Getting started
Set up your photography workspace
Start a GlassSuite account, set up your business details and understand the calendar-month trial.
Read guideHere to help
Help with your photography workflow.
Follow a task from start to finish, or search for a setting. These guides explain what is available now and when a separate confirmation is needed.
9 task guides and 36 quick references · GlassSuite 0.34.3
Start with a task
Galleries
Create and privately share a client gallery
Create a gallery, upload your files, choose download permissions and share it through a private client portal.
Read guideClient downloads
Save gallery photos to your phone
Use Save photos and the native share sheet to save authorised gallery images on a supported phone or tablet, without a ZIP.
Read guideAccounts
Review your plan and change storage
Understand assigned licences, storage totals, reviewed upgrades and downgrades at the end of your paid month or year.
Read guideFinance
Send and schedule invoice reminders
Review an invoice reminder before sending, enable an optional overdue schedule and pause chasing for a disputed invoice.
Read guideFinance
Record photography expenses and receipts
Add an expense, attach private receipt evidence and keep personal costs separate from your business planning totals.
Read guideFinance
Record actual business mileage
Save a vehicle and record dated journeys separately from estimated booking travel and customer travel charges.
Read guideFinance
Share selected records with your accountant
Create a private read-only accountant share with selected dates, financial sections, optional receipts and an expiry.
Read guideCalendar
Offer client meeting times and connect Zoom
Offer availability, let a client book a meeting into your studio calendar and create a Zoom link when configured.
Read guideQuick reference
Jump to an individual setting or a short explanation. Existing links to these topics continue to work.
Account security
Set up Microsoft Authenticator
Open Account security from Admin or the photographer sidebar, using your HTTPS GlassSuite address. Enter your current GlassSuite password and choose Start authenticator setup. In Microsoft Authenticator use + then Other account and scan the QR code. The entry is labelled GlassSuite with your email. When using one device, enter the manual setup key as a time-based account. Save the ten private recovery codes somewhere safe and separate from your phone. Tick the saved-codes confirmation and enter the current six-digit code to enable MFA. Until this succeeds the account is not marked protected. Setup expires after ten minutes; start again when necessary. Never email, post or share the QR code, setup key or recovery codes. This is app-code MFA, not a Microsoft Approve sign-in notification.
Account security
Signing in and checking a fresh code
After enabling your authenticator, use your normal GlassSuite email and password, then enter the code shown in the app. Codes rotate, and a code already used cannot be reused; wait for the next one. Recovery codes are an alternative second factor after the password, not an alternative to the password. Remember me preserves an eligible completed session for up to seven days, subject to normal expiry and revocation; it does not trust the device for future password-only logins. Sensitive authenticator changes need a fresh code within five minutes and your current password. Repeated guesses are limited. Check automatic date/time on both phone and server when valid-looking codes fail. Do not turn off type checking or origin/security checks to resolve a login problem.
Account security
Lost phone, recovery codes and replacement
Choose Use a recovery code on the MFA screen and enter one unused saved code. It works once. After signing in, use Account security to replace the authenticator or generate a new recovery-code set. Regenerating invalidates all older recovery codes. Replacing the authenticator signs out all sessions; sign in again and complete the new setup if you want to keep using MFA. Administrator MFA is optional. Normal password recovery does not disable MFA. With neither phone nor recovery codes, contact the server owner for independent identity verification and controlled server-console recovery; there is no emailed factor-bypass link or hidden administrator reset password. Server-console operators have higher privileges than application administrators.
Administration
Optional administrator authenticator
Administrator MFA is optional. Admin controls do not require authenticator enrolment or repeated five-minute code checks. An account with an enabled authenticator still needs its code or recovery code when signing in. You can manage or disable your own authenticator in Account security with the current password and fresh factor verification. Administrator permissions, the owner identity, current terms and confirmation passwords still protect sensitive changes. Client gallery links and client email verification are separate.
Getting started
Your first workspace
An invited photographer follows the private link in their invitation email and chooses their own strong password. The link expires after one hour and works once. Completing setup confirms that same inbox without a second verification code; sign in separately with your new password. No subscription is charged by accepting an invitation. Read and accept the current service Terms, then enter your studio name and business contact details. Your photographer profile supplies details shown on invoices and in client portals. Keep personal information out of public-facing fields. Use the sidebar to switch tools; Finance expands to its own submenu.
