# AI credits
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/credits
How AI usage is metered — the included allowance, top-ups that roll over, and where to see what was spent on what.
See **Settings → Billing** for your studio's current allowance, balance,
reset date and available top-ups. Public plan information is on
[Atelier pricing](https://getatelier.design/pricing).
AI features in Atelier are metered in **credits**. Different AI actions can use different amounts of credit; one request is
not necessarily one credit. Manual editing does not use AI credits.
**Settings → Billing.**
## Two pots, and they behave differently
* **Included allowance** — comes with your subscription, counted per
seat. **Resets every billing period**; unused credits do not carry
over.
* **Top-up balance** — bought separately when you need more. **Rolls
over**, and does not expire while you are subscribed.
The Billing page shows both: a progress bar for the included allowance
with its reset date, and the top-up balance underneath.
Order of use matters for planning: the included allowance is the one with
a deadline. If you have both, it makes sense to think of the top-up
balance as reserve rather than as budget.
## Buying more
Top-up packs are offered directly on the Billing page. Prices and pack
sizes are shown there and on the pricing page — they change from time to
time, so the app is the place to read them, not this page.
## Where they go
**Recent AI usage** on the same page lists what was spent, feature by
feature, with the credit cost and the date. It is the answer to *why are
we down to eighty credits*.
| Feature | Where |
| - | - |
| **Proposal analysis** | Uploading a signed contract on **Finance → Proposals** and letting Atelier extract its phases, fees and payment schedule. |
| **Pinboard composition** | Having Atelier assemble a board for you. |
| **Product extraction** | Reading a product out of a vendor page. |
| **Background removal** | Processing a new product cutout. An available cached result is reused without another removal charge. |
| **Table recognition** | Reading a schedule from a PDF or table image. |
| **Vendor import** | Extracting a vendor from a card, document or website. |
The usage log names each one as it runs, so the current list is always
the one on your own Billing page.
## Managing usage across a team
Credits are counted per seat but pooled for the studio — so one person
doing a large import draws on the same balance as everyone else.
If credits disappear faster than expected, read the usage log before
buying more. A single bulk import of a whole vendor catalogue looks very
different from steady daily use, and only one of those is worth topping
up for.
## New-studio trial
Your first studio starts a **14-day trial at signup**, without a credit card or a separate activation step. It includes access to the product and an AI allowance. See **Settings → Billing** for the end date and current balance.
The free trial is available once per account and verified email. Additional studios require a subscription, even if the first studio is still in its trial. Deleting a studio or re-registering with the same verified email does not restore eligibility. Joining someone else’s team uses that studio’s subscription.
When the trial ends, subscribe to continue. Your project data is retained; trial expiry does not delete your projects, boards or schedules. Starting checkout during the trial does not start another 14 days. An exhausted AI allowance and an expired trial are different conditions—check the Billing page to see which applies.
# Read finance records and prepare drafts with AI
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/finance-drafts
Ask about invoices and agreements, then draft proposals, invoices, change orders and purchase orders for review.
Use **AI Chat inside Atelier**. Finance reading and draft-writing tools are available across the app; name the project or document, then open the result in **Finance**. The external connector does not expose these direct finance-document tools.
## Read the existing records
Ask the assistant to find invoices by project, client or status and read their lines, totals and payment state. It can also read proposals, purchase orders, change orders and payment milestones.
Try “Which Maple Street invoices still have a balance?”, “Has this proposal been accepted?” or “Which payment milestones have not been billed?” A milestone describes a planned payment; an invoice is a separate billing record. Check the linked records rather than treating them as the same thing.
## Draft the next document
| Document | Example request | Review before sending |
| - | - | - |
| Proposal | “Draft a proposal for Maple Street using this scope, fee and payment schedule.” | Client, wording, fee items, phases and milestones. |
| Invoice | “Draft an invoice for these approved schedule products.” | Project, quantities, client prices, discounts, tax and totals. |
| Purchase order | “Draft a purchase order to this vendor for the selected products.” | Vendor, product variants, quantities, trade prices and delivery details. |
| Change order | “Draft a change order for the additional guest-bedroom scope with these fees.” | What changed, the reason, scope and price. |
The resulting document stays **Draft**. Ask for the document number, line count and total, then open it to verify the saved result. Calculations use the supplied inputs; AI should not invent a tax rate or price.
## Revise a draft
Name the document and the exact change. For example: “In draft invoice INV-2026-003, change the chair quantity to four and keep the other lines.” Check the complete document after the edit, including lines that should have stayed unchanged.
The assistant can revise draft proposal wording, fees, phases and payment milestones. Changing a payment schedule needs review of the whole schedule and its phase relationships.
## Finish in Finance
AI cannot send or issue these documents, record payments, accept agreements, confirm purchase orders, cancel or delete finance documents, or edit them outside Draft status. It can still read supported issued documents to help explain them.
Use the manual guides for [Proposals](/finance/proposals), [Invoices](/finance/invoices), [Change orders](/finance/change-orders) and [Purchase orders](/finance/purchase-orders). Record and apply client advances through [Retainers](/finance/retainers); the assistant has no dedicated retainer-ledger tools.
For received vendor quotes, use [Project → Documents](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes) and [AI pricing workflows](/ai/project-workflows). Preparing a pricing-request email is separate from issuing a finance document, and does not send email.
# Use AI Chat across Atelier
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/get-started-with-ai-chat
Open one assistant for the studio, attach source material and understand how the current page changes its tools.
Open **AI Chat** from the sidebar. The same conversation follows you around Atelier. You can write in your preferred language; use the names of projects, products and controls as they appear in the app.
## Choose the right page
General studio work—finding records, planning tasks, managing contacts, timers and finance drafts—is available across the app. Opening a pinboard or schedule gives the assistant that record's contents and its specialised editing tools.
| What you want | Where to start |
| - | - |
| Today's priorities, task planning or a timer | AI Chat from any page; name the project or task. |
| Edit a presentation, its images or pages | Open the pinboard, then AI Chat. |
| Edit pricing, shipping fields, custom columns or sourcing candidates | Open the schedule, then AI Chat. |
| Read or draft an invoice, proposal, change order or purchase order | AI Chat; name the document or project, then review the result in Finance. |
| Save procurement paperwork | Open the relevant project or schedule and attach the file in your current message. |
| Use a connected external assistant | See [Use Atelier from Claude](/ai/use-atelier-from-claude); the tool set differs from in-app Chat. |
After navigating, name the intended record again when “this” could refer to something from an earlier message. Opening the Finance page does not give the assistant permission to send a document or record a payment.
## Attach material
Use the paperclip, or drag a file into the chat. The composer accepts up to six attachments: PDF, PNG, JPEG, WebP and GIF. Wait until the current turn finishes before adding more files, and check that the attachments are visible before sending.
Describe the job: “Review this quote against the living room schedule,” “Save this floor plan in Maple Street,” or “Extract proposed tasks from this client message.” Reading a file and saving it as a project record are separate actions. Ask explicitly to save files you want to keep.
For spreadsheets, use the schedule's [Import workflow](/ffe-schedules/import-and-export). For speech, supply a transcript; do not assume the file picker transcribes audio.
