Whether you use Light Blue’s built-in contact forms, Gravity Forms, or another third-party form system, you can streamline your lead capture process and ensure no potential client gets overlooked.

This saves you time, keeps your workflow organised, and helps you respond to enquiries quickly—giving you the best chance of turning leads into bookings.

Using Light Blue’s built-in contact forms

You can quickly build your own forms within Light Blue, and then embed them within your own website.

All the details of the new enquiry will be added automatically to Light Blue. You can even send automatic replies, redirect them to a ‘Thank You’ webpage and add Workflows to the Enquiry to make things even more streamlined for you.

There’s also no limit to how many Forms you can create; particularly useful if you need to know different details depending on how they’ve got in touch or what type of package or photography they’re interested in.

Start using Light Blue’s forms as contact forms.

Using Gravity Forms

Many photography businesses use the popular Gravity Forms plugin on WordPress to gather information about their clients.

By using our Light Blue Gravity Forms plugin, this information can seamlessly be sent straight to your Light Blue account.

Follow the Gravity Forms setup guide here.

Linking other third-party form systems

If you use a different form system on your website (e.g. a Squarespace form) then it’s possible to send new contact form submissions through to Light Blue via Zapier. This option requires the third party form system to have their own Zapier integration, which most of the good ones do.

Get started with linking your form system with Light Blue via Zapier.

Get free 1:1 help

Need help with integrating your contact forms with Light Blue? Book a free 1:1 training session, or send us an email.

Setting up the integration

Setting up our Bump2Baby integration is a three step process:

1. Decide if you want newborn leads to create a contact in Light Blue, or a contact linked to a shoot.
2. Set up custom fields in Light Blue.
3. Set up the ClickBook dashboard to send newborn leads to Light Blue.

Decide if newborn leads should create a shoot

Some studios prefer to import newborn leads as contacts and only create a shoot when the client makes a booking. Others prefer to import newborn leads as contacts linked to a shoot, and use that shoot to manage the enquiry process. Either option is possible with our Bump2Baby integration.

You can learn more about using shoot enquiry workflows here. Need help deciding which approach is best for you? Get in touch and we’d be happy to help!

Set up custom fields in Light Blue

One of the most important bits of information in a newborn lead is the baby’s expected date of birth. We store this in a custom date field that you must set up before ClickBook can start sending those leads to your Light Blue account.

To do that:

1. Open the Preferences / Settings screen in the Light Blue desktop app.
2. Go to the “Custom Fields” section.
   • If you want ClickBook to create a shoot and a contact for you, you need to set up a custom date field in the Shoots section. In the “Shoot Amount & Date Fields” tab, set one of your available custom date fields to “Due Date”, or whatever wording you want to use.
   • If you want ClickBook to just create a contact for you, you need to set up a custom date field in the Contacts section. In the “Contact Amount & Date Fields” tab, set one of your available custom date fields to “Due Date”, or whatever wording you want to use.
   • If you already have a custom date field set up to track babies’ dates of birth, you can use that existing custom field: you don’t need to create a new one.

Set up ClickBook to send newborn leads to Light Blue

1. Log into ClickBook and click on “Edit Studio Settings”.
2. Go to the “RealTime notifications” section.
3. Change the “Notification channel” setting to “Light Blue”.
4. If you’ve already entered your Light Blue API key (e.g. because you’re already using other ClickBook services with Light Blue) then it will already appear here. Otherwise, copy your Light Blue API key from the “Integrations” section of the Preferences / Settings screen in the Light Blue desktop app and paste it into the “API key” field in the “RealTime notifications” settings.
5. In the “Due date custom field name” field, enter the name of the custom date field (e.g. “Due Date”) where you want to store the baby’s due date in Light Blue.
6. If you want Light Blue to create a shoot as well as a contact, change the “Create shoot?” setting to “Yes”. If you do this, you should also specify the type of shoot you want to create when you import newborn leads into Light Blue in the “Shoot type” setting: this should match the name of the relevant shoot type in Light Blue.
7. You can also tell Light Blue to automatically apply a tag to newborn leads received from ClickBook. This can be helpful for studios that want to trigger automations for newborn leads.
8. Click the “Save” button in the top right corner to apply the new settings.

Importing Bump2Baby newborn leads into Light Blue

When Light Blue receives a newborn lead from ClickBook, it will appear in the Inbox. To import a lead into Light Blue:

1. Select the lead in the Inbox.
2. Click the “Import…” button.
3. In the window that appears, you can review the lead and either:
   • Import it as a new contact, or contact linked to a shoot.
   • Use the lead to update an existing contact, e.g. if Light Blue has detected that it might match an existing client.

If you’ve received more than one lead, you can import them as a batch. To do that, select the leads you want to import (e.g. by Shift-clicking to select a range of items, or Command-clicking on a Mac or Control-clicking on Windows to select individual items) and then click the “Import as New Records…” button.

Setting up the integration

Setting up our Pics4Schools integration is a two step process:

1. Set up custom fields in Light Blue.
2. Enter your Light Blue API key into Pics4Schools.

Set up custom fields in Light Blue

Orders placed by clients in Pics4Schools are automatically imported into the Sales section of Light Blue. When we receive an order from Pics4Schools, Light Blue will automatically link it to a Shoot. To do that, you need to set up a couple of custom fields to store information from Pics4Schools:

1. Open the Preferences / Settings screen in the Light Blue desktop app.
2. Go to the “Custom Fields” section.
3. In the “Contact Text Fields” tab, set one of your available custom text fields to “Pics4Schools ID”.
4. In the “Shoot Text Fields” tab, set one of your available custom text fields to “Pics4Schools ID”.

Enter your Light Blue API key into Pics4Schools

To tell Pics4Schools to send orders to your Light Blue account:

1. Copy your Light Blue API key from the “Integration” section of the Preferences / Settings screen in the Light Blue desktop app.

2. Log into your Pics4Schools account.
3. Click on your account menu and select “Settings”.

4. Scroll down to “Other Settings”. Paste your Light Blue API key into the field and and click “Save Changes”.

Setting up Shoots to receive Pics4Schools orders

When Pics4Schools sends an order to Light Blue, we use the Pics4Schools booking ID to automatically link the sale that we create to the correct shoot. Light Blue uses the “Pics4Schools ID” custom field that you’ve set up to do that.

When you create a new booking in Pics4Schools, you should copy the booking ID and paste it into the “Pics4Schools ID” custom field for the corresponding shoot record in Light Blue.

New orders

When a client places an order in your Pics4Schools account, it will be sent to your Light Blue account and automatically imported as a sale. If you’ve entered the Pics4Schools booking ID into a shoot record in Light Blue, the sale will automatically be linked to that shoot for you.

The sale will show the full details of the client’s order, so that you and your team can easily look up all of the orders placed in Pics4Schools in Light Blue. Because Pics4Schools orders are automatically linked to the right shoot record in Light Blue, you’ll also be able to keep track of and report on how your schools sessions are performing.

If the client has told Pics4Schools that they’re willing to receive marketing from you, Light Blue will also create a contact record for them and link it to the sale.

Cancelled orders

When a client’s Pics4Schools order is cancelled for any reason, that cancellation will be sent to your Light Blue account. If the order exists in your Light Blue account, we’ll automatically create a credit note for that cancellation and link it to the right shoot record. This ensures that your sales stats for your schools sessions accurately reflect any cancelled orders.

Getting started with Light Blue

Light Blue helps you to stay organised, by bringing all of the information that you need to run your business together into one convenient place.

Want to find out more about how we can help you to run a busy and successful photography business? Please get in touch, or book a free demo!

How can I tell if I need to do this?

1. Log into your Light Blue account and go to the “API & Integrations” section.
2. If you don’t already have a Light Blue API key, click the button to create one.
3. Under the “Stripe” heading, if you’re using the old method of authorising your Stripe account, you’ll see a message that begins “You are using Stripe API keys…”. Read on to find out how to reauthorise your Stripe account.
4. If instead you see a message that begins “Your account is authorised with the Stripe account ‘example@example.com’…”, you have already reauthorised your Stripe account and do not need to do anything.

How do I reauthorise my Stripe account?

If you need to reauthorise Light Blue’s access to your Stripe account, follow the instructions on the “API & Integrations” page to do so.

Stripe will ask you to log into your Stripe account and authorise Light Blue’s access to it. You do not need to create a new Stripe account, you can continue to use the same Stripe account that you are already using with Light Blue.

If you need any help with the reauthorisation process, please contact us.

Selecting payment methods to use with Stripe and Light Blue

Stripe allows you to select which payment methods you want to use with Light Blue. After you’ve reauthorised Light Blue’s access to your Stripe account, you can click here to log into your Stripe account’s payment method settings. Remember to select “Light Blue” from the “Select Platform” popup menu before selecting the payment methods you want to use.

Light Blue is designed to be the central hub of your business, and sometimes you might need to share some of the information within Light Blue with other apps, services, or people.

Whilst you can use Zapier to automatically connect Light Blue to a whole host of other apps and services you may want a simpler solution for one-off or infrequent requirements.

There are five different sets of information you can export from Light Blue; Records, Email Addresses, Financial Information, Invoices For Quickbooks and Invoices For Xero. They are accessed through the “Export…” drop-down menu under “Records” in the main menu bar, though depending on which Records you’ve selected some options may not be available.

Exporting Records

Records are exported from Light Blue as CSV files, as in a spreadsheet, that can be shared and used by others.

1. First of all, find the set of Records you want to export. This can be done by selecting an existing Quick Query, or using the Query tool to find another set of Records. 👉 If you’re unsure about using the Query/Quick Queries feature do read this article. 
2. Once you have the set of Records, simply click on “Records” in the main menu bar, followed by “Export” and “Records…” from the drop-down menus.

3. In the pop-up window presented you can now choose which pieces of information will be included in the CSV file; each of these becomes a column in the exported file. Depending on the type of Record you’re working with a default set of Selected Fields will already be showings. Add any extra information fields you want by selecting them in the left hand pane and clicking the “Move >” button.

4. And remove any by clicking the “Clear” button.

5. If needed drag fields to reorder.
6. When you’re finished click “Done” and choose where to save the CSV file. ⭐️ Top tip: If it’s a set of data that you think you may use again make sure you click “Save Field Set” so you can easily retrieve it; simply click “Load Field Set” at that point.

Other export options

👉 This help article goes through exporting Email Addresses.
👉 This one covers exporting Financial Information.
👉 And exporting invoices for Quickbooks is covered here.
👉 And for Xero in this one.

Whilst Light Blue has it’s inbuilt Task Manager you may want to also have your Tasks showing in your Apple reminders; you might not have the Light Blue iOS app installed on your phone but still want to see what Tasks are due and upcoming when you’re out and about or indeed you may like to be able to view your business “to-do” list alongside your personal one.

Whatever the reason, the good news is that Light Blue makes this very straightforward to set up. One important point to note; integrating Light Blue with your Apple reminders is a one-way synchronisation, ie any Task changes made in Light Blue will appear in your Apple reminders but any changes you make there will not appear back in Light Blue.

