Studio

Studio is your website and the business behind it, in one place. A client finds you, books, signs, pays, gets their gallery and orders prints, and you never copy anything from one tool into another.

This page is a map. Each heading links to the full guide for that part.

Your day, at a glance

Overview is the first screen you see when you sign in. It shows booking requests, contracts waiting to be signed, invoices waiting to be paid, what you have invoiced and been paid this year, and what is coming up. The bell at the top tells you what happened while you were away (see notifications). The Pipeline screen shows every client by stage, from first enquiry to delivered, so nobody goes quiet without you noticing (see clients).

Getting around

Down the left is a dark strip of icons, one for each part of Studio:

• Home: Overview, Enquiries, Bookings and Mini sessions.
• Clients: Pipeline, Clients, Suppliers, Marketing and Referrals.
• Business: Quotes, Invoices, Orders, Gift vouchers, Expenses, Bank transfers, Business register and Reports, then two that fold out: Paperwork (Contracts, Templates and Questionnaires) and Automation (Automations and **Text reminders**).
• Galleries: Galleries, Albums and Archive, and Selling, which folds out to Products, Codes and Selling after delivery.
• Posing: Library, Saved shoots, Sun times and Camera.
• Booking: Sessions, Hours, Your other calendars, and **Your booking page**, which opens your booking page in a new tab.
• Website: Pages, Portfolio, Journal, Testimonials, Media, Bring a site across, SEO, Mailing list, **Site settings and Your address**.
• Settings: Settings, System and Bring work across.

Press one and its pages show in the panel beside it. On a computer, press it again to go to its first page. In these guides, Business → Invoices means: press Business, then Invoices.

The fold-outs (Paperwork, Automation and Selling) are closed on the first page you see after signing in. After that, the one holding the page you are on opens by itself, and any you open or close stay that way until you next sign in.

You only see what you can use. A team member sees only what their role allows (see your team). The free plan has Galleries, Clients and Posing. The Sites plan has Home and Website.

Top right is the bell, then your name and your plan. Press your name (or your initial or logo) to open your menu. It shows your name and plan, then Your account, Team, Billing, Help & support, Dark mode and Sign out. You only see the ones you can use: a team member may not see Team or Billing. On the Sites plan, the menu has Add your studio too.

When you press the bell, it turns into a close button (an X). Press it to go straight back to the page you were on, at the same place on it.

On a phone, a bar across the top has the Meridian logo on the left, and the bell and the menu button on the right. The menu button opens the menu over the page. At the top is the same block as your name's menu (your name and plan, Your account, Team, Billing, Help & support), then the sections. Tap a section to see its pages, and Back to return to the list. Sign out is at the very bottom. Close the menu with the X. Along the bottom of the screen, Home, Galleries, Clients and Business open their pages, and More opens the whole menu.

Buttons and links in Studio take your website's accent colour, if you have chosen one: Website → Site settings, the Appearance tab, Accent. Otherwise they are Meridian's blue.

Light or dark

Studio follows your computer or phone: light when it is set to light, dark when it is set to dark, and it changes with it (many phones turn dark in the evening). To keep it one way, open your menu and press Appearance until it says Light or Dark; press it again for Match device. The choice is kept on that browser and device. Your clients' galleries and pages follow their own device in the same way.

Getting booked

• Bookings — a booking page with your hours, deposits and travel, that clients can use at two in the morning.
• Mini sessions — a day of short sittings that books itself, with a waiting list when it sells out.
• Enquiries — every contact form in one inbox, with how fast you answered.
• Quotes — a price as a link, accepted online, with the booking and deposit made for you.
• Calendar and other calendars — your bookings in Apple, Google or Outlook, and your personal busy times kept out of the booking page.
• Texts — a text reminder the evening before, sent through your own Twilio account (a text-message service you sign up to separately).

Paperwork

• Contracts — sent, signed in a browser, and provable afterwards.
• Templates — shoot plans, client guides ("What to wear"), emails and questionnaires, written once and used for every client, with a ready-made set from us to start from.
• Questionnaires — the questions you always ask, answered once, in writing.
• Run sheet — the day's timeline, shared with the couple, with sunset worked out for you.
• Shoot-day tools — a must-have shot list and model or property releases.
• Posing — poses and prompts for natural photos, shot lists you can print, a mood board for your client to heart, and sunrise, sunset and golden hour for any day and place. Posing has its own place in the menu, and the photographer phone app keeps it for places with no signal.

Delivering the work

• Galleries — upload, arrange and send, with favourites, downloads, private sections, sharing with suppliers and films.
• Proofing — ask a client to choose a set number of frames, and get the file names when they finish.
• Albums — lay out an album and keep every round of changes.
• Slideshow — play a gallery full screen, at a pace you choose. Slideshows are silent; for photographs set to music, add a short film instead.
• Turnaround — what you promised against what you take.

Getting paid

• Invoices — card payments into your own bank, instalments, and reminders that send themselves.
• Bank transfers — your details on the invoice, and matching a transfer when it lands.
• Print store and digital sales — sell prints and files from a gallery, with no commission.
• Gift vouchers, coupons and referrals.
• Money settings — Stripe, tax, and your expenses, so the figures for your tax return are already done. Sending your numbers to your accountant gives you files ready for Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB or a spreadsheet.

Your website

Your site, journal and portfolio are part of the same panel. See your website, the journal and SEO.

Running the business

• Clients and suppliers — everybody you work with.
• Workflows — when this happens, wait this long, then do that.
• Insights — what is coming in, what is late, and what the year looks like.
• Team — invite a second shooter or an assistant and choose what they can see.
• Business register — serial numbers, insurance dates and a mileage log.

Moving in

Coming from another platform? Importing clients and galleries brings your work across without starting again.

Your plan

Studio includes 200 GB of storage, no limit on galleries, and everything on this page, for $39 AUD a month with the website included. See plans for what each plan includes and how to move between them.