## Review the kind of result
| Result | What to do |
| - | - |
| Answer or suggested wording | Review it; it is not evidence that a record was created or a message sent. |
| Preview awaiting approval | Check the proposed records, values and uncertain matches; approve only the work you want. |
| **Apply / Dismiss** card | Inspect the proposed changes. Apply writes them; Dismiss leaves the proposal unapplied. |
| Confirmed edit | Open the record and check the saved result. |
| **Undo last change** | Offered for supported changes to the currently open board or schedule after the write finishes; verify the restored result. |
**Stop** stops the active response. It does not roll back changes already made. After an interrupted turn, inspect the target record before repeating the request.
Chat history is not a backup or a complete record search. Ask the assistant to find saved documents in Atelier when continuing earlier work.
Continue with [Tasks, projects and timers](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers), [Schedules and sourcing](/ai/schedules-and-sourcing), [Finance drafts](/ai/finance-drafts), or [Meetings, files and vendor pricing](/ai/project-workflows).
# Daily briefs, meetings, files and vendor pricing
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/project-workflows
Use AI to turn project information into a reviewable next step, then approve the changes you want saved.
Use **AI Chat** in Atelier for these workflows. The connected assistant also exposes the corresponding project tools, but attachment handling depends on that assistant: use Atelier Chat when a workflow needs a file attached to the current message. Give the project name whenever a source could belong to several jobs.
## Start with a daily brief
Ask: “What needs my attention today, and what changed since yesterday?”
The assistant can summarise today's and overdue tasks, pending client decisions, late deliveries, unread notifications and your running timer. Detail lists are short; ask for more detail on a category when its count is larger than the examples shown.
You can then ask it to add a task to Today, remove one from Today, reorder Today, update a checklist item, or complete or reopen a task. Removing a task from Today does not delete it. It can find stale tasks and propose which to remove; task deletion is not performed by that proposal.
## Turn a message into proposed work
Paste a client message or attach a screenshot, photo or PDF. You can drag images into AI Chat. For recorded speech, provide a transcript.
Try: “Review this client message for Maple Street. Show proposed tasks, decisions and schedule changes before saving anything.”
Review the matched project, owners, dates and source evidence. Resolve uncertain details, then explicitly approve the changes you want. Analysing the incoming material alone does not create tasks or change a schedule.
## Prepare and follow up on meetings
Ask: “Prepare an agenda for tomorrow's Maple Street meeting.” The assistant can use the project's open tasks, pending decisions, client comments and relevant payment reminders to suggest a short agenda.
Afterwards, provide your notes and ask for a preview of the summary, decisions, action items, owners, deadlines and open questions. Approve the summary to append to the meeting notes and the tasks to create. Ask explicitly to create or reschedule a meeting, including the intended date and time.
## Save and find project files
Attach the file to your current chat message and ask: “Save this as Maple Street's floor plan, labelled Ground floor — September revision.” The assistant can classify it, add a factual summary and link it to a task, vendor, schedule or meeting when requested.
Later, ask: “Find the latest floor plan for Maple Street.” Search uses saved labels, filenames, summaries and keywords. Check the returned revision before working from it. Summarising a file does not automatically save the proposed metadata; approve an update if you want it retained.
## Track vendor pricing
Ask the assistant to create a pricing request for specific schedule rows and a vendor. It creates an Atelier tracking record. Ask it to prepare the request email, review the wording, and send it through your email service. After sending, tell the assistant to mark the request as sent.
Useful follow-ups include:
* “Who still owes pricing for Maple Street? Include follow-up wording.”
* “Compare these received quotes, including lead time, terms and unpriced items.”
* “Review this attached quote against the request. Show mismatches before changing anything.”
* “Save this quote attachment as evidence for the request.”
Atelier Chat does not send email. Preparing an email does not mark the request as sent. Saving a quote attachment does not apply prices. Review proposed price changes and vendor identity differences before applying them through the relevant workflow. The assistant does not automatically accept the cheapest quote.
See [Documents and vendor quotes](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes) for document review and quote acceptance in the project.
# Edit schedules and source products with AI
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/schedules-and-sourcing
Use the open schedule for pricing, procurement fields, custom columns, document review and sourcing candidates.
Open the schedule, then **AI Chat**. This gives the assistant the table's rows and specialised tools. It can inspect the table, add library products, update supported inputs, add or rename custom columns, and change the schedule's name, room, notes or status when requested.
## Give an exact table instruction
Examples:
* “Set Markup % to 20 for the living room chairs.”
* “Set the pendant quantity to three and its Space to Dining room.”
* “Add a Mounting height text column, then set the hallway sconces to 1,650 mm.”
* “Set the chair's Tracking # and Carrier to these values.”
Use visible column names. **Net cost** is what your studio pays, **MSRP** is the list price, and **Selling price** is your client-facing unit price. State percentages as percentages. Totals are calculated from inputs; ask to correct the input rather than overwrite a total.
Custom columns are simple text fields, not formulas or new sorting/filter logic. Editing a hidden column still changes its data; reveal the relevant column to check the result.
## Direct edits and review cards
| Work | What happens |
| - | - |
| An exact value you explicitly tell AI to set | Can be written directly, followed by a result summary. |
| Money, dates or other proposed changes extracted from a document for existing rows | An old-to-new preview with **Apply / Dismiss**; existing rows are not changed until Apply. |
| An estimated value or a looked-up tax rate | A proposal for review before it is applied. |
| Remove existing rows | A deletion proposal; nothing is deleted until you choose Apply. |
| Add a new product row | Can be created directly, including initial values from source material. Review the new row afterwards. |
Tax lookup uses available US rate data and the delivery location, usually the project's ship-to address. Check the address and returned rate before applying it. If no rate is found, supply the missing location instead of relying on an invented percentage.
## Turn source material into products
Ask AI to find existing library products first. It can create a product for a bespoke item, such as millwork described in a vendor quote, and add it to the schedule. Check units, variant, maker, price and quantity against the original. An uncertain match should stay unresolved until you identify the correct row.
## Source a requirement slot
For imported specification requirements, ask the assistant to find candidate products in the library and attach them to the slot for comparison. It can record pass/fail checks supported by product information; unknown requirements should remain unset.
Ask it to select a candidate only after you decide. Selection fills the requirement row and changes its status to **Specified**. See [Source requirement slots](/ffe-schedules/source-requirements) for the full review workflow.
## Read and file procurement paperwork
Attach a quote, invoice, order confirmation, packing list or delivery note in the current message. Ask the assistant to save and review it against this project's schedule. Reading may continue after the initial save; wait for processing before asking for the extracted result.
The assistant can find stored procurement documents, read their matches and discrepancies, and propose filling empty schedule fields such as order number, tracking number, ship date, tax or vendor cost. **Fill empty fields** does not silently replace an existing conflicting value. Review the finding and the proposed changes.
Use [Project → Documents](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes) to inspect the saved paperwork. A product screenshot or inspiration image does not belong in the procurement-document workflow.