1. Create a new list in Apple reminders; call it a name that makes sense to you as this is where your Light Blue Tasks will be published to, perhaps something like ‘Light Blue Task Reminders’.

2. In the “Integrations” section of Light Blue’s Preferences, click on the “macOS” tab and select the list you’ve created from the “Reminders List” drop-down menu.

3. As any reminders already in the selected list will be deleted, a warning pop-up will then appear asking you to confirm the publication; click the “Change” button.

4. All your Light Blue Tasks will now show in your Apple reminders including the Contact or Shoot Record it is linked to.

Whilst Light Blue has its own powerful online Scheduling Calendars you may be using Calendly to take client bookings. However, if you’re to take advantage of all the other great features in Light Blue such as Contracts, Workflows and Forms these bookings do need to be added to Light Blue.

But the great news is that there is a way for these bookings to automatically integrate with Light Blue saving you time and effort and removing the risk of any errors if you were to manually add them yourself; this is done by linking your Light Blue and Calendly account using Zapier,

This help article will guide you through the steps to get this set up correctly.

Initial setup

Zapier

👉 If you’re not familiar with Zapier here’s an introduction to how it works.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.
NB. The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button.
👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.

Calendly

Rather than manually setting your availability in Calendly it’s best to automate this by using one of the third-party calendars that Calendly can connect to. This will keep your availability up to date and ensure that any personal appointments and Light Blue events which haven’t been booked through Calendly are taken into account when deciding if you’re available (or not!).
If you haven’t already done so you need to publish your Light Blue events to either a Google, Apple or Outlook Calendar.
👉 To publish Light Blue events to a Google calendar follow the steps in this article.
👉 To an Apple calendar read this one.
👉 And this one covers Outlook.
Once you’ve done that, if you didn’t do so when you created your Calendly account, you need to connect your calendar to your Calendly account.
👉 This Calendly help article covers the steps to do that.
And do make sure that your Calendly Event Types match your Light Blue Shoot and Appointment Types so the bookings can be accurately added to Light Blue.
NB. Calendly will only allow integration with Zapier if you’re on their Professional Plan or above.

Creating the new booking Zap in Zapier

Once you’ve completed the initial setup steps the Zap needs to be created. There are two elements to the zap:

1. Creating the trigger; a booking is made in Calendly.
2. Creating the action; adding the booking to Light Blue.

Both elements need to be created for the Zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into the two elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

1. Creating the trigger: a booking is made in Calendly

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type “Calendly” in the search bar.
3. Choose “Calendly”.

4. We then choose the event that triggers the action, so from the drop-down menu choose “Invitee Created”.
5. Click “Continue”.

6. You’ll then be asked to sign in to your Calendly account. NB. If you’ve previously created an Calendly Zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
7. Click “Continue”.
8. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a new booking. 
9. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action: adding the booking to Light Blue

1. Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
2. A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
3. Choose the Event “Send to the Light Blue API” from the drop-down menu.
4. Click “Continue”.

5. You’ll then be asked to sign in to Light Blue. NB. If you’ve previously created a Zap using Light Blue, you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected rather than having to sign in again.
6. A pop-up window will appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
7. Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

8. Then we need to set up the details of the action; complete the Contact First Name, Last Name, and E-mail fields. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.

9. Scroll down and in Additional Parameters field add in the Light Blue API parameters, “ShootStartTimestamp” and “ShootType” which will then ensure the booking date, time and Shoot Type are also added to Light Blue.

10. 👉 If you have other data fields you’d like to add here’s the full list of supported API parameters.
11. Click “Continue”.
12. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
13. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the Zap a name and publish it; Zapier will now automatically send any new bookings to Light Blue.
14. They’ll appear in your Light Blue Inbox; simply click on “Import”, followed by “Create New Contact & Shoot”.

Whilst Light Blue has its own powerful online Scheduling Calendars you may be using Acuity to take client bookings. However, if you’re to take advantage of all the other great features in Light Blue such as Contracts, Workflows and Forms these bookings do need to be added to Light Blue.

But the great news is that there is a way for these bookings to automatically integrate with Light Blue saving you time and effort and removing the risk of any errors if you were to manually add them yourself; this is done by linking your Light Blue and Acuity account using Zapier,

This help article will guide you through the steps to get this set up correctly.

Initial setup

Zapier

👉 If you’re not familiar with Zapier here’s an introduction to how it works.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.
NB. The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button.
👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.

Acuity

Rather than manually setting your availability in Acuity it’s best to automate this by using one of the third-party calendars that Acuity can integrate with. This will keep your availability up to date and ensure that any personal appointments and Light Blue events which haven’t been booked through Acuity are taken into account when deciding if you’re available (or not!).
If you haven’t already done so you need to publish your Light Blue events to either a Google, Apple or Outlook Calendar.
👉 To publish Light Blue events to a Google calendar follow the steps in this article.
👉 To an Apple calendar read this one.
👉 And this one covers Outlook.
Once you’ve done that you need to integrate your calendar with your Acuity account.
👉 This Acuity help article covers the steps to do that.
And do make sure that your Acuity Appointment Types match your Light Blue Shoot and Appointment Types so the bookings can be accurately added to Light Blue.

Creating the new booking Zap in Zapier

Once you’ve completed the initial setup steps the Zap needs to be created. There are two elements to the zap:

1. Creating the trigger; a booking is made in Acuity.
2. Creating the action; adding the booking to Light Blue.

Both elements need to be created for the Zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into the two elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

1. Creating the trigger: a booking is made in Acuity

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type “Acuity” in the search bar.
3. Choose “Acuity Scheduling”.

4. We then choose the event that triggers the action, so from the drop-down menu choose “New Appointment”.
5. Click “Continue”.

6. You’ll then be asked to sign in to your Acuity account. NB. If you’ve previously created an Acuity Zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
7. Then we need to set up the details of the trigger; if you want all Calendars and all Appointment Types to be added to Light Blue leave these fields blank. Or if it’s only specific Calendars and Appointment Types select those from the drop-down menus.
8. Click “Continue”.

9. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a new booking. 
10. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action: adding the booking to Light Blue

1. Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
2. A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
3. Choose the Event “Send to the Light Blue API” from the drop-down menu.
4. Click “Continue”.

5. You’ll then be asked to sign in to Light Blue. NB. If you’ve previously created a Zap using Light Blue, you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected rather than having to sign in again.
6. A pop-up window will appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
7. Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

8. Then we need to set up the details of the action; complete the Contact First Name, Last Name, E-mail and Phone fields. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.

9. Scroll down and in Additional Parameters field add in the Light Blue API parameters, “ShootStartTimestamp” and “ShootType” which will then ensure the booking date, time and Shoot Type are also added to Light Blue.

10. 👉 If you have other data fields you’d like to add here’s the full list of supported API parameters.
11. Click “Continue”.
12. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
13. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the Zap a name and publish it; Zapier will now automatically send any new bookings to Light Blue.
14. They’ll appear in your Light Blue Inbox; simply click on “Import”, followed by “Create New Contact & Shoot”.

Light Blue’s in-built calendar is great for viewing all your Light Blue events, however you may want to also have these events showing in your Outlook Calendar so you can see everything you’re up to in the one place.

The great news is that rather than having to manually duplicate all these events Light Blue creates a calendar feed URL for your chosen Light Blue events which, once you’ve subscribed to, will automatically appear in your Outlook Calendar.

You can also have as many calendar feed URLs as you need! Handy if you want to split the Light Blue events out in particular ways to make them easier to view in Outlook Calendar or, for example, if you want members of your team to only view the Light Blue events applicable to them.

An important point to note is that the synchronisation is one way, i.e. Light Blue remains the source for your information and any changes you make in your other calendar app won’t be pulled back into Light Blue.

Creating and copying a Calendar Feed

1. In Light Blue Preferences, click on “Integrations”.
2. In the Calendar Feeds tab, click on the “Copy Feed URL” button.

3. From the Detail Level dropdown menu choose the amount of information you want to include in the calendar feed URL.

4. Check which Events, Resources and Shoot Types you want to include and whether you’d like an alarm to be added and click “Done”.

5. Light Blue will then generate the unique calendar feed URL and copy it to your computer’s clipboard.

Subscribing to a Calendar Feed in Outlook

• Open your Outlook Calendar via Outlook.com and in the Navigation Pane chose “Add Calendar” followed by the “Subscribe from web” option.
• Paste in the Light Blue calendar feed URL and click “Import”.
• The chosen settings for your Light Blue events will now automatically appear in your Outlook Calendar and be updated any time you make a change in the Light Blue desktop or iOS app. NB. It’s important to note that Outlook can take up to 24 hours to update calendar feeds and remember that the synchronisation is one way, i.e. Light Blue remains the source for your information and any changes you make in your Google Calendar won’t be pulled back into Light Blue.

👉 This Microsoft help article explains how to import or subscribe to a calendar.

For many Light Blue customers, Facebook plays a key role in their marketing with one of the most popular tools being Lead Ads to generate new leads for their business. They can be used in a variety of ways; for example, perhaps running a competition, offering a great promotion or maybe even providing an ebook/guide. If someone is interested in your ad, they simply tap on it and a pop-up form will appear already populated with their Facebook contact information.

But how do you get all these leads into Light Blue?

There are two couple of ways of doing this:

• For a ‘one-off’ marketing activity or campaign, importing a CSV file of the leads generated is the most straightforward.
• However, if you’re frequently using Facebook Lead Ads, spending a bit of time setting up Zapier to automatically add them to Light Blue is a worthwhile investment.

We’ll cover both in this help article.

Importing a CSV file

For a ‘one-off’ marketing activity or campaign the most straightforward way to add the Facebook Lead Ads data to Light Blue is to import a CSV file.

1. Download your lead data from Ads Manager. 👉 Here’s the link to Meta’s help article.
2. Click on “Records” in Light Blue’s main menu bar.
3. Choose “Import” followed by “Contact From CSV…” from the drop-down menus.

4. Add an identifiable name to the “Source:” box.
5. Map the CSV fields to the correct Light Blue fields.
6. Check the “Don’t Import First Record” box and click “Import.”
7. Individual Contact Records will now be created for each lead in the CSV file.

Using Zapier to connect Facebook Lead Ads to Light Blue

If you’re frequently using Facebook Lead Ads and generating a high volume of leads it makes sense to automate the process of adding this data to Light Blue.

We can do this by creating a zap in Zapier linking Facebook Lead Ads to Light Blue.

👉 If you’re not familiar with Zapier, here’s an introduction to how it works.

Currently, the Light Blue integration for Zapier is a ‘private’ action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button.

👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one. NB. Zapier’s Facebook Lead Ads integration is a ‘Premium’ app, which means you’ll need to be on one of their paid plans.

Once you’re logged into Zapier there are two elements to the zap.

1. Creating the trigger; a new lead is created in Facebook Lead Ads.
2. Creating the action; adding the data to Light Blue.

