Stages allow you to automate your shopping cart throughout the lifecycle of each job. With Stage Templates, you can create a stage for each phase of your job that controls the duration, cart visibility, price sheet, cart settings (e.g. shipping, tax, watermark), custom form, and whether pre-orders and/or bulk hold are turned on.

You might have a stage for pre-orders, a pause stage for production and image editing, a re-order or proofing stage, and a promotional stage, etc. Stage Templates can be customized and used for a single job or reused for multiple jobs with the same workflow.

❗IMPORTANT

While we’re excited for your studio to start leveraging the new Stages workflow feature, please be aware that adding a Stage to a job will prevent the ability to sync that job for those using the Fall Seasonal Release or Blueprint versions older than 2024.2.7.

To avoid disruption and ensure a smooth transition, we strongly recommend that any adoption of the new Stages feature be coordinated as a studio-wide effort. All users should update to the latest Blueprint release at the same time to prevent compatibility issues.

📝 To use this feature, make sure you've installed the Blueprint version Latest Releases. This can be found by navigating to Preferences > Advanced.

*Only available with Smart Workflow.

Managing Stage Templates

Creating a Stage Template

Under Stages, click New.
Give your template a name and click Create.
The first stage is created for you. You can edit the details for the stage in the Stage Properties menu to the right.
Click Add Stage to include additional stages in the lifecycle of your job.
You can also duplicate a stage, delete a stage, or change the position of a stage.
Click Save when finished.

Editing a Stage

Stage Position determines which stage a job will sequentially use first.
Duration determines the length of each stage. You can choose from the following duration options:
- Set Amount of Time in months, weeks, days or hours after the stage becomes active.
- Specific Date.
- Dynamic Job Date using a chosen date defined inside each job and set to last a set number of days before or after the chosen dynamic job date. If your stage is using a dynamic job date that has already passed in a job, that stage will be skipped and the next sequential stage with a future end date will be used. The dynamic job dates available are:
  - Event Date
  - Yearbook Due Date
  - Retake Date
  - Custom Date 1
  - Custom Date 2
  - Expiration Date
  - Start Direct Shipping Date
- Manual duration requires manually ending the stage inside the job.
Shop Properties determine whether the shopping cart is active and available for ordering. You can also turn on/off pre-ordering, and optionally select a price sheet and/or custom form. If no price sheet is chosen for the stage, the job’s price sheet will be used.

Archiving a Stage Template

Under Stages, check the box next to the Stage Template(s) you would like archived, and click Archive.
To unarchive, check the box next to the archived Stage Template(s), and click Activate.
Note: Archiving a Stage Template will hide it from view in your account, but it will NOT automatically remove the Stage Template from the Job.

Using Stage Templates

Assigning a Stage Template to a Job

Navigate to your Job.
Click Job Settings (gear icon) and scroll down to ADD STAGE TEMPLATE.
Select a Stage Template from the drop-down menu and Sync to save your changes.

Viewing Stages assigned to a Job

Inside your Job, click Tools and select Stages from the drop-down menu.

Manually starting the next Stage

Stages with Manual Duration require you to navigate to the job’s stages and click Start Next Stage underneath the Stage In Progress.

Overriding a Stage Template assigned to a Job

In the event that you need to pause a Stage Template’s automation, you can do so by clicking Use Job Settings under the active Stage.

Click Resume Automation to switch from using Job Settings back to using Stage Settings.