## Recovery and connector limits
Supported row additions and updates can offer **Undo last change** while the schedule remains open. Header edits, custom-column changes and sourcing-candidate actions are outside that row-edit recovery. Check the table after any interruption or undo.
The external connector can create schedules, add products, and update supported status, quantity and space fields. It does not provide this complete table-editing workflow or schedule-row deletion. Use in-app AI Chat with the schedule open for the features above.
# Manage projects, tasks and timers with AI
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers
Plan Today, update project phases, organise checklists and track time with specific requests.
These actions are available in AI Chat and through the Atelier connector. Ask the assistant to find the existing record before changing it when names are similar.
## Projects and phases
AI can create a project for an existing client and update its supported details, including name, status, dates, budget, delivery address and project hourly rate. It can create phases and change a phase's name or dates.
Try: “Move Maple Street's Procurement phase end date to October 15. Keep the other phases unchanged.”
Moving one phase does not automatically move the following phases. If you want the whole timeline shifted, specify which phases and confirm the affected dates. Check the resulting timeline. Create or identify the client before asking for a new project.
## Tasks and checklists
| Request | What to expect |
| - | - |
| “Create a Maple Street task to confirm the chair fabric, due Friday.” | A new task; unless you name someone else, it is assigned to you. |
| “Assign this task to Alex and Sam.” | Replaces the assignee list. Name everyone who should remain assigned. |
| “Add checklist steps: request a sample, check it in daylight, confirm with the client.” | Appends steps to the existing checklist. |
| “Mark the sample-request checklist step complete.” | Updates that checklist item; does not complete the whole task. |
| “Mark this task done,” or “Reopen this task.” | Changes the task's status. |
| “Show the comments and AI activity on this task.” | Reads its recorded activity. |
| “Post this update on the task: Samples arrive Thursday.” | Posts a comment visible on the task. Ask for draft wording if you do not want it posted yet. |
The assistant can also update a task's title, description, notes, priority and dates. Resolve ambiguous people or dates before saving.
## Plan your day
Ask “What needs my attention today?” for a brief, then ask to add a task to Today, remove it from Today, or reorder your day's tasks. Today is your personal plan; removing a task from it does not delete or complete the task.
Ask “Which of my tasks have not changed in two weeks?” to find stale work. The assistant can propose tasks to remove or archive, but that proposal does not perform deletion or archival. Make the removal in Atelier after reviewing the exact target.
## Track time
* “Is my timer running?” checks your current timer.
* “Start a timer for the Maple Street fabric review task” starts tracking against that task; its project is inferred.
* “Pause my timer” freezes the clock without saving a completed entry.
* “Resume my timer” continues the same entry.
* “Stop my timer” saves the time entry and reports the duration.
Only one timer can run at a time. Stop an existing one before starting another. Review the saved entry and billable setting in [Time tracking](/time-tracking/tracking-time); stopping a timer does not create an invoice.
## Clients, vendors and products
AI can search, create and update clients and vendors, add or update their contacts, and set vendor categories. Try “Add this sales representative to the existing lighting vendor.” Check the company match before creating another record.
For products, ask it to search the library, extract information from a vendor URL, create a library product, or correct supported fields such as model, dimensions, finish and price. Ask explicitly to save a product: reading a URL alone is not proof that it was added. Check the exact variant and source.
A library product and its project schedule row are different records. Specify whether a price correction belongs in the reusable product or the job's schedule. See [Schedules and sourcing with AI](/ai/schedules-and-sourcing).
# Use Atelier from Claude
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/use-atelier-from-claude
Connect Atelier to Claude over MCP and work with your projects, schedules and product library from chat.
Atelier exposes an MCP server, so Claude — and any other assistant that
speaks the Model Context Protocol — can work with your studio's data
directly.
**Settings → Claude & MCP.**
## The server
```
https://api.getatelier.design/mcp
```
Works with any MCP client that supports remote servers with OAuth.
## Connect in Claude
Start on [claude.ai](https://claude.ai). Connector availability can depend on
your Claude plan and organisation settings. See Claude's current
[custom connector instructions](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11175166-get-started-with-custom-connectors-using-remote-mcp).
In Claude, go to **Settings → Connectors**.
Choose **Add custom connector**.
Name it **Atelier**, paste the server URL above, click **Add**.
Sign in with your Atelier account when prompted.
Start a **new chat** and enable the Atelier connector from the tools
menu.
If Atelier is not available in a conversation, check that it is connected
and enabled, then try a new chat. Your organisation may require an
administrator to enable custom connectors.
## Connect in Claude Code
```bash theme={null}
claude mcp add --transport http atelier https://api.getatelier.design/mcp
```
Then open Claude Code and run `/mcp` to authenticate the Atelier server.
Follow the browser sign-in prompts. See the official
[Claude Code MCP guide](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/mcp).
## What you can do
* Browse projects, clients, tasks, pinboards and schedules
* Search the product library and capture products from vendor URLs
* Build FF\&E schedules and update item status, quantity and space
* Manage vendors, clients and their contacts
* Comment on tasks and update their supported fields
* Start, pause and stop timers
## Things worth asking for
* *What's overdue across all my projects?*
* *Which items on the Birchwood schedule are approved but not ordered?*
* *Add these four products to the living room schedule* — with vendor
URLs pasted in.
* *Mark the dining chairs as ordered.*
* *Add Holly Hunt as a vendor with this contact.*
* *Start a timer on 123 Maple Street.*
Capturing several products at once is where this earns its keep. Paste a
list of vendor URLs and let it import them, rather than fifteen round
trips through the browser.
## What it will not do
**Direct finance-document tools are not available over the connector.** Use **AI Chat inside Atelier** to read or draft proposals, invoices, change orders and purchase orders. Project briefs and meeting agendas can still include payment reminders, and vendor-pricing tools are available.
The connector exposes a curated set of tools. It can read pinboard items
and create a public pinboard link, but it does not expose the full canvas
editing tools. It cannot remove schedule rows. Check the available tool
result rather than assuming every action in Atelier has a connector equivalent.
The connector also supports daily briefs, Today planning, meeting agendas and follow-up previews, project file search, and vendor pricing requests. See [Project workflows with AI](/ai/project-workflows). For workflows that require a current-message file attachment, use Atelier Chat if your connected assistant cannot supply that attachment.
# Use this help center with AI
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/using-the-help-center
Find current Atelier instructions, distinguish documentation from live studio data and give an assistant the right context.
This help center explains Atelier workflows. An AI assistant can read it to help you find a control, plan a workflow or understand a result. Reading these pages does not give that assistant access to your studio.
## Find the right guide
The documentation index is available at [llms.txt](https://help.getatelier.design/llms.txt). Use it to discover the relevant pages, then read the specific guide before answering a workflow question.
