Create and safely edit independent client projects

Open Projects to manage a wedding, portrait session, mini-session job or vendor engagement. Existing project addresses remain the same, including projects created before these controls were added.

Start with a client

Choose Add a project. Select an active client, or add a new client within the form. You can also open a client and choose New project. One client can have several independent projects with different dates, job types, notes, budgets and statuses.

Give the project a specific name, such as “Cleo · autumn portrait.” Choose a configured project type to reveal its private fields. Enter the project date, location, participant count and optional budget in dollars. The application stores that budget in cents. This is a planning target; saving it does not issue an invoice or collect payment.

The client and project are saved together. If the chosen client is archived, merged or changed since the form opened, reload and review the current client before continuing. A matching email or name never silently selects or merges a client. Creating a project directly does not invent an inquiry, start a workflow, send a message or book a calendar appointment.

Edit without overwriting another person

Choose Edit from the project. Its client relationship remains fixed; explicit CRM merge procedures retain the original records separately. Change its description, date, type, private answers or tags, then save.

Project details and type definitions each have a revision. If another operator changes either while your form is open, your old form is rejected with a reload message. Open the current project and review the other person's change before trying again. An interrupted save can retry the same unchanged form and request without creating a second project.

Tags are reusable words separated by commas. Exact duplicates are stored once. Answers outside the selected type remain private retained data; selecting a new type does not guess that identically named fields mean the same thing. Selected fields are validated, including required conditional questions, dates, zero and yes/no answers. Review the current type before changing its values. Archived types cannot be selected for a new save.

Complete, archive and restore

Use the project status control or edit form to change status. Completed and Archived projects remain accessible with the same addresses and retained documents, invoice records and payment history. Changing status does not cancel appointments, refund money, revoke shared access or send a notification. Those are separate explicit actions.

When billing is active, a free professional workspace includes two active projects. Existing paid Studio and legacy paid entitlements remain uncapped; the professional seat price remains $49 per month. Couple workspaces include one active wedding. Reopening an inactive project checks the same capacity as creating a new one, so simultaneous operators cannot claim the same last place. The development/beta behavior remains uncapped while billing is not configured. Explicit sample weddings do not use a real project place.

Use archive for work with financial or signed history. Protected records cannot be deleted through the project delete control. Removing a permitted draft is irreversible; completing or archiving it is usually the useful way to retain its context.

Mini-session records have a distinct lifecycle

A paid mini-session reservation first creates a Lead-status provisional project and preserves its issued deposit and balance documents. That project reserves an active-project place, but it does not mean the guest is booked or paid. Required paperwork and payment must complete through the mini-session reservation.

A safely expired or cancelled unpaid hold releases its active-project place by archiving an unchanged provisional project. Its invoices and reservation history remain. Unknown or processing payments hold capacity for reconciliation; completed payments are never refunded or erased by this cleanup. Confirmed projects stay available, and an explicitly archived project does not automatically reopen when payment reconciliation runs later.

Permissions and connected interfaces

Only current full workspace operators can create or change private projects. Shared wedding participation or a restricted staff role does not grant this access. Access is checked again after database waits, including successful-request retries.

The versioned project API invokes the same services with scoped credentials, explicit request identities and revisions. Creating a new inline client also requires client-write authority. A project-write credential may select an existing active client but cannot use that operation to create an unauthorized contact.

Standalone project records are available now. Project-native conversations, recipient selection and automated project workflows have their own implementation and acceptance work; saving a portrait project does not claim those capabilities.

Keep your place in a project

Project tools remain available as you move between the overview and dedicated editors. Planning holds the run of show, live coordination, tasks, photo plan, design boards and floor plans. Guests holds invitations, communications, tables, travel, catering, the website and gifts. Team, Money, and Packets keep the vendor book, private finances and print handoffs close by.

Overview tabs preserve their selected section in the URL. A bookmarked task or money view opens that section, and browser Back/Forward restores your previous tab. Project context is scoped to the current business; this navigation never grants a shared participant access to private business records.

Your studio home

Planners see their active projects, fresh inquiries, due tasks and automation reviews. Photographers also see collections in progress, recent galleries and album proofs. These are current workspace records, with short preview lists and separate total counts. Date-only task deadlines and project dates use the business timezone. An empty upcoming list does not hide undated projects, standalone collections or other client work.

Worth a look links to overdue tasks, failed photograph processing and workflow drafts. The separate attention desk evaluates unanswered client messages, stale proposals, missing signatures and invoice follow-ups with their configured rules. A draft, an approval, a published collection and an actual delivery are distinct statuses.