Set Up a Prepay Photo Job

Before you can start using Prepay, please ensure the Prepay feature is enabled in your account. If this is not the case, please reach out to our Customer Care team, and we will be happy to enable it in your account.

To open your Prepay settings, click on the Online Shop page, and then click on Prepay Settings (under Prepay)

[ Classic Interface: Click on the Settings page, then on Online Shop Settings, and click into the Prepay Tab]:

You can adjust the following settings:

• Protected access: If you check this box, each of your Prepay jobs will require a unique access code that you will define in your Job Settings. This access code offers your customers protected access to your Prepay shop. If you don't check this box, customers will be able to access the job instead with the job name that you set up in GotPhoto (e.g. XYZ Highschool Spring 2023). If you handle multiple schools / leagues with very similar names, customers may accidentally select the wrong job. Therefore, we recommend using the protected access code. 
• Title: This is the name of your Prepay page. Keep in mind this will also be visible in the browser tab when people visit your site and in search results in search engines.
• Primary color: You can set the primary color of your store here. This will adjust the color of the top banner in your shop. It is optional, but we suggest not to use white so that all menus stay visible.
• Test mode: This option is no longer supported. Alternatively, you can place a test order using a custom voucher. 

When you set up your Prepay Price List, keep the following in mind: 

• As with any job, you can set the purchase of a package as mandatory (Actions → Settings); the minimal order value restriction can also be used. 
• Offer the Individual Download. It is important not to offer the Download All package or digital multi-pose packages that include multiple downloads, as the regular Prepay workflow only allows single-pose orders.
• Your Prepay shop supports extracted images (PNGs), so you can add Green Screen backgrounds to your Prepay Price List. Another upselling option for your Prepay shop is the product Individual Download With All Backgrounds. It is supported for jobs with extracted images.
  

You will need customer data to inform your potential buyers that pre-orders are open. If you do not have the information, you will need to send the school/organization the following information to send out to parents:

1. Your Prepay shop URL
2. The Prepay job Access Code (if applicable) or the Job name they need to type in on the Welcome page ("School or Event Name"). Customers can either type this in on your regular shop page or the Prepay shop page; in both cases, they will be directed to your Prepay shop after entering the access code.
3. The Prepay deadline (i.e., until when customers can make orders).
4. The estimated time frame for shipping and delivery details
5. If you plan on later switching the job to regular sales (i.e., not Prepay), let your customers know about your discounted Prepay prices.

If you have your customers' emails, use an automated campaign. There are two built-in campaigns for Prepay jobs, one for using an access code and one for searching by job name. Duplicate either of these campaigns and edit them to your liking.

The Prepay campaign contains messages for the following triggers:

• Before Prepay Deadline (14 Days). This email template includes three placeholders for your Prepay shop URL, the Prepay access code, and the Prepay deadline. Important: If you have not selected the protected access code in your general Prepay settings, and customers need to enter the job name instead, please make sure to adjust the wording and placeholder in all notifications for this trigger. You would instead use the placeholder for the job name. Emails are sent only to potential buyers who have not yet placed an order.
• On the Day of the Prepay Deadline. Emails / Texts are sent only to potential buyers who have not yet placed an order.
• Before the Photo Day (7 Days)
• Before the Photo Day (2 Days)

1.  Create a new Photo Job. Enter the name, date, and job type.
2. Scroll down to the Advanced Settings, and check the Prepay box to indicate that this will be a Prepay Job. This step is not mandatory, but it is helpful for statistical purposes.
3. Navigate to the Photo Job Main Settings page, and scroll down to the Important Events section. Check the Prepay box here.
   