Useful starting points:
| Question | Guide |
| - | - |
| How do I build or edit a board? | [Build a pinboard](/pinboards/build-a-pinboard) and [Editor controls](/pinboards/editor-reference) |
| What does approval change? | [Products, links and approvals](/pinboards/link-pins-to-products) |
| What will my client see? | [Pinboard sharing](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client) or [Schedule sharing](/ffe-schedules/share-a-schedule-with-a-client) |
| How do I bring in a specification? | [Import and export](/ffe-schedules/import-and-export) |
| How do I process a vendor's quote? | [Documents and vendor quotes](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes) |
| Which assistant can do this? | [Assistant capabilities](/ai/what-the-assistant-can-do) and [Limits](/ai/what-the-assistant-wont-do) |
## When a guide does not answer the question
If the assistant cannot find a relevant guide, it should say so and ask which screen or workflow you mean. For example, sharing a pinboard and sharing a schedule have different controls and client permissions. It should not invent a button or claim that a feature is unavailable merely because search found nothing.
If the Help Center cannot be reached, ask the assistant to retry later. A connection error is different from a missing guide. For unresolved questions, use **Get help** in the app.
## Give the assistant context
Name the project, board, page and schedule where relevant. Describe your desired result and whether you want an explanation or an action.
For example: “Using the Atelier help center, explain how to send the Living room board for approval into the Living Room FF\&E schedule. Give me the steps and the checks before I send the link.”
If the assistant is connected to Atelier, ask it to locate the records and confirm ambiguous matches before changing them. Example names in documentation are not records in your studio.
## Distinctions an assistant should preserve
* A source URL on an image is not a linked library product.
* Approving a reference image does not create a schedule product.
* A product's library price and a schedule row's job-specific cost are separate.
* Pinboard clients can comment and make decisions; shared schedules are read-only.
* Working-table columns, Excel export columns and shared-schedule columns are separate settings.
* Creating a public link does not deliver it to the client.
* AI Chat, the task-based AI teammate and the external MCP connector have different capabilities.
## Documentation and live data
Use documentation for workflow instructions. Use the connected studio for actual prices, record status, credit balances and project content. If a tool is unavailable, explain the manual route instead of claiming an action succeeded.
For answers, link to the specific help page and state what still needs checking in the app. Current subscriptions and credit balances belong in **Settings → Billing**.
To connect an external assistant, see [Use Atelier from Claude](/ai/use-atelier-from-claude).
# What the assistant can do
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/what-the-assistant-can-do
Choose AI Chat, the task-based AI teammate or the Claude connector for the work you want to do.
Atelier's assistant works with records in your studio. Its available tools depend on where you use it and which page is open.
Start with [Use AI Chat across Atelier](/ai/get-started-with-ai-chat) for page context, attachments and reviewing results.
## Choose the right assistant
| Work | AI Chat in Atelier | External Claude / MCP connector |
| - | - | - |
| Find projects, tasks, products, clients and vendors | Yes | Yes |
| Create and update supported project, task and directory records | Yes | Yes |
| Create schedules, add products and update supported row fields | Yes | Yes |
| Read pinboard items and create a public board link | Yes | Yes |
| Compose and edit the pinboard canvas | Open the pinboard first | Not in the connector's canvas tool set |
| Read or draft proposals, invoices, change orders and purchase orders | Yes; finance edits are limited to drafts | Not available |
| Start, pause, resume and stop timers | Yes | Yes |
| Plan Today, edit checklists and prepare project/meeting previews | Yes | Yes |
| Find saved project files and track vendor pricing | Yes | Yes; attachment support varies |
| Edit detailed schedule pricing/procurement fields and custom columns | Open the schedule first | Limited row fields only |
| Propose schedule-row deletion with Apply / Dismiss | Open the schedule first | Not available |
For a background pinboard draft, create a project task and assign it to the **AI teammate**. See [Build and edit a pinboard with AI](/pinboards/ai-builder).
## Workflow guides
* [Projects, tasks, Today, contacts and timers](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers).
* [Schedule editing, pricing, paperwork and sourcing](/ai/schedules-and-sourcing).
* [Finance reading and draft preparation](/ai/finance-drafts).
* [Meetings, project files and vendor pricing](/ai/project-workflows).
* [Pinboard creation and editing](/pinboards/ai-builder).
## Find and organise work
Try requests such as:
* “Which tasks are overdue on Maple Street?”
* “Create a task to confirm the chair fabric, due Friday, and assign it to me.”
* “Add a Procurement phase to this project.”
* “Find the vendor contact for the pendant light.”
* “Start a timer for this project.”
Name the project and the intended record when there could be several matches. Check that the assistant acted on the correct one.
## Products and schedules
Ask it to search the library, import vendor product URLs, add products to a schedule or update quantity, space and supported status fields. Check imported variants, dimensions and prices against the source.
When a schedule is open, AI Chat also has schedule-specific tools for working with its content and attached documents. If it shows a proposed change with **Apply** and **Dismiss**, review the values before applying.
## Pinboards
With a board open, AI Chat can add and edit images, text and arrows; manage pages; crop, change image perspective when explicitly asked, erase and remove backgrounds; align objects; read and post item comments; and make item approval decisions when asked. It can remove board items as part of an explicit request.
These edits join the open board's editing history. See [Editor controls and shortcuts](/pinboards/editor-reference) for Undo and its limits.
## Daily briefs, meetings, files and pricing
The assistant can prepare a daily brief, organise Today, review incoming messages, prepare meeting agendas, preview follow-up tasks, save and find project files, and track vendor pricing requests. These tools are also exposed through the connector; file attachments depend on the calling assistant.
See [Daily briefs, meetings, files and vendor pricing](/ai/project-workflows) for example requests and the distinction between a preview, a saved record and a sent email. Vendor records also support categories such as Lighting, Furniture and Textiles.
## Finance
AI Chat can read supported finance documents and create or update drafts. It cannot issue documents, record payments, accept agreements or edit documents outside draft status.
For example: “Draft a client invoice from the living room schedule, then tell me the line count and total.” Check the draft in **Finance** before sending it.
## Check the result
After a write, review the record and any error or incomplete-result message. An assistant's explanation is not proof that the record was saved. For unfamiliar workflows, ask for a read-only explanation first.
See [What the assistant won't do](/ai/what-the-assistant-wont-do), [AI credits](/ai/credits) and [Use this help center with AI](/ai/using-the-help-center).
# What the assistant won't do
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ai/what-the-assistant-wont-do
Understand finance draft restrictions, connector limits and the checks that remain with the designer.
The assistant's limits depend on the tool and the type of record. **The draft-only rule applies to finance documents.** It does not mean every product, task or pinboard must be a draft before AI can edit it.
## Finance documents
For proposals, invoices, change orders and purchase orders, AI Chat can work on **Draft** records. Once a document has another status, the assistant cannot edit it, even if that status is cancelled, overdue or accepted.
It also cannot:
* Issue or send finance documents to a client or vendor.
* Record payment, confirmation or acceptance.
* Cancel, reject or delete finance documents.
* Create a new proposal version or process a proposal's acceptance.
Read the existing document in **Finance** to decide the next step. Manual controls differ by document and status. Use a new version or change order when you need to preserve what was previously agreed.
## Reading and editing are different
AI Chat can read supported finance documents at later statuses even when it cannot edit them. Ask it to explain an outstanding balance or identify a draft, then verify the record in Finance.
