Custom software and apps for interior designers

Where a design studio loses money

Design is the visible part of an interior design business. Purchasing is where the money is made or lost. A full-service residential project can involve hundreds of items: furniture from trade showrooms, custom upholstery with a separate fabric order, lighting, rugs, window treatments and art, each with its own vendor, lead time, deposit and freight charge.

Every item has to be proposed, approved by the client, paid for, ordered, confirmed, tracked, received at a warehouse or receiver, inspected for damage and delivered on install day. Markups, trade discounts, sales tax and freight have to land correctly on the client invoice. When that lives in spreadsheets, a missing fabric order holds up a sofa for weeks, a backorder is discovered the day before install, or a freight bill never gets passed on. Add design fees billed by the hour, flat fee or percentage, and many studios cannot easily say which projects are actually profitable.

What we build: interior designers software and client app

• Product library: items clipped from vendor sites or entered once, with images, specs, trade price, markup and lead time.
• Proposals and approvals: item-by-item proposals clients approve or comment on, with deposits collected at approval.
• Purchase orders: POs generated from approved items, grouped by vendor, with linked orders such as fabric for custom upholstery.
• Order tracking: acknowledgements, ship dates, backorders and receiving status in one view per project, with alerts when a date slips.
• Install planning: a checklist of what has arrived, what is damaged and what is still out before you book the install.
• Time and fee billing: hourly, flat and percentage fees tracked per project and invoiced with product charges.
• Interior designers app for clients: a branded app or portal showing mood boards, selections awaiting approval, invoices and project status.
• Integrations with accounting software, payment processors and e-signature.

Studio Designer, Houzz Pro and DesignFiles vs. custom

Studio Designer is a long-standing project and accounting tool for design firms. Houzz Pro and DesignFiles are popular options that combine client presentation, proposals and project tools. Each suits many studios, and trying one is a sensible first step for a growing practice.

Custom software fits studios whose process has outgrown standard tools: firms that also run a retail showroom or e-commerce shop, studios that manage large hospitality or multi-unit projects with their own procurement steps, designers who sell their own furniture line, or firms that want a fully branded client experience. A custom build can also cover just the weak spot, such as purchasing and order tracking, and connect to the tools you keep.

A useful test: if your team keeps a separate spreadsheet of orders next to your design software, or if you regularly find out about a backorder from the client instead of the vendor, the tool is not covering the part of the job that matters most.

How a project works

1. Follow one projectWe walk through a recent project from first meeting to install, including every item, PO and invoice.
2. Design the screensYou and your team click through proposals, purchasing and the client app before code is written.
3. Build in roundsPurchasing and order tracking usually come first, since they protect the most money.
4. Bring in your dataWe import your vendor list, product library and open projects.
5. Launch and refineYour team and a few clients start using it, and the monthly plan covers changes over time.

Where AI helps designers

AI can read vendor order acknowledgements and shipping emails and update the order status, pull product details from a vendor page into your library, and draft client update emails from the project status. It can also flag items whose ship dates slipped past the install date. The design choices stay with you.