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You held the whole day. They booked, then vanished.
Cancelled shoots, twelve months
$5,400
$450 × 1 missed a month × 12, or $450 a month. Your figures, our multiplication.
You scouted it, packed for it, and said no to two other enquiries. Sessurely takes a deposit that holds the date, charges the late cancel for you, and keeps the balance on the record.
Want late cancels in the figure too? The full calculator splits them out and subtracts our fee.
The business you are actually in
A shoot date is perishable. The Saturday you held expires on Saturday, and the light you planned around does not come back until next year.
Which is why a cancelled shoot is not a gap in a diary. It is a day you turned other work away for.
A Saturday you held
Left is how it goes now. Right is the same Saturday with a deposit and a policy behind it.
Today
What it costs you
With Sessurely
What changes
Today
You turned down two other enquiries for that date.Both booked somebody else weeks ago. The day is now empty and there is nothing to put in it.
With Sessurely
The date is not held until the deposit is paid.So the day you block is a day somebody has committed money to, and the enquiries you turn away were worth turning away.
Today
You scouted the location and packed the night before.Permits, batteries, a lens you hired specifically. Spent before anybody stood in front of the camera.
With Sessurely
The deposit covers what you spend before the shutter.Taken at booking and forfeited on a late cancel, so the hire fee and the scouting are not yours alone.
Today
Golden hour was the entire plan.It is a forty-minute window that does not move. A client running ninety minutes late is a shoot that cannot happen.
With Sessurely
The time and the terms are on the booking.Confirmed, reminded, and legible before they pay, with a deadline written as a real date rather than hours to work out.
Today
“Can we move it, the forecast looks bad?”Asked on Friday night, for a Saturday, and now you are deciding whether to be the difficult one.
With Sessurely
They move it themselves, inside your window.Outside your window nothing is charged and the date frees up. Inside it, the fee you set applies. You are not the one deciding.
Today
The balance is due on delivery and you are chasing it.Gallery sent, invoice sent, and now a fortnight of polite reminders for work already done.
With Sessurely
What is still owed sits on the record.Deposit paid, balance outstanding, and both are on the booking so you know what is still owed on the day.
Today
You would have to keep a deposit from somebody who is upset.A wedding moved, a family thing happened, and the policy you never wrote down is not going to survive that conversation.
With Sessurely
The policy was agreed in writing before they paid.Your window, your fee, visible on the page at the moment of booking. That is the whole reason it holds.
Deposits, the card on file, no-show and late-cancel fees, packages and gift cards, follow-ups drafted for you, and a freed slot offered to your waitlist on its own are part of Pro. Starter keeps the booking page, the client book, intake forms, a waitlist you offer by hand, and email and text reminders, free with no clock on it. Compare the plans.
What a $150 deposit on a $450 shoot is worth
One sum, at shoot prices, that you can check on the back of a model release.
One cancelled shoot a month
$5,400
A year of held days at $450 a shoot. Nothing recovers any of it, because there was nothing held.
With a $150 deposit on each
$1,800
Forfeited to you across the same year, on the card they agreed to at booking. Stripe’s processing and our 2% come off that, line by line here.
Pro, for the year
$599.99
An effective $49.99 a month. One recovered deposit every four months more than covers it.
Arithmetic, not a forecast. Most of the value is that fewer dates fall through at all once a deposit holds them, and that is deliberately not in these figures because we cannot measure it for your diary.
Day one
What to set, and then leave alone
A deposit that holds the date
A third of the shoot fee is the common shape, so $150 on a $450 booking. It counts toward the total, so nobody pays extra to book, and the date is not blocked until it is paid.
Forty-eight hours to a week
A whole day needs real notice, because you cannot refill a Saturday on a Thursday. Inside your window a late cancel is charged the fee you set. Outside it, they move themselves and nothing is charged.
Then nothing
Reminders go out before the shoot with the call time and what to bring. Intake collects the shot list and the details before the day. Follow-ups are drafted so last year’s family session books again this year.
