Smart files combine all the power of HoneyBook legacy files into one powerhouse document that can do it all. It's time to start thinking about where there might be unnecessary gaps or delays in your process and how you can streamline by consolidating as many actions or steps as possible.
In this article, we’ll review some of the most commonly-combined actions and steps in smart files, so that you can begin thinking more about your own process. These are merely suggestions, so feel free to think outside the box and let these be a source of inspiration. Each of these options will save time and improve your client experience for different reasons.
Services & invoice
Combining services and invoice blocks seriously cuts down on back and forth and potential process delays. Instead of waiting for a client’s selections or approval before creating & sending an invoice, you're offering one streamlined experience. Two situations where you can remove that delay are:
Providing a streamlined selection and checkout experience to your client
Providing a bookable quote to your client
When contemplating this first scenario, ask yourself if there’s ever a situation in your process where it would be faster to provide clients with a list of services or items to choose from while instantly allowing them to pay for what they’ve just selected. Don’t forget, you can still bill them for static, non-selected items in the invoice block as well!
Consider the second scenario if you’d like to display the list of services you and your client have already discussed, like more of a quote, along with a page for invoicing and payment. That way, if the quote looks good, the client has the option to move forward with booking immediately.
Invoice & contract
When it comes time to make things official with your new clients, there’s no better way to streamline than to combine payment and signature into one place. For your clients, they get one-stop-access to booking you, which means removing any gaps from signature to payment!
To make this option even more compelling, the elements of your invoice will auto-fill into their appropriate smart fields in the contract when they’re part of the same smart file. That means specifics about selected services and payment plans can be automatically pulled into the contract so you don’t need to add those details manually every time.
📣 Note
If you've marked a contract's signature as required and included an invoice after the contract, your client must sign the contract before they can send payments. Your client will not be able to access the invoice until after they sign the contract.
Services, invoice, & contract
If you’re looking to create a full self-service purchasing experience for your clients, you can combine any variation of service blocks, contracts, and an invoice page into a single smart file. This is a really natural fit for those who sell evergreen products, preset packages and groupings of services, or subscriptions.
This will allow your client to review as many services as you’d like to showcase, make their selection(s), review your terms, sign, and submit payment all in one interaction.
Questions & contract
Including questions in your smart file is another great way to save time and fill things in without lifting a finger. You can set the questions from one part of your smart file to connect to the fields in your contract on another page. That means, in the same instance that you’re collecting job-specific details from your client, HoneyBook is playing secretary on your contract page, filling in all those fields for you. This will cut down time on your end, and give your clients a super custom experience when they see the answers they just gave already added into the contract portion of your smart file.
Scheduler & questions
Including a questions block and a scheduler block in the same smart file lets you gather any necessary details from your clients and allow them to book time with you, all in one place. When the session rolls around, you'll already have a head start with answers on hand.
Scheduler & invoice
When you're adding a scheduler block to a smart file, you'll have the option to toggle Client must pay to reserve session ON—which will automatically add an invoice to the same smart file. Clients will be able to schedule time and once they do, they'll be required to pay to reserve their session.
Still have questions? Feel free to send us a message by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page. Our team is always happy to help!