The scenario. Ten days before an outdoor family session, the client emails: can we move it to the following Saturday? You say yes, change the date, and get on with your day.
That last part is where it goes wrong. Moving a booking is not one change — it is one change plus about six consequences, and most of them are easy to miss.
Open the booking → change the date
Do this first, because almost everything else follows from it.
Things that update on their own, because they are worked out from the booking rather than stored beside it:
On the booking → Shoot Conditions
This is the consequence people miss, and it is the one that actually affects the photographs.
A week’s difference is not nothing. In spring and autumn, sunset moves by roughly ten to fifteen minutes a week at UK latitudes — so a session scheduled for the last of the light now starts after it. In the other direction you may have gained an hour of usable light and can offer a better time.
If the location is coastal, the tide has moved much further. The tidal cycle runs about fifty minutes later each day, so a week later the same clock time is a completely different state of tide. A shoot planned for low water may now be at high water.
Decide now whether the new date still works at the agreed time, or whether the time needs to move too.
Nothing is sent on your behalf — that is deliberate — so this is the part that needs you.
Crew. Anyone on the roster was booked for the old date. Check they can do the new one before you consider it settled; a second shooter with another job that Saturday is a problem worth finding out about now.
The call sheet, if there is one. It carries the old date on every slot. Regenerate it and send it again.
The client. Confirm the new date in writing. The booking confirmation message is already written and will pick up the new details.
The contract, if one has already been signed, names the old date. For a small move most clients will not mind an emailed confirmation; for a significant one, issue a fresh contract. Whichever you choose, do not leave the only signed document describing a date that is not happening.
The invoice due dates. A deposit due date that has already passed is fine; a balance due seven days before the shoot is now due at the wrong time. Check them.
The delivery promise. Turnaround runs from the shoot, so a job moved a week is delivered a week later. If you have already told the client a delivery date, either update the deliverable’s promised date or tell them it has moved. This is the most common source of a delivery that feels late when it is not.
A booking pushed by months rather than days is worth treating as a different job:
Look at whether the booking is past the free cancellation point — the dashboard flags bookings approaching it, and that flag exists precisely so this conversation happens before the deadline rather than after.
Then decide what happens to the deposit, which is what your contract is for. The date you took off the market is the thing you are being compensated for, and a week’s notice on a Saturday in June is a real loss.
| Module | Guide |
|---|---|
| Bookings | Bookings |
| Light & Sky | Light & Sky |
| Tides | Tides |
| Crew | Crew |
| Call Sheets | Call Sheets |
| Invoices | Invoices |
| Notifications | Notifications |