COLO gives interior-design studios a single workspace for scoping projects, presenting concept and design proposals, running procurement and installation phases, and giving the client a clean portal to review boards, approvals, and invoices — without spreading the project across a separate proposal tool, a spreadsheet for procurement, and three different email threads per client.
TL;DR
Interior-design studios use COLO to scope projects, present concept and design proposals, run procurement and installation, and give the client a portal for boards, approvals and invoices. Proposals present the concept and the fee, project workspaces hold every phase from discovery to installation, and the client portal runs as your studio rather than a hosted vendor brand.
Who this is for
You are a solo interior designer or a small studio (two to ten people) running residential or light-commercial projects — full-room redesigns, multi-room renovations, FF&E packages, and the occasional commercial fit-out. A typical project runs four to twelve months across discovery, concept, design development, procurement, and installation, with milestone invoices along the way.
The friction tends to be the same shape every project:
- Procurement is a spreadsheet that never matches the email thread. You are tracking forty items across eight suppliers; lead times shift; the spreadsheet says one thing, the supplier email says another.
- Concept and design approvals get lost in WhatsApp. The client approved a fabric on Thursday; on Monday they cannot find the message; on Tuesday they ask for "the other one" — and you are not sure which.
- Milestone payments are awkward conversations. Concept fee, design fee, procurement deposit, installation balance — four invoices that nobody on the client side has a single view of.
Three features interior-design studios use every week
Proposals that present the concept and the fee
Send a branded proposal that lays out the scope (rooms, surfaces, FF&E), the phases, the fee structure, and the milestone schedule. Win more clients with branded proposals and a modern way to collaborate. The client reviews the concept, the fee, and the timeline in one document; the signed proposal opens the project with the milestones already loaded.
Project workspaces that hold every phase
Run each project as a workspace with phases — discovery, concept, design development, procurement, installation, snagging — and the right tasks under each. With COLO's project system, you can implement your project plan by assigning tasks, allocating resources, and coordinating activities. Track project performance against the plan, provide regular updates on progress and milestones, and communicate any changes. Procurement items live against the project with their lead times, suppliers, and deposit status; design boards and approvals live in the same record.
A client portal that is your studio, not a hosted brand
Each client sees a portal with their project milestones, the design approvals waiting for them, and the invoices — on your studio's brand and domain. A client portal for a web application is a secure, user-friendly interface designed to enhance communication, collaboration, and transparency between contractors and clients. When the client wants to approve the fabric, they do it in the portal; the decision is timestamped against the project; nobody has to scroll through WhatsApp.
For more, see proposals and the client portal.
A typical project in COLO for an interior-design studio
- Enquiry — a homeowner or commercial client fills your contact form; the lead lands as a client record with the brief and the property details captured.
- Onboarding — you send a branded proposal scoping the phases, the FF&E budget bracket, and the milestone schedule; the client signs and pays the discovery fee; the project opens with the phases pre-loaded.
- Delivery — concept boards, fabric selections, supplier quotes, and procurement items log against the project; the client approves in the portal; the team sees the full task list and the lead times.
- Payment — milestone invoices fire as each phase opens (concept, design, procurement deposit, installation, snagging); the client pays from the portal; the finance dashboard shows revenue and margin per project.
How interior-design studios use COLO today
Monday morning, the senior designer opens the workspace to a board of four active projects — a residential redesign mid-installation, a multi-room renovation in procurement, a light-commercial fit-out in design development, and a new homeowner enquiry from the weekend. The procurement view shows forty items across eight suppliers; lead times are real-time; nothing is in a spreadsheet that needs reconciling against an email thread. The client portal, branded on the studio's custom domain on the Grow plan, shows each client only their own project — boards to approve, milestones in flight, paid and outstanding invoices.
Through the week, fabric and finish approvals happen in the portal — the client clicks approve, the decision is timestamped against the item, the supplier order goes out with confidence. The lead time on the kitchen cabinetry shifts by two weeks; the procurement item updates once and the team and the client both see the new installation date. When the client mid-project asks for a fabric change in the master bedroom, the change-order proposal goes out for a separate fee; the original project keeps its agreed phases.
By month-end the design-fee invoice for the project that closed has fired; the procurement-deposit invoice for the project that opened concept has fired; the finance dashboard shows revenue and margin per project — and the renovation that has quietly absorbed too many designer hours becomes visible. Six months later, when the client wants the studio to take on their next property, the original project becomes the reference — every decision, every supplier, every approval is one click away.
What it costs vs your current stack
Most interior-design studios carry a four-tool stack — a project tool, a procurement spreadsheet, a separate billing app, and a CRM or proposal tool. The monthly bill comes to roughly $140–220 before the first project of the month opens design development. COLO replaces the four with one workspace.
| Tool | Plan | Cost/month |
|---|---|---|
| Current 4-tool stack | Asana + Studio Designer + QuickBooks + HoneyBook | ~$190 |
| COLO Solo | Free | $0 |
| COLO Pro | Per user/mo | $18 |
| COLO Grow | Per user/mo | $24 |
You swap a $190/month stack for one tool that already does this work. Pro covers up to 5 designers; Grow covers up to 10 designers and adds the white-label client portal on the studio's custom domain.
FAQ
Q: Can I track procurement items with lead times, deposits, and supplier confirmations against the project?
Yes — each procurement item lives against the project with the supplier, the lead time, the deposit status, and the delivery window. When a lead time shifts, you update one record, not three.
Q: How do I get approvals on fabrics, finishes, and FF&E without losing the audit trail?
Approvals happen in the client portal; the client clicks approve, the decision is timestamped against the item, and the supplier order goes out with confidence.
Q: Can the client see the design and the milestones without seeing my internal procurement margin?
Yes. The portal shows the milestones, the approvals, and the agreed FF&E budget; your internal supplier margin and procurement strategy stay on your side.
Q: How does COLO compare with running a generic project tool plus a separate proposal tool plus a procurement spreadsheet?
For most studios, the all-in-one keeps concept, procurement, and milestone billing tied to the same project. See our post on best workflow systems for growing businesses and our HoneyBook comparison for the side-by-side.
Q: Can the client portal carry our studio's brand and custom domain?
Yes — the Grow plan includes a white-label portal on your custom domain so the client experience reinforces your studio, not a hosted comparison brand. See our pricing for plan details.
Q: How do we handle supplier deposit timing without paying out of pocket?
Vendor deposits log as expense items with their own due dates against the project; the client's procurement-deposit invoice schedules alongside them; the finance view shows the net cash flow for the project so you can sequence payments correctly.
Q: Can we run residential and light-commercial projects with different phase templates?
Yes. Hold one project template per work type — residential redesign, multi-room renovation, light-commercial fit-out — each with its own phases, tasks, and milestone schedule.
Q: Can clients reply to fabric approvals from their phone?
Yes. The portal works on mobile; the client opens the approval link, taps approve or comment, and the decision logs against the item. No desktop login required.
Q: How do we invoice the design fee in one phase and the procurement margin in another?
Each phase has its own milestone invoice; design fees and procurement deposits live as separate line items so the client portal shows the full billing history without confusion about what is paying for what.
Q: Can we run multiple designers per project with task ownership?
Yes. Assign tasks per designer; the senior lead sees workload across designers; the per-project budget shows time logged per team member so renewal conversations start with data.
Pricing
Solo plan is free forever for one designer. See our pricing for Pro (up to 5 users) and Grow (up to 10 users, white-label, custom domain) plans for a small studio.