We've covered a whole range of options for managing your business and finances so far in this series. From Quickbooks to Freshbooks, to Dubsado and 17hats.

Specifically for Photographers

Several companies have developed similar systems to Dubsado and 17hats, but they are specifically for photographers. They have pre-set email templates, workflows, contracts that only photographers would use. Some also integrate with online galleries and have client portals.

I won't go into the differences or benefits of each, but here are a few for you to google and read reviews about: IrisWorks, Sprout Studio, ShootQ, Studio Ninja and Tave.

Depending on what you need, you might love studio management software because it feels like it was made just for you as a photographer. Or it might be limiting and not have all of the features you need. In that case, consider one of the business management softwares mentioned previously that aren't geared towards one industry in particular.

Want to stick with Excel?

There's one more option worth mentioning. If you love a good spreadsheet, here’s the best excel spreadsheet I've seen for photographers: The Easy Client & Money Manager. Like the name suggests, you can track your money, clients and workflow easily in one Spreadsheet file.

The bookkeeping portion is easy to use, and there are separate sheets to store client info and track your workflow. Some downsides to this are that you can’t connect to your bank account, pull reports, send/manage invoices, request and receive payment.

When to use a spreadsheet:

If you are part time or you’re just starting out
Your income and expenses are straightforward
Learning a new software stresses you out and you love the familiarity of Excel
You don't mind data entry and you can be disciplined to keep up with it

Next we'll wrap up this series by figuring out how to choose the software that's best for your business. Find more bookkeeping resources for photographers here.