Proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoicing, and tax prep — connected so you don’t have to be the one connecting them. Built for photographers, not accountants.
Here's what a typical workflow looks like for photographers.
Share your inquiry form link. Clients fill out the details — shoot type, date, location — and land in your pipeline automatically.
Pull from past shoots to estimate time and costs. Clearmargin shows averages like "8.5 hrs across 6 similar shoots" so you price with confidence.
One click converts the proposal into a project. Milestones auto-populate: engagement session, wedding day, editing, delivery.
Start a timer for editing sessions. Log mileage to venues. Every hour and every mile feeds into your profitability picture.
Invoice from tracked time or the original proposal amount. Accept cards and ACH. See exactly what you kept per client.
Proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoicing, expenses, and tax prep — all in one place.
A hosted page where clients submit inquiries with shoot details. No back-and-forth emails.
Build proposals informed by your history. See average hours, costs, and margins from similar past shoots.
Standard, overtime, and rush rates. Track shooting, editing, and travel separately with automatic rate application.
Log drives to venues, client meetings, and equipment pickups. IRS standard rate applied automatically.
Set milestones for engagement sessions, shoot day, editing phases, and delivery. Stay on track across bookings.
Generate invoices from tracked time or fixed project amounts. Itemized or consolidated — your choice.
Accept credit cards and ACH bank transfers. Deposit schedules for weddings and events.
See revenue, labor cost, expenses, and true margin per client. Know which bookings actually make you money.
Schedule C categories, quarterly estimates, and export packages for your accountant. QuickBooks and CSV formats.
Explore a demo account pre-loaded with realistic photographersdata — proposals, invoices, expenses, and profitability reports.
Explore the demoMost photographers need to track income, expenses, and mileage for tax purposes, but traditional accounting software like QuickBooks is overkill. A tool built for freelancers — with proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoicing, and tax exports in one place — is a better fit. Clearmargin handles all of this without requiring any accounting knowledge.
The best invoicing tool for photographers connects to the rest of your workflow. If you track editing hours or send proposals before the shoot, your invoicing tool should pull from that data automatically. Clearmargin generates invoices from proposals or tracked time, accepts cards and ACH, and supports deposit schedules for weddings and events.
Photographers should track gear purchases, editing software subscriptions, mileage to shoots, and second-shooter payments. The easiest approach is receipt capture on your phone plus automatic tax categorization. Clearmargin categorizes expenses to Schedule C lines and tracks mileage at the IRS standard rate.
Pricing should be based on your actual costs — not just what competitors charge. Factor in editing time, travel, gear depreciation, and overhead. Clearmargin shows you averages from past shoots (like "8.5 hours across 6 similar shoots") so you can price with data instead of guessing.