The **external Claude / MCP connector has no direct proposal, invoice, change-order or purchase-order document tools**. Its project briefs and meeting agendas may include payment reminders, and it supports vendor pricing requests and quote comparisons. Use AI Chat inside Atelier for direct finance-document work.
## Pinboard edits are different
AI Chat can remove pinboard items and approve or reject pins when explicitly asked. A product approval can add or update a schedule row. Do not interpret the finance restrictions as a promise that board actions are read-only.
Ask for an explanation if you only want advice. For an edit, name the board, page, items and destination schedule where relevant. Wait for the edit to finish and review the result. Available board editing history supports Undo, but it is not a permanent backup.
## Sharing and communication
The assistant can create a public pinboard link. Anyone holding that link can open it; creating the link is a sharing action. Delivering it to the client remains a separate step.
The assistant can also post supported task or pinboard comments when asked. Do not use a request to comment when you only want private wording to review.
## What still needs your review
* Extracted prices, units, dimensions, product variants and document lines.
* Whether a visual board is appropriate for the client and the products actually fit.
* Which schedule receives approvals and whether its quantities and costs are ready for procurement.
* The final content and recipient before you send an invoice, proposal or order.
If a tool is unavailable or an action fails, use the relevant manual guide. Do not assume that repeating the request through another assistant removes the limit.
## Schedule and task removal
In-app Chat can propose deleting schedule rows while the schedule is open. The rows are removed only when the designer chooses **Apply** on the deletion card. The external connector has no row-deletion tool.
For tasks and checklist items, AI can prepare a removal proposal but does not execute deletion. Removing a task from Today only removes it from your personal plan. AI file tools cannot delete project files.
# Clients
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/clients-vendors/clients
The people you bill. One client, several contacts, several projects.
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
Open **Library → Clients → Add client**. The name is required; add contact
and billing details as available, then check them before creating invoices.
## Several contacts
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 change order does not notify anyone — check **Finance** for those.
Invoice payments are recorded separately in Finance.
Before sharing a schedule, review the client column selection in **Share**.
Fields marked **shows your margin** disclose cost or markup.
## Work with AI
[Manage clients and contacts with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Import a vendor
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/clients-vendors/import-a-vendor
Read vendor information from a card, document or website, then review the form before saving.
Use **Vendors → Scan a card** to add a vendor from a photo, document or
website. The result opens as a form for review; nothing is saved until you
confirm it. Each import uses one AI credit.
## Choose a source
| Where you start | What you can use |
| - | - |
| **Vendors → Scan a card** | A photo, PDF or vendor website |
| An existing vendor's form | A photo or PDF to fill missing information |
| A file attached to a vendor | The attached document |
For an existing vendor, import fills empty fields rather than replacing
information you already entered. Use the normal form to correct existing
values yourself.
## Review and save
1. Choose the file or enter the website in the new-vendor import dialog.
2. Wait for the result and check the vendor name and category.
3. Verify the email, phone number, address and any named contact against the
source. Give scanned documents particular attention if text is blurred.
4. Fill missing fields, correct errors and save the vendor.
Blank contact fields can mean the source did not provide the information.
For website imports, contact details are checked against the page text;
information absent from that page may be omitted. Try the vendor's contact
page if its home page contains little useful detail.
## If import fails
Use a sharper image or a page that identifies the vendor clearly. A site
behind sign-in or one that cannot be read may fail. Add the vendor manually
if needed; you can attach the original document and add contacts afterward.
Continue with [Vendors](/clients-vendors/vendors) to record the contacts and
terms your team will need for procurement.
# Vendors
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/clients-vendors/vendors
Vendors, their contacts, their terms — and why the vendor record is what makes procurement work.
A vendor is anyone you buy from: manufacturers, showrooms, dealers,
workrooms, fabricators, freight companies.
The record is small, and it does a lot of work. Products attach to it,
purchase orders draw from it, and the Procurement view groups by it.
## Add a vendor manually
Open **Library → Vendors**, then **Add vendor**. Enter the vendor name and any contact information you have, then save. Use **Scan a card** instead if you want to import details from a document or website and review them first.
## The record
| Field | Why it matters |
| - | - |
| **Name** | How the vendor appears everywhere else. |
| **Contacts** | Named people with email and phone. A vendor can have several — a sales contact and a logistics contact are different people, and you will need both. |
| **Address** | Where orders go. |
| **Terms** | Deposit, balance, payment window, return policy. Worth recording once rather than rediscovering per order. |
| **Notes** | Trade discount, minimums, the account manager who actually replies. |
## Adding one without typing it
**Scan a card**, above the vendor list, reads a vendor off a photograph, a
quote or their website and hands you the form filled in.
[Import a vendor](/clients-vendors/import-a-vendor) covers it, including why
the result often has blanks in it — and why those blanks are the point.
## Why it earns its keep
* **Purchase orders write themselves** — A PO pulls the vendor's details, so
raising one is a matter of choosing items rather than re-typing an
address.
* **Ordering by vendor** — Group the Procurement view by vendor and each
group becomes one purchase order.
* **Terms in one place** — Deposit and lead-time expectations sit where the
next person will look.
* **Chasing has a name attached** — *Who do we call about the sofa* has an
answer that is not "check the emails".
## Keeping it useful
1. **Add the vendor when you add their first product.** Ten seconds then,
versus reconstructing it under pressure at order time.
2. **Record the logistics contact separately.** The person who sells you the
sofa is rarely the person who can find it.
3. **Write terms down as you learn them.** 50% deposit, six-week lead, no
returns on custom fabric — the details that decide whether an
installation date is realistic.
Your vendor list is one of the more valuable things your studio owns. It is
the accumulated knowledge of who is reliable, who discounts, and who takes
four months when they said six weeks.
## Categories with AI
Vendor records include a category describing what they supply, such as Lighting, Furniture, Textiles or Plumbing. You can ask AI to set or correct a category when creating or updating a vendor. Check any category inferred from source material before relying on it.
## Work with AI
[Manage vendors and contacts with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Create a schedule
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/create-a-schedule
Starting an FF&E schedule, adding products to it, and deciding how many schedules a project needs.
A schedule is a list of the products a project needs. Most jobs have one;
larger ones split by room, floor or phase.
## Create it
From **Schedules** in the sidebar, or from inside a project. Give it a name
that will still make sense in six months — *FF\&E Schedule*, *Ground
Floor*, *Phase 2 — Bedrooms* — and attach it to the project.
Each schedule shows its project and a live item count in the list.
## One schedule or several
* **One schedule** — Right for most projects. Everything in one place,
grouped by room or category. Simpler totals, simpler budget.
* **Several schedules** — Worth it when the project is genuinely phased,
floors are handed over separately, or different people own different
areas.
Start with one and split later if it gets unwieldy. Grouping handles most
of what people reach for multiple schedules to solve.
## Add products
Products come from your product library, so pricing, images and vendor
details arrive with them. Search by name or brand and add.
If a piece is not in the library: import from a vendor URL, capture it
with the Chrome extension, or add it manually.
You can also add products by asking Atelier's AI or the Claude connector —
*add three of the Ondé sofa to the living room schedule*.
