Where Do I Even Start With Dubsado? A Setup Order Checklist

You opened your Dubsado account and are ready to get organized.

Then you saw forms, workflows, schedulers, canned emails, project statuses, payment settings, smart fields, and about 47 other things you could set up.

And now you have no idea where to start.

This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make with Dubsado. They jump straight into building a workflow before setting up the pieces that workflow needs.

Then it doesn’t work correctly, they get frustrated, and Dubsado starts to feel much more complicated than it needs to be.

Yes, there are a lot of pieces you can set up in Dubsado. But the order matters.

Before you automate anything, you need to build the foundation of your account. Here is the Dubsado setup order I recommend.

Step 1: Complete Your Basic Account Settings

Start with the basics before creating forms or workflows.

Add Your Business Information

Check that your business name, contact information, time zone, currency, and international settings are correct.

These details may appear throughout your forms, invoices, emails, and client portals. Setting them correctly now will save you from fixing them in several places later.

Upload Your Branding

Add your logo, brand colors, and fonts so the client-facing pieces of your account feel connected to the rest of your business.

Your Dubsado forms do not need to be overly designed, but they should still feel like they belong to your brand.

Connect Your Payment Processor

Connect your preferred payment processor so clients can pay their invoices online.

Do this before building packages, payment plans, or proposals. You want to know exactly how clients will pay before you design the steps leading up to payment.

Create Your Email Signature

Add your email signature before writing canned emails. This keeps your signature consistent and saves you from manually adding it to every message.

Connect Your Calendar

Connect the external calendar you use for your business.

This allows Dubsado to account for existing appointments and helps you avoid double-booking when you begin using the scheduler.

Step 2: Think Through Your Client Journey

Do not open the workflow builder yet.

First, write down what currently happens from the moment someone inquires until they officially become a client.

Ask yourself:

• How does someone inquire?
• What information do I need from them?
• Do I review each inquiry before responding?
• Do I invite qualified leads to schedule a call?
• What happens if someone is not a good fit?
• When do I send the proposal, contract, and invoice?
• What needs to happen after they book?

Your workflow should support your actual process. It cannot do that if you have not decided what the process is.

Start with the strategy. Then build the technology around it.

Step 3: Create Your Project Sources and Statuses

Project sources tell you where your inquiries came from.

Examples might include:

• Google
• Instagram
• Referral
• Podcast
• Wedding directory
• Networking event

Project statuses tell you where each lead or client currently sits in your process.

Examples might include:

• New inquiry
• Waiting for response
• Call scheduled
• Proposal sent
• Contract signed
• Booked
• Completed

Keep these simple and useful. You should be able to open Dubsado and quickly understand what is happening with every project.

Step 4: Write Your Canned Emails

Canned emails are reusable email templates for messages you send regularly.

Start with the emails you need during your inquiry process, such as:

• Inquiry confirmation
• Personal inquiry response
• Consultation invitation
• Consultation confirmation
• Follow-up email
• Proposal delivery email
• Not-a-good-fit response

Use smart fields anywhere information changes from one client to the next. Smart fields can automatically add details like the client’s first name, project date, scheduler link, form link, or invoice information.

Always test your smart fields before sending an email to a real lead.

The goal is not to make your communication sound automated. The goal is to stop rewriting the same basic information every time someone contacts you.

Step 5: Build Your Lead Capture Form

Your lead capture form collects the information you need when someone inquires.

Only ask questions that help you qualify the lead or decide what should happen next.

That might include:

• Name and contact information
• Type of service needed
• Project or event date
• Budget
• Location
• How they heard about you
• A few details about what they need

Do not make the form longer just because Dubsado gives you space. Every question should have a purpose.

Your lead capture form is also what creates the new project inside Dubsado, so make sure the correct project status and source options are connected.

Step 6: Embed Your Inquiry Form on Your Website

Once your lead capture form is ready, embed it directly on the contact page of your website.

Avoid making potential clients click through several pages or leave your website to inquire.

Every extra step creates another opportunity for someone to stop.

A simple form placed directly on your contact page gives leads a clear path from learning about your service to contacting you.

Test the embedded form on both desktop and mobile. Submit a practice inquiry and confirm that the new project appears correctly inside Dubsado.

Step 7: Connect Your Video Conferencing Platform

If you hold consultation calls through Zoom or Google Meet, connect your preferred platform before building your scheduler.

Then Dubsado can create the meeting information when someone books an appointment.

Remember to include the appointment conferencing link smart field in your confirmation and reminder emails. Connecting the platform will not help if your client never receives the link.

Step 8: Create Your Scheduler Template

Now you can build the scheduler you will send to qualified leads.

Set up:

• Appointment name
• Appointment duration
• Availability
• Buffer time
• Minimum booking notice
• Maximum number of appointments per day
• Confirmation email
• Reminder emails
• Cancellation and rescheduling settings

One important note: Appointment confirmations and reminders belong inside the scheduler settings. They do not need to be recreated as separate workflow emails.

Book a practice appointment to make sure the correct time zone, confirmation email, reminders, and meeting link appear.

Step 9: Prepare the Forms Your Workflow Will Send

Before building your inquiry workflow, make sure every form it needs already exists.

Depending on your booking process, this may include:

• Questionnaire
• Proposal
• Package
• Contract
• Invoice
• Payment plan

Dubsado workflows connect and send the pieces you have already created. Building these templates first makes the workflow much easier to assemble.

Step 10: Build Your Inquiry Workflow

Now you are ready to automate.

Your inquiry workflow might:

• Send an immediate confirmation
• Create a task for you to review the inquiry
• Send a consultation scheduler
• Follow up if the lead does not schedule
• Send a proposal, contract, and invoice
• Update the project status after the client books

You do not need one giant workflow that manages the entire client relationship.

Shorter workflows are usually easier to build, test, and update. Your inquiry workflow can end once someone books, then start a separate onboarding workflow.

Step 11: Test Everything Before Going Live

Never assume a workflow works because every action looks correct on the screen.

Create a test client using an email address you can access. Then walk through the entire process as if you were a real lead.

Check:

• Did the lead capture form create the project correctly?
• Did each email arrive at the right time?
• Did the smart fields fill in correctly?
• Did the scheduler show the right availability?
• Did the meeting link appear?
• Did the proposal, contract, and invoice open correctly?
• Did the project status update?

Test every path a client could take, including what happens when they do not complete the next step.

A workflow is not finished when you build it. It is finished when you know it works.

You Do Not Need to Set Up All of Dubsado at Once

Start with the process closest to money.

For most service providers, that is the inquiry and booking process.

Once that part works, you can move on to onboarding, project management, offboarding, and the rest of your client experience.

If you want the complete setup order beside you as you work, download my free Dubsado Setup Order Checklist.

Ready to Build Your Inquiry Workflow?

The checklist tells you what to set up and when.

My Inquiry Workflow Guide shows you how to connect those pieces into a process that responds to leads, follows up, and moves the right people toward booking.

You will get the exact steps you need to build an inquiry workflow without staring at a blank screen or guessing what should happen next.