The Photographic Organiser
The Photographic Organiser (TPO) is a studio management system that has been popular among professional photographers in the UK. It has an integrated viewing module with a multi-image arranger to place images into templates for client viewing, together with a very wide range of job tracking, contact management, sales/marketing analysis and accountancy features.
TPO is aimed at all professional studios, from one-man bands to large photographic businesses. It can work in a mixed network environment and its main menu can be personalized to each user. Although extensive in its scope, it is not especially difficult to use. For the photographer who wants to get truly organized it offers tightly integrated job management, diary, and contacting functions. The "My Day" feature presents you with all your personal tasks when you log on, with appointments, contact reminders, work in progress, internal email messages, stock check and to-do list -- all on one screen, together with an indication of which other staff are online.
TPO's contact database retains a history of everything you printed for each contact, including letters, invoices, and statements. Client names and addresses can be used within the built-in word processor with its 100+ template letters, greatly easing the burden of mass-mailing. There are full job tracking and management facilities for social, commercial and school photography, plus a Weddings & Functions module with fields for additional information. It will print your wedding contract, too.
There are even sophisticated accounting features including sales and purchase reports, cashbook functions, nominal ledger report, and general reports including VAT Return.
Built on FileMaker Pro, TPO comes with an OEM copy of the full retail FileMaker product.
Comment
Used by hundreds of studios in the UK, The Photographic Organiser boasts good integration so you can make use of data entered in one module by accessing them from another. For example, you can examine "Sales by Source of Enquiry," a particularly powerful feature for the working photographer because it integrates the enquiry sources with actual sales.
Theoretically you could customize FileMaker to your own requirements, but in practice few photographers have the time to do it. TPO's competitive pricing brings it within the reach of many studios.
Tech info
- OS: Windows 98 (SE2) onwards; Mac OS 8.6 or later
- Price level: Approx. £1,250
Productive IT
TPO was first used in 1991 by its developer Chaim Bacon to manage his own photography business. He developed it into an off-the-shelf product and began marketing it in 1994 with great success. It is now the market-leading product in the UK for the organisation, management and marketing of photography businesses.
From the same vendor:
- Credit Card Transactor (CCT)
- Postcode PA
©trl