Case Study/Candid Studios

A custom operating system for a multi-state photography and videography company

Savage Digital Solutions built Candid Studios a custom CRM, project, and billing platform. Lead, score, assign, quote, pay, and client comms run in one system, not six tools.

3,000+
Events on the books
6
Staffed service states
CRM
Projects and billing, custom-built
1
Path from inquiry to paid job
Client Background

About Candid Studios

Candid Studios is a photography and videography company. Weddings, events, and related work across Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, Texas, and New York. More than 3,000 events. Off-the-shelf CRMs did not match how jobs actually move.

Savage Digital Solutions built the system they run on: a client portal with CRM, projects, and billing, wired to the way the team already takes work.

  • Photography and videography
  • 3,000+ events
  • Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Colorado, Texas, New York
  • Custom CRM, projects, and billing. Not a resold tool.
CS
Candid Studios
Photography and Videography
The Challenge

The process did not fit a template CRM

High-touch jobs, multiple people on a crew, quotes with a lot of variables, and clients who need updates. A generic pipeline is not that business.

Volume without a system

Inquiries, assignments, and follow-up lived in too many places. The team was the glue.

Quotes tied to the job

Packages, hours, travel, photo and video. A quote has to come from the job, not a blank invoice.

Admin in the critical path

Scheduling, billing, and client updates sat between the inquiry and the actual shoot.

The Solution

Lead to payment in one system

We built a custom platform with workflow automation around the real path: capture the lead, score it, assign the job, quote it, take payment, and keep the client in the loop.

Lead capture and scoring

Inquiries land in one place, get scored, and show the team who to talk to next. No copying from a form into a spreadsheet.

Assignment

Jobs route to the right photographer or videographer instead of living in a shared inbox.

Quotes and billing

Quotes generate from the job, payments collect in the same system, and the ledger stays attached to the project.

Client communications

Status, files, and follow-up sit on the job record so the couple is not chasing a thread of separate emails.

Ops visibility

Pipeline, project status, and billing in one portal the team actually uses.

What changed

Before vs. after

Process change only. No invented conversion or revenue numbers on this page.

Step
Quote generation
Before
Built by hand for each inquiry
After
Generated from the job in the portal
Step
Lead handling
Before
Inbox, notes, and spreadsheets
After
Captured, scored, and assigned in one flow
Step
Payment collection
Before
Separate invoicing after the fact
After
Quote to pay on the same record
Step
Client communications
Before
Scattered email and text threads
After
Tied to the project in the client portal
Stack

Built, owned, and run

Next.js
TypeScript
PostgreSQL
Prisma ORM
Stripe Payments

Need a system that matches how you actually take jobs?

If a template CRM still leaves you in a spreadsheet, we can map the path and build the missing piece. You own the code.

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