## Then what
Ordinary new rows start as **Pending**; products added through approval start
as **Approved**. Initial pricing depends on how the row was added, so check it
instead of assuming it is blank or final. Two passes make a working schedule:
1. **Specify.** On Planning: quantity, finish, material, lead time. Move
each row to **Specified** once it is settled.
2. **Cost.** On Financials: vendor cost, then markup and tax in bulk.
The project Overview will tell you what you missed — its **No price set**
and **No room assigned** cards exist for exactly this.
To start from previous work, use [Copy documents and use templates](/projects/copy-and-reuse-documents). Review the new document before sharing or issuing it.
# Financials view
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/financials-view
Vendor cost, markup, tax and the client total — where a schedule becomes a commercial document.
The **Financials** view of a schedule is where you turn a specification
into money: what you pay, what you charge, what you make, and how much of
the client's budget is left.
## The columns
| Column | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Qty** | How many. Multiplies everything to its right. |
| **Vendor cost** | What the vendor charges *you*, per unit. Trade price. |
| **Retail price** | The public price, carried from the product library. Reference only. |
| **Markup %** | Your uplift on the vendor cost. |
| **Selling price** | The saved client price per unit, reflecting the pricing and client discount you set. |
| **Profit/unit** | Selling price minus vendor cost. Your margin per piece. |
| **Client total** | The row's client unit price × quantity, plus its tax and shipping. |
| **Shipping** | Freight for this line, if you are passing it on. |
| **Tax %** | Sales tax rate applied to this line. |
| **Status** | The procurement status. |
**Vendor cost** and **retail price** are different numbers doing different
jobs. Retail comes from the product library and reflects what the piece
generally sells for. Vendor cost is your trade price on *this* job. For purchases through your studio, vendor cost is the pricing base.
For client-direct purchases without a vendor cost, a retail/list price can
serve as the base for a procurement fee. Review the resulting client price.
## The budget panel
Top right of the view: the project budget, and your spend against it. The
budget itself is set on the project. **Edit** changes it without leaving
the schedule.
If the spend figure looks too low, check the project Overview for the **No
price set** card. Items with no cost silently flatter the number.
## Applying markup and tax in bulk
Setting markup line by line on a sixty-item schedule is nobody's idea of
design work. Two controls above the table do it in one go:
* **Apply markup to all** — type a percentage, choose **Apply**. Every row
gets it.
* **Apply tax to all** — same, for sales tax. Atelier shows your studio's
default rate beside the field, taken from **Settings → Studio**.
Set the blanket rate first, then override the handful of lines that need
something different — the antique dealer who does not discount, the piece
you are handling at cost.
## Per-row editing
Every financial field is editable in place. For the full picture on one
item, use **Detail** and the **Financial** tab of the drawer — the same
fields with more room, alongside the product's images and procurement
data.
## Creating the invoice
Select the rows you want to bill and choose **Create invoice**. Selected
eligible product rows prefill the draft; without a selection, add lines in the
invoice dialog. Review markup, discounts, shipping and tax before saving.
Worth checking before you press it:
1. **Every billable line has a reviewed client price.** A missing vendor
cost does not guarantee a zero client total: saved selling or reference
prices may be available. Review the invoice preview rather than relying
on a missing field to exclude an item.
2. **Markup is applied where it should be.** Scan the Markup % column for
blanks.
3. **Tax settings are correct for this project.** Review them through your
studio's accounting process before issuing the invoice.
4. **Rejected and reuse items are marked as such.** They should not be on
the invoice.
## Trade discount and client discount
Open an item's **Detail → Financial** tab to review the full pricing.
**Trade discount %** describes the reduction from list price to your cost.
**Client discount %** reduces the price charged to the client. These are
separate decisions: do not assume a vendor's discount should automatically
be passed on to the client.
When you set markup, the pricing controls calculate the selling price from
the applicable base and client discount. You can also enter a client price
and review the resulting markup. Check the saved row after changes.
For a simple example before tax and shipping: a cost of 800 with a 25% markup
gives 1,000 per unit. A 10% client discount then gives 900. Two units total
1,800 before the row's tax and shipping. This is an illustration, not a
recommended pricing policy.
# Import and export schedules
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/import-and-export
Import Excel, CSV, Revit tables, PDFs or table images, then export a schedule to Excel or PDF.
Use **Import** on a schedule to bring in an existing product list or a table of requirements. Use **Export** for an Excel workbook and **Save PDF** for a presentation copy.
## Choose the right import
| Source | What happens |
| - | - |
| Excel (`.xlsx`, `.xls`) | Read directly; merged cells are handled. |
| CSV, TSV or text table | Read directly, including text exports from Revit. |
| PDF or image of a table | AI recognises the table; you review it against the original. This uses AI credits. |
A direct spreadsheet or text export is usually easier to verify than recognition from a scan. Use a clear table with readable headers, quantities and units.
## Products or requirement slots?
In **Import a table**, choose whether to enable **Create requirement slots instead of products**.
* **Leave it off for a product list.** Rows become product records and schedule items. A photo or vendor URL will only be available if it was supplied and mapped; import does not invent missing sourcing information.
* **Turn it on for a specification.** Rows become requirements to source, such as *Dining pendant, quantity 2*. [Compare and select actual products later](/ffe-schedules/source-requirements) without losing the original requirement.
## Import and review
1. Open the schedule and choose **Import → Choose file**.
2. Choose products or requirement slots for the kind of table you have.
3. For a PDF or image, compare the recognised table with the original. Correct cells highlighted as uncertain and check quantities, units and reference codes.
4. Review the column mapping. Confirm which column supplies the name or requirement, quantity, room and other fields.
5. Review the preview and any matching or duplicate decisions. For requirement slots, inspect whether each row will create or update a requirement.
6. Confirm the import. Nothing is committed to the schedule until you confirm.
7. Check the resulting rows. Fill missing images, vendors, prices and rooms before using them for presentation or procurement.
A repeated import is not a substitute for checking the preview. Stable requirement codes help match revised specifications; changed or missing identifiers can produce new rows.
## Export an Excel workbook
1. Filter, sort and group the schedule as needed.
2. Choose **Export** to open **Export to Excel**.
3. Check the row count, including how many rows your filters hide.
4. Choose columns **in the export dialog**. These are separate from the table's visible columns.
5. Optionally enable **Include product images**, then export the `.xlsx` file.
The Excel export initially offers all export columns. Review the export's column selection before sending a workbook to a client; hiding a column in the working table does not remove it from this selection.
## Export a PDF or share a live view
Use **Save PDF** for a fixed presentation and inspect the resulting file. For a live read-only client view, use **Share** and choose the client's columns there. See [Share a schedule](/ffe-schedules/share-a-schedule-with-a-client).
These are three separate choices: the columns you work with, the columns you export, and the columns a client sees through a shared link.
# Item statuses
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/item-statuses
Every procurement status a schedule row can have, what it means, and when to move an item on.
Status is the most load-bearing field on a schedule. The project Overview
reads it, the Procurement view is organised around it, and it is how
anyone else in the studio knows whether a piece is a suggestion or a
delivery arriving on Thursday.
