Preview the New GigBooks Calendar

We are working on on adding a brand new calendar to the GigBooks application and thought our very patient, loyal members might like to see what it is going to look like.  That’s what this post is all about!

The new calendar will allow each GigBooks member to have as many calendars as they like and they will be color coded to make it easy to see what each appointment is all about.  GigBooks members will also be able to share their calendars with other GigBooks members (both within their own account and with other members they don’t share an account with).  In addition, the calendar will allow for the use of Internet of ICS Calendar Feeds — meaning members will be able to pull their non-GigBooks calendars into GigBooks and see their GigBooks calendars in popular calendar applications such as iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar, etc!!  These features have been a long time coming, but we know you’re going to appreciate the hard work we have put into them.

Check out the screenshots:

Check out the Pretty (& Functional) New Calendar

Sharing is Fun!

EchoSign Maintenance

Just a quick note that the EchoSign service will be unavailable on April 18th between 7PM and 7:30PM (EST).  This is due to a scheduled maintenance period so EchoSign can upgrade their storage servers.

Pittsburgh PUG

After 30+ PUG stops since last June you would think we would have visited Pittsburgh (the closest PUG to GigBooks HQ) a little sooner, but alas we tried and tried without any success until last night!  Boy was it a success too.

Thanks to all of you for coming out and sharing a fun evening and an extra special thanks to the 4 (of 7) that signed up for GigBooks on the spot!  We’d like to welcome our four newest members to the GigBooks community.

Joanne Bartone (http://www.joannebartone.com) is the PUG leader in Pittsburgh and puts on a great event!  She was kind enough to share a few pictures she shot last night.  Enjoy!

The Whole Group (Pittsburgh PUG - March 17, 2009)

A Very Attentive Pittsburgh Group

Where is Joanne? Oh Yeah, She's Behind the Camera!

Bumper Cars on the Bayfront

Yesterday was one of those days.  You know — the sort of day where in order to pull everything off each task has to happen so succinctly that there is simply no way in hell it’s going to?  It was one of those.

Justin’s March 17th Schedule

6AM – Get up, feed dogs, de-poop dogs, shower, etc
8AM – Office Time (Prep for Demo’s, PUG and trip to Oklahoma City)
10AM –  GigBooks Demo via WebEx
11:30AM – Phone Consult with Groom
12PM – Ship Package via UPS & Travel 45 Minutes to Peek’n Peak for B&G Consult
1PM – B&G Consult at Peek’n Peak (then drive back) 
            —–> Insert Bumper Cars on Bayfront
2:30PM – GigBooks Demo via WebEx
7PM – Pittsburgh PUG

Things did not go quite as planned.  Demo’s were started late, B&G consultations took longer than expected and I decided to play Bumper Cars on the Bayfront i.e. smash into the backend of a Jeep that was doing nothing but minding its business at a red light.  Crash!!

It sounds dramatic, but in reality it actually reminded me very much of riding bumper cars as a kid sans the 6000lb Expedition I was driving at the time.

I was mindfully sitting at the stop light; eating a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut Express, when I caught the glimmer of a Green light (er.. arrow) out of the corner of my eye.  Instinct and my desire to get to the office to start my second GB demo of the day on time kicked in and before I knew it there was a loud thud and I see the smile of a very nice young woman looking back at me through her driver side mirror.

If I were a kid — I would have probably intended to smack into the back end of her car, but as an adult I find that is typically frowned upon.

We drove down the Bayfront Connector a ways until we came to an exit, pulled off into a parking lot and kindly exchanged information and laughs.  Fortunately, the damage wasn’t significant and a good old fashioned buffing will probably take care of her bumper.  My beast wasn’t harmed at all.

I know you want to the see the pix I snapped with my new iPhone so here they are.

Scuff Marks from Bumper Cars

This is why certain countries have outlawed eating while driving!

Everyone should Giggle now and again.  This laugh is on me!

Back on the PUG Circuit!

As I write the most recent GigBooks blog post, I’m cruising along at approximately 500 mph and sitting at 26,000 feet in a cozy (and I do mean cozy in a tight sort of way) Canadair CL-65 regional jet.  Oh what fun!

That; however, is not the reason I’m writing.  I’m currently situated somewhere between Philadelphia, PA and Nashville, TN en route to the Nashville PUG meeting where I will present GigBooks to a great group of our fellow Pictage photographers this evening!

It has been a long 4 months since I last set out for a Pictage User Group meeting and a lot has happened in that time.  Since ending the 28 city PUG tour in October, Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went, we crossed into a new year, Amanda and I visited Hawaii (and definitely did not want to leave), Amanda turned 24, oh and way back in November we added the third Kifer Siberian Husky to the family!  That puts me one closer to my dream of a 16 Husky sled dog team!!  Amanda assures me that will never happen, but I say Iditarod, “Here we come!”  

We’ve also welcomed many new photographers, disc jockeys, graphic designers and other professionals to the GigBooks family.  We continue to grow in order to help all of you grow your businesses.

GigBooks has launched quite a few new features in that time, some large and some small, and we are working on a slew of additional features that will launch in the coming weeks and months.  We’re also cooking up a new design and user interface for the GigBooks application per the request of several members.

WPPI is coming up and while Amanda and I will be there to hang out with everyone – we have decided our marketing dollars can be spent better in ways that don’t resemble exhibit booths and no ROI (Return on Investment for anyone not up on their business acronyms).  Fun initiatives like Giggle|TV and other campaigns you’ll start to see in the coming months should keep GigBooks fans happy!