4. Select your access type. For Prepay jobs, you must select Access code for each person.
   
5. Select your tagging method. For a Prepay job, you can select QR Tagging — with list of names (if your school/league has provided you with data) or QR Tagging (The system will automatically create your list of names when parents sign up). Learn more about uploading a names list here: Upload Student Data into Your Photo Job
6. Next you will set your Price List.
   Please note: There are two different Price Lists to set on your Photo Job Main Settings page. The Price List under Section 2: Price List will affect your non-Prepay job (i.e. when you turn Prepay off and customers utilize your regular shop). The Price List under the Prepay checkmark in Section 3: Important Events will affect your Prepay shop.
   You can of course select the same Price List for both options.
7. Make sure the Prepay box is checked under Important Events.
8. Set the Deadline for the final date on which orders can be placed.
   • Ideally, the deadline should be 1-2 days before Picture Day. This will ensure you don't have duplicates or wrongly entered data on your list of names and that you don't need to spend additional time merging data.
   • If you decide to allow parents to order after Picture Daylinked to the order; keep the following in mind: If you used blank QR cards in a job where you did not get the subjects' data up front, the customer's order will create a new names list entry with an access code, that is different from the one of the blank QR card you used for the shoot. This can be sorted by changing the subject's access code in the gallery to the one linked to the order, however, it will add some additional work to your workflow. 
     
9. If you selected Protected Access in your General Prepay Settings, set a Prepay Access code. This code must be unique for each of your Prepay/Prepay+ jobs.
   If you'd prefer parents to directly access the links without needing to enter an access code, you can embed the Prepay access code or job name into your Prepay shop URL. Here are two examples for reference:
   • If the Prepay access code is HHS2024 and the prepay shop URL is https://customersuccessus.gotphoto.com/prepay/login, simply add "/" and the prepay access code: https://customersuccessus.gotphoto.com/prepay/login/HHS2024 and include this link in your customer communications.
   • A sample URL if you are using the job name (e.g., Highland Middle School) as the entry requirement:   https://customersuccessus.gotphoto.com/prepay/login/Highland%20Middle%20School .The spaces in the job name have been encoded using %20 to ensure they are properly processed by web browsers.
     
     Please be aware that you will need to add these links in all notifications for the ordering phase of the job. This also means you cannot use the same Prepay campaign in a different Prepay job. If you handle many Prepay jobs, we would not recommend this workflow.
10. Custom fields / Ask parents for…: Choose the necessary additional fields you require from your customers on signup. You can rename the GotPhoto names list column headers (such as Group and Teacher), so they match your individual job (e.g.  Group → Grade, or Group → Coach).
11. Customers will see that they can pay for the bigger package, which makes it an easy decision for parents to upgrade when they like their kids' photos.
    
    • The Prepay Price List that you select under your Prepay job settings will be applied here. 

12. Job Coupon:  Only set a coupon if you plan to use it in the post-prepay phase of your job, as it does not impact your Prepay orders. We recommend incorporating discounts in the Prepay phase into the prices set on the Prepay Price List. For teachers or coaches, you can utilize custom vouchers which can be redeemed in your Prepay shop.

13. Shipping Settings: If you don't check the box for Batch Shipping, your job will automatically be set to direct shipping. When you select Batch Shipping, you will notice that you can’t offer both direct and batch shipping in your Prepay shop, you can only use one at a tine.

    Make sure to set your batch transfer settings to Manual Processing, as the Prepay order population is also a manual task. If you need to put a different shipping address, save the settings first, and then you will see the option to adjust the batch shipping address. 

    Please note: The Advanced Batch Shipping settings won't apply for your Prepay shop, these settings will apply to your regular shop only (if applicable).

14. Archiving: Set an Archiving date, as it will impact the proofing stage following the Prepay phase of the job life. 

15. Save settings before you continue. 

16. Switch the job to Prepay: In order to activate the Prepay phase of your job, switch your job status to Prepay via the status dropdown. Customers can only place Prepay orders when your job status is set to Prepay.

    

    Once the Prepay deadline has expired, your customers will see a note in the shop that the Prepay phase of the job has ended. 

After changing the job status to Prepay, customers will be able to navigate to your Prepay shop and place orders. The URL of your Prepay shop consists of the URL of your regular shop plus the suffix "/prepay" (e.g. https://gotphotostudios.gotphoto.com/prepay).

If you want to check the customer's view in your Prepay shop, you can copy the Prepay access code that you set up in your job, and navigate to your Prepay shop page: On the top of your GotPhoto dashboard, find the link to your Prepay shop under Go to My Shop, then click on Prepay Shop.
[ Classic Interface: Find the link to your Prepay shop under To your Shop..., then click on To prepay shop.]

