HOW BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE CAN HELP DESIGN
FIRMS STAY ORGANIZED
Having the right tools to manage your business is
imperative to being able to maintain a high level of
professionalism and progress. Don’t make the mistake
of thinking that running a creative business is any
different. Creative entrepreneurs need to be sharp,
efficient, and organized to thrive in today’s market—
now more than ever. Even if you’re a superhuman
workaholic, you can’t do it all on your own. Your design
firm is going to need some help.
Running an interior design firm is an expensive
proposition. No matter the size of the firm, you’re always
being asked to invest limited resources in a number of
different ways. Determining where to allocate time and
money becomes an art form itself. Unfortunately, a lot
of firms overlook investments that seem secondary
to paying salaries or buying supplies—that includes
investing in business software designed specifically for
interior design firms. The right software solution can be
an invaluable tool, and neglecting to make proper use
of it can put an organization at a serious disadvantage.
T H E R I GH T SO FTWA RE
S O L U T IO N CAN B E AN
I N VA L UA BL E TO O L
If you want your interior design firm to be successful,
you need to understand just how important business
software for interior design firms really is. It is
foundational to the building up of and maintenance of
any firm looking to prosper into the future.
Stay organized and ready for success with business
management software customized for you.
2
Better Processes
VISUALIZE YOUR WORKFLOW
You work in a creative industry and visualizations are
no doubt a large part of your job. So why are they
absent from your workflow? Using business software
for interior design firms can help you not only manage
your processes, but visualize them too. With clear
workflow in front of you, you might be able to see
areas where you can improve your process to cut costs
or increase efficiency. Maybe you’re accidentally doing
a task twice over or maybe a step can be moved earlier
in the process to speed things along.
ACCOUNTING & ACCOUNTABILITY
While things like tracking all of your expenses, no
matter how trivial, might seem to be more of a chore
than it’s worth, the truth is that these practices are part
of a good accounting process. A bad process can lead
to huge headaches for interior design firms. If you’re
not tracking expenses efficiently, how will you know if
you’re over-budget on a project until it’s too late? If
you’re issuing invoices late or failing to track payments,
you could end up seeing a whole lot of red on your
bank statements or a lot of overdue invoices.
3
PROCUREMENT & SUPPLY CHAIN
Consistent procedures and excellent tracking tools
in this area of project management are necessary
for an organized supply chain of goods throughout
the project. Business management software should
include documents, workflow, and reports to allow
you to quickly identify what needs to be done in order
to keep the supply chain flowing in a timely manner.
Concise purchase orders and custom workroom orders
allow designers to clearly communicate to suppliers
what it is they are ordering. Documented POs is the
best way to submit orders to suppliers, providing
a record of what was ordered in case of any error in
production or change in price down the road. Software
should also use the data from purchase orders to feed
an order tracking system so designers can seamlessly
begin the process of monitoring progress, problems,
and completion of each piece.
4
More Time in the Day
ENTIRELY AUTOMATED
Are you still tediously tracking time and then separately
creating manual invoices? If so, you should take the hint
and invest in business management software. After all,
creativity cannot be automated—but dull, repetitive
tasks can. Automating tasks cuts down on human error,
and frees up your time to devote to more important
aspects of running your business.
EFFORTLESS TRACKING AND BILLING
Whether your design firm tracks and bills hourly
time or bills clients using fixed fees, there are vast
improvements to be made in this complicated process.
Often a design firm’s process will include several steps
and methods, using various apps, Excel spreadsheets,
Word documents, paper notebooks, third party
accounting systems, and more. Business management
software will automate and streamline the process of
tracking time and invoices, saving you a huge amount of
time and stress. Find customized software that makes it
easy and enjoyable to track time. The software should
feed tracked time into billing queues and have tools
for building fixed fees and producing variance reports.
EASIER COLLABORATION
Having business management software that is in the
cloud makes collaboration across staff members
simple and efficient. Be done with the disorganization
of multiple versions of shared documents, many
methods of doing the same task, and not knowing
where staff is at in their work. When everyone shares
a central system, organization of work is natural, and
document management problems are a thing of the
past. Collaboration is faster, easier, and more fruitful
than ever.
5
Balance Your Books
BETTER BOOKKEEPING
Bookkeeping is, at its heart, an information science.
Accounting provides vital information to interior
design firms—information that they sometimes don’t
even realize they need. Up-to-the-minute reporting
can help you better track costs of materials and labour.
Reports compiled over time can show you trends
and patterns—where you’re spending too much, why
projects go over-budget, and how you can spend
money more effectively. Better yet, reports can give
you insight into how you operate your business. Are
you wasting time on projects with little to no return,
for example? Keeping the books gives you metrics
by which you can measure—and adjust—your interior
design firm’s success. Integrating business management
software into your bookkeeping process can take a
huge load off.
SMARTER ACCOUNTING, HAPPIER CUSTOMERS
While many interior design firms deliver excellent
customer service to their clients, they’re mostly focused
on the final product. Many firms don’t think about how
important their accounting process is to their clients.
A good process means you can keep your clients up to
date on the costs of their project, take their payments
on time, and issue invoices without delay. The better the
process, the more likely you are to send out reports and
bills that are error-free—including up-to-the-minute
costs and correctly applied deposits and retainers. This
is an integral part of the customer experience.
6
GET INTERIOR DESIGN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
SOFTWARE
Some people will tell you that you can use software
like QuickBooks to manage your accounts for your
interior design firm. Those people are missing out on all
the advantages of using an industry-specific solution:
interior design business management software. These
programs help you keep track of your accounts, as well
as individual projects and clients, and give you unique
insights into your business that standard accounting
software just can’t. While a generic program will do in a
pinch, you’ll be much better off if you engage the power
of business management software designed specifically
for an interior design firm.
7
Partner with DesignDocs
DesignDocs has been built specifically to solve the
financial management challenges facing interior design
and interior decorating firms by automating your core
business functions. Your to-do list might be endless,
but so are the benefits of DesignDocs!
 All of your business documents and the tools needed
to make business decisions in one complete software
solution—that means proposals, invoices, purchase
orders and tracking, project level reports, company
financial reports, tax reporting, and more.
Time tracking and fixed fee management makes the
administration of fee invoicing faster and easier than
ever. Time analysis and fixed fee variance reports also
ensure control and profitability over this key area.

A custom accounting package that equals less time
spent on bookkeeping and greater access to the
information you need.

Streamline the day-to-day processes by putting all your
information under the roof of one easily accessible and
collaborative software with DesignDocs.
8
205N - 300 North Queen St.
Toronto, Ontario
M9C 5K4
+1.888.979.3627