Both elements need to be created for the zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into the two elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

1. Creating the trigger; a new lead is created in Facebook Lead Ads

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type “Facebook” in the search bar.
3. Choose “Facebook Lead Ads”.

4. We then choose the event that triggers the action so from the drop-down menu choose “New Lead”.
5. Click “Continue”.

6. You’ll then be asked to sign in to your Facebook Lead Ads account. NB. If you’ve previously created a Facebook Lead Ads zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
7. Then we need to set up the details of the trigger; in the Page field choose your Facebook page which is running the ad.
8. And then in the Form field choose which form the ad is using.
9. Click “Continue”.

10. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a new lead. NB. If you’ve not yet published your ad you can use the Facebook Lead Ads Testing Tool to create a test lead.
11. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action; adding the data to Light Blue

1. The next step is to connect Zapier to Light Blue; start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
2. A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
3. Choose the Event “Send to the Light Blue API” from the drop-down menu.
4. Click “Continue”.

5. You’ll then be asked to sign in to Light Blue. NB. If you’ve previously created a zap using Light Blue, you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected rather than having to sign in again.
6. A pop-up window will appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
7. Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

8. Then we need to set up the details of the action; complete the “Contact First Name”, “Contact Last Name” and “Contact Email” fields. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.
9. Scroll down and if your form has a message field add that to the “Message” field.
10. Add ‘ContactSource’ to the “Additional Parameter” field and give it a name so that you know they’re a Facebook lead.
11. Add any other Parameters that your form uses which you want to add to Light Blue. 👉 Here’s the full list of supported API parameters.
12. Click “Continue”.

13. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
14. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it.
15. Zapier will now automatically send new Facebook leads to Light Blue which will appear in your Light Blue Inbox; simply click on “Import”, followed by “Create New Contact”.

16. A Contact Record will then be automatically created for your Facebook Lead.

If you use a third-party mailing list app in your business, it’s key that a contact’s opt-in status match in it and Light Blue. And whilst it’s possible to export CSV files from Light Blue and upload them to your third-party app or even make the individual changes yourself this is very much a manual process. To ensure complete synchronisation, creating a series of zaps within Zapier will automatically update a contact’s opt-in status across Light Blue and your mailing list app.

A lot of the time emails that you send. such as dealing with new enquiries, responding to questions from your clients, sending automated appointment reminders, and so on, are easily managed within Light Blue; those ‘everyday’ emails are exactly what it’s been designed to do.

However, for newsletters or other communications being sent to a larger group of contacts where the content is something that they may wish to opt out of receiving, you should be using a third-party mailing list app such as Mailchimp or Active Campaign. As well as giving them the ability to opt-out it also helps ensure your emails are received and protects your email account’s reputation.

This article will detail three different zaps you can use to automatically synchronise Light Blue and your mailing list app:

• Adding a contact to your mailing list app when you’ve checked the contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue or your contact has checked the “Mailing List Opt-In” box within a Light Blue form.
• Removing a contact from your mailing list app when they’ve said they no longer wish to hear from you and you’ve unchecked the “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue.
• Updating a contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue if they unsubscribe from your mailing list app.

You can of course perhaps only choose to set up the first zap, however creating all three will ensure Light Blue and your mailing list app are fully synchronised.

👉 Here’s an introduction to how Zapier works.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.

NB. The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button.

👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.

Adding a Light Blue contact to your mailing list

This zap will add a contact to your mailing list app when you’ve checked the contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue or your contact has checked the “Mailing List Opt-In” box within a Light Blue form.

1. Creating the trigger

1. In Zapier, click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.

2. Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
3. A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.

4. We then need to choose the event that triggers the action; from the drop-down menu choose “Updated Contact Mailing List Opt-In”.
5. Click “Continue”.

6. You’ll then be asked to sign into Light Blue; click the “Sign in” button. NB. If you’ve previously created a Light Blue zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
7. A pop-up window will then appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
8. Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.
9. To set up the details of the trigger, choose “Opted-In Contacts” from the drop-down menu.
10. Click “Continue”.

11. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a new contact with the “Mailing List Opt-In” box checked.

12. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action

1. The next step is to connect Zapier to your mailing list app.
2. Start to type the name of it in the search bar and choose it from the options presented; in this article we’re using Mailchimp.

3. Choose the Event “Add/Update Subscriber” from the drop-down menu.
4. Click “Continue”.

5. You’ll then be asked to sign in to your mailing list app; in this case Mailchimp.
6. Click the “Sign in” button and follow the prompts to connect your account.
7. Once Zapier and your mailing list app account are connected, we need to set up the details of the action; start by choosing the mailing list you want to update in the Audience field.
8. Complete the Subscriber Email field. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.
9. Scroll down and complete the First Name and Last Name fields.
10. Click “Continue”.

11. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
12. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it; Zapier will now automatically add new Light Blue contacts with a checked “Mailing List Opt-In” box to your mailing list app.

Removing a Light Blue contact from your mailing list

This zap will remove a contact from your mailing list app when they’ve said they no longer wish to hear from you and you’ve unchecked the “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue.

1. Creating the trigger

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type “light blue” in the search bar and choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
3. From the drop-down menu choose the event that triggers the action; “Updated Contact Mailing List Opt-In”.
4. From the drop-down menu, choose the Light Blue account you linked to Zapier in the first zap.
5. Then to set up the details of the trigger, choose “Opted-Out Contacts” from the drop-down menu.
6. Click “Continue”.

7. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a contact with the “Mailing List Opt-In” box unchecked.
8. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action

1. The next step is to connect Zapier to your mailing list app; start to type the name of it in the search bar and choose it from the options presented; in this article we’re using Mailchimp.
2. Choose the Event “Unsubscribe Email” from the drop-down menu.
3. Click “Continue”.

4. From the drop-down menu, choose the mailing list app account you linked to Zapier in the first zap.
5. To set up the details of the action, start by choosing the mailing list you want to update in the Audience field; this should be the same as the one used in the first zap.
6. Complete the Subscriber Email field. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.
7. Set the Delete Member field to “False” if you want to unsubscribe rather than fully delete the contact from your mailing list app. If however, you want to delete them completely set it to “True”.
8. Click “Continue”.

9. When prompted, click the “Test Action button”; Zapier will then test the action.
10. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it; Zapier will now automatically unsubscribe/delete Light Blue contacts with an unchecked “Mailing List Opt-In” box from your mailing list app.

Updating Light Blue if a contact unsubcribes from your mailing list

This zap will update a contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue if they unsubscribe from your mailing list app.

1. Creating the trigger

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type the name of your mailing list app in the search bar and choose it from the options presented; in this article we’re using Mailchimp.
3. From the drop-down menu choose the event that triggers the action; “New Unsubscriber”.

4. From the drop-down menu, choose the mailing list account you linked to Zapier in the previous zaps.
5. To set up the details of the trigger, choose the mailing list being used in the Audience field; this should be the same as the one used in the previous zaps.
6. Click “Continue”.
7. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a recent contact on your mailing list who has unsubscribed.
8. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action

1. The next step is to connect Zapier to Light Blue; start to type “light blue” in the search bar and choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
2. Choose the Event “Set Contact Mailing List Opt-In” from the drop-down menu.
3. Click “Continue”.

4. From the drop-down menu, choose the account you linked to Zapier in the previous zaps.
5. To set up the details of the action, firstly complete the Email field. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.
6. Then set the Opt-In Status field to “False” to uncheck the contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue.
7. Click “Continue”.

8. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
9. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it; Zapier will now automatically uncheck the contact’s “Mailing List Opt-In” box in Light Blue when they unsubscribe from your mailing list.

👉 If you’re interested in other ways you can use Zapier, this article explains how to add a specific set of Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app.

You may well have a newsletter that goes to all your subscribed contacts, however at times you might want to target a specific set of contacts with a particular marketing campaign; perhaps one to your VIP high-spend clients, maybe engaging with competition entries or potentially sending an invitation to past clients that you’ve not heard from in some time.

Now whilst Light Blue is designed to send ‘everyday’ emails to your clients and prospects (and is very good at doing so!) it is not intended to be used for marketing campaigns like these.

The great news however is that it’s completely possible to update your third-party mailing list app, such as Mailchimp or Active Campaign, with your specific set of contacts!

There are a couple of ways of going about this:

• For a ‘one-off’ marketing activity or campaign, exporting a CSV file of the specific set of contacts from Light Blue and importing it into your mail list app is the most straightforward.
• However, if you’re planning to continually add contacts to this specific set, spending a bit of time setting up Zapier to automatically add them to your mailing list app is a worthwhile investment.

We’ll cover both in this article.

Exporting/Importing a CSV file

This is a great option for a ‘one-off’ marketing activity or campaign you’re doing. It’s also ideal if you’ve already identified and perhaps tagged the specific set of contacts that you’re wanting to email. And the extra benefit is that it only needs your time to set it up!

1. First of all, you need to create the list of Contact Records that you want to include in the CSV file. This can be done by using the Query/Quick Queries feature in Light Blue. 👉 If you’re unsure about using the Query/Quick Queries feature do read this article. Any criteria can be used; perhaps identifying those contacts that have spent over a certain value in the last 6 months or you may have already assigned a Tag to the ones you’re wanting to email which you can then use in the Query. 👉 If you’re not familiar with how Tags work, this article explains how to use them.
2. Once you have the list, simply click on “Records” in the menu bar, then choose “Export” followed by “Email Addresses…” from the drop-down menus; in the example below we’ve used a Quick Query of Contact Records tagged with “Repeat client”.

3. This CSV file can now be uploaded to your mailing list app. Remember to add a tag to the contacts so the specific set can easily be identified and make sure the CSV columns match the correct contact information field in your mailing list app.
4. In the Mailchimp example below, the tag “Repeat client” has been added to the contacts. Then the first and last name and email address CSV columns are correctly matched to the mailing list fields.

Using Zapier to connect Light Blue to your mailing list app

If you’re continually adding contacts to a specific set of contacts, it’s worthwhile having a link between Light Blue and your mailing list app so that it’s automatically updated.

We can do this by creating a zap in Zapier to add to/update your mailing list app whenever the appropriate Tag is added to a Contact Record in Light Blue.

👉 If you’re not familiar with Zapier, here’s an introduction to how it works.

1. If you’ve not already got a Tag for your specific set of contacts add one in Tags in the Business Setup section in Preferences.
2. Click on “Add Record”.
3. Name your Tag and change the colour if needed.

NB. If you’ve already got Contact Records in Light Blue with the appropriate Tag applied to them and they are not tagged accordingly in your mailing list app, you will need to follow the steps in the ‘Exporting/Importing a CSV file’ section above first; zaps will only work for ongoing additions to the specific set of contacts.

Currently, the Light Blue integration for Zapier is a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button.

👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.

Once you’re logged into Zapier there are two elements to the zap.

1. Creating the trigger; a specific Tag is added to a Contact Record in Light Blue.
2. Creating the action; adding/updating the contact in your mailing list app.

