I’m hopeful that all our US clients have each received their PPP loans by now, but have you received your EIDL Loan?  Great news that the SBA has just announced they are once again accepting new applications for EIDL Loans effective June 15th.

You can read the details here.

I highly recommend that you take advantage of this program.  Don’t let the current pandemic get you down.  Now is the time to re-launch your business better and stronger than ever before!

Our StudioPlus team’s been working hard over the past several months to deliver this first update for 2020. From development to testing, documentation to editing, and feedback to delivery, each staff member plays a key role in producing a product we are proud to release to our clients! Without their hard work, we wouldn’t be able to deliver these important features every year. I’m therefore taking the opportunity to publicly acknowledge their contribution and say, “Thanks, team!!”

All Spectra users with a current maintenance plan can upgrade today. All myStratus subscribers will automatically be upgraded during the next two weeks. If you are a myStratus subscriber, we’ve sent you an email with the date of your automatic upgrade. Feel free to let us know if the proposed date doesn’t work for your business and we’ll change it.

Get started by reading the Release Notes to read more on the new features implemented this year.

Remember, if you have a suggestion for a new feature, please visit our User Voice page here, and cast your vote on other people’s suggestions or add one of your own!

Spectra users – Click here to start your Spectra 2020 download and view upgrading instructions!

myStratus subscribers – Your upgrade date was emailed out today! Please check your inbox and contact us for any questions or to change your upgrade date.

While these past few months haven’t been easy for business owners, it’s important we look to the future for ways we can continue to improve ourselves and our businesses. I’m excited for each of you to see what 2020 has in store for StudioPlus!

What’s new in 2020?

myStratus Users have some great new features coming their way!

• First, we’ve expanded on our Net Promoter Score feature, released last year, and added the ability to receive Net Promoter Ratings via SMS text message – giving you an even greater response rate.
• Next, our robust reporting tools are even stronger with the introduction of Report Subscriptions. Receive your most crucial reports in your inbox at the time you need them most!
• myStratus users also have new functionality with our Online Booking portal. This includes new translations, session location options, and the ability to have any web-safe font displayed online.

Both Spectra and myStratus can see additional features such as an overhauled Preferences Wizard, new Trigger options, and client creation options for outgoing SMS messages.

Plus, a special announcement! In this first release of 2020, we’ve added the necessary back-end infrastructure to support our upcoming, brand-new InspiredByYou.com ecommerce website – coming soon!! Make sure you’re subscribed to our Company blog so you can be the first to know about future releases.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be making a series of blog posts highlighting these new enhancements and how you can use these features to grow your business. Stay tuned!

We are now in the process of completing documentation and training materials. Upon completion, we’ll make myStratus 2020 and Spectra 2020 Generally Available (GA) to all. In the meantime, if you’d like to install the Preview Release of the new 2020 Version, here are instructions:

Everyone

Click here to read the “What’s New in 2020″

Click here to read the detailed Release Notes for 2020 Volume 1 Service Release 1

StudioPlus Spectra Users

Click Help > About to make sure your AMP date is January 2020 or greater. If not, please email a screenshot to Support@StudioPlusSoftware.com.

Click here to download Spectra 2020 and install on all workstations

StudioPlus myStratus Users

Send an email to Support@StudioPlusSoftware.com to request your upgrade to 2020. They will coordinate the date and time for your upgrade. At that time, you’ll automatically be prompted to download your new myStratus Desktop for 2020.

We’re always interested in hearing from our clients. Your input helps create the software that best suits YOUR needs to run a successful and expanding business. If you have a suggestion for a future enhancement, please click here to add it to the StudioPlus User Voice. Or, if you find that someone else has already made that suggestion, then simply vote it up! The more votes, the greater the chance we will implement that enhancement in a future update.

If you have any problems with the new 2020 Version, please call or email us at Support@StudioPlusSoftware.com. We would love to assist you!

