Dubsado Tips

How I Decluttered My Dubsado: Lessons Learned, Practical Tips to Improve Client Experience

January 31, 2025

POST: SPRING CLEAN YOUR DUBSADO ACCOUNT

FREE!: Getting started with dubsado guide

You'll also love

tell me more

I'm Amy - Dubsado Systems Strategist. I love to help female entrepreneurs work less, make more & WOW clients with systems and automation.

Meet Amy

(Part 1 of a 5-Part Series)

Looking to improve your client experience, but don’t know where to start? If you haven’t decluttered your Dubsado account in a while (or just reviewed your workflows), you might want to start there. I recently went through the process of cleaning out my own account, and let me tell you, it was both eye-opening and freeing. In this post (the first in a 5-part series), I’ll share the lessons I learned while streamlining my CRM and how you can do the same to improve your processes and client experience.

Why It Was Time to Clean Up My Dubsado Account

My Dubsado account had been bothering me for quite some time. Even though I’d made small updates here and there, I knew I had to overhaul certain parts of it. Especially, my forms, workflows, emails, and automations through Zapier.

Every time I went to send a proposal, I was redesigning the copy in the client’s project instead of updating the original template. Every time, I’d think… I’ll just do the full re-design later when I have more time. The language in my emails no longer resonated with me, and I had packages that were completely outdated. It felt like a junk drawer—full of things I wasn’t using and couldn’t find what I needed.

Rather Watch This Than Read It?

The Biggest Challenge: The Overwhelm

The most significant challenge I faced was the sheer size of the task. I put it off for a LONG time! O never felt like I had the time.—It felt so overwhelming and would take WAYYYY too long! To bet past this roadblock and make it more manageable, I broke it down into small pieces. It still took a long time and I ended up working too long on it to the detriment of other tasks that needed to get done in my business.

Tackling the Cleanup: What I Would Do Differently

At first, I dove right in, tackling the easiest things like project statuses and tags. Looking back, I wish I had made a checklist and set aside specific times in my calendar to focus on each part. Running a business and taking care of clients means I couldn’t dedicate all my time to cleaning up my Dubsado account, and I often found myself losing focus on other important tasks, like marketing. (I also did some SERIOUS procrastinating on finishing the task, so it took longer than I wanted it to.)

Looking to improve your client experience? If your Dubsado account feels like a junk drawer, you might want to start there.

The Biggest Surprises: Throwback Moments

When I started cleaning up, I discovered some real throwback moments from the early days of my business. I found no less than five packages from when I was a VA in 2020! There were also schedulers I hadn’t used in years. It was a reminder of how much my business had evolved, and how I needed to let go of outdated tools and systems.

Top Four Changes That Helped Improve My Client Experience

Here are the three biggest changes I made to declutter my account and improve my systems:

Cleaning Up Email Templates:

I realized I was using the wrong area for my workflow email templates. In the past, I had been setting up canned email templates in Dubsado’s “Canned Email Templates” area, but those didn’t update when the workflow sent an email. Instead, I started using that section for frequently asked questions emails that I manually send or those tied to schedulers and payment plans. This change made it so much easier to find the emails I actually needed. I deleted the canned email templates that belonged to the workflows and edited those emails JUST in the workflows themselves.

Updating my Workflow Emails:

I went through and re-wrote at least 50% of my workflow emails to make them sound more like me. Let clients know what was next in our process so they felt more like they were being led. I also added in some helpful videos to explain how to do things or show clients what I was asking about in my forms. (I get a lot of questions about the proposal, how it works, and the sales page format that I typically use.)

Renaming My Forms:

I simplified the naming conventions of my forms to make them easier to identify. For example, my lead capture forms now have “| Website” or “| Scheduler” at the end of the file name so I know exactly where they are used. This saved me so much time when working in my account. (Sometimes it can feel like a guessing game… is THIS the lead capture form attached to the scheduler or the one embedded on my website?)

Simplifying Lead Capture Forms:


I decided to simplify my lead capture forms. I had a feeling that the complexity of my old forms may have been a roadblock for potential clients. By reducing the number of fields and streamlining the process, I’m hoping to see more leads come through in the future. If I need more info ahead of the appointment, I can send a second questionnaire AFTER the appointment is scheduled.

    Mistakes I Made Along the Way

    I definitely made a few mistakes during the process. One big lesson learned was deleting things too early. I found myself pitching items that were still connected to workflows and automations. Thankfully, you just get an error most of the time when you try to do this. This caused some issues, but it helped me realize how important it is to understand the connections in your system before making changes. It’s also critical to ensure that emails reference what’s been done and what’s coming next in the process to guide your clients through their journey with you.

    How This Cleanup Improved My Client Experience

    After the cleanup, my client experience is so much smoother. Things just seem to run more elegantly now. I added more information to help clients learn about their systems as I’m working and think through their client experience ahead of our process mapping session together.

    It’s so much easier to find the forms, packages, and canned email templates that I need. This means I spend much less time creating proposals, replying to emails, and doing admin work.

    I also updated my Zap that runs when clients book with me. Since I had changed some of the tools I was using for client onboarding, the previous Zap wasn’t as effective. Things were falling through the cracks (which meant I got emails from clients saying I couldn’t get into the client training library or this button wasn’t working because the file link was missing because I had pasted it into the wrong smartfield.) Since I’ve gotten rid of the redundant smartfields and built Zaps to add clients to the training library, these emails are a thing of the past. My automations are running more smoothly, and I feel more confident in my setup.

    More importantly, the emails and forms are now more representative of where my business is today. This makes me feel more aligned with my brand and ready to serve my clients at a higher level.

    Decluttering your systems can feel like decluttering your kitchen junk drawer

    My Advice for Decluttering Your Dubsado Account

    If you’re thinking about cleaning up your own Dubsado account, here’s my advice:

    1. Start by mapping out time in your calendar to do an hour at a time… more than that and it gets really overwhelming.
    2. Then look at your current offerings. (Update your pricing if you haven’t done that in a while)
    3. Write out the process you want to follow for each offering (or your workflow.)
    4. Then go through each part of your set-up one step at a time.

    By focusing on these areas first, you’ll have a cleaner, more organized system that better serves your clients and follows your CURRENT processes.

    What’s Next in This Series?

    In the upcoming episodes, I’ll walk you through the entire process of cleaning up your Dubsado account. I’ll share practical tips for each step to help you improve your systems and client experience. By the end of this series, you’ll be able to make small changes that will have a big impact on your business! Want me to help you declutter your Dubsado account? Book a VIP Day Discovery Call with me and I’ll spend a whole day helping you make serious headway on decluttering your Dubsado account.

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *