A client is the entity you invoice — a couple, a family, a developer, a
hotel group. Projects hang off clients, so the client comes first.
Create one
Add client takes a name, an email and a phone number. That is the
minimum; you can fill in the rest later.
Most residential jobs have more than one person in them: two partners with
different opinions, a house manager, an assistant who handles scheduling.
Commercial jobs have more.
Add each as a contact on the client record, with their role. It keeps
the addressing right and means nobody has to remember which email address
the approvals go to.
Several projects
One client can have many projects — the apartment, then the country house,
then the office. Keeping them under one client means:
- One relationship, one history — Everything you have done for them is
in one place.
- Invoices roll up — You can see what a client owes across all their
jobs.
- Contacts stay put — Entered once, used by every project.
What the client sees
Clients do not log in to Atelier. They receive links:
- Shared pinboards — where they comment and approve.
- Shared schedules — what was specified, what it costs, where it is.
- Proposals and invoices — the commercial documents.
Only pinboards talk back: a comment or approval there lands in your
Inbox. Schedules are read-only for the client, and accepting a
proposal or invoice doesn’t notify anyone — check Finance for those.
Before sharing a schedule, hide vendor cost and markup.