## The main flow
An item normally travels left to right.
| Status | What it means | Move on when |
| - | - | - |
| **Pending** | On the schedule, nothing decided. The default for a newly added row. | You have settled on it as the specification. |
| **Specified** | This is the piece. Not yet in front of the client, or not yet approved. | The client approves it. |
| **Approved** | The client has signed off. Money can be committed. | You place the order. |
| **Ordered** | The purchase order has gone to the vendor. | The vendor ships. |
| **In transit** | On its way. Tracking number and carrier belong here. | It arrives at the warehouse or site. |
| **Delivered** | Received. Not yet in place. | It is installed on site. |
| **Installed** | In the space, finished. | You bill the client for it. |
| **Invoiced** | On a client invoice that has been sent. | The client pays. |
| **Paid** | Settled. The end of the line. | — |
**Approved** is the status the project Overview counts. The *Ready to
order* card is simply the number of approved items with no order against
them — the gap between the client saying yes and you actually buying the
thing.
## The three that sit outside the flow
| Status | Use it for |
| - | - |
| **Rejected** | The client said no. Keep the row rather than deleting it, so you have a record of what was shown and turned down. |
| **To be sourced** | You know a piece is needed — a runner for the hallway, a reading lamp — but you have not found it yet. Holds the line on the schedule and in the budget. |
| **Reuse — no purchase** | The client's existing furniture that stays in the scheme. Appears in the specification, costs nothing, and should never reach procurement. |
## Setting the status
Three ways, depending on how many rows you are changing:
* **One row** — the Status cell on any view, or the **Details** tab of the
row's Detail drawer.
* **Several rows** — select them with the checkboxes on the left and set
the status for all of them at once.
* **From chat** — ask Atelier's AI or the Claude connector to move items
on, for example *mark the dining chairs as ordered*.
## Where status shows up
* **Project Overview** — *Ready to order* counts approved-but-not-ordered
items.
* **Procurement view** — Organised around status, alongside PO, order
date, shipping and tracking.
* **Client-facing documents** — Shared schedules and PDFs show status, so
the client can see what has shipped.
* **Financials** — Rejected and reuse items are excluded from what the
client will be charged.
Studios that keep status honest get a working procurement tracker for
free. Studios that leave everything on *Pending* get a spreadsheet. It is
worth ten seconds per row.
# Organize, group and choose columns
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/organize-group-and-choose-columns
Grouping, filters, sort and column visibility — set up per view so each one shows only what that job needs.
A schedule with sixty rows and twenty columns is unreadable. Two controls
above the table fix that: **Organize** and **Columns**.
Both are set **per view**. Planning can group by room while Procurement
groups by vendor and Financials groups by category — they do not interfere
with each other.
## Organize
Controls how rows are arranged: what they group by, what is filtered out,
and the sort order inside each group.
Useful groupings, by view:
| View | Group by | Why |
| - | - | - |
| Planning | **Category** | The default. Furniture, lighting, decor — how a specification reads. |
| Planning | **Room** | For a room-by-room presentation, or an installation day. |
| Financials | **Category** | Shows where the money is going by type. |
| Procurement | **Vendor** | One group per vendor — one purchase order per group. |
| Procurement | **Status** | What is approved, what is ordered, what has landed. |
Group headers carry a count — *Furniture (8)* — and collapse with the
triangle. Collapsing everything except the group in front of you is the
single biggest readability win on a long schedule.
Group by vendor before an ordering session, then group back by category
before you present. Ten seconds each way, and both views are the right one
for the job.
## Columns
Chooses which columns are visible. Everything Atelier tracks is available;
you decide what earns its place.
A reasonable starting point:
**Planning — specifying.** Product, brand, material, finish, qty, lead
time, status. Leave financial detail off; it is a distraction while you
are choosing pieces.
**Financials — costing.** Qty, vendor cost, markup, selling price, client
total, tax, status. Drop material and finish — you are not looking at them
here.
**Procurement — ordering and tracking.** Product, vendor, status, PO,
order date, est. ship, delivery, tracking, carrier.
**Client-facing.** Choose product details, quantity, client total, lead time
and status in the **Share** dialog. Its client column selection is separate
from the working table and Excel export selections.
Check the column checkboxes inside **Share**, including fields marked
**shows your margin**. Hiding a working-table column does not change the
client view. Check Excel columns separately in **Export**.
## Search
The search box above the table filters rows by product name — the
quickest way to find one piece on a long schedule without changing the
grouping.
# Overview
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/overview
The FF&E schedule is the spine of an interiors job — what you are specifying, what it costs, what you charge, and where it is in procurement.
A schedule is the list of everything going into a space, with the
commercial and logistical detail attached. It is the document your client
approves, your vendors quote against, and your invoices come from.
## One document, three views
The same rows, three sets of columns, because three different jobs happen
on the same data.
* **Planning** — Specifying. Brand, material, finish, quantity, retail
price, lead time, status.
* **Financials** — Costing. Vendor cost, markup, selling price, profit,
tax, client total, budget.
* **Procurement** — Delivering. PO, order date, estimated ship, delivery,
tracking number, carrier.
A fourth tab, **All**, is the same table with every column switched on at
once — no curation, no hidden behaviour. Editing, filtering, sorting and
grouping work exactly as they do on the other three.
**All** is worth reaching for in two situations: when you want a row's
entire record in front of you without hopping between tabs, and when you
cannot remember which view holds the column you are after. For
day-to-day work the narrower views are easier to read.
## Where schedules live
Open a project and go to the **Schedule** tab. The list shows each
schedule with:
| Column | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Name** | Usually a room or a package — *Maple Street Loft*, *Living Room FF\&E*. |
| **Status** | *Draft* until you share it. |
| **Version** | *v1*, *v2* — bumps as the schedule is revised. |
| **Products** | How many rows it holds. |
| **Due date** | Optional. |
**New schedule** creates one. **Import** brings in an existing schedule
from a file.
## How rows are organised
Rows group by category by default — *Decor (2)*, *Furniture (8)*,
*Lighting* — with each group collapsible. The **Organize** control changes
what they group by; **Columns** chooses which columns are visible. Both
settings are per view.
Each row carries a thumbnail, links out to the vendor page and to the
pinboard the product appears on, and a **Detail** button that opens the
full editor.
The drawer has the same three-part split as the schedule itself —
**Details**, **Financial**, **Procurement** — plus the product's image
gallery, where you can crop or replace the picture that appears on client
documents.
## The header controls
| Control | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Pin** | Pins the schedule to your sidebar. |
| **Import** | Brings rows in from a file. |
| **Export** | Exports the schedule. |
| **Save PDF** | Produces a client-ready PDF. |
| **Shared** | Creates the client link and manages sharing. |
## Status is the thread that runs through it
Every row has a procurement status, and it is the single most useful field
on the schedule — the project Overview's *Ready to order* card, the
Financials totals and the Procurement view all read from it.
The full list, from specification to installation:
**Pending → Specified → Approved → Ordered → In transit → Delivered →
Installed → Invoiced → Paid**
Plus three that sit outside the main flow: **Rejected**, **To be sourced**,
and **Reuse — no purchase** for the client's existing pieces.
