Getting started

Start with one service and one project. LYGHTBOX gives you the steps to track inquiries, bookings, contracts, payments, and delivery.

Create your account

Choose monthly or yearly billing during signup. Monthly billing starts with a 14-day trial, and no card is required to start. Yearly billing does not include a trial. See Billing and your plan for current prices and allowances.

Enter your name and email, then verify your email with the code you receive. Next, enter your company name and review the suggested account link. You can edit it or choose an available alternative. Choose your country, postal or ZIP code, Currency for client invoices, and monthly or yearly billing. Review the price, then start your trial or continue to payment.

Start with the basics

Check your studio details, create one service, and add a current client project. You can keep its notes, date, and client details together right away. Add contracts and online payments when you need them; forms, templates, and task boards can come later.

The guided setup on your Dashboard helps you create your first service and package. It then asks how clients will reach you: Receive inquiries prepares an inquiry form, and Accept bookings sets up a booking page with your available dates. Use Finish later to pause and Continue setup to return. Before creating anything manually, check which services, forms, or booking pages setup has already created.

1. Check your account details

Go to Settings → Account. Under Profile & company, check:

Your first and last name.
The email address you use to sign in.
Your company name.
The Default tax rate (%). Each new project takes this rate when it is created and keeps it.
Your Time zone.

Choose the time zone where your studio operates. It controls dates, reminders, reports, and when scheduled work starts.

Your account currency was chosen during signup. It appears in account settings for reference but cannot be changed, so confirm it before building prices and collecting payments.

Only the account owner can change company settings and Tracking & pixels. Other settings pages also depend on each team member’s access.

2. Create your services and pricing

Go to Settings → Services & Packages before creating a project or publishing an inquiry form. Start with one service you offer, such as family photography. Add other types of work when you need them.

The page has three tabs:

Packages groups packages under your services. Every project needs a service.
Add-ons are extras you sell with a package or after booking, such as a second shooter, rush delivery, extra photos, or extra time. Each add-on has a type. Booking pages can only offer Standard and Expedited delivery add-ons; add the others to a project after it is booked.
Discounts lets you offer codes or apply discounts automatically on booking pages. A discount’s conditions, such as a minimum number of packages, apply whether it is applied automatically or entered as a code. See Services and pricing before sharing a code.

Open a service to add packages with a name, price, duration, and included photos. Each package can also include a contract, questionnaires, and a choice of add-ons for online bookings. Add packages when you are ready to offer them.

On the service’s Details tab, set an optional Delivery time in days or weeks. When a project starts fulfillment, it appears in Fulfillment with a delivery date based on that setting. You can adjust the date for each job.

To email clients automatically after booking, around the project date, or after delivery, add message templates under the service’s Client emails. See Client emails.

For general to-dos, new accounts have a To do task board with To do, In Progress, and Complete steps. Customize it in Settings → Task boards.

3. Add forms and questionnaires when you need them

Go to Settings → Forms and choose what you want to collect:

An inquiry form creates or updates a contact and creates a project. Choose a fixed service in the form settings, or add a Service type field for the client to choose.
An audience signup form adds someone to an audience list and creates or updates their contact details. It does not create a project.
A questionnaire collects answers from an existing project or booking contact. You can review the answers from that project or booking.

Publish a public form before sharing it. From the form’s menu in the Forms list, choose View form, Copy link, or Copy embed code.

4. Prepare contracts, payments, and messages

You can start with only the parts your studio uses. For a typical paid session, review:

Settings → Contracts: create a reusable agreement, add personalized text such as the client’s name, and set a default if you want it selected when you create a project contract.
Settings → Payments: connect Stripe if clients will pay online. Finish Stripe setup until the page shows Connected.
Settings → Reminders: payment, contract, and questionnaire reminders are on by default. Change when they send, or turn any of them off.
Settings → Templates: save the messages you send often, such as inquiry replies and delivery notes. To send one automatically after booking, around the project date, or after delivery, add it to a service under Client emails.

To include visits from your own website in your reports, the account owner can open Settings → Account → Tracking & pixels, add the website addresses, and copy the tracking snippet to the site. LYGHTBOX forms and booking pages are tracked automatically.

5. Add your first client or booking

Add the work yourself

Use the + menu in the top bar and choose Add New Contact. A first name and valid email are required. Then choose Add New Project and enter a project name and service. The contact, date, and notes are optional at creation.

Open the project to add its time, location, package or amount, contract, invoice, and questionnaire as you agree on the details with your client.

Let an inquiry form create the project

Share or embed a published inquiry form. Each submission creates the contact and project together, using the service and optional package selected in the form’s settings.

Let clients book themselves

Use Booking Pages to let clients choose a package or session time and book online. They can choose add-ons, sign a contract, and pay as part of checkout.

Before sharing the booking link, complete the page’s required settings, publish it, and open the public page to check the client experience.

6. Run a project through the workflow

Open a test project. The Progress checklist in the sidebar shows each step: Inquiry (or Booked), Contract, Payment, Session, and Delivery. Select a step to open it. Once the project is booked, each open step also shows its next action.

Assign the contact, then check the date, time, location, and notes under Details.
Select the Payment step and choose a package or enter an amount. You can check the service there too.
Select the Contract step to create and send the contract, or turn off Contract required if this job does not need one.
Select the Payment step to create an invoice, or use Record payment for money received another way. To skip payment, turn off Payment required on the Package & add-ons tab.
Choose Mark Booked when the client has committed.
After the contract is signed or not required, choose Start fulfillment. If payment is incomplete or the session is still ahead, LYGHTBOX asks you to confirm before continuing.
Select the Delivery step, then Open in Fulfillment to manage editing, set a delivery date, and prepare gallery links and a message for the client.
After delivering the finished work, choose Mark delivered and confirm.

Fulfillment can also start automatically after the project date has passed, once the project is booked and its contract and payment requirements are complete or not required. The job appears in Fulfillment without creating a general task. See Fulfillment for the full delivery workflow.

Use an email address you can access when testing public forms, contracts, questionnaires, and invoices. Open every link before sending the real version to a client.

7. Use the dashboard as your daily starting point

The dashboard becomes useful as projects and payments are recorded. It shows revenue, projects booked, booked rate, new inquiries, work that needs attention, and the next 30 days. Use the period selector to change the reporting window. If your role includes billing access, you can set a yearly revenue goal.

An empty card usually means you have not recorded that activity yet. Keep client sources, services, dates, amounts, and payments up to date so your reports reflect your work.

If something is missing

No service appears while creating a project: create one in Settings → Services & Packages first.
Record payment is unavailable: select the project’s Payment step and choose a package or enter an amount.
Start fulfillment is unavailable: the project must be booked and its contract must be signed or marked not required.
A settings page or create action is missing: ask the account owner to review your team access.
A client-facing page is not ready: return to its form, booking page, contract, or invoice and finish the required fields before sharing the link.

Next steps

Build your services and pricing.
Create your first booking page.
Use projects to track the client journey.
Manage editing and delivery in Fulfillment.
Upload and share finished photos with Galleries.
Organize general to-dos with Tasks and task boards.
Keep client history organized with contacts.