That’s all for now!  Hopefully I’ll catch up with everyone on the other end of Nashville.

Online Training – February 4, 2009 @ 5:30PM EST / 2:30PM PST

We are offering another free GigBooks Online Training session via WebEx and a conference call to all members on February 4th @ 5:30PM EST / 2:30PM PST.  Registration information can be found below:

Wednesday, February 4th @ 5:30PM EST / 2:30PM PST
Register Now (Limited Space) – https://gigbooks.webex.com/gigbooks/j.php?J=795986300 
Meeting Password: Training1

We have tried to schedule this training session to accomodate as many member’s schedules as possible based on your feedback.  As always, if you find you cannot attend and another time of day would be convenient — please let us know.

Have a great weekend!

Online Training – January 14, 2009

This post is a little late, but we are offering a free GigBooks Online Training session via WebEx and a conference call to all members today at 1PM EST / 10AM PST.  There is still space left so register now!

Wednesday, January 14th @ 1PM EST / 10AM PST
Register Now (Limited Space) – https://gigbooks.webex.com/gigbooks/j.php?J=793809941
Meeting Password: Training1

Fire up your internet connection and phone!  If you haven’t attended a GigBooks Training Session yet — you’ll learn a lot.

Integrated Payment Processing & Other New Features

It has been a lot of work (notably because of one particular merchant processor and a very complicated integration), but we are excited to introduce the new GigBooks Integrated Payment Processing features!  Many of you have been waiting for this to rollout and as of today it is here.  You may now configure GigBooks to process live credit card payments via your own merchant account.  We currently support QuickBooks Merchant Service, Authorize.net and PayPal Website Payments Pro accounts.

Setting GigBooks up to process your credit card payments is simple.  First, navigate to the Setup tab and locate the Payment section under Administration Setup.  Next, choose the type of merchant account you would like to link to GigBooks and follow the instructions for completing the integration.  In the case of QuickBooks Merchant Service you will need to click a link and login to your QuickBooks Merchant Service account and provide authorization for GigBooks to process transactions on your behalf.  Both Authorize.net and PayPal Website Payments Pro will require you to enter some details related to your account with them into GigBooks so we can process transactions on your behalf.  We have provided a few screenshots below:

Once you have successfully configured your merchant account to process transactions within GigBooks — all that is left is to begin processing them!  Simply go to the Receive Payments page and complete the form along with providing your Client’s credit card details and you’re finished.

You may also notice we have enhanced the Payments form and made it even eaiser to apply payments to your Invoices.  You will now find an Enter Payment button below any list of Invoices in GigBooks.  Simply check the box next to the Invoice(s) you would like to enter a payment for and click the Enter Payment button to begin creating the payment.  It’s that easy.

Don’t forget to check out these other exciting features too!

Search as you Type (instead of )

You can now Search as you Type in many fields throughout GigBooks.  Instead of having to use the Magnifying Glass icon you can begin typing the name of the Lead, Contact, Client, Event or other supported record type into the field and a list will begin to populate directly below the field.  Choose the name you are looking for and it will be added to the form.  This decreases the number of steps required to locate and associate records with a form in GigBooks and will save you lots of time!  When searching for a person in GigBooks you can search for either the first or last name.  Please let us know how you like this new feature and we may extend it to other areas of the application.

The Plus Icon   

We have also launched the Plus Icon throughout GigBooks.  Wherever you see the Plus Icon  you can click it and immediately enter a new record for that field in a popup window.  We have activated the Plus Icon for drop down menus such as Event Type, Lead Source, etc and also for Clients & Contacts where applicable.  For most of you, this means that as you’re entering a new Lead or Event into GigBooks and come to the Lead Source field and find that the option you need isn’t setup in the system yet — you can immediately add it by clicking the Plus Icon.  This saves you from having to leave the form you already entered information on in order to navigate Setup to add the Lead Source (or any other record type supported by the Plus Icon).  We think you’ll find the Plus Icon to be very useful and would love your feedback!

Happy New Year!

A very Happy New Year from everyone at GigBooks! Thanks to all of our members for making 2008 a phenomenal year for all of us.

A quick recap of 2008:

• Beta testing began in January
• GigBooks v1 launched in early June
• We visited more than 30 cities from June 2nd through the end of October and shared GigBooks with our Pictage PUG friends
• Our first tradeshow was Pictage Partner Conference and we enjoyed seeing our friends and meeting so many new people
• Our second tradeshow was Photo Plus Expo in NYC with more photographers than we’ve ever seen in one place!  Lots of fun.
• Thanks to all of you we now count hundreds of photographers, disc jockeys, graphic designers, videographers (and others) as members!

Those are just a few highlights from 2008.  In a year where we put in so much effort and found so much success, we are grateful to each member and are looking forward to an even better 2009.

We have some exciting features set to launch in the next week or so and throughout 2009 you can look forward to many more updates and upgrades to GigBooks.  Our development team is working hard and we’re sure you’ll be pleased with the results!

So, from everyone at GigBooks — we wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Everyone at GigBooks wishes you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Justin and I had a great day with our family today. We had a wonderful time eating, laughing, and opening gifts. Our hope is that you all had a great memory making day with the ones you love!

Be Merry!
Amanda