Well, if your business is anything like ours, you’re fighting to keep your business open!! The US federal government wants to do something to help and has recently passed a massive $2.2T rescue packages for businesses like yours and ours. If you haven’t had a chance to read through the 880-page legislation, I thought I would share some highlights with you to brighten your weekend and give you a little hope!

Before I continue, I know this legislation only affects our clients here in the United States, and we know that many of our clients are outside the US. It is my hope that your country will soon offer relief to you and to your business as well. My recommendation is to do your research online and talk with your local banker regarding your options.

OK, so here are some highlights on the US Legislation just passed:

• You will soon (maybe within a week) be able to take out an SBA loan from your local bank, which is 100% guaranteed by the Federal government.
• Allowable uses of the loan include payroll support – such as employee salaries, paid sick or medical leave, insurance premiums, and mortgage, rent, and utility payments.
• The max amount that you can borrow is calculated by taking your average monthly payroll expense (before the pandemic) times 2.5.
• All loan fees are waived.
• No collateral or personal guarantee is required.
• BEST OF ALL! If you maintain your employee count at the same level as it was before the crisis began for the eight week period after you receive the funds, then you can have this loan forgiven! If you’ve already laid off or furloughed employees, you’ll need to bring them back on as soon as you start the program.
• Any loan portion that is forgiven will NOT be considered as taxable income.
• Any remaining portion of the loan not forgiven is paid back over 10 years at an interest rate not to exceed 4%.
• This program is available for self-employed businesses as well.
• You may also receive a deferment on any other outstanding SBA loans that you have for 6 to 12 months.

Don’t pass up this opportunity! This can be a game-changer for your business. It’s like receiving 8 weeks of free labor! (See our other Learning Blog posts on ideas what to do with your staff while your studio is closed, even if they’re working from home). In addition, it provides additional funding to help keep your rents paid and lights on!

Final disclaimer, I’m not a lawyer or banker, so please confirm all the information posted here with your local banker for accuracy.

Our StudioPlus team’s been working hard over the past several months to deliver this major update. From development to testing, documentation to editing, and feedback to delivery, each staff member has played a key role in producing a product we are proud to release to our clients! Without their hard work, we wouldn’t be able to deliver these industry-changing features every year. So I’m taking the opportunity to publicly acknowledge their contribution and say, “Thanks, team!!”

All Spectra users with a current maintenance plan can upgrade today. All myStratus subscribers will automatically be upgraded during the next two weeks. If you are a myStratus subscriber, we’ll send you an email with the date of your automatic upgrade. Feel free to let us know if the proposed date doesn’t work for your business and we’ll change it.

Get started by reading the Release Notes to discover the great new features as well as some important items that have changed in the software.

Remember, if you have a suggestion for a new feature, please visit our User Voice page here, and cast your vote on other people’s suggestions or add one of your own!

Spectra users – Click here to start your Spectra 2019 download and view upgrading instructions!

myStratus subscribers – Keep an eye on your email for the date of your upgrade!

Here’s what’s new:

• Best Promotion Calculator – A new calculator option is available on all invoices. When activated, the system will automatically check all listed Promotional items on an invoice and will only apply the one Promotional item that gives the best deal for the client.

• Calendar Performance – Changes have been made behind the scenes to improve Calendar performance for myStratus.

• Cayan Credit Card processing – With TSYS’s recent acquisition of Cayan, Spectra/myStratus have been updated to display the new TSYS branding instead of Cayan.

• Client records – The Invoice tab of Client records will now display a green dot if all your client’s invoices are paid in full.

• Image Detail – A new option is available in the Company Preferences to not print individual images on the Image Detail if they’re only being used in a Composite.

• Search By Options – The Search By feature in the Clients Hub is now able to search via Lead Source.

• Dashboard – Session and Appointment based Data Types in the Dashboard provides the option to Group By “Hour of Day”.