## Undo a supported AI row edit
After AI finishes adding or updating rows on the open schedule, **Undo last change** may appear in AI Chat. It uses the schedule’s current editing history. It does not cover every assistant action: renaming the schedule, changing custom columns and working with sourcing candidates are outside this row-edit recovery. Review the result before continuing.
## Work with AI
[Edit schedules and source products with AI](/ai/schedules-and-sourcing) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Planning view
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/planning-view
The specification view of a schedule — what the piece is, how many, how long it takes to arrive.
**Planning** is the default view and the one you live in while you are
specifying. It answers *what are we putting in this room* without the
commercial detail getting in the way.
## The columns
| Column | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Product** | Thumbnail and name. Two small icons sit beside it: one opens the vendor's page, the other jumps to the pinboard the product appears on. |
| **Brand** | Manufacturer or retailer, from the product library. |
| **Material** | What it is made of. |
| **Finish** | Colour, fabric, plating — the variant you specified. |
| **Qty** | How many. |
| **Retail price** | Public price per unit, from the library. |
| **Client total** | What the client pays for this line, calculated on the Financials view. |
| **Lead time** | Free text, as the vendor gave it — *ships in 2–3 weeks*, *18 weeks*, *arrives by Apr 10*. |
| **Status** | Procurement status. |
**Detail** at the end of each row opens the full editor.
Lead time is deliberately free text rather than a date, because vendors
quote it in incompatible ways. Copy what the vendor actually said. When you
know a real date, put it in **Est. ship** on the Procurement view.
## Grouping
Rows group by category out of the box — *Decor (2)*, *Furniture (8)*,
*Lighting (5)* — with a count on each header and a triangle to collapse it.
Collapsing everything except the group you are working on makes a long
schedule manageable.
**Organize** changes what rows group by; **Columns** changes which columns
you see. Both are per view, so Planning can group by room while Procurement
groups by status.
## Editing
Click any cell to edit it in place. For everything at once, **Detail**
opens a drawer with three tabs:
* **Details** — image gallery, name, status, lead time, category, type,
material, finish, dimensions.
* **Financial** — vendor cost, markup, tax.
* **Procurement** — PO, dates, tracking.
The image gallery deserves a mention: a product can carry several images,
and the one selected here is what appears on the client's schedule and
PDF. **Crop** and **Replace** are there because vendor photography is
rarely the right shape.
## Working with several rows at once
The checkbox column on the left selects rows. With a selection you can
change status or other shared fields in one action — useful when a whole
room gets approved at once.
# Procurement view
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/procurement-view
Purchase orders, order dates, estimated shipping, delivery, tracking numbers and carriers — the logistics half of a schedule.
Once the client has approved a scheme, the job stops being design and
starts being logistics. The **Procurement** view is where that lives: what
has been ordered, from whom, when it ships, and where it is right now.
## The columns
| Column | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Status** | Where the item is in the flow. |
| **Invoice** | The client invoice this item was billed on. |
| **PO** | The purchase order raised to the vendor. |
| **Order date** | The day you placed the order. |
| **Est. ship** | The date the vendor expects to ship. A real date, unlike the free-text lead time on Planning. |
| **Delivery** | When it actually arrived. |
| **Tracking #** | The carrier's tracking reference. |
| **Carrier** | Who is moving it. |
Two layout buttons at the top right switch between a table and a card
grid. The grid shows product images, which helps when you are checking off
a delivery against what is on the truck.
## The rhythm
The project Overview's **Ready to order** card counts everything the
client has approved that nobody has ordered. That is your procurement
to-do list.
A PO carries your studio details from **Settings → Studio** and the
ship-to address from the project.
Set the status to **Ordered**, fill in the PO number and order date,
and put the vendor's promised date in **Est. ship**.
When the vendor ships, move to **In transit** and add the tracking
number and carrier.
**Delivered** on arrival, **Installed** once it is in place.
**Invoiced**, then **Paid**.
## Editing
Cells edit in place, and the **Detail** drawer's **Procurement** tab holds
the same fields with more room. Select several rows with the checkboxes to
update them together — useful when one vendor ships six items on one
consignment and they all get the same tracking number.
Group by vendor before an ordering session. **Organize** lets you do it,
and it turns a scattered schedule into one purchase order per vendor.
## What the client sees
A shared schedule shows status, so clients can answer *where is my sofa*
without emailing you. Estimated ship and delivery dates give them a date
to plan around.
# Share a schedule with a client
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/share-a-schedule-with-a-client
Choose the client's columns, share a read-only live schedule and disable the link when needed.
A shared schedule shows the selected specification, prices and delivery information without giving the client editing access. Clients do not need an Atelier account.
## Choose what the client sees
Open **Share** in the schedule toolbar. The **Share schedule** dialog has its own column checkboxes; these control the public view independently of **Columns** in your working table.
Image and name are always shown. Choose the other fields the client needs, such as quantity, material, finish, client total, status and estimated ship date. You can also choose **Show studio logo & name**.
Fields marked **shows your margin** reveal cost or markup information. They are off by default. Enable them only when that is how your studio intends to present pricing. Check the actual shared page before sending it.
## Create and send the link
1. Choose the client-visible fields in **Share**.
2. Choose **Create link**.
3. Open or reload the link to verify the client's view, then copy and send it through your usual email or messaging service.
The button reads **Shared** after sharing is enabled. Creating or copying the link does not send an email. Anyone who has the link can open it.
## What the client can do
A shared schedule is **read-only**. It has no item comment box or approval control, so viewing it does not generate client feedback in **Inbox**.
For item decisions, [share a pinboard](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client). Approving a linked product on that board adds or updates its row in the board's chosen schedule.
## Update or disable sharing
The link shows current content when opened or reloaded. Change the shared columns through **Shared**, and check the result again. **Disable link** stops live access.
Use **Save PDF** or [Export to Excel](/ffe-schedules/import-and-export) if you need a fixed copy. Files already downloaded do not update when you edit the schedule or disable its link.
# Source products for requirement slots
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/ffe-schedules/source-requirements
Compare library, URL and pinboard candidates against a specification, then choose a product.
A requirement slot records what the project needs before you choose a product.
Use it for a specification imported from a drawing, Revit table or consultant's
schedule. [Import the table as requirement slots](/ffe-schedules/import-and-export)
when those rows describe requirements rather than confirmed products.
## Open the requirement
Open the slot's sourcing drawer from the schedule. Review **Requirements**:
its identity, quantity, location and specification details. Keep these tied
to the original requirement so you can compare alternatives consistently.
## Add candidates
In **Candidates**, choose:
| Control | Source |
| - | - |
| **Library** | An existing studio product. |
| **URL** | A vendor product page; choose **Extract** and review the result. |
| **Pinboard** | A linked product already presented on one of the project's boards. |
Adding a candidate gives you an option to compare. It does not select that
product as the final specification.
## Compare and choose
Review the comparison against each requirement. Check missing information
against the vendor's specification instead of treating unknown values as a
pass. Record manual checks only for details you have verified.
Choose **Select** on the intended candidate. A rough-opening mismatch