Both elements need to be created for the zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into the two elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

1. Creating the trigger; the specific set of contacts Tag is added to a Light Blue Contact Record

1. Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
2. Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
3. A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’ with the most recent version number.
4. We’re now going to choose the event that triggers the action so from the drop-down menu choose “New Tag Added to Contact”.
5. Click “Continue”.

6. You’ll then be asked to sign into Light Blue; click the “Sign in” button. NB. If you’ve previously created a Light Blue zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
7. A pop-up window will then appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
8. Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

9. Then we need to set up the details of the trigger; from the Tag field choose the specific set of contacts Tag from your Light Blue account, in the example below it’s “Repeat client”.
10. In the Mailing List Opt-In field choose which Contacts you want to add; this is the “Mailing List Opt-In” checkbox in Light Blue.
11. Click “Continue”.

12. Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find a new contact with the “Mailing List Opt-In” box checked.
13. Once It’s been successful, click “Continue”.

2. Creating the action; adding/amending the contact in your mailing list app

1. The next step is to connect Zapier to your mailing list app; start to type the name of it in the search bar and choose it from the options presented, in this article we’re using Mailchimp.
2. Choose the Event “Add Subscriber to Tag” from the drop-down menu.
3. Click “Continue”.

4. You’ll then be asked to sign in to your mailing list app. NB. If you’ve previously created a zap using this, you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected rather than having to sign in again.
5. Click the “Sign in” button and follow the prompts to connect your account.
6. Then we need to set up the details of the action; start by choosing the mailing list you want to update in the Audience field.
7. Choose the tag from your mailing list app in the Tag field; in this case “Repeat client”. NB. This will only show tags that are already in your mailing list app. If the one you’re working on isn’t showing make sure that’s set up in your mailing list app before completing this step.
8. Complete the Email Address field. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger contact.
9. Click “Continue”.

10. When prompted, click the “Test Action button; Zapier will then test the action.
11. Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it.
12. Zapier will now automatically add/update a contact when you add the “Repeat client” Tag to a Contact Record in Light Blue; simply click on “Select tags …”, check the “Repeat client” box and click “Done”.

👉 If you’re interested in other ways you can use Zapier, this article explains how you can use the “Mailing List Opt-In” box to add Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app.

How to link your Pic-Time account

1. Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app.
2. Go to the “Integrations” section.
3. Click on the “API & Zapier” tab. If you haven’t already created a Light Blue API key, click the “Generate API Key” button to do so.
4. Click on the “Online Galleries” tab, then click the “Link Pic-Time Account” button.
5. You’ll be asked to log into your Light Blue account on our website, then shown a link to authorise giving Light Blue access to your Pic-Time account. Click the link.
6. You’ll be asked to log into your Pic-Time account, then shown a page that asks if you want to grant Light Blue access to your Pic-Time account. Click the “Approve” button.
7. You’ll be redirected to your Light Blue account and it will show that you’ve successfully linked your Pic-Time account.

Importing orders from online galleries

Once you’ve linked Pic-Time to your Light Blue account, new orders will be sent to the Inbox in Light Blue. To import an order into Light Blue:

1. Select the order in the Inbox.
2. Click the “Import Order” button.

All of the details provided by the online gallery will be imported into a new sale:

• Light Blue will attempt to match the client’s details with the contacts in your database. If it finds a match, it will link the sale to that contact. There’s an option in the import window to automatically create a new contact record if Light Blue doesn’t find a match.
• If Light Blue has been able to link the sale to a contact, it check if that contact has any confirmed shoots and offer to link the sale to that client’s most recent shoot.

Keeping on top of your finances is a critical part of running a successful (and profitable!) business and by using Light Blue to record all your business transactions you can make this job much simpler for yourself.

You’ll be able to take advantage of Light Blue’s powerful Reports allowing you to analyse your business performance in greater detail; perhaps identifying which area of your business is performing better/worse than others or maybe the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns.

Plus using Light Blue for your invoicing means you’ll be able to use the online features such as Forms, Contracts and Payments too!

However, you may also need to share your sales information with a third-party app such as Quickbooks.

There are two ways that you can share this information:

1. Export a CSV file of your invoices from Light Blue and upload it to Quickbooks; this is very straightforward to do in just a few simple steps. It’s also the free option!
2. Use Zapier to automatically link Light Blue to Quickbooks; as soon as you create an invoice in Light Blue it will automatically add it to Quickbooks. Zapier’s QuickBooks integration is a “Premium” app, which means you’ll need to be on one of Zapier’s paid plans.

👉 If you’re needing broader help on how to use Light Blue to manage your finances this article will help.

1. Exporting a CSV file from Light Blue and uploading to Quickbooks

Creating the list of Invoice Records to be exported

• The easiest way to do this is to use one of the Quick Queries already available in the main Sales section of Light Blue; generally speaking, the time periods already created will give you what you’re looking for, e.g. Last Month, Last Financial Quarter, Last Financial Year etc.

• If however there is a different set of Invoices you want to export, use the Query feature to specify the criteria and generate the list.

Exporting the information

• Once you have the list of Invoice Records, click on “Records” in the main menu bar.
• Choose “Export” followed by “Invoices for Quickbooks” from the drop-down menu.
• You’ll then be given the option of where to save the CSV file and rename it if required.

Importing into Quickbooks

The CSV file exported from Light Blue has been created in a format that doesn’t need any extra work being done to it before being imported to Quickbooks. 👉 This Quickbooks help article (from Step 2) takes you through the import steps.

2. Using Zapier to link Light Blue to Quickbooks

Another way to add your Invoices and Payments to Quickbooks is to link it with Light Blue using Zapier; essentially a service that automates this connection process. NB. You need to be using QuickBooks Online to be able to connect the two; Zapier is unable to access the desktop version. Zapier’s QuickBooks integration is a “Premium” app, which means you’ll need to be on one of Zapier’s paid plans.

👉 Here’s an introduction to how Zapier works.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.

The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier); simply click the “Accept Invite & Build a Zap” button. 👉 Invite to use Light Blue on Zapier.

Once you’re logged into Zapier there are three elements to the zap.

• Creating the trigger; a new Invoice Record is created in Light Blue.
• Creating the 1st action; finding or creating the customer in QuickBooks.
• Creating the 2nd action; creating the invoice in Quickbooks.

All the elements need to be created for the zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into those three elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

Creating the trigger; a new Invoice Record is created in Light Blue

• Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
• Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar and choose the latest version of the Light Blue options given. NB. The screenshot below shows “Light Blue (2.0.1)” but this may well have been updated.
• Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
• A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’.
• We’re now going to choose the event that triggers the action so from the drop-down menu choose “New Invoice”.
• Click “Continue”.

• You’ll then be asked to sign into Light Blue; click the “Sign in” button. NB. If you’ve previously created a Light Blue zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
• A pop-up window will then appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
• Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

• Now we need to set-up the details of the trigger.
• You’ll probably want to leave the “Shoot Type” field blank. If you set a Shoot Type here, only invoices linked to shoots of that specific type will trigger the Zap.
• Click “Continue”.

• Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find an invoice.
• Once it’s been successful, click “Continue”.

Creating the 1st action; finding or creating the customer in QuickBooks

• The next step is to connect QuickBooks to your Zapier account.
• Search for and choose “QuickBooks Online”.

• Choose the Event “Find Customer” from the drop-down menu; this will find the customer in Quickbooks or if not, create a new one.
• Click “Continue”.
• Then follow the prompts to connect your Quickbooks account.
• Now we need to set-up the 1st action details.
• Start by choosing “Name” in the Search Field and “Billing Contact Name” as the Search Value. NB. The greyed-out name is from the test trigger invoice.
• Check the “Create Quickbooks Online Customer if it doesn’t exist yet” box.
• Choose “1. Billing Contact Name” in the Full Name field.
• Scroll to the bottom and click “Continue”.

• Click the “Test action” button; Zapier will then test the action and either find or create the customer in Quickbooks.

Creating the 2nd action; creating the invoice in Quickbooks

• Once the test for the 1st action has been successful, we need to add another action to complete the Zap.
• Click the small “+” button underneath the word “Close”.
• Search for and choose “QuickBooks Online” again

• Choose the Event “Create Invoice” from the drop-down menu.
• Click “Continue”.
• As you’ve already connected your QuickBooks account simply pick it from the drop-down menu.
• Click “Continue”.
• In the “Customer” field, click in the “Custom” tab and choose the “ID” variable from the previous step in the Zap. This will automatically link the QuickBooks contact that was found/created in the previous step of your Zap.

• Scroll down the screen and complete the “Invoice Date”, “Due Date” and “Invoice Number “fields from the “New Invoice in Light Blue” drop-down menu. NB. As before the greyed-out elements are from the test trigger invoice.

• Then complete the Line item field “Product/Service” choosing the Services option from the drop-down menu.
• Complete the rest of the Line Item fields; Description, Amount and Tax, again using the “New Invoice in Light Blue” drop-down menu.

• Scroll to the bottom and click “Continue”.
• When prompted. click the “Test action” button; Zapier will then test the action to create the invoice in Quickbooks.
• Once the test for the 2nd action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it.
• Zapier will now automatically add any Invoice Record created in Light Blue to Quickbooks.

Keeping on top of your finances is a critical part of running a successful (and profitable!) business and by using Light Blue to record all your business transactions you can make this job much simpler for yourself.

You’ll be able to take advantage of Light Blue’s powerful Reports allowing you to analyse your business performance in greater detail; perhaps identifying which area of your business is performing better/worse than others or maybe the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns.

Plus using Light Blue for your invoicing means you’ll be able to use the online features such as Forms, Contracts and Payments too!

However, you may also need to share your sales information with a third-party app such as Xero.

There are two ways that you can share this information:

1. Export a CSV file of your invoices from Light Blue and upload it to Xero; this is very straightforward to do in just a few simple steps. It’s also the free option!
2. Use Zapier to automatically link Light Blue to Xero; as soon as you create an invoice in Light Blue it will automatically add it to Xero. Zapier’s Xero integration is a “Premium” app, which means you’ll need to be on one of Zapier’s paid plans.

👉 If you’re needing broader help on how to use Light Blue to manage your finances this article will help.

1. Exporting a CSV file from Light Blue and uploading to Xero

Creating the list of Invoice Records to be exported

• The easiest way to do this is to use one of the Quick Queries already available in the main Sales section of Light Blue; generally speaking, the time periods already created will give you what you’re looking for, e.g. Last Month, Last Financial Quarter, Last Financial Year etc.

• If however there is a different set of Invoices you want to export, use the Query feature to specify the criteria and generate the list.

Exporting the information

• Once you have the list of Invoice Records, click on “Records” in the main menu bar.
• Choose “Export” followed by “Invoices for Xero” from the drop-down menu.
• You’ll then be given the option of where to save the CSV file and rename it if required.

Importing into Xero

The CSV file exported from Light Blue has been created in a format that doesn’t need any extra work being done to it before being imported to Xero. 👉 This Xero help article (from Step 3) takes you through the import steps.

