Welcome to Dubsado! This guide will walk you through setting up your account so you can start managing your client work in one organized place. By the end of this process, you'll have a fully configured system with all your business information, branding, and essential templates in place and ready to use with your first (or next) client.
1. Map out your ideal client process
Before you start clicking around in Dubsado, take a step back and think through your client journey from start to finish. This planning step is crucial—it ensures you're building a system that actually matches how you work, not the other way around.
Ask yourself:
How do new inquiries arrive?
What does the client journey look like from inquiry to completion? (Initial contact → consultation → proposal → contract → payment → project work → final deliverables?)
Which steps repeat for every single client?
What deliverables do you need to send? (Contracts, questionnaires, invoices, welcome packets?)
Taking 15-20 minutes to map this out will make the rest of your setup much faster and more intentional. Once you've visualized your ideal process, Dubsado handles the heavy lifting of making it happen automatically.
2. Complete your essential setup
Now it's time to truly make Dubsado yours. These foundational settings ensure everything you send looks professional and works smoothly.
Head to Settings (click your profile icon in the bottom-left corner) and work through these essentials:
Business Info – Add your company details and set your country and currency. This ensures your invoices, contracts, and forms display the right information and format.
Styling – Upload your logo and choose your brand colors. Every proposal, invoice, and form your clients see can reflect your branding.
Calendar & Time Zone – Sync your calendar to Dubsado so clients can book appointments without the back-and-forth, and everything appears in the correct time zone.
Payments – Connect your payment processor so you can get paid directly through invoices. No more chasing down payments or manually tracking who's paid.
Emails – Link the email address you use for client communication. This allows you to send and receive emails through Dubsado while keeping everything organized in one place.
Next, go to Projects and customize your dashboard to match how you think about your work. Click Manage (top right) to:
Create project statuses that reflect your actual client journey milestones for leads and for jobs, from initial inquiry to final payment and beyond. These statuses help you see at a glance where every client stands in your process.
Create tags to label inquiry types, client types, or any other characteristics that matter to you. Tags become powerful search filters later when you need to quickly find specific groups of clients.
You can also toggle which project details appear on your dashboard, adjust your view preferences, and generally make your workspace feel intuitive. The goal is to create a command center where you can manage all your clients without feeling overwhelmed.
3. Build your templates and test
This is where your planning from Step 1 pays off. Using your mapped-out client journey, you'll create reusable templates for everything you send repeatedly. Templates are the backbone of automation in Dubsado--build them once, use them forever.
Start building:
Email templates for messages you send to every client (inquiry responses, onboarding emails, project updates, payment reminders). Find these in the Messages section within Custom Templates.
Form templates for anything clients need to sign or fill out—contracts, questionnaires, intake forms. These can auto-populate with client information and even trigger next steps automatically. Find these in the Forms section under Templates.
Packages for your fixed-rate services. Packages make it easy to create proposals and invoices with consistent pricing and clear deliverables. Find Packages in the Invoices section under Templates.
Scheduler templates for bookable appointments like consultations, check-ins, or delivery calls. Clients can book directly into your calendar based on your availability. Find these in the Events section within Scheduler Templates.
Flow templates to automate your entire process. Flows are where Dubsado really shines—they can automatically send forms, schedule emails, create invoices, and move projects through your pipeline without you lifting a finger. Find these in the Flows section within Flow Templates.
Once you've built your templates, it's time to test.
Set yourself up as a test client and walk through your entire process from the client's perspective. Book an appointment, fill out your own questionnaire, sign your contract. Make sure everything displays correctly, emails send when they should, and the experience feels smooth.
This testing phase helps you catch any quirks before real clients see them, so you can launch with confidence.
In case you'd like to jump into a specific task, check out the below links: