It's January, and time for our annual recap from the past year. These highlights are helpful for us internally, and we like to share them publicly with our friends, family, and customers.
Overall, 2022 was an excellent year for our business and customer booking volume. In fact, in just one week during December 2022, customer payments collected surpassed the $1,000,000 mark. We thank all of our customers for helping us reach this milestone. We also appreciate everyone who took the time to provide feedback and help improve Check Cherry. Big and small, they all make an impact.
Here's a rundown of the highlights from 2022:
Expense Tracking
One of the more popular additions to Check Cherry in 2022 was the ability to log and track business expenses. Customers can enter booking-specific fees, payments to staff members and even automate recurring expenses for subscription services such as website hosting. Customers who use cash-basis accounting can now generate Profit and Loss Statements and cancel a separate account software subscription such as QuickBooks.
Designs Feature Refreshed
Photobooth entrepreneurs often use our Designs feature to allow their clients to pick an image overlay from a predesigned collection of templates. In 2022, we took all the great customer feedback and improved our offering. The Designs feature is even more flexible, and Design Collections can now apply on a package-by-package basis. This allows new bookings to have the right design options for clients automatically.
We also added a bulk uploading feature for customers who curate their own collections of designs. For those who use third-party services, we added a pubic API and saw two companies in the photo booth template industry integrated with Check Cherry. We appreciate Bespoke Booth and Photo Booth Graphics for marking the integrations happen.
Calendar Improvements
A core feature of any great booking software is the calendar. Last year Check Cherry feature set was improved in several ways. We enhanced our Google Calendar integration, allowing bookings to be synced at the company or staff account level. Our universal calendar format (.ics file) integration was also improved. One can now sync Confirmed Bookings, Proposals, Leads, Blockout Dates, and Staff Time Off. Furthermore, one can even create separate subscriptions for each event type allowing for color coding in the calendar program of their choice.
Reporting Enhancements
We continued improving Check Cherry's reporting features in 2022. One such addition was the "Most Popular Package Report." It's a great way to find out what sells most for the year. There were several smaller enhancements to reporting.
Staff Assignment Features
In 2022, we added more options for assigning staff to bookings. Customers can now configure their account to allow their team members to claim a booking and automatically be assigned or allow team members to request a booking assignment. Such requests require approval by an admin before they are assigned to the booking.
Google Tag Manager
Savvy online marketers leverage advertising and Check Cherry's online booking engine to drive sales and quality leads. Our Google Tag Manager integration opens up the door for collecting data from any ad platform to track the effectiveness of online campaigns.
Flex Pricing
We consistently received feedback from customers telling us they wanted the option to surcharge based on the booking's location. Common examples include adding surcharges for high-density areas such as downtown Chicago where traffic and parking are meaningful considerations to the profitability of a booking.
Calendar Widget Improved
We've updated the styling of the embeddable Calendar Widget. The new version is a bit more modern and matches the styling of the calendar picker used during online booking.
Tons of smaller stuff
As usual, there were a lot of small changes. From quick bug fixes to workflow improvements. While these more minor changes don't earn a spot on this list of highlights, it's essential to recognize the little stuff that adds up and makes Check Cherry easier and more enjoyable.
Looking at 2023
We're excited about 2023 and the opportunity to continue improving our service. Check Cherry is maturing, and there are still many great ways we plan to improve our service. Thanks again to our customers who continue to support us and provide quality feedback because it allows us to create a company and service we're proud to offer.