Customer Workflow

1. In your prepay shop, customers enter the Prepay access code of the job they want to purchase for: 
2. Next, customers enter their name and contact details. The phone number is optional, unless you have set it as mandatory in your Communication Settings.
3. In the following step, they will be requested to enter their child's data. If you have uploaded a names list up front, the system will detect the name, even if the data is slightly different (e.g. nickname instead of legal name, middle name missing, wrong grade or teacher), reducing duplicates in your names list.  Parents will see a pop-up where they can confirm to keep the subject data that is already registered. If this is a new student, or the original name on the names list had a typo, parents can also keep their data entry. In addition, customers can add more children if they are part of the same Prepay job (i.e., if they have the same Prepay code) by clicking on Add Child. Parents with more than one child in a single Prepay job will receive a single email. If they have received another/several Prepay access codes, they will need to finalize the order in the first job, log out of the shop, and then enter the next Prepay code.
   
4. To begin shopping, customers will click on Confirm and shop products.
5. Customers can now add products to their carts. 
   • If you have uploaded your custom package images, they will be displayed in the shop instead of the sample images shown in the screenshot below. 
   • If you have set the package as mandatory in your Price List settings, this will be reflected on top of the à la carte items. 
   • If the customer has added more than one child, the system will ask them when they select a package to choose which child the package is for.
   • If the job is a Green Screen job, customers can view the available backgrounds and select their favorite one.
6. After adding products to the cart, customers will navigate to the cart icon, where they can review/adjust the content of their cart. When they are finished, they will begin the checkout process by clicking the Proceed to checkout button.

7. After the checkout process, customers will end up on the following screen: 

   • View my order will take them to their order overview page:
   • Order for a different child will log the customer out of the existing session so that they can start a new session and enter an additional Prepay access code.
   • Back to shop will keep the customer logged into the shop. They will be directed back to the product page where they can purchase more products for the child/children they already registered. This will create an additional order.

8. Once the first order has been made, you will see two additional buttons on your Photo Job Main Settings page under Prepay:

   • View Orders takes you to the Prepay order collector for this job. There you can see all orders that have been placed for this prepay job

Make sure to perform the following tasks prior to Picture Day:

• Check Your List of Names

Before picture day and ideally after the Prepay deadline, we recommend reviewing your list of names in order to eliminate any duplicates or correct any wrong data.

1. Navigate to the Settings page of the job and click Manage Names.
2. Click the (1) Trigger duplicate detection button on the next page to find all possible duplicates. If duplicates exist, click the (2) Show possible duplicates button. This will set a filter and only show you the possible duplicates.
3. Next to each entry, you will find the option to merge the subject with another duplicate. Follow the steps on the screen in order to merge duplicates into a single entry.
   

Please note: The subject will then have two access codes on the names list, but the system will only generate one QR card (the QR code of the entry you kept on the names list). This means you won't have two QR cards for the same student.

• Create Your QR Cards (Optional)

1. If you use Entagged or SpotMyPhotos as your tagging method, skip to the next step (7. Picture Day Phase).
   Before you generate your QR cards under the QR card tab of the job, you can add additional blank cards for new students or additional staff members/coaches under the Settings page of the job. 

2. Next, generate and print your QR cards, and take them to the shoot.

Please follow our Picture Day checklist for a detailed explanation of how to run your Picture Day.

1. After the shoot, upload your photos to the job, sort the galleries into their respective albums, and activate the access codes (QR Tagging). The Review Phase Checklist runs through these steps in detail.
   ⚠ Important: Do not upload any photos until you have turned off the option for customers to make Prepay orders.
2. Once every subject has their gallery under their unique access code and group photos have been uploaded (if applicable), you are ready to switch the job status to Selling:

1. Navigate to the order collector of the job (Photo Job main settings page → Prepay → View orders):
   
2. Click the Populate Photos button. The index photo in each gallery will be the populated photo for each subject.
   Clicking the red Unpopulate Photos button will unpopulate all photos. If you would like to unpopulate a specific order, find the order and select Unpopulate Photos under the Actions menu.
   Export prepay orders will create an export of all prepay orders for this job. Once created, you can find the export by clicking List exports.
3. To send your orders to the lab, click the blue Send to lab... button (for direct shipping) or Add to batch... (for batch shipping) button. If you have enabled Manual Revision for your job, you will see a blue Send to Manual Revision... button instead. Only orders that have photos populated will be sent to the lab.
   Steps 4-8 are relevant to batch shipping only. If you are using direct shipping, you are finished! 
   
