can’t recommend this brand enough - she even offers installation!)
For all intents and purposes, Dubsado is like a Squarespace for your business systems. The platform is that powerful that I liken it to a full website builder! It offers workflows, email templates, project start and end dates, invoices, proposals, forms,
I’ve avoided the platform for years, attempting a mishmash of Asana, Bonsai, and Google Drive, but the day has come where my manual client process is getting in the way of my growth. I resisted because of the work I knew it’d be to fully move over, but luckily, I have a wonderful virtual assistant who set it all up.
With 100% honesty, I can say this: I would not have been able to move to Dubsado if I did not have my virtual assistant, Keeping the Creativity. She’s a PRO at Dubsado and was able to move my systems over to the platform in a day.
LOVE the power here!
Here are the 3 main reasons I moved to Dubsado:
1: Their workflows are insanely powerful.
My client flow is now automated from beginning to end (except for the design work and calls, of course!)
A workflow is a series of automated (or to-do tasks) steps that help to keep you and your clients on track. My workflows include automated emails with my content, automated invoice payments, automated proposals and contracts, and even a launch workflow!
Now, after my websites launch, Dubsado handles my follow-ups. My clients now receive a two-week and one-month checkup on their websites without me having to remember. AND, these emails are templated, so I can easily change them and save them.
Before Dubsado, I used Asana very poorly, and constantly forgot to support my clients in this way. It’s not that I didn’t care, it’s that it was so many moving pieces and I couldn’t keep up.
Now, with Dubsado, this is automated!
It’s not the prettiest, but this is POWERFUL! All of this happens automatically!
2. I needed a bird’s eye view of all of my projects.
I tried Asana. I tried a planner. I tried even Bonsai (which I still use for invoicing one-off projects.)
None of these things gave me an automated, overall view of the projects I had ongoing and what stages of work they are in. With Dubsado, on the dashboard, I can now see how many projects are in each stage of my workflows. I’m much more organized and when I’m feeling disjointed, I can now simply visit this dashboard to see where I’m at!
This view is amazing (though I wish I could see it all without the arrows, that’s not a feature I love) and very helpful when assessing what you need to accomplish in a given workday.
3. My virtual assistant, Keeping the Creativity, knows it forwards and backwards...and so do many other experts.
Sure, I could have tried to make Plutio or 17Hats work, but they don’t have huge marketplaces of expert knowledge backing them.
It’s a huge value add that my virtual assistant was able to set up my workflows, manage my clients, help me with learning, send invoices, and help me with every step of the flow.
Having help is key to success. Running a thriving small business is not easy work, especially if you’re hoping to scale and grow like I am! There are many moving pieces and you can’t be an expert at everything (I know I’m not!)
I’m a designer. That’s my primary job and goal: to design. When it comes to things like workflows, contracts, setting up organization, etc, that’s best left to others who know best, which is my Virtual Assistant. She is an expert at Dubsado and set everything up in a DAY, and then helped me learn the platform!
Look at all of these options!!!
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Okay Olivia, but why do you hate it?
Because I’m a snob!
No, seriously. I’m a UI (user interface) snob. If something isn’t pretty or feels amazing to use, it might as well be sandpaper. My eyes!
The workflows and menus are very hard to see (they’re all gray) and are unbalanced.
Check out this screenshot of my workflow for my websites:
Those checkboxes aren’t checkable. They really should be bullet points. They’re not aligned to my text and the sizing is all off!
Also, customizing proposals and forms takes custom code and isn’t easy.
I had to purchase a proposal template to be happy with the design...not great. For being a powerful piece of software, it’s a shame they didn’t have some great pre-set templates and that you have to go to such great lengths to customize them.
I purchased the Forms & Flows Sunflower template, which I love, but I’m so grateful that they installed it for me!
I also had to put in custom code on my Squarespace website to make my forms not look like Dubsado’s strange grayed out forms. I really don’t love the input styles and the options for fonts. This means I’m extremely fortunate to have working coding knowledge and tons of friends that could help me!
Overall, I resisted Dubsado for the longest time, and have finally come around. I’m excited to have a lot of my main tasks automated, so I can focus on being the best designer I can be!
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