The following 11 top software programs—with online payment portals, color-coded task bars and more—are the workflow warriors you need that can help run your business more smoothly and efficiently.

StudioPlus myStratus

Platform: Cloud, Mac, PC, iOS, Android
Overview: Cloud-friendly version of the powerful photo business desktop software StudioPlus.
3rd-Party Integrations: TSYS, Avalara, InspiredByYou.com, Google Calendar, QuickBooks, Microsoft Office, Photoshop, ProSelect, Express
Digital Darkroom and more.
Admin Tools: Scheduling, client management and invoicing.

What’s New: A new online payments portal lets clients pay invoices, establish payment plans and update credit card information. The new Net Promoter Scores feature surveys client satisfaction levels. The software’s online booking feature has been updated with support for promotion codes while the mobile app has been given the ability to process credit cards. 

Prices: Starting at $29.95/month | studioplussoftware.com

Read: 3 Key Steps to Managing Money for a Sustainable Photography Business

ShootZilla

Platform: Cloud
Overview: Shootzilla is a photo business software program organized around color-coded tasks to help you organize your workflow. You can create emails in up to five different languages. The monthly fee includes a 21-day photography business course and access to a dedicated Facebook group.
 3rd-Party Integrations: Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook and more
Admin Tools: Calendar, address book, website contact form, email templates and lead tracking.

What’s New: Lower pricing for the first month of your subscription.  

Price: $24/month | shootzilla.com

Read: How the Right Studio Management Software Can Save Your Sanity

Studio Ninja 

Platform: Cloud, iOS, Android
Overview: A photographer-friendly customer relationship management software (CRM) that’s highly customizable and one of the few that offers a completely comparable mobile app.
3rd-Party Integrations: Xero, QuickBooks, Gmail, Google Calendar, Stripe, PayPal, Fundy, and ShootProof.
Admin Tools: Calendar, invoices, address book, lead tracking, tax and business reporting.

What’s New: Pick & Choose quotes give you the opportunity to upsell clients by recommending packages and add-on products. The updated client portals have an improved look on mobile displays and an updated contact form builder gives photographers the ability to style and brand their forms.

Prices: 30-day free trial, then $18.70/month (Pro Plan, billed annually); $28.50 (Master Plan, billed annually).
studioninja.co

Read: 14 Apps and Software to Help and Run Your Photography Business

PicSpotr 

Platform: Cloud
Overview: PicSpotr offers all the major features of a photo business software organizer including profit and loss reporting, custom email templates and more. It’s also one of the least expensive.
3rd-Party Integrations: Stripe, Square, PayPal, Google Calendar, Yahoo Calendar, Fantastical, MS Outlook, iCal and more.
Admin Tools: Calendar, contacts, invoices, releases, contracts, questionnaires and more.

What’s New: Embeddable website lead forms, the ability to send quotes for client review and approval, customer portals and the ability to set and track business goals are among the newest features added. The company plans to add simplified workflows later in the year.

Prices: 14-day free trial, then $20.21/month ($194.02/year)
picspotr.com 

Iris Works

Platform: Cloud 
Overview: lris Works lets you keep tabs on favorite shooting locations and has an add-on gallery function for sharing images with clients. The advanced subscription tier adds online booking, intelligent scheduling and custom invitations. The company offers a free migration from other studio CRMs when you sign up.
3rd-Party Integrations: Square, PayPal, ShootProof, QuickBooks 
Admin tools: Calendar, lead tracking, automated emails, invoicing, client bookings.

What’s New: Photographers now have the option to require their clients to sign a contract and/or pay an invoice prior to them reserving a spot on the calendar. When a user creates or edits a booking calendar, they will see the options to toggle on the contract or invoice feature. The mobile-responsive calendar has also been updated to include a snapshot of any invoices, contracts, questionnaires and emails associated with our users’ sessions when they are part of a workflow.

Prices: 14-day free trial, then $22.50/month (Basic), $29.75/month (Premium)
iris-works.com

Bloom

Platform: Cloud, iOS (Android coming soon)
Overview: This CRM has a heavy focus on the marketing side of business management. Bloom’s package includes a starter website builder, along with a website chat module and supports not just admin features, but digital image delivery as well. The starting package includes 500GB of storage and can be upgraded at the higher subscription tiers.
3rd-Party Integrations: Square, Stripe
Admin Tools: Calendar, invoices, email, contract signing, questionnaires, forms and more.

What’s New: Among the new features on the roadmap is support for multi-users and multiple brands.