Open step-by-step guideAccounts
Plans, storage and billing
Free is an ongoing £0 account with a standard 100 MB storage allowance, three saved clients and one saved gallery. Your actual licence and allowance appear under Subscription. A manually assigned or complimentary licence does not charge a card; you do not need to buy it again. A paid recurring subscription is an explicit optional change. Current subscription checkout uses Stripe test payments, and a verified payment activates its plan and storage for the paid period; live charging is not enabled. Existing subscribers use Review plan change, rather than starting a second checkout. More storage starts after the reviewed remaining-term payment is confirmed, keeping the renewal date. Downgrades and monthly/yearly billing changes start at the end of the paid month or paid year; a scheduled change can be cancelled beforehand. Moving a subscription to Free keeps existing files and blocks new uploads while usage exceeds the allowance. Saved files, binned content and pending upload reservations count towards storage. Manual overrides remain in place. Paid plans include routine financial CSV exports; authorised gallery downloads and issued documents remain available. Ordinary accounts on any plan can enter inactivity removal after twelve calendar months without a completed sign-in, with warning emails and thirty days to return. A completed sign-in cancels pending removal; administrator accounts are excluded.
Open step-by-step guideAccounts
Email, passwords and remembered devices
Sign-in and business contact emails are separate. Use the verified email-change controls in Photographer profile rather than ordinary detail editing. Enter your current password, request the code at the new address, return to the same form and enter it before it expires. Sign-in email changes revoke sessions; sign in again with the new address. Client email changes revoke previous portal links. Remember me keeps an eligible device session longer but never overrides expiry, suspension or revocation. Use password recovery when you cannot sign in. New and changed passwords need 12–128 characters, at least one capital letter and one symbol; common and breached passwords are screened. An existing password remains usable for ordinary sign-in. Changing your address does not send a new welcome email. Use Account security to add an authenticator. Password reset does not remove an enrolled authenticator. Remember me keeps a completed session longer; it is not permission to bypass MFA on a new sign-in.
Open step-by-step guideClients
Photo, video or content creation
Choose Clients, then Start client onboarding. Select an existing client or enter a new contact, their B2B/B2C type, company where applicable, address and email. Choose Photography, Video production or Content creation, then a category appropriate to that service. Stage one saves a draft only. A returning customer can have multiple jobs without duplicating their client record. Changing the service in booking setup clears an incompatible category rather than silently keeping it.
Bookings
When, where, how long and how much
Continue setup from a client intake, or choose Add booking setup from a project. Enter start and end, venue, postcodes and an hourly rate or package from Finance → Rates & packages. Manual journey miles and minutes work without a routing service. Postcode lookup and road estimation are explicit external actions. Road estimates need an operator-configured compatible service; they are approximate and do not include live traffic. Saving creates or updates the linked private calendar event and a price snapshot. Use the explicit reprice option to apply changed current rates; old saved quote snapshots do not silently change. Match the saved rate to the service and category, then review assets after Travel. The customer travel-charge waiver changes only the proposed charge, not planned or actual mileage.
Open step-by-step guideProjects
Projects, tasks and the editing queue
Create a project for an existing client or continue an onboarding draft as a project. Tick Create a gallery if needed; its name/date are suggested from the job and it starts unpublished. Add a next action and due date, delivery date and private notes. Tasks can be completed or reopened. Link existing galleries, invoices and calendar entries for the same client and studio. The editing queue focuses on jobs in Editing, ordered by delivery date. Workflow stages are manual organisational labels, not proof that a contract was signed, a deposit was paid or the client approved images. Archiving preserves the underlying records. Use the cancellation/reschedule controls to review linked job consequences before confirming.
Galleries
Upload, publish and share
Create a gallery for a client or as a standalone gallery, then add photographs or other supported files. Background uploads continue while you move around the photographer workspace. The transfer window shows progress, pause, resume, cancel and measured network statistics. Completion means server confirmation, not merely that a browser progress bar reached the end. Choose publishing, watermark and original-download permissions deliberately. A client-linked published gallery is available through that client portal. Standalone galleries remain independent until you assign a client. Create private link opens an in-app copy dialog; never post that link publicly. Revoking a link stops future access through it.
Open step-by-step guideGalleries
Full-screen viewing on a phone
Tap a preview to open the screen-filling viewer. Swipe left/right, or use Previous and Next. Pinch zoom uses the browser; swipe navigation is ignored during detected multi-touch or page zoom. Close returns to the gallery. Keyboard arrows work on a computer. This is a browser viewer, not a native iOS Photos application. Preview errors have a retry control. Watermarks may be baked into the preview; originals remain unchanged when downloads are permitted.
