Studio Manager 15

Essentials

  • Studio Manager 15 was released December 22, 2016. It runs beautifully in FileMaker Pro 16 and 15 and acceptably with FileMaker Pro 14. We’re crazy about FileMaker 15 because it’s more powerful and secure than ever before. Upgrading to FileMaker Pro 15 is highly recommended.
  • Excellent iPhone and iPad versions are included. Most of our customers use Studio Manager from their desktop and laptop Macs. But some like the convenience and portability of being able to access Studio Manager, whether on the go or on the couch, with an iPhone or iPad. The performance is great on these mobile devices using the free FileMaker Go app. Studio Manager’s Mobile layouts are designed specifically for efficiency and speed. The app automatically detects the iPhone model you are using and shows you only relevant layouts that are sized correctly. Additionally, job creation, estimating and invoicing are available on an iPad.  Reporting features include the ability to print invoices directly via iOS to your AirPrint-enabled printer. In 2017 we spent a huge chunk of our development time on improving and expanding the capabilities and interface of the mobile layouts.
  • Our goal is to update Studio Manager annually. Last year we implemented a load of cool features and this year took it to another level. FileMaker 15  brought enhanced support for object states, SVG graphics and button bars. New developer tools continue to make FileMaker, and thus Studio Manager, more efficient.  The final result is a sharper-looking, responsive app that will engage you and your user. Our mission includes making your mission-critical management tool, Studio Manager, both appealing and fun to use.
  • The new SM16 Demo will be available soon. Open the Demo tab. The demo allows you to see for yourself Studio Manager’s remarkable feature set. We want to make running the business of creative services sane and simple. We know how hectic things get in your world. Take Studio Manager for a test drive to see just how elegantly it handles complex calculations, estimates and change orders, invoicing, reporting and keeping track of all the contacts in your world. FileMaker also offers trial versions. So, for no money, you can see exactly what you are paying for.
  • Starts at the amazing price of $695 for the full product single-user license. 4-user is $1395, 10-user $2295. Volume discounts drive the seat cost down as the number of seats goes up.

What’s New in Studio Manager 16?

Improved upon and flattened the CSS Theme. We “CSS-styled” every nook and cranny (tech speak for “layout”) so you can change colors, fonts, sizes, alignment, capitalization and more all across Studio Manager rather than doing it one layout at a time. You just modify a Style and update it to the Theme to change formatting to your liking across all layouts using that Style. SM14.5 was close; now we’ve gone all the way with 15.

Replaced the theme for all 3 supported sizes of iPhone: iPhone SE/5, iPhone 7/6 and iPhone 7/6 Plus. We introduced button bars and lots of goodies for the user interface, including SVG graphics, now the same as those seen on the computer. Many hours we into perfecting the user interface for you, to make using Studio Manager 15 fun as well as easy to use. Our commitment to constantly improving Studio Manager is so your hard working staff can pay more attention while entering the data your need to run your business with grace.

Studio Manager 16 is faster than ever thanks to another breakthrough in responsiveness from FileMaker 16. FileMaker Pro 16 and its little sister, FileMaker Go, have been seriously optimized.  You’ll notice that especially on the iPad and iPhone, things snap. No more waiting for screen redraws with fast broadband. FileMaker continues to tweak their product, continually adding to performance and squashing bugs. Thanks to automatic updating of MacOS and iOS, you are kept current whether you pay attention to such details or not.

Big Upgrades to iOS Functionality. FileMaker Go, free on the App Store, always installs the most recent version. It will run Studio Manager versions 14, 15 and 16. So, don’t hesitate. This works on our demo too, if you want to try it out. You can even install the demo of Studio Manager 16 on your iPad or iPhone (using iTunes) and check it out at your convenience.

Clearly, we’d like you to use FileMaker 15 to run Studio Manager 15, but our testing and experience show that you can keep running FileMaker 14 if speed and security are not issues that concern you. We don’t think you have to upgrade every year unless you have compelling reasons to do so.

Most important in iOS:

  • Speed. FileMaker Go 15 is extremely robust and fast. Given the experience in the past few years, expect Filemaker Go to continuously become faster and more feature-rich as FileMaker and Apple keep driving the iPhone and iPad platform forward.
  • Create Jobs and more. The iPad version allows you to create jobs, estimates and invoices wherever it’s convenient, like at your client’s office. Can you imagine how impressed you customer will be? No waiting!
  • Key Reports. The 13 most essential reports, Like Job Status and A/R are available from your iPhone or iPad.
  • Timesheets and Tasks. Essential features like the entry of timesheets and the ability to see your assigned tasks and mark them done are much more useable due to a robust, improved FileMaker Go 15 architecture.
  • Storing PDFs. FileMaker Go 15 is great with PDFs, you can now store the PDF for each invoice right in the Invoices entry screen, on its own tab. That way the exact record of what went out the door to the client is there for reference. If you like this, you can add additional documents to the database such as estimate PDFs. The 80-20 rule means that storing a few key documents in a small amount of storage often makes a big difference.