2. Using Zapier to link Light Blue to Xero

Another way to add your Invoices and Payments to Xero is to link it with Light Blue using Zapier; essentially a service that automates this connection process. NB. Zapier’s Xero integration is a “Premium” app, which means you’ll need to be on one of Zapier’s paid plans.

👉 Here’s an introduction to how Zapier works.
👉 And if you’ve not already got a Zapier account, here’s their website where you can create one.

The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to use the link in the “Setup” section of our “Starting to use Zapier with Light Blue” article to add it to your Zapier account.

Once you’re logged into Zapier there are two elements to the zap.

• Creating the trigger; a new Invoice Record is created in Light Blue.
• Creating the action; creating the invoice in Xero.

Both elements need to be created for the zap to work, however, we’ve broken down the steps into the two elements to make the process a bit easier to follow.

Creating the trigger; a new Invoice Record is created in Light Blue

• Click the “+ Create” button and choose “⚡️ New Zap” from the drop-down menu.
• Start to type “Light Blue” in the search bar.
• A few Light Blue options will be given so make sure you choose the one labelled ‘Latest’.
• We’re now going to choose the event that triggers the action so from the drop-down menu choose “New Invoice”.
• Click “Continue”.

• You’ll then be asked to sign into Light Blue; click the “Sign in” button. NB. If you’ve previously created a Light Blue zap, rather than signing in again you’ll be able to simply select the account that’s already connected.
• A pop-up window will then appear asking for your API key; this can be found in the “Light Blue API and integrations” area of your Light Blue account.
• Once you’ve clicked the “Yes, Continue” button your Light Blue and Zapier accounts will be connected.

• Now we need to set-up the details of the trigger.
• You’ll probably want to leave the “Shoot Type” field blank. If you set a Shoot Type here, only invoices linked to shoots of that specific type will trigger the Zap.
• Click “Continue”.

• Click the “Test trigger” button; Zapier will then test the trigger and check it can find an invoice.
• Once it’s been successful, click “Continue”.

Creating the action; creating the invoice in Xero

• The next step is to connect Zapier to your Xero account.
• Search for and choose “Xero”.
• Choose the Event “Create Sales Invoice” from the drop-down menu.
• Click “Continue”.

• You’ll then be asked to sign in to Xero.
• Click the “Sign in” button and follow the prompts to connect your Xero account.
• Now we need to set-up the action details.
• Start by choosing your business name from the dropdown menu in the Organization field.
• Complete the Contact Name, Date, Due Date and Number fields. NB. The greyed-out details are from the test trigger invoice.

• Complete the Line items fields; Description, Quantity, Unit Price.
• In the Account field choose Sales from the drop-down menu and then in the Tax Rate field, 20% (VAT on income) or No Vat depending on your VAT status. NB. Different tax rates and settings will apply in different countries. If in doubt we recommend consulting Xero’s support team or your accountant for advice on which settings to use.
• Click “Continue”.

• When prompted, click the “Test action” button; Zapier will then test the action to create the invoice in Xero.
• Once the test for the action has been successful we can give the zap a name and publish it.
• Zapier will now automatically add any Invoice Record created in Light Blue to Xero.

The most streamlined way to book and manage client meetings is to use Light Blue’s online Scheduling Calendars, but sometimes manually booking one might make more sense; perhaps you’re already on a Zoom meeting with your client and it’s simpler to arrange the next one there and then rather than your client having to book it in separately.

Now of course, you can schedule a meeting In Zoom, add the meeting to your own calendar and then send a separate email to your client with the Zoom URL to confirm the details. But that’s quite a lot more complicated than it needs to be when you can take advantage of having everything integrated within Light Blue!

Initial setup

If you’ve not already done so there are a few things to make sure you’ve got set up and know how to use in Light Blue; simply click the links below to find out more if you’re not sure.

👉 You have an Appointment Type for your Zoom meeting set up.

👉 You know how to add an Appointment to your diary.

👉 You’ve linked your Light Blue account to your Zoom account.

👉 You know how to create a Zoom meeting for an Appointment.

A basic way to send the confirmation

Once you’ve got everything set up, you could take the super simple approach and just copy and paste the URL from the Appointment and email it separately to your client along with the date and time to confirm everything. However, taking advantage of Light Blue’s Templates and Workflows will make things much easier and quicker for you.

Using a Light Blue Email/Text Template to send the confirmation

Creating the confirmation Email/Text Template

1. Add an Email/Text Template in the Templates section of Preferences calling it ‘Zoom Meeting Confirmation’.
2. Make sure you include the mail merge tags “%EventStart%”; the combined start date and time of the event and “%EventURL%”; the URL added to the clickable link text, ‘Click here to join the online meeting’. NB. If you want to use the Email Template shown below, we’ve created a couple of handy templates for you to download; they’re in the last section of this article.

3. If you want to change the clickable link text, go to the “Template Translations” section of Preferences.
4. Enter the search term “online”.
5. Click on the item line and change to your preferred wording.

Sending the confirmation

1. Go to the Activity panel of the Record linked to the Appointment.
2. Right-click on the Appointment.
3. Choose whether it’s an Email or Text Template you want to use.

4. Choose the correct Template from the list, and click “Use”.
5. The Email/Text pane will appear and then click “Send”.

Use Light Blue Workflows to fully automate the confirmation process

If you want to make the process even more streamlined you can use Light Blue’s Appointment Confirmation Workflow to automatically send your confirmation email. And if you have an Appointment Date Workflow also set up you can send automatic reminders too!

Create the reminder Email/Text Template

1. In the “Email Templates” section of Preferences, duplicate the Zoom Call Confirmation Email/Text Template you created earlier.
2. Amend accordingly and change the name to ‘Zoom Meeting Reminder’. NB. If you want to use the Email Template shown below, it’s also in the template downloads available in the last section of this article.

Create the Appointment Confirmation Workflow

1. In the “Workflows” section of Preferences, click “Add Record”.
2. Name the new Workflow ‘Zoom Meeting Confirmation’ and make sure the “Type” is “Appointment Confirmation Workflow”.
3. Add one step; an Email/Text using the first Template you created, ‘Zoom Meeting Confirmation’ with the “Offset” set to 0 days so that it’s sent straight away. NB. This Workflow is also included in the template downloads available.

Create the Appointment Date Workflow

1. Add another Workflow in Preferences naming it ‘Zoom Meeting Reminder’.
2. Make sure the “Type” is “Appointment Date Workflow”.
3. Add one step; an Email/Text using the second Template you created, ‘Zoom Meeting Reminder’ with the “Offset” set to 1 day before.
4. You could also add a second step to remind you to carry out any follow-up tasks after the meeting. NB. This Workflow is also included in the template downloads available.

Create the Default Workflows for your Zoom meeting Appointment Type

1. In the “Appointment Types” section of Preferences, choose the Zoom meeting Appointment Type.
2. Click on “Select Workflow” and choose the correct Workflow for both the Appointment Date and Appointment Confirmation sections.

Applying the Workflows to your Appointment

1. When you create a new Appointment for your Zoom meetings you’ll be asked if you want to add the default Confirmation and Appointment date Workflows.
2. Click “Add Workflows” and the Email/Text Templates you’ve created will be sent automatically!

Download and install the Light Blue Templates

If you want to use the Email Templates and Workflows included in this article:

1. 🗄 Download the Confirmation ones here.
2. 🗄 And the Reminder ones here.
3. Install them by clicking on “Records” in the main menu bar.
4. Then “Import” and “Light Blue Template(s)” from the drop-down menus.

Exporting orders from GotPhoto

To export a set of GotPhoto orders:

1. Go into the “Orders” section of your GotPhoto account.
2. Click on the “Invoices” tab.
3. Click the “Export” button.
4. Choose the dates you want to export orders for, e.g. the previous week’s orders.
5. Select the format you want to export your orders as:
   • If you can, use the CSV export format.
   • However, as of September 2022, GotPhoto’s CSV exports do not handle double-quote characters in product names correctly and this causes problems when importing them into Light Blue. If you are affected by this issue, you should:
     1. Export your GotPhoto orders in XSLX format.
     2. Open the export file in Excel.
     3. Re-save the export file from Excel as a CSV file.

Importing orders into Light Blue

To import a GotPhoto orders CSV file into Light Blue:

1. Go to the “Records” menu, then into the “Import” section, and select “Sales From GotPhoto Orders CSV”.
2. You’ll be asked to select a GotPhoto orders CSV file.
3. Light Blue will read the file you selected, check that it contains the expected data, and then read all of the orders that it contains.
4. A list of the GotPhoto jobs that the orders belong to will be shown. If your Light Blue custom fields include a shoot field called “GotPhoto job ID”, it will use that field to match up the GotPhoto jobs with Light Blue shoots. If you haven’t set up a custom shoot field called “GotPhoto job ID” yet, a red warning will appear: clicking the the warning will set the custom field up for you.
5. For any GotPhoto jobs that you haven’t already linked to a shoot, you can click the “Select Shoot” button to choose which Light Blue shoot you want to associate with it.
6. The import window also includes options to:
   1. Automatically create contact records for any contact details that don’t already exist in your Light Blue database. This is useful for studios that want to work with those contacts again in future.
   2. Automatically invoice the Sale records created by the import.
7. Clicking the “Import Orders” button creates Sale records for all of the orders in the GotPhoto file, links them to the Shoot record identified by the GotPhoto job ID, and (if you selected the option) automatically assigns invoice numbers to them so that they appear in your financial reports.

You can link any of these online galleries to Light Blue:

• theimagefile.
• Pic-Time.
• ShootProof.

You can also use Light Blue’s Zapier integration to link any online sales platform that has a Zapier integration to Light Blue, by using our “Send Sale to the Light Blue API” action.

How to link online galleries

theimagefile

To link your theimagefile account to your Light Blue account, you need to enter your Light Blue API key into your theimagefile account.

You can find your Light Blue API key in the “Integrations” section of the Preferences window in our desktop app.

Pic-Time

To link your Pic-Time account to Light Blue:

1. Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app.
2. Go to the “Integrations” section.
3. Click on the “API & Zapier” tab. If you haven’t already created a Light Blue API key, click the “Generate API Key” button to do so.
4. Click on the “Online Galleries” tab, then click the “Link Pic-Time Account” button.
5. You’ll be asked to log into your Light Blue account on our website, then shown a link to authorise giving Light Blue access to your Pic-Time account. Click the link.
6. You’ll be asked to log into your Pic-Time account, then shown a page that asks if you want to grant Light Blue access to your Pic-Time account. Click the “Approve” button.
7. You’ll be redirected to your Light Blue account and it will show that you’ve successfully linked your Pic-Time account.

ShootProof

To link your ShootProof account to Light Blue:

1. Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app.
2. Go to the “Integrations” section.
3. Click on the “API & Zapier” tab. If you haven’t already created a Light Blue API key, click the “Generate API Key” button to do so.
4. Click on the “Online Galleries” tab, then click the “Link ShootProof Account” button.
5. You’ll be asked to log into your Light Blue account on our website, then shown a link to authorise giving Light Blue access to your ShootProof account. Click the link.
6. You’ll be asked to log into your ShootProof account, then shown a page that asks if you want to grant Light Blue access to your ShootProof account. Click the “Approve” button.
7. You’ll be redirected to your Light Blue account and it will show that you’ve successfully linked your ShootProof account.