Open step-by-step guideGalleries
Save photos to your phone without a ZIP
With downloads enabled, tap Save photos, then Prepare photos. GlassSuite fetches authorised originals within a bounded share-memory budget. Tap Open share sheet, then choose Save Image or Save Images when offered by your iPhone/iPad. Check Photos, then continue to the next photographs. The website cannot choose the destination, silently write to Camera Roll or confirm that a save completed. Use HTTPS and a supported browser. The old fixed ten-photo limit is removed: preparation supports up to 10,000 files within a 64 MiB memory budget, but your device may accept fewer files and large galleries continue in further sets. Try fewer photos on this device is available when a prepared set cannot be shared. A large individual original or unsupported browser uses the individual download links instead. RAW, video and other non-photo files still use original downloads; ZIP remains an alternative for all files on a computer.
Open step-by-step guideGalleries
Watermarks, screenshots and favourites
The preview route enforces gallery permissions and uses reduced-resolution images, with a baked watermark when required. Downloads-disabled galleries do not expose original files through an alternate plain-file URL. These protections discourage casual copying; a website cannot reliably prevent device screenshots, recording or a photograph of the screen. No screenshot-proof guarantee is made. Clients can mark favourites. A favourite is not a final approved selection, usage licence or payment.
Open step-by-step guideClients
Delete, restore and permanent removal
Use Delete in the client list or gallery-removal section. The confirmation button moves the record to the bin. Clients disappear from active selection and existing private access is revoked. Binned galleries are inaccessible but continue to count towards storage until they are removed. Gallery uploads are stopped when a gallery is deleted. A binned gallery is automatically eligible for permanent cleanup after 30 days, or you can permanently remove it sooner. The Deleted clients / galleries panel lets you restore records; a restored gallery starts unpublished and old client links stay revoked. Permanent gallery removal deletes original and derived files and cannot be undone by the app. Permanent client removal is refused while linked records remain; keep that client in the bin rather than erase accounting or booking history. Independent backups and previously downloaded copies are separate.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Rates, quotes, invoices and payments
Save hourly rates with a minimum duration or fixed packages. The rate charged for travel is a commercial price, independent of the tax mileage allowance. From a saved booking explicitly create a quote draft; email sending and invoice creation are separate confirmations. Invoices can be drafted, issued and payments recorded using the existing finance tools. Issued records are not casually overwritten. Card checkout needs the photographer payment-provider configuration; showing an invoice does not collect money. Client invoice payments are separate from your GlassSuite subscription. Clients can accept exact job terms in their portal and complete assigned questionnaires; drawn electronic signatures and bank reconciliation are not available. Issuing now allocates a per-studio number of at least 1000 without renumbering existing invoices. Download PDF provides a seller-branded invoice when the server PDF dependency is installed. Review the separate billing recipient before issue; its emailed link is invoice-only, not a general client-portal link.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Income, profit planning and tax dates
Finance Overview shows received payments, recorded business costs and a cash surplus/deficit. It is not statutory profit or an HMRC tax calculation. Set your own tax-reserve percentage for planning; personal items are excluded. Add tax payment reminders using an amount and deadline confirmed by HMRC or your accountant and mark them paid when appropriate. There is no automatic assessment of tax owed: other income, allowances, eligibility and capital treatment are not known. The monthly chart uses the selected 6 April–5 April period. Invoice issue alone is not treated as cash received.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Expenses, receipts and non-company items
Record supplier, date, category and amount, then attach a receipt from the expense. Choose Non-company / personal for a private item. Its full amount remains in your records but is excluded from the new business-cost summary, tax-reserve basis and owner-consolidated business totals. The CSV identifies it as personal-expense. A business category does not prove deductibility. Mixed-use apportionment and other adjustments require review; do not claim the personal part. Existing expenses can be reclassified without re-entering them.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Mileage and vehicles
Add a vehicle in your profile, then record actual dated business journeys with a purpose in Finance → Mileage. Planned road estimates do not automatically become claims. UK tax-year totals run 6 April–5 April. The supported self-employed car/van calculation uses 55p for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter in 2026/27; supported earlier years retain their historical rate. Employee/company reimbursement is a different regime. Include other relevant business miles consistently, check eligibility and avoid double-counting vehicle running costs. Direct MTD/HMRC submission is not connected.
Open step-by-step guideCalendar
Private planning and studio spaces
Calendar offers studio events, booking context and gallery date references. Invitations, external calendar two-way sync and recurring events are not implied by a saved event. Studio spaces lets photographers list a space and invite another account to arrange studio time. Availability, request/acceptance and rental-invoice linkage use the existing studio-sharing tools. An invited photographer needs an account; a studio invitation is distinct from an Admin tester invitation. Read each confirmation before accepting, cancelling or invoicing a hire.