• Invoice Labels – A new Client Labels pop-up menu for Session, Bill-to, and Shipping labels is included in Invoice records.

• Time Slots – User and Resource columns now visible in Time Slot maintenance form.

• Client Import Wizard – A new ability to Update Existing Client Records based on Main Phone Number in Client Import Wizard.

• Client Birthdays – 12 new Filters have been automatically added to create a list of client’s birthdays for each month.

• Price List Items – Replaceable Price List Items grant the ability to require an item be replaced.

• Auto Capitalization – A new setting in the Company Preferences lets you disable the software’s automatic capitalization feature. To bypass the auto capitalization, a hover-over detail has also been added to all client records.

• Today’s Snapshot – LYTD (Last Year-To-Date) data has been added to Today’s Snapshot tile on Home page. LYTD means Last Year-to-date, which allows you to get an immediate comparison how you are doing this Year-to-date versus last year for the same period.

• Notes – All Notes tabs give you the ability to change font style and size.

• Advanced Search – New ability to search by ALL client Phone Numbers at once in the Advanced Search form.

• Global Payments – Additional compliance in Global Payments integration for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) in Europe.

• Time Stamps – Now set Time Stamps to follow a global internet time instead of the computer’s local time at Company Preferences > Miscellaneous tab. Using this feature bypasses the local computer clock, which can be different from computer to computer, and uses a centralized Internet-based clock so all time-stamps are consistent and accurate. Using this feature, also prevents a user from manually changing their computer time to fraudulently stamping in an inaccurate timestamp in the notes.

Many of the new features added in the 2019 Version came directly from our StudioPlus User Voice page. Please, continue to use this page to submit new feature requests that you’d appreciate being added to an upcoming release, or simply cast your vote for someone else’s suggestion. The more votes a suggestion receives, the more likely it will show up in a future release. Help customize both StudioPlus Spectra and myStratus for years to come!!

Click here to visit the StudioPlus User Voice

Click here for the complete list of What’s New in 2019 Volume 1

Click here for the complete Release Notes for 2019 Volume 1

Our myStratus Mobile app is now compatible with the Genius Mini device – allowing you to take credit card payments and deposits ALL from your mobile device. Any payment or customer deposit created from the myStratus mobile app will automatically sync back to your myStratus database immediately.

Please Note: The myStratus Mobile App is still in Beta Testing at this time. If you would like early access to this feature, please contact Technical Support.

Click here to learn more about Credit Card Processing with myStratus Mobile.

Plus, there’s a new setting to automatically send an email to the client when they initially pay for their Gift Certificate. This email can include all necessary information including the certificate’s number and expiration date. We’ve even built this email for you in myStratus – look for it in your HTML email builder with the title SAMPLE – Gift Certificates.

Click here to learn more about Gift Certificates.

We’ve also split the checkbox into three parts: “Allow Call Marketing”, “Allow Text Marketing”, and “Allow Email Marketing”.

While it may seem like a small flip in terminology, this is a BIG change in the software. In the 2019 upgrade, we’ve made sure all your pre-existing marketing options will translate to the new verbiage, so your marketing won’t miss a beat!

There’s even a new setting in the Company Preferences – Clients tab where you can define if you want the new “Allow Marketing” checkboxes to automatically be checked whenever a new client record is created. Remember to research what the privacy laws require in your area. Some laws require your client give written consent to receive marketing materials before this box can be checked!

Click here to learn more about Client References.

Now, your web forms can pull information directly from an invoice for your clients to view and edit online. As an example, you can create a contract for whenever a client decides to use a payment plan. They’ll be able to view the details of the plan and given an e-signature online stating they agree to your terms.

Bringing this a step further, we’ve added a new setting in the Company Preferences – Invoicing tab where you can choose to have the software automatically create this web form and email or text it to a client when they have a payment plan created on their account.

Just a side note, this feature works very well with the new Online Payments!

Click here to learn more about Web forms
Click here to learn more about Payment Plans