I think I tried every system to streamline my accounting process. Excel, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, 17Hats … you name it. My biggest qualm? Pristine, organized accounting workflow for this visual learner, PLUS the chance to continue my clients’ brand experience through the booking process. Brains and beauty for my invoices and contracts.
Any entrepreneur ladies out there feel me?
Sugar, honey, honey.
And then HoneyBook came in with their pretty design. Wedding-industry understanding. Low price. Auto-emails. Contract templates. Colorful graphs that show me my numbers. They actually called me to say hey after I signed up for a two-week trial — who does that?
Despite the Kool-Aid drinking now, I was a tough Girl Scout cookie to crack at first. I’m no Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner — was this for me, as client services and a calligrapher?
With a marketing and branding background, having my time-tested verbiage and imagery included in my clients’ billing process was paramount. Sure, I like that I can automate my branding in HoneyBook, but even if you’re on the Excel-lane of bookkeeping, I want to share 3 tips to keep your branding tight even in accounting.
Here are 3 ways I automate branding in bookkeeping:
1. Brand Imagery
Once upon a time two months ago, I would make Word Docs, convert to PDF, and “save as” every single time I had: a new inquiry, a new client, or a new contract.
Whatever your bookeeping software, I’d recommend creating default documents with all that imagery — SEE YA massive amounts of time I spent saving and filing!
Under General > Company Info, you can dump in all your brand imagery. I’d recommend setting up your invoices with a long version of your logo at the top, and having an alternate square logo available for other pages of contracts or accounting.
2. Template Copywriting
One way to maintain you stay tight on brand messaging? Templates on templates. Jenna Kutcher rocked my world on this at Illume: I’d drafted copy templates for Delta Air Lines for years, but my small business? No …
Now, I’m a template machine.
Here’s a sampling of the kinds of templates I have ready to go in HoneyBook. Here are some ideas of templates you should have on hand:
- Intro/booking
- Contracts
- Templates for ALL steps of your process
- Questionnaires you send out
- Template for clients asking for price adjustment
- How-to’s you answer all the time
- Six-month and 1-year follow-up
3. Branded Pricing Guide
Last suggestion for keeping a brand experience during your booking is having a pricing guide PDF. It’s like being a kid and thumbing through a travel brochure when you’re little: I get to go here?! Capitalize on that feeling, and build something similar for your clients.
Dear Sweetheart Events’ Kat Schmoyer has beautiful pricing guide available in her shop for wedding planners, but you could whip up your own in Canva or InDesign!
No matter what booking software, these are easy to link to or attach — and paint an oh-so-pretty picture of what your services and brand are like for potential clients.
Reading Time: 3 Minutes
I think I tried every system to streamline my accounting process. Excel, Quickbooks, Freshbooks, 17Hats … you name it. My biggest qualm? Pristine, organized accounting workflow for this visual learner, PLUS the chance to continue my clients’ brand experience through the booking process. Brains and beauty for my invoices and contracts.
Hi Ashlyn,
This is such a useful information, although I see you posted in 2016. Honeybook interface has change so much it would be awesome if you refresh the info and get it up-to date. Thanks for sharing so much good info.
Hey Claudia! Thanks for reaching out. Ashlyn’s currently on Maternity Leave, so we’re replying to our internet friends while she’s out. We love your idea to do a refresher on our Honeybook branding post, and we’ll add it to our ideas pipeline. In the meantime, feel free to search “Honeybook” in the blog and see all of Ashlyn’s posts about one of our favorite tools in the biz! xo. Team AW