Open step-by-step guideProfile
Professional PDFs and assets
Photographer profile holds optional drone, DBS and public-liability PDFs with explicit sharing controls. Missing fields/documents do not produce empty client cards. Enabled sharing currently applies to that photographer’s active client portals, not one selected recipient. Review sensitive information before sharing; the app does not validate qualifications or insurance. Withdrawing access cannot recall a downloaded PDF. The Asset Register stores your assets details and associated files; it is not an insurance policy or independent valuation.
Support
Feedback, help and contact
Feedback in the workspace records a problem or suggestion and shows replies from Admin. Include what you were doing, the screen, version and relevant error, but not passwords, API keys, private client links or unredacted sensitive files. Contact in the site footer sends a platform enquiry to the Admin inbox. Its email notification is only a prompt to read the message; delivery depends on the configured service. For a specific shoot or invoice, contact your photographer rather than the platform operator. Read public release history from the site footer, or the workspace Releases screen. Admin no longer has a duplicate release-history panel.
Administration
Users, invitations and the unified inbox
Users replaces the old People & studios heading. Invite a photographer creates an ordinary account with manually assigned Studio access and 20 GB, without an initial password or sign-in session. Its private one-use inbox link lets the recipient choose their own strong password. No admin role, charge or renewal is granted. If a request is interrupted, Retry invitation keeps the same original account, licence and pending link. Resend invitation replaces a pending setup link and keeps their current licence and trial; completed accounts use normal password recovery. Ban or Unban is in the Actions menu under an ordinary user’s name; a ban targets the account rather than its IP address. Inbox combines early enquiries, feedback and contact forms, with search, read/archive state and private notes. Delete in Inbox opens one Delete/Cancel confirmation, then permanently removes that selected Admin message, its private note and Admin-only attachments. It does not remove a login account or business records. For feedback, the photographer’s thread, saved reply and shared images remain available to them. Archive is still separate from deletion. Older binned messages are retained until you explicitly remove them. It is not an IMAP mailbox connection; Reply in email app opens the administrator’s mail application.
Administration
Software updates
Open Software updates in Admin and review the current release before choosing its source ZIP. The supervised updater validates the ZIP, prepares an isolated production build and checks migrations before switching code and database together. Existing environment configuration, databases and stored files are preserved. Review the reported result and recovery information. Do not bypass failed validation, overwrite live data or remove .env to force an update.
Administration
Blog and operator information
Admin → Blog saves plain-text drafts and publishes only when Publish is selected. Drafts are not public. Published articles are credited to the GlassSuite journal and show recorded publication and update dates; no individual author is guessed. Public journal pages link older published articles, and the sitemap refreshes from published records when public indexing is enabled. An empty public blog contains no invented posts. The homepage now contains the short founder story; old About links redirect there. Operator name and contact email remain on legal pages; the saved geographic address is private by default. Publishing a suitable business address is a separate server setting. Withholding the home address is not a finding of legal compliance; complete required business disclosures before a commercial launch. Archived agreement evidence is retained privately.
Connections
What needs a provider or further setup
Resend or SMTP must be live for real email, invitations and verification delivery. Road routing needs its configured service, and online invoice payments need their provider setup. GlassSuite subscription settings are managed in the owner's Admin → Subscription billing panel; current checkout uses test payments, with live charging disabled. Native phone file sharing is browser/OS dependent. Off-server backups are an operator responsibility. HMRC submission, bank feeds, hosted email inboxes, social scheduling, complete website building, contract e-signatures and universal screenshot prevention are not available. Do not treat roadmap descriptions as installed functions.
Bookings
Standard bag and job assets
In Assets mark available items as part of your Standard bag when they normally travel with you. Items that are not normally carried can stay unchecked. A new booking can use the current Standard bag, plus any job-specific extras and exclusions. Review the list, add special assets or remove anything not needed, and add private packing notes. If you replace an item in your Standard bag later, future bookings that use the Standard bag reflect the change automatically. Custom asset selections remain independent. Marking a shoot completed freezes the final assets for the historical record. Explicit extras that later become unavailable are flagged for review rather than silently replaced. Serial numbers, asset values and internal asset notes are not sent to clients or printed on invoices. This is a packing plan, not a cross-booking asset-reservation system.
Finance
Link a rate to the job category
Open Finance → Rates & packages. For a new rate choose Photography, Video production or Content creation and an optional relevant category. Existing general rates remain usable; editing one requires an explicit service selection. For example set Photography → Wedding, Hourly, £175, and the required minimum duration. Booking setup suggests one matching rate, preferring the exact category to a service-wide or retained legacy general rate. Several matches require your choice. Saved bookings retain their price basis unless explicitly repriced. An edited rate does not change an issued invoice or an accepted price snapshot.