Importing orders from online galleries

Once you’ve linked an online gallery to your Light Blue account, new orders will be sent to the Inbox in Light Blue. To import an order into Light Blue:

1. Select the order in the Inbox.
2. Click the “Import Order” button.

All of the details provided by the online gallery will be imported into a new sale:

• Light Blue will attempt to match the client’s details with the contacts in your database. If it finds a match, it will link the sale to that contact. There’s an option in the import window to automatically create a new contact record if Light Blue doesn’t find a match.
• If Light Blue has been able to link the sale to a contact, it check if that contact has any confirmed shoots and offer to link the sale to that client’s most recent shoot.
• Orders sent from theimagefile don’t include item-level prices, so the total for the order is imported as an additional item.

• Create online scheduling calendars that automatically create Zoom meetings. e.g. for an initial consultation with a client, you could ask them to pick a convenient date & time for their appointment and Light Blue will automatically create a Zoom meeting for it. The meeting join link will be displayed on the booking confirmation page for your client, and you can also include it in your confirmation and reminder messages by using the %EventURL% mail-merge tag.
• Create Zoom meetings for appointments via the Light Blue desktop app.

Linking your Zoom account to Light Blue

To use these features, you need to link your Zoom account to Light Blue:

1. Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app and go to the “Integrations” section.
2. Click on the “Online Meetings” heading and click the “Link Zoom Account” button. You’ll be taken to the “API & Integrations” section of your account on our website.
3. Click the link to authorise Light Blue’s access to your Zoom account. Zoom will present a page of information about what Light Blue will be able to do with your Zoom account. Click the “Allow” button to authorise Light Blue’s access and return to the “API & Integrations” section of your account.
4. Once you have linked your Zoom account to your Light Blue account, you can reload the “Integrations” section of the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app (by clicking the “Refresh” button in the top right corner of the window) and set the defaults for Zoom meetings created by Light Blue, including:
   1. Whether the host and/or participant video defaults to on or off.
   2. Whether participants can join meetings before the host.
   3. Whether to use computer or telephone audio.

If you need any help linking your Zoom account to Light Blue, please contact our email support team for help.

Removing Light Blue from your Zoom account

If you no longer want to allow Light Blue to create and manage Zoom meetings, you can remove Light Blue from your Zoom account. When you do this:

• Light Blue will delete the information required for it to access your Zoom account, as well as the email address of the Zoom account that you had linked. We don’t keep any of that information once you have removed Light Blue from your Zoom account.
• Light Blue will no longer be able to automatically create Zoom meetings for online bookings.
• Light Blue will no longer be able to automatically reschedule or cancel any Zoom meetings that are linked to your appointments or shoots.
• Light Blue will keep the join URLs for any Zoom meetings created by this integration. This enables you to join meetings that you have already scheduled, or share the link with your clients.

To remove Light Blue from your Zoom account:

• Click this link to show the apps that you’ve authorised access to in your Zoom account. Alternatively, in your Zoom account, click Manage >> Added Apps or search for the “Light Blue” app.
• Click the “Light Blue” app.
• Click Remove.

Setting up scheduling calendars to create Zoom meetings

You can use Light Blue’s online scheduling calendars to allow clients to book shoots or appointments with you simply by selecting an available time and filling out their details in a booking form. You no longer need to send messages back and forth to find the perfect time, or rely on complicated integrations with third-party scheduling tools.

Once you’ve linked your Zoom account to Light Blue, you can configure scheduling calendars to automatically create a Zoom meeting when a client makes a booking. Although you probably won’t want to do this for all of your scheduling calendars, it’s very useful for appointments like online consultations or online viewing sessions because it saves you from having to manually create a Zoom meeting and send the join URL to your clients.

To configure a scheduling calendar to automatically create Zoom meetings:

1. If you haven’t already done so, link your Zoom account to your Light Blue account.
2. Open the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app and go to the “Scheduling Calendars” section.
3. Select the scheduling calendar you want to create Zoom meetings for and go into its “Additional Options” tab.
4. Go to the “Create Online Meeting” setting and change it to “Create Zoom Meeting”.
5. Test your client’s experience by clicking the “Open In Browser” button to open the scheduling calendar in your browser and make a test booking. On the confirmation page, you’ll see the Zoom join URL.

If you allow your clients to reschedule or cancel online bookings, doing so will automatically reschedule or delete the Zoom meeting created for it.

Creating a Zoom meeting for an appointment or shoot in Light Blue

You can also create Zoom meetings for appointments or shoots in the Light Blue desktop app. For example, if you book a meeting with a client and enter it into Light Blue yourself (rather than asking your client to book it via an online scheduling calendar), you can click a button in Light Blue to create a Zoom meeting for that appointment.

To create a Zoom meeting for an appointment:

• Double-click the appointment in Light Blue to open it.
• Click the options menu next to the URL field (i.e. the cog icon) and select “Create Zoom Meeting”.
• The Zoom meeting will have the same start date, time, and duration as the appointment.

To create a Zoom meeting for a shoot:

• Click the options menu next to the Location field (i.e. the cog icon) and select “Create Zoom Meeting”.
• The Zoom meeting will have the same start date, time, and duration of the shoot’s first session.

Using Zoom meetings created by Light Blue

When an online scheduling calendar creates a Zoom meeting, the join URL for the meeting is displayed on the booking confirmation / booking management page.

You can also include the join URL in any confirmation or reminder messages you send for this booking, by using the %EventURL% mail-merge tag.

The Zoom meeting join URL is displayed in the Light Blue desktop and mobile apps:

• For appointments, it’s displayed in the “URL” field.
• For shoots, it’s displayed in the “Location” field.
• The options menu next to the Zoom URL (i.e. the cog icon) allows you to open the URL or copy it to the clipboard. There’s also an option in there to delete the Zoom meeting.

Zoom meetings created by Light Blue will automatically be updated if you change the date, time, or duration of the appointment or shoot that they belong to. If you cancel the appointment or shoot in Light Blue, or make it an all-day event, the Zoom meeting will automatically be deleted.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Why wasn’t a Zoom meeting created when my client made a booking online?

• Check that Light Blue has access to your Zoom account. You can do this in the “Added Apps” section of your Zoom account. If you haven’t granted access to Light Blue, follow the instructions in the “Linking your Zoom account to Light Blue” section of this article.
• Check that you’ve configured the scheduling calendar to automatically create a Zoom meeting. You can do this in the “Additional Options” tab of the scheduling calendar in the Preferences window of the Light Blue desktop app.
• Check that the scheduling calendar isn’t creating all-day events. Zoom meetings need to have a start time and duration, so you can only create them for timed events in Light Blue.

What happens if a client reschedules or cancels an online booking that has a linked Zoom meeting?

The Zoom meeting will automatically be rescheduled or deleted.

What happens if I reschedule or cancel a shoot or appointment that has a linked Zoom meeting?

Zoom meetings created by Light Blue will automatically be updated if you change the date, time, or duration of the appointment or shoot that they belong to. If you cancel the appointment or shoot in Light Blue, or make it an all-day event, the Zoom meeting will automatically be deleted.

Changes made to Zoom meetings because of changes you’ve made in Light Blue will happen a few minutes after those changes have synced from our desktop or mobile apps to your Light Blue account. This allows you make several changes (e.g. editing the date and then editing the time) in quick succession without triggering multiple changes to the linked Zoom meeting.

Please be aware that, although we describe a variety of third-party apps that you can use with Light Blue via Zapier, we are not affiliated with nor endorse any of these applications or services.

• When you add a new contact to Light Blue, add them to your email marketing system (e.g. Mailchimp, Mailerlite, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue).
  • 👉 This help article explains how you can use the “Mailing List Opt-In” box to add Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app.
  • 👉 Whilst this help article explains how to add a specific set of Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app using Tags.
• When you create a new invoice or payment in Light Blue, add that transaction to your accounting system (e.g. Quickbooks, FreshBooks, Xero).
  • 👉 This help article explains how to link Light Blue to Quickbooks.
  • 👉 And this help article explains how to link Light Blue to Xero.
• If you use a third party scheduling calendar, send the booking to your Light Blue Inbox so that you can import it and take advantage of Light Blue’s features such as Contracts, Workflows and Forms. Whilst Light Blue has it’s own powerful online Scheduling Calendar some photographers are using other apps such as Acuity or Calendly.
  • 👉 This help article explains how to integrate Acuity with Light Blue.
  • 👉 And this help article explains how to integrate Calendly with Light Blue.
• When a potential client fills out your contact form, send that to your Light Blue Inbox so that you can import it as a new enquiry. Whilst Light Blue offers great contact forms that you can embed in your own website, some photographers prefer to use the one that comes with a website provider like SquareSpace or a third-party such as Gravity Forms or Wufoo.
• When a client books a planning meeting with you, create a folder in Google Drive that you can use to collaborate.
• When a couple books you to photograph their wedding, send a Handwrytten note to them.

Light Blue offers several actions that you can use to integrate it into processes triggered by other apps. For example:

• When a client clicks the “Unsubscribe” link in an email you sent via an email marketing tool such as Mailchimp or Mailerlite, set their “Mailing List Opt-In” status in Light Blue.
• When a potential client fills out the contact form in a SquareSpace website, sending that to the Light Blue API so that it appears in the Inbox and can be imported as a new enquiry and contact.
• When a client clicks a link in an email sent via an email marketing tool, add a tag to their contact record in Light Blue so that you know they’re interested in a particular topic.
• When someone places a print order via an online ordering system, send the details of that order to the Light Blue API so that it appears in the Inbox and can be imported as a new sale and automatically invoiced.

The actions that Light Blue offers are:

• Send to the Light Blue API.
• Send Sale to the Light Blue API.
• Set Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Add Tag to Contact.
• Remove Tag From Contact.
• Send Text Message.
• Add Workflow to Contact.
• Cancel Scheduled Items for Contact.

Send to the Light Blue API

Information sent to the Light Blue API appears in the Inbox in our apps, and from there you can turn them into new contacts and shoots, or use them to update existing contacts and shoots.

For simplicity, the “Send to the Light Blue API” action shows the most popular types of information that our subscribers send to Light Blue, but it supports all of the Light Blue API parameters.

You don’t have to fill out all of the fields, any that are left blank will be ignored by the Light Blue API.

You can add additional API parameters to the “Send to the Light Blue API” action in the “Additional Parameters” section at the end of the action. Each row in the “Additional Parameters” section has two fields: the first is where you enter the Light Blue API parameter, the second is where you enter the data you want to send for it.

Date format

If you’re sending any dates to the Light Blue API (e.g. “Shoot Date” or one of your custom date fields), it’s important to tell it which date format you’re using. You should use the “Date Format” field for this. The available date formats are dd/mm/yyyy, d/m/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, m/d/yyyy, yyyy/mm/dd, yyyy/m/d.

