What is Dubsado and How The Heck Do You Use It?
So, What Is Dubsado Anyway?
Dubsado is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software designed to act as your own personal VA. It helps you automate all those boring-but-necessary admin tasks that slow you down.
From sending reminder emails, to updating your calendar, to nudging clients about unpaid invoices—Dubsado handles the busywork, so you can focus on what you’re actually great at: serving your clients and running your biz like a CEO.
Can you use Dubsado for free?
Yes! Dubsado has a free plan, and it’s actually pretty generous.
Unlike most platforms that start the countdown the moment you sign up, Dubsado’s free version is limited by the number of clients (just 3), not the number of days. So you can test the waters, build your processes, and take your sweet time setting it up. No panic setup before a 7-day trial ends.
When you’re ready to grow, you can upgrade to a Starter or Premier plan and keep everything you’ve already built. Need help choosing a plan? Check out this post on Dubsado pricing.
Who can use Dubsado?
Once you understand what Dubsado is, it’s easy to see how it can work across a bunch of industries, from photographers to interior designers to copywriters. It’s especially perfect for service-based businesses offering 1-on-1 services with multiple touchpoints along the client journey.
Dubsado automates all the steps between “nice to meet you” and “here’s your final invoice”, so you can stop juggling forms, emails, and contracts, and start spending more time on actual client work (or, you know, having a life).
If you’re at a point in your business where time is the barrier holding you back from growing, Dubsado may be the perfect solution for you. All my clients have reported saving over 4 hours a week in their business since implementing Dubsado (which adds up to over 200 hours per year!) This is time they spend on launching new offers, working with new clients, or just spending time with their family.
Do you need a website to use Dubsado?
Not at all! Having a website isn’t a requirement to get started with Dubsado. As a CRM, Dubsado can take on lead capture, invoicing, scheduling, and client communication without needing a full-blown site to connect it to.
If you do have a website, you can link your website to Dubsado to integrate the Dubsado features into your site, but this is NOT necessary. But if you’re still in the “I’ll get a website someday” phase? Skip the tech stress and let Dubsado be your all-in-one behind-the-scenes system.
How to use Dubsado to save time in your business
Here are a few of my favourite Dubsado features that help you spend less time inbox-wrangling and more time doing the work you love:
Turn Your Go-To Docs Into Reusable Templates
Moving a client from the inquiry stage through to the final invoice? That’s a lot of documents along the way: proposals, contracts, forms, invoices, payment reminders—you get it.
With Dubsado, you can turn your most-used documents into templates and stop spending hours recreating the same things. Simply build a template in Dubsado and customize it with your branding, your logo, and your colours. When you’re ready to send, Dubsado can input your client’s information and project details for you.
Speaking of templates…did you know I have a whole template shop that you can customize to your brand?
Send Contracts, Proposals, and Invoices Like a Total Pro
Once your templates are set up, they become the client-facing side of your biz.
- Need to collect info? Use a branded intake form.
- Need a signature? Dubsado forms are e-signature ready.
- Taking payments? Integrate Stripe, Square, PayPal, or Affirm.
No more back-and-forth Google Docs. No more piecing things together from five tools. Dubsado keeps everything in one place so your client experience looks polished and feels easy for both of you.
Get Paid Easily With Stripe, Square, Affirm, or PayPal
Getting paid through Dubsado is refreshingly easy and flexible.
You can connect Stripe, Square, PayPal, or Buy-Now Pay-Later platforms or use Dubsado Payments, their built-in option powered by Stripe. It accepts credit cards, debit, and ACH (depending on your country).
Invoicing happens right inside Dubsado, and you can automate everything from payment plans to late payment email reminders.
And the cherry on top? Dubsado doesn’t charge extra transaction fees. You’ll just pay your standard Stripe/Square/PayPal rates—no hidden surprise fees from Dubsado.
Automate Every Step of the Client Journey with Workflows
Dubsado’s ability to automate will make you feel like you hired your own 24/ virtual assistant.
With the Premier plan, you can build workflows that trigger emails, send documents, update client statuses, and more—all without you lifting a finger.
For example: A new client pays their deposit to start working with you → Dubsado updates their project status from “lead” to “job” → creates a client portal based on info from their inquiry form→ sends a pre-written (or canned) welcome email to outline the next steps.
And you? You didn’t even open your inbox.
These workflows are fully customizable to your process, and once they’re running, they’ll save you literal hours each week. But they aren’t just great for you, they’re also a huge win for your clients’ experience!
To build them, you’ll need to map out your entire process, from lead gen to offboarding. That means finally getting your client journey out of your head and into a system that supports them every step of the way. Once your workflows are live, your clients always know what’s coming next. No more ghosting by accident. No more “oops, forgot to send that” emails. Just a smooth, intentional, pro-level experience from first contact to final invoice.
Send leads directly to your CRM
When a client finds you online and decides to work with you, the first thing they do is fill out your contact form, whether it’s embedded in your website, in your Instagram bio, or a link you DM them.
If you’re using a Dubsado Lead Capture form, their details are automatically added to your Dubsado account as a lead and connected to a new project. From there, that info can:
- Autofill canned emails
- Kick off a lead inquiry workflow (I have a freebie for this!)
- Create a client portal
There’s no need to manually transfer client details from an email to your account. With Dubsado, the information is automatically stored and plugged into your templates with no extra effort from you.
Track Your Time Right in Dubsado (And Bill for It)
If you work by the hour, Dubsado’s built-in time tracker makes it easy to track exactly how long you spend on client work—and roll that time straight into your invoice. Just start the timer when you begin a task. When you’re done, hit stop, log the entry to the project, and boom, you’re ready to bill.
No more forgetting how many hours you worked on a task or second-guessing yourself when it’s time to send an invoice. Dubsado helps you charge accurately, transparently, and confidently — so you always get paid what you’re worth.
Let Clients Book Themselves In With Calendar Syncing
Dubsado’s built-in scheduler makes it easy to set your availability. But if you really want to simplify things, sync it with your personal calendar. That way, if you’ve got a dentist appointment or a weekend getaway on your personal Google Calendar, Dubsado will block that time out automatically so clients can’t book over it.
With calendar sync enabled, you can see your Dubsado appointments in your personal calendar, and entries in your personal calendar will appear in your Dubsado scheduler. It’s clean, automated, and boundary-friendly.
How to get started with Dubsado (Without the Overwhelm)
Dubsado has all the features you need to automate your business and clear your schedule, but let’s be real, that can also make it feel a bit overwhelming at first. Once you know what Dubsado is and how it works, the next step is figuring out how to make it work for you. That starts with getting clear on three things:
- The kind of client experience you want to offer,
- The content you send to your clients,
- And most importantly, how those things will fit together!
This is the foundation of your Dubsado setup. And once it’s in place, automating your business becomes way easier.
If you’d like a little more support knowing how to make the most out of Dubsado, download my FREE Dubsado setup checklist or check out the blog on it!
Want Hands-On Help With Dubsado? I’ve Got You
If you’re thinking, “Okay cool…but can someone just do this for me?” Yes. I absolutely can.
I offer done-for-you Dubsado setups—VIP-style—where we build your workflows, forms, automations, and systems in one week.
Not sure where to start or what your client experience even is yet? No worries, my Client Experience Intensive is the perfect place to map it all out before we automate it.
Either way, you don’t have to do this alone, and you definitely don’t have to figure it out from scratch.