4. The following page will show a summary of orders with photos (Populated Orders) and orders that are missing photos. You will also see a summary of production costs, shipping costs, and fees associated with the populated orders. Click Add to Batch to move the populated orders to your current batch.
   
5. If you have chosen to automatically transfer your batch to the lab, this will happen after the deadline you selected in your job settings. Please note: Only the first two batches will transfer automatically. Any subsequent batches will need to be transferred manually.
6. If you have chosen to manually transfer your batch to the lab, Navigate to the Batch Shipping tab under the Orders page. Find your batch, and click the Open button on the right side of the screen.
7. On the next page, click the blue Prepare production... button.
   
8. On the next page, select what you would like to happen to your Photo Job once the batch is sent to the lab (Archive job, set the job to direct shipping, or start a new batch).
   

Q: Is it possible to include paper orders to the batch of online pre-orders?      
A: Yes, you can use the Order Entry page to add orders that have been placed in paper forms. You will need to add the students manually to the names list of the job before you create the QR cards. If you don't have their names, just add a sufficient number of additional blank QR cards before you generate and print them. In the order collection for the Prepay job, click Add order so that the order will be automatically included.

Q: What if there's a pre-order, but the student is not present on Picture Day, and I have to take re-takes? Am I still able to release the orders that have already been placed, as I can't populate images for that order? 
A: Yes. The system will show you an error message after you've populated the images so that you're aware that there are orders without images. Still, you can hit the Place order(s) now button; the system will move the order without pictures into a new order collection, and all other orders with pictures will move into the open batch for that job:

Q: Can I cancel a Prepay order before I release the order collection to the batch?  
A: Yes, click Actions next to the order that should be canceled in the order entry, then click Delete. 

Q: Can my customers file a complaint for a Prepay order, e.g., if they are not satisfied?
Yes, similar to regular orders, on their order overview page, customers find a link to open a complaint/request. 

Q: How can group photos and Memory Mates be populated? 
If you set up a group print to be available for group pictures only, the system will automatically populate the group pictures.
If you offer memory mates, make sure to enable Manual Revision in that job (Job Settings → Actions → Advanced Job Settings) so that you can replace the individual image that has been populated for the memory mate product with the final image. Once you create the orders in the order entry, they will first be sent to Manual Revision. After replacing the images and releasing the orders, they will go to production for direct shipping orders or into the batch for that job. 

Q: I need to cancel a Prepay order, as I did not take pictures of that student. What is the best practice in this case? 
In the order collection of the job, under Actions, you find the option to delete the order, this will remove the order from the order collection, but you will still be able to find the order when searching for it with the little magnifying glass on the top of your admin area. 

Please note, that this will not refund the customer's payment. You must process the refund in Stripe Express. In addition, if you delete the order from your end, the service fee won't be canceled automatically.

Q: I have orders with missing photos. These subjects were not present on picture day. What's the best practice for handling Prepay Retake pictures? 

Take the retake pictures using the original QR cards for these students, and upload the images into a Retake album of the same job. There, you can activate the access codes and resort them based on the group, teacher, or group/teacher scheme if needed. For Prepay orders, it is important to upload the Retake / Make-Up images into the same job, otherwise, the photos won't populate the orders, even if you use the original access code. 

In your next step, open the order collector (Order Entry tab) and hit the Retry populating photos (if the orders are in a collector with populated orders) or the Populate Photos button. The orders will now populate. 

If you have accidentally populated the wrong photos to an order, or, you've done retake photos, and the order for a student has already been populated with pictures from the first shoot, you will now find the option to unpopulate an order. 

In case you need to unpopulate all orders, we now also show an Unpopulate Orders button in all Prepay order collectors. 

You can also replace an order via the "+Add Order option on the top of the order collector if you have only photos for one sibling of a siblings order.  Please make sure to cancel the original order with our Support team. This way, we can make sure to reimburse the service fee for the first order.