Clients
Review a client shoot request
An authenticated existing client can use Request a shoot in their portal, enter their dates, times, location, service, category and message, and send it for review. No cost or availability promise is shown at submission. Open Clients → Shoot requests to see the private estimate and local calendar conflicts. Prepare the booking, verify duration, travel, assets and price, and approve or decline with a message. Approval is explicit; overlapping local events require a conflict override. Once approved, Create invoice draft is a separate action. Issue that draft in Finance before it appears as payable in the client portal. This is a request and review workflow, not a full chat thread, automatic booking guarantee or e-signature system.
Bookings
Waive a travel charge without losing the journey
Select Do not add travel to the customer price, even beyond my included miles in booking setup. The customer travel-price line becomes zero even beyond your ordinary included range. The distance and estimated journey time remain available to you and in calendar planning. This does not enter an actual mileage record, establish tax eligibility or silently change an already-issued invoice. Record actual business travel separately after the journey.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Issue and download a photographer invoice PDF
Check your photographer business/legal name, email, business address and bank details in your profile, and the customer billing address before issuing. New invoices are numbered independently per studio from 1000 or the next available higher number. Existing issued numbers and snapshots stay unchanged. The PDF shows description and amounts, supply/issue/due dates, payments received and balance, BACS instructions and photographer contact information. It does not advertise GlassSuite or reveal private assets, internal notes or mileage tax figures. Drafts and voided invoices are clearly marked and must not be paid. This version is a GBP non-VAT invoice foundation, not a VAT invoice generator, automatic Stripe integration or tax return.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Send the invoice to a different email address
Before issue, open Invoice tools and set an optional billing-only email. Leave it blank to use the client’s primary address. Issuing freezes the recipient alongside the invoice details. Email invoice sends a private 14-day link for that one invoice PDF; it does not grant access to all client galleries or the client portal. Check the address carefully because a link holder can retrieve the invoice during its validity. Revoke emailed PDF links from Invoice tools when necessary. Removing that link does not revoke the client’s separate portal access. Changing an issued invoice’s recipient or seller details needs deliberate correction, not an ordinary draft edit.
Open step-by-step guideFinance
Record a paid GlassSuite software invoice
Under Expenses use GlassSuite software invoices only after you have actually paid a supplier bill. Enter the invoice reference, GBP amount and payment date, confirm it is paid and attach the supplier PDF, at most 5 MB. It creates one Software expense and retains private invoice evidence. Reusing the same reference or identical PDF does not duplicate the expense. Do not enter the same cost in the ordinary expenses form as well. Plan assignment, a free invitation or a published monthly price does not count as a bill. Stripe subscription automation is not connected here; real future billing events must be linked separately. Review the business-use and tax treatment with your accountant.
Open step-by-step guideAdministration
Inactive accounts and storage removal
After twelve calendar months without a completed sign-in, an ordinary account on any plan has an initial warning email queued and thirty days from that warning to return before full live-account removal, including files and business records. A final reminder is scheduled seven days before removal. A completed sign-in cancels pending removal. Administrators are excluded; manual and complimentary accounts are included. Existing accounts without reliable earlier sign-in history start from a prospective tracking baseline; newer accounts without a completed sign-in use their recorded creation date. The initial queued warning starts the full thirty-day return period. Failed, suppressed or unread email does not stop the clock or postpone removal. Unresolved safe-removal holds may defer physical erasure. A paid-period end or smaller allowance does not itself erase files; new uploads pause above the allowance. Explicit gallery expiry, gallery Bin cleanup and confirmed manual removal keep their own scope.
Appearance
Choose light, dark or your device setting
Use Appearance in the footer on any page. Choose Light, Dark or Use device setting. The choice is saved in the current browser and applies to public pages, photographer tools, Admin and client pages. Device setting follows the operating system preference. Photographs and QR codes are not colour-inverted. Invoice PDFs and printed documents stay light and readable regardless of the screen theme.
Account security
Repeated attempts, unfamiliar devices and your sessions
After three failed password attempts, sign-in may require the configured human-verification challenge. Repeated failures can cause a temporary account lockout; wait for the indicated period or use normal password recovery. GlassSuite may ask for an existing authenticator code or a code sent to your current inbox when a sign-in needs extra verification. Geographical risk checks require optional server configuration and cannot prove where a person is: VPNs, mobile networks and inaccurate locations can affect the signal. There are no automatic country bans. In Account security review your recorded sign-ins and active sessions, and revoke sessions you no longer recognise. Normal expiry, account bans and MFA requirements still apply.