None of this is a tactic you can run from a notebook. A deposit needs a payment processor, and a no-show fee needs a card that was authorised at booking. That is the part software has to do. How the charge works.
Never the same word twice
A saved card is not a payment. You should never have to wonder which one you have.
- Due
- What a client still owes you. Nothing has arrived.
- Held
- Deposits already paid, sitting in your Stripe balance, set aside for a booking that has not happened yet.
- Collected
- Money that arrived, including cash you recorded by hand.
- Recovered
- Fees kept or charged on appointments nobody attended. Green, because it is money kept.
Deposit paid
$150 taken · counts toward the $450
Money already in your Stripe account, set aside for that appointment. It comes off what they owe on the day.
Card held
$0 taken · $450 on the card
Nothing charged. The card is saved and only used if they miss it or cancel inside your window.
No deposit
$0 · nothing to charge
If they do not arrive, the time is simply gone. This is the state every other booking link leaves you in.
Different words, different borders, and the amount on every row. Your accent colour is yours to choose, which is exactly why colour never carries the meaning on its own.
More than no-show protection
No-show protection is where most photographers start. Sessurely runs the whole diary: your own booking page, a calendar that stays in sync, and a real client book with every shoot, what was paid and what is still owed. Send intake forms and shot lists before the day, sell gift cards and packages. Reminders go out on their own, and follow-ups are drafted for you to approve.
You keep what you earn. There is no commission on your appointments, money goes straight to your own Stripe account, and your clients are always yours.
Pricing
Free for everyone, with no clock on it.
Starter does not expire and never asks for a card. We would rather be paid when appointment protection actually produces money than charge you for a calendar.
So when it produces money, we take 2% of a deposit or a no-show fee, capped at $10.
Nothing on your prices. Nothing on packages or gift cards. Nothing added to what your client pays.
Starter
Free for everyone
Start on StarterNo card. No trial clock. It does not expire. Your booking page, client book, calendar, intake forms, a waitlist, email reminders and 100 texts a month to U.S. numbers.
Pro
Free for 7 days$69.99/mo
Get paid with ProOr $599.99 a year, an effective $49.99 a month. Deposits, no-show and late-cancel fees, card on file, packages, gift cards, and unlimited texts to U.S. numbers. Follow-ups are drafted for you to approve, never sent on your behalf.
FAQ
Questions from photographers
Can I require a deposit to hold a shoot date?
Yes, and that is the right shape for shoot work. The date is not held until the deposit is paid, so the enquiries you turn away are ones you turned away for a committed booking.
Does it handle travel or on-location shoots?
Yes. Each service carries its own duration and location, and you can block out travel time around a booking so a two-hour shoot an hour away does not get double-booked.
How big should a shoot deposit be?
A third of the fee is the common shape, so around $150 on a $450 booking. It comes off the total, so nobody is paying extra to book, and it is enough that a date is genuinely committed to.
What if a client wants to move the date?
Outside your window they move it themselves from a private link and nothing is charged. Inside it, the fee you set applies. The window and the fee are per service, so a wedding can need a week’s notice while a headshot needs two days.
I shoot out of a studio I share. Is this for me?
Yes. If you set your own prices and keep what you charge, this is built for you. The account is yours, not the building's: your booking page, your clients, your policy and your prices stay separate from whoever else works in the room, and you can export everything we hold in one file on any plan.
I shoot for a studio that pays me a cut. Is this for me?
Probably not yet, and we would rather say so. The deposit, the no-show fee and the cancellation window would be your employer's decisions rather than yours, and those are the parts of Sessurely that do the work. When you go independent, this is here.
Get started
That $5,400 is still sitting in your diary.
Set your page up in minutes and let Sessurely protect every appointment. Start free on Starter with no card and no trial clock. Pro is $69.99/mo, or $599.99/yr for an effective $49.99/mo, and free for your first 7 days.