Prices: Free trial available, then $9/month (Starter), $29/month (Part-Time), $49/month (Full-Time)
bloom.io

Táve Business Management Software

Platform: Cloud
Overview: Táve is built to support one or more brands, with reporting to let you filter down to the individual brand you want details on. It supports client-facing portals and tokens to automatically repopulate data in fields when that data has already been entered somewhere else in the system. Pricing for a Solo package includes support for two users and one brand, while a Boutique tier supports six users and four brands. A Studio package gets you a minimum of ten users (and $4.99 per additional one over that) plus unlimited brands.
3rd-Party Integrations: Gmail, ShootProof, WordPress, PayJunction and RedCart.
Admin Tools: Calendar, lead tracking, business reporting, expense logging, invoicing, email tracking, online contracts and more.

What’s New: The theme for the latest round of Táve updates has been simplification, with features and the UI streamlined to make it easier to get
at the tools used most often.

Prices: $21.99/month (Solo), $29.99/month (Boutique), $43.99/month (Studio) | tave.com

Light Blue Photo Business Software

Platform: MacOS, iOS, Windows
Overview: One of the few programs to offer both a desktop version and a mobile app, Light Blue offers an optional online services package so your desktop data will be synced with the cloud to be accessible through a web browser or mobile app.
3rd-Party Integrations: Stripe, PayPal, iCal, Google Calendar, ShootProof
Admin Tools: Calendar, emails, contracts, invoicing, online payments, sales tax calculating, business reporting and more.

What’s New: The software has moved from a perpetual license to a subscription model. Subscription tiers are distinguished by the number of computers you can install the software on. (A major overhaul is due later in the year.) 

Prices: 30-day free trial, then (U.S.) $32.65/month, $48.97/month, $65.29/month | lightbluesoftware.com 

Sprout Studios

Platform: Cloud
Overview: Sprout combines studio management tools with an online sales gallery and album design proofing, making it one of the few programs that can take you from lead to digital deliverable under one roof. As you scale up the subscription tier you’ll get features such as free phone support, more robust reporting and unlimited digital galleries.
3rd-Party Integrations: Zapier, Gmail, Yahoo, iCloud and more 
Admin Tools: Calendar, contracts, questionnaires, expense tracking, custom forms, mileage logging and more 

What’s New: Sprout Assistant automatically keeps up with all of the details of client correspondence. New Print Credits lets photographers give their clients credit for products, prints and digital files in their gallery. On the management side, a new One Page feature lets you gather up all of the details for a shoot in one page so they can be easily accessed while preparing for a shoot. Coming soon: A scheduler feature which will let photographers book meetings and shoots with clients and automatically check their availability.

Prices: 21-day free trial, then $15.58/month (Lite), $31.17/month (Basic), $44.92/month (Pro), $63.25/month (Studio) | sproutstudio.com

Dubsado

Platform: Cloud
Overview: Dubsado delivers the full suite of CRM tools and a host of automated workflow options to alleviate the burden of sending reminders, responses and generating forms. The subscription supports a single brand but you can add additional brands for $10/month per brand.
3rd-Party Integrations: Outlook, QuickBooks, iCal, Google Calendar, Stripe, PayPal, Square and Zapier.
Admin Tools: Calendar, scheduling, contracts, forms, invoicing, financial reporting and more.

What’s New: There are several new features on the roadmap, including the ability to add vendors and other people to the address book aside from clients. Dubsado users can also look forward to support for multi-signature contracts, a UI update, notifications and integration with Wave and Xero.

Price: Free trial available, then $35/month ($350/year)
dubsado.com

Read: 15 Great Studio Management Software Apps

Pixifi Business Management Software

Platform: Cloud
Overview: Pixifi sports a customizable dashboard which you can configure with only the tools you want instant access to. It supports digital contracts and the new Zapier integration enables the software to trigger actions in third party applications whenever a designated event happens in Pixifi (think of it like an “If This Then That” but for business apps).
3rd Party Integrations: Google Calendar, Stripe, PayPal, ShootProof, Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, Box, Dropbox, Flickr, SmugMug, Pass, SagePay, Pay Junction, Authorize.net, Trust Commerce, iContact, Mad Mimi, Time Exposure, FirstData, Bean Stream, Zapier
Admin Tools: Calendar and appointment scheduling, invoices, taxes, expense and mileage logging, and more.

What’s New: Recurring Invoices, automatic billing, updates to questionnaires, workflow automation, a staff scheduler book and activity logs are just a some of the new features rolled into the Pixifi platform.

Prices: $29.99/month (Essential), $39.99/month (Boutique), $54.99/month (Studio Pro), $139.99/month (Elite) | pixifi.com