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LYGHTBOX
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Getting started

Start with one service and one project. LYGHTBOX already has a way to track inquiries, bookings, contracts, payments, and delivery. You do not need to build a pipeline or invent project stages before using it.

Create your account

Choose monthly or yearly billing during signup. LYGHTBOX costs USD $29/month or USD $290/year. Monthly billing includes a 14-day trial and requires a card. Yearly billing does not include a trial.

Complete checkout and return to LYGHTBOX to finish your studio details. For allowances and payment settings, see Billing and your plan.

Your first useful session

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, task boards, and automation rules can come later.

The rest of this guide walks through those steps and the optional tools you can add as your studio needs them.

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 for new project pricing.
  • Your account timezone.

The timezone affects dates, reminders, reporting periods, and when work appears ready to start. Choose the timezone where your studio operates.

Your account currency was chosen during signup. It appears in account settings for reference but cannot be changed there, 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 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 areas:

  • Services contain your main lines of work. A service is required when you create a project.
  • Add-ons are reusable extras such as albums, rush delivery, or a second photographer. Create them in the add-on library, then attach them to packages.
  • Pricing contains discount rules that can apply globally or to a service or package.

Open a service to add its packages. Packages can hold the client-facing name, price, duration, contract and questionnaire defaults, and available add-ons used by booking flows. You can begin with only a service and add packages when you are ready to price a public offer.

If you want LYGHTBOX to create editing tasks when fulfillment starts, first create a board in Settings -> Task Boards, then edit the service and choose how its fulfillment task should be handled.

3. Add forms and questionnaires when you need them

Go to Settings -> Forms. Choose the record that matches the outcome you want:

  • An inquiry form creates or updates a contact and creates a project. Choose a fixed service in Form Settings, or add a Service Type field for the client to choose.
  • An audience signup form creates or updates a contact and joins them to the selected active interest list. It does not create a project.
  • A questionnaire is a private template you send to a known project or booking contact. Its answers stay attached to that request and do not create another project.

Publish a public form before sharing it. From the Forms list, you can copy its public link, copy its website embed, or open the live page yourself.

4. Prepare the client-facing pieces you need

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

  • Settings -> Contracts: create a reusable agreement, add the relevant merge fields, and set a default if you want it offered first.
  • Settings -> Payments: connect Stripe if clients will pay online. Finish Stripe onboarding until the page says the account is connected and ready. Set billing reminders only after choosing the email templates each reminder should use.
  • Settings -> Templates: save the messages you send repeatedly, such as inquiry replies, booking confirmations, questionnaire reminders, and delivery notes.
  • Settings -> Automations: add routine follow-up only after the underlying email template, task board, or project step is working the way you expect.

For tracking on your own website, the account owner can open Settings -> Account -> Tracking & Pixels, add the website addresses you want to track, and copy the tracking snippet. LYGHTBOX forms and booking pages already appear in your reports. This optional step adds visits from your own website and connects any supported advertising or analytics tools you use.

5. Choose how the first client enters

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.

After the project is created, open it to add the package or amount, time, location, contract, invoice, and questionnaire. Starting with a light project record is useful when the inquiry is still taking shape.

Let an inquiry form create the lead

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 Events when clients should choose an available session from a public page. Events are best for mini sessions, limited dates, and repeatable offers where the client can select a package, time, add-ons, contract, and payment without a long email thread.

Before sharing the booking link, use the event’s readiness guidance and booking preview to check the complete path.

6. Run a project through the workflow

Open your test project and work through the same steps a real client will see:

  1. Assign the contact and confirm the project date, time, location, service, and notes.
  2. Add a package or project amount. An amount is required before Record Payment and Invoices become available.
  3. Create and send the contract, or mark the contract as not required.
  4. Send an invoice or record an offline payment, or mark payment as not required.
  5. Use Mark Booked when the client has committed.
  6. After the contract is signed or not required, choose Start Fulfillment. If payment is incomplete or the shoot date is still ahead, LYGHTBOX asks you to confirm before continuing.
  7. When the work is in the editing queue, choose Mark Delivered. You can also complete and archive linked fulfillment tasks.

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, typical project value, work that needs attention, and the next 30 days. Use the period selector to change the reporting window and set a yearly revenue goal when you are ready.

If a card is empty in a new account, it usually means the matching activity has not happened yet. Keep the source, service, project amount, project date, and payment records accurate so later reporting reflects the work you actually booked.

If something is missing

  • No service appears while creating a project: create one in Settings -> Services first.
  • Record Payment or Invoices is disabled: add a project amount in the Payments card.
  • 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, event, contract, or invoice and finish the required fields before sharing the link.

Next steps