Send Sale to the Light Blue API

Sale data sent to the Light Blue API appears in the Inbox in our apps, and from there you can import it as a sale and invoice it.

You can include more than one item when you send a sale to Light Blue. The way that Zapier handles multiple items might not be obvious, so here’s a link to their documentation.

Set Contact Mailing List Opt-In

This action sets the “Mailing List Opt-In” for all of your Contact records that have the supplied email address.

When you set this action up, you can include an explanation such as “Unsubscribed via Mailchimp”. This explanation will be recorded in a note in the affected contacts’ Activity panel, and if you’re opting contacts into your mailing list it will be saved as the “Reason” in the “Consent Details” popup so that you can see how they gave you permission to contact them.

Add Tag to Contact

This action applies the specified tag to all of the Contact records that have the supplied email address. Contacts that already have the specified tag will not be modified.

When you set this action up, you’re asked to select one of the tags you’ve set up in Light Blue. You can create new tags in the “Tags” section of the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app.

You can include an explanation, such as “Clicked link to ask for more information”. This explanation will be recorded in a note in the affected contacts’ Activity panel.

Remove Tag From Contact.

This action removes the specified tag from all of the Contact records that have the supplied email address.

When you set this action up, you’re asked to select one of the tags you’ve set up in Light Blue.

You can include an explanation, such as “Unsubscribed via Mailchimp”. This explanation will be recorded in a note in the affected contacts’ Activity panel.

Send Text Message

This action sends a text message from Light Blue to the specified contact.

You can identify the contact you want to send a text message to by supplying either an email address or a phone number. The contact must already exist in your Light Blue account, and it must be the only contact that has the specified email address or phone number.

The message field in the Zapier action allows you to specify the content of the text message. You can include mail-merge tags if you want the message to include information from Light Blue.

The “Link Message To” setting allows you to choose where text messages sent by this action will be stored in Light Blue. You can either link it to the specified contact, or one of the contact’s shoots. This setting also determines which record is used for mail-merging.

Add Workflow to Contact

This action adds the specified workflow to all of the Contact records that have the supplied email address.

When you set this action up, you’re asked to select one of the workflows you’ve set up in Light Blue. If you’re new to using workflows in Light Blue, this article will show you what they can do and how you go about creating them.

You’re also asked which date you want to base the workflow on when it’s added. The default is “Current Date”, which will use the date that the action is run on. You can instead specify the label of one of your contact custom date fields. For example, if you’ve set up a custom date field with a label of “Due Date”, you could type “Due Date” into the Zapier action and the date from this field will be used as the workflow’s key date. If you specify a custom date field but that date is blank for a contact that this action is adding a workflow to, it will use the current date instead.

You can also include an explanation, such as “Lead received via Mailchimp”. This explanation will be recorded in a note in the affected contacts’ Activity panel.

Cancel Scheduled Items for Contact

This action deletes all scheduled items from the Activity tab of all of the Contact records that have the supplied email address.

You can include an explanation, such as “Lead unsubscribed via Mailchimp”. This explanation will be recorded in a note in the affected contacts’ Activity panel.

Light Blue’s list of triggers includes:

• New Contact.
• Updated Contact.
• Updated Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• New Tag Added To Contact.
• Removed Tag From Contact.
• New Shoot.
• Updated Shoot.
• Updated Shoot Status.
• New Tag Added To Shoot.
• Removed Tag From Shoot.
• New Appointment.
• Updated Appointment.
• New Invoice.
• Updated Invoice.
• New Payment.
• Updated Payment.

Notes for all triggers

Light Blue’s Zapier triggers cover all of ways that an event can occur, including changes made by you in the Light Blue apps and by your clients in online scheduling calendars, online invoice payments, etc.

When you’re using the Light Blue apps, you often make a series of changes to the same record. e.g. create a new shoot, change it’s shoot type, change it’s status, enter the date, etc. To avoid repeatedly running your Zapier triggers, our servers add a slight delay of up to a few minutes before firing the trigger.

If you have “New X” and “Updated X” in your Zaps (e.g. “New Contact” and “Updated Contact”), the “Updated X” trigger will not run until your “New X” trigger has run for a specific record. For example, if you create a contact called “Joe Bloggs” and then add an email address to his record a few seconds later, only your “New Contact” Zaps will run (and it will include the email address that you added). Once your “New Contact” Zap has run, subsequent changes made to “Joe Bloggs” will run your “Updated Contact” Zaps.

“Updated X” triggers will only run Zaps when data included in the trigger is changed. i.e. editing the “Notes” field in a shoot doesn’t run the “Updated Shoot” trigger because the shoot notes aren’t included in the data provided, but changing the shoot title will run these triggers because it’s part of the data included.

All of Light Blue’s triggers include at least one filter that allows you to be specific about which changes will trigger your Zaps. You can use these filters to avoid running your Zaps unnecessarily, for example you might only be interested in new appointments of a specific type.

Warning: batch operations in Light Blue can cause triggers to run a lot! e.g. using the “Add Tag To Found Set” command could cause a “New Tag Added To Contact” trigger to run for every record that you add the tag to.

New Contact

“New Contact” is triggered when a new contact is created in Light Blue, either by you creating a new contact in one of the Light Blue apps or when a client makes a booking via one of your scheduling calendars.

You can filter this trigger to run for all contacts, or just for those that have opted in or out of your mailing list.

The data provided includes:

• First Name.
• Last Name.
• Full Name.
• Company Name.
• Role / Job title.
• Email.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Birthdate.
• Mailing List Opt-In.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this contact.

Updated contact

“Updated Contact” is triggered whenever you update a contact. If you have “New Contact” triggers, “Updated Contact” will not run for a new contact until “New Contact” has run, giving you a chance to make a series of changes to a new contact without triggering your “Updated Contact” Zaps unnecessarily.

You can filter this trigger to run for all contacts, or just for those that have opted in or out of your mailing list.

The data provided includes:

• First Name.
• Last Name.
• Full Name.
• Company Name.
• Role / Job Title.
• Email.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Birthdate.
• Mailing List Opt-In.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this contact.

Updated Contact Mailing List Opt-In

“Updated Contact Mailing List Opt-In” is triggered whenever you update the contact mailing list opt-in.

You can filter this trigger to run for all contacts, or just for those that have opted in or out of your mailing list.

The data provided includes:

• First Name.
• Last Name.
• Full Name.
• Company Name.
• Role / Job Title.
• Email.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Birthdate.
• Mailing List Opt-In.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this contact.

New Tag Added To Contact

“New Tag Added To Contact” is triggered whenever you add a tag to a contact.

You can filter this trigger to only run for specific tags and whether or not the contact is opted into your mail list.

The data provided includes:

• Tag.
• First Name.
• Last Name.
• Full Name.
• Company Name.
• Role / Job Title.
• Email.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Birthdate.
• Mailing List Opt-In.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this contact.

Removed Tag From Contact

“Removed Tag From Contact” is triggered whenever you remove a tag from a contact.

You can filter this trigger to only run for specific tags and whether or not the contact is opted into your mail list.

The data provided includes:

• Tag.
• First Name.
• Last Name.
• Full Name.
• Company Name.
• Role / Job Title.
• Email.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Birthdate.
• Mailing List Opt-In.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this contact.

New Shoot

“New Shoot” is triggered when a new shoot is created in Light Blue, either by you creating a new shoot in one of the Light Blue apps or when a client makes a booking via one of your scheduling calendars.

You can filter this trigger to run for shoots that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or shoot type.

The data provided includes:

• Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Enquiry Date.
• Location / Online Meeting URL.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this shoot.
• Primary Contact First Name.
• Primary Contact Last Name.
• Primary Contact Full Name.
• Primary Contact Company Name.
• Primary Contact Role / Job Title.
• Primary Contact Email.
• Primary Contact Phone.
• Primary Contact Address.
• Primary Contact Birthdate.
• Primary Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Primary Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the primary contact.

Updated Shoot

“Updated Shoot” is triggered when you update a shoot. If you have “New Shoot” triggers, “Updated Shoot” will not run for a new shoot until “New Shoot” has run, giving you a chance to make a series of changes to a new contact without triggering your “Updated Shoot” Zaps unnecessarily.

You can filter this trigger to run for shoots that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or shoot type.

The data provided includes:

• Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Enquiry Date.
• Location / Online Meeting URL.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this shoot.
• Primary Contact First Name.
• Primary Contact Last Name.
• Primary Contact Full Name.
• Primary Contact Company Name.
• Primary Contact Role / Job Title.
• Primary Contact Email.
• Primary Contact Phone.
• Primary Contact Address.
• Primary Contact Birthdate.
• Primary Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Primary Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the primary contact.

Updated Shoot Status

“Updated Shoot Status” is triggered when you change the status of a shoot, e.g. from “Enquiry” to “Confirmed”.

You can filter this trigger to run for shoots that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or shoot type.

The data provided includes:

• Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Enquiry Date.
• Location / Online Meeting URL.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this shoot.
• Primary Contact First Name.
• Primary Contact Last Name.
• Primary Contact Full Name.
• Primary Contact Company Name.
• Primary Contact Role / Job Title.
• Primary Contact Email.
• Primary Contact Phone.
• Primary Contact Address.
• Primary Contact Birthdate.
• Primary Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Primary Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the primary contact.

New Tag Added To Shoot

“New Tag Added To Shoot” is triggered whenever you add a tag to a shoot.

You can filter this trigger to only run for specific tags and for shoots that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or shoot type.

The data provided includes:

• Tag.
• Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Enquiry Date.
• Location / Online Meeting URL.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this shoot.
• Primary Contact First Name.
• Primary Contact Last Name.
• Primary Contact Full Name.
• Primary Contact Company Name.
• Primary Contact Role / Job Title.
• Primary Contact Email.
• Primary Contact Phone.
• Primary Contact Address.
• Primary Contact Birthdate.
• Primary Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Primary Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the primary contact.

Removed Tag From Shoot

“Removed Tag From Shoot” is triggered whenever you remove a tag from a shoot.

You can filter this trigger to only run for specific tags and for shoots that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or shoot type.

The data provided includes:

• Tag.
• Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Enquiry Date.
• Location / Online Meeting URL.
• Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for this shoot.
• Primary Contact First Name.
• Primary Contact Last Name.
• Primary Contact Full Name.
• Primary Contact Company Name.
• Primary Contact Role / Job Title.
• Primary Contact Email.
• Primary Contact Phone.
• Primary Contact Address.
• Primary Contact Birthdate.
• Primary Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Primary Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the primary contact.

New Appointment

“New Appointment” is triggered when a new appointment is created in Light Blue, either by you creating a new appointment in one of the Light Blue apps or when a client makes a booking via one of your scheduling calendars.

You can filter this trigger to run for appointments that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or type.

The data provided includes:

• Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Description.
• Online Meeting URL.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Linked Record Description.
• Linked Record Type.

