"Business" software for photographers???

Ben:::D

Hey everyone,

I've recently started doing more editorial work as well as some other paid gigs. I'm wondering if there's a good piece of software out there for the business side of professional photography. I run my own design business and use software there that helps me with billing, invoicing, etc. What I really need is something like that, but that also includes all of the usage/copyright language that I need when working with editorial assignments, etc.

Anybody have any tips?? :scratch

Thanks a bunch.

Michiel de Brieder

What's the exact functionality you want?

Ben:::D

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

What's the exact functionality you want?

I'm not totally sure. I mainly need the usage language and a way to invoice. I used Fotobiz when I worked at a studio before, but the interface is poor and I don't really like it. But it had this type of info and functionality.

Michiel de Brieder

Ben:::D wrote:

I'm not totally sure. I mainly need the usage language and a way to invoice. I used Fotobiz when I worked at a studio before, but the interface is poor and I don't really like it. But it had this type of info and functionality.

Okay, I get it. The specs look good, but it's a big program as far as I can tell, you're bound to have a lot of clutter usually or you might be able to create an application of your own

jfriend

Quickbooks?
It sounds like you might want something like QuickBooks from Intuit. It's a small business finance package (not specialized for photographers) that can keep track of all your businesses finances including make invoices, pay bills, keep track of who owes you money, etc... You can read about it here: http://quickbooks.intuit.com. There's a video right on that page that gives you a summary. If all you want is to print invoices and you'll do everything else yourself, then this is probably overkill, but you didn't really say what all your were looking for besides invoices.

--John

Ben:::D wrote:

I'm not totally sure. I mainly need the usage language and a way to invoice. I used Fotobiz when I worked at a studio before, but the interface is poor and I don't really like it. But it had this type of info and functionality.

Ben:::D

jfriend wrote:

It sounds like you might want something like QuickBooks from Intuit. It's a small business finance package (not specialized for photographers) that can keep track of all your businesses finances including make invoices, pay bills, keep track of who owes you money, etc... You can read about it here: http://quickbooks.intuit.com. There's a video right on that page that gives you a summary. If all you want is to print invoices and you'll do everything else yourself, then this is probably overkill, but you didn't really say what all your were looking for besides invoices.

--John

I DID say what I was looking for besides invoices...USAGE LANGUAGE and other features specific to photograpy, specifically editorial photography. Fotobiz did this. I could tell it what type of rights I wanted the client to have and it produced nice legal language related to my needs. I may just have to use fotobiz I guess. It's just such a poor interface that I don't really want to use it.
Yes, I know of Quickbooks. I use it.
Thanks anyway though.

lynnesite

Ben:::D wrote:

I DID say what I was looking for besides invoices...USAGE LANGUAGE and other features specific to photograpy, specifically editorial photography. Fotobiz did this. I could tell it what type of rights I wanted the client to have and it produced nice legal language related to my needs. I may just have to use fotobiz I guess. It's just such a poor interface that I don't really want to use it.
Yes, I know of Quickbooks. I use it.
Thanks anyway though.

I use Hindsight's pricing calculator. It has a "what to invoice" and "what to quote" verbiage for each usage that I cut and paste into my Filemaker setup for each client. And it was cheap, $99. They have a business mgmt companion pkg as well, built on the Panorama database engine, IIRC.