If the appointment is linked to a contact, or to a shoot that has a primary contact, the following contact data is also provided:

• Contact First Name.
• Contact Last Name.
• Contact Full Name.
• Contact Company Name.
• Contact Role / Job Title.
• Contact Email.
• Contact Phone.
• Contact Address.
• Contact Birthdate.
• Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the contact.

Updated Appointment

“Updated Appointment” is triggered when you update an appointment. If you have “New Appointment” triggers, “Updated Appointment” will not run for a new appointment until “New Appointment” has run, giving you a chance to make a series of changes to a new contact without triggering your “Updated Appointment” Zaps unnecessarily.

You can filter this trigger to run for appointments that have a specific status (e.g. “Confirmed”) or type.

The data provided includes:

• Type.
• Status.
• Start Date & Time.
• Description.
• Online Meeting URL.
• Phone.
• Address.
• Linked Record Description.
• Linked Record Type.

If the appointment is linked to a contact, or to a shoot that has a primary contact, the following contact data is also provided:

• Contact First Name.
• Contact Last Name.
• Contact Full Name.
• Contact Company Name.
• Contact Role / Job Title.
• Contact Email.
• Contact Phone.
• Contact Address.
• Contact Birthdate.
• Contact Mailing List Opt-In.
• Contact Custom Fields.
• Light Blue’s unique email address for the contact.

New Invoice

“New Invoice” is triggered whenever a sale is turned into an invoice or credit note, either by you creating the invoice in one of the Light Blue apps or when a client makes a booking via one of your scheduling calendars.

You can filter this trigger to run for invoices that are linked to shoots of a particular type.

The data provided includes:

• Invoice Number.
• Invoice Date.
• Billing Contact Name.
• Billing Contact Company.
• Billing Contact Address.
• Billing Contact VAT Number.
• Billing Contact Email.
• Billing Contact Phone.
• Shoot Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Tax Inclusive.
• Undiscounted Net Total.
• Discount Percentage.
• Discount Description.
• Discount Amount.
• Net Total.
• Tax Total.
• Gross Total.
• Paid Total.
• Unpaid Total.
• Next Payment Due Date.
• Next Payment Amount.
• Invoice Items:
  • Item Name.
  • Item Description.
  • Item Exclude From Discount.
  • Item Quantity.
  • Item Unit Price.
  • Item Net Unit Price
  • Item Tax Name
  • Item Price.
  • Item Net Price.

Updated Invoice

“Updated Invoice” is triggered when you update an invoiced sale. If you have “New Invoice” triggers, “Updated Invoice” will not run for a new invoice until “New Invoice” has run, giving you a chance to make a series of changes to a new invoice without triggering your “Updated Invoice” Zaps unnecessarily.

You can filter this trigger to run for invoices that are linked to shoots of a particular type.

The data provided includes:

• Invoice Number.
• Invoice Date.
• Billing Contact Name.
• Billing Contact Company.
• Billing Contact Address.
• Billing Contact VAT Number.
• Billing Contact Email.
• Billing Contact Phone.
• Shoot Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Tax Inclusive.
• Undiscounted Net Total.
• Discount Percentage.
• Discount Description.
• Discount Amount.
• Net Total.
• Tax Total.
• Gross Total.
• Paid Total.
• Unpaid Total.
• Next Payment Due Date.
• Next Payment Amount.
• Invoice Items:
  • Item Name.
  • Item Description.
  • Item Exclude From Discount.
  • Item Quantity.
  • Item Unit Price.
  • Item Net Unit Price
  • Item Tax Name
  • Item Price.
  • Item Net Price.

New Payment

“New Payment” is triggered whenever a payment is created, either by you creating the payment in one of the Light Blue apps or when a client makes a booking via one of your scheduling calendars.

You can filter this trigger to run for payments allocated to invoices that are linked to shoots of a particular type.

If the payment is allocated to a single invoice or credit note, that invoice or credit note’s details will be included in the provided data.

The data provided includes:

• Payment Reference.
• Payment Date.
• Payment Contact Name.
• Payment Contact Company.
• Payment Contact Email.
• Payment Contact Phone.
• Payment Contact Address.
• Payment Method.
• Payment Amount.
• Invoice Number.
• Invoice Date.
• Billing Contact Name.
• Billing Contact Company.
• Billing Contact Address.
• Billing Contact VAT Number.
• Billing Contact Email.
• Billing Contact Phone.
• Shoot Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Tax Inclusive.
• Undiscounted Net Total.
• Discount Percentage.
• Discount Description.
• Discount Amount.
• Net Total.
• Tax Total.
• Gross Total.
• Paid Total.
• Unpaid Total.
• Next Payment Due Date.
• Next Payment Amount.
• Invoice Items:
  • Item Name.
  • Item Description.
  • Item Exclude From Discount.
  • Item Quantity.
  • Item Unit Price.
  • Item Net Unit Price
  • Item Tax Name
  • Item Price.
  • Item Net Price.

Updated Payment

“Updated Payment” is triggered when you update a payment. If you have “New Payment” triggers, “Updated Payment” will not run for a new payment until “New Payment” has run, giving you a chance to make a series of changes to a new payment without triggering your “Updated Payment” Zaps unnecessarily.

You can filter this trigger to run for payments allocated to invoices that are linked to shoots of a particular type.

If the payment is allocated to a single invoice or credit note, that invoice or credit note’s details will be included in the provided data.

The data provided includes:

• Payment Reference.
• Payment Date.
• Payment Contact Name.
• Payment Contact Company.
• Payment Contact Email.
• Payment Contact Phone.
• Payment Contact Address.
• Payment Method.
• Payment Amount.
• Invoice Number.
• Invoice Date.
• Billing Contact Name.
• Billing Contact Company.
• Billing Contact Address.
• Billing Contact VAT Number.
• Billing Contact Email.
• Billing Contact Phone.
• Shoot Title.
• Shoot Type.
• Tax Inclusive.
• Undiscounted Net Total.
• Discount Percentage.
• Discount Description.
• Discount Amount.
• Net Total.
• Tax Total.
• Gross Total.
• Paid Total.
• Unpaid Total.
• Next Payment Due Date.
• Next Payment Amount.
• Invoice Items:
  • Item Name.
  • Item Description.
  • Item Exclude From Discount.
  • Item Quantity.
  • Item Unit Price.
  • Item Net Unit Price
  • Item Tax Name
  • Item Price.
  • Item Net Price.

Requirements

As well as a Light Blue subscription (or trial account), you need a Zapier account. Zapier offers a variety of subscriptions (including a free one) but please be aware that each subscription level will only handle a certain number of tasks per month.

Light Blue API key

You need to create a Light Blue API key to be able to use our Zapier integration. You can do this in the “Integrations” section of the Preferences window in the Light Blue desktop app, or in the “API & Integrations” section of your account on our website.

Setup

The Light Blue integration for Zapier is currently a “private” action, so you need to click the following link to add it to your Zapier account (instead of searching for Light Blue in Zapier):

Light Blue on Zapier

(we launched a new Zapier integration with lots of new features in the summer of 2022, so if you’re already using our old Zapier integration you’ll need to click this link to gain access to the new features)

Creating & using Zaps

You create Zaps in your Zapier account to automate tasks. Each Zap has a trigger (e.g. “a new payment was created in Light Blue”) and an action (e.g. “create a new transaction in my online accounting system”). Once you’ve created a Zap, Zapier will automatically run it whenever the trigger event occurs.

Light Blue has a comprehensive set of Zapier triggers that allow you to use it for all of your day-to-day work while taking advantage of industry-leading apps and services in a totally automated fashion. You can also use Light Blue’s Zapier integration to send information to Light Blue’s Inbox.

Once you’ve used our link to add Light Blue to your Zapier account, you can use Light Blue for either the trigger or action part of your Zaps.

To find out more about what’s possible with Light Blue and Zapier, take a look at our list of ideas, or read about the Light Blue triggers and actions that are included in our Zapier integration.

Stopping a Zap

If you want to stop a Zap from running, you should deactivate or delete it from your Zapier account.

You can also review your Light Blue Zapier triggers from the “API & Zapier” tab of the “Integrations” section of the Preferences window in Light Blue. There’s an option to delete triggers in there, but this only deletes the Light Blue end of the trigger: ideally, you should deactivate or delete Zaps from your Zapier account.

Essentially, Zapier acts as a go-between for apps and services, with some services providing triggers (e.g. “a new shoot was added to Light Blue”, “an invoice was created in Light Blue”, or “someone filled out the form on my SquareSpace website”) and other services providing actions (e.g. “add a contact to my email marketing system”, “create an invoice in my accounting app”, or “send this enquiry to the Light Blue API”). Zapier allows you to set up a number of “Zaps” that link a trigger to an action.

Light Blue offers a comprehensive set of triggers that allow you to use it with thousands of other apps. With Light Blue at the centre of your business, you can use it for all of your day-to-day work while taking advantage of industry-leading apps and services in a totally automated fashion.

You can also use Light Blue’s Zapier integration actions to send information to Light Blue and update contacts when things happen in other apps.

Please be aware that, although we describe a variety of third-party apps that you can use with Light Blue via Zapier, we are not affiliated with nor endorse any of these applications or services.

A few ideas to get you started

• When you add a new contact to Light Blue, add them to your email marketing system (e.g. Mailchimp, Mailerlite, ActiveCampaign, Sendinblue).
  • 👉 This help article explains how you can use the “Mailing List Opt-In” box to add Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app.
  • 👉 Whilst this help article explains how to add a specific set of Light Blue contacts to your mailing list app using Tags.
• When you create a new invoice or payment in Light Blue, add that transaction to your accounting system (e.g. Quickbooks, FreshBooks, Xero).
  • 👉 This help article explains how to link Light Blue to Quickbooks.
  • 👉 And this help article explains how to link Light Blue to Xero.
• If you use a third party scheduling calendar, send the booking to your Light Blue Inbox so that you can import it and take advantage of Light Blue’s features such as Contracts, Workflows and Forms. Whilst Light Blue has it’s own powerful online Scheduling Calendar some photographers are using other apps such as Acuity or Calendly.
  • 👉 This help article explains how to integrate Acuity with Light Blue.
  • 👉 And this help article explains how to integrate Calendly with Light Blue.
• When a potential client fills out your contact form, send that to your Light Blue Inbox so that you can import it as a new enquiry. Whilst Light Blue offers great contact forms that you can embed in your own website, some photographers prefer to use the one that comes with a website provider like SquareSpace or a third-party such as Gravity Forms or Wufoo.
• When a client books a planning meeting with you, create a folder in Google Drive that you can use to collaborate.
• When a couple books you to photograph their wedding, send a Handwrytten note to them.

Start using Zapier with Light Blue today!

Creating your own Zaps that link Light Blue with any of the thousands of apps that are available via Zapier is simple and doesn’t require any programming skills:

1. Read our Zapier setup guide.
2. Learn about the triggers and actions that are available in our Zapier integration.
3. Use one of our ideas to build your own Zaps, or invent your own. We love hearing about how people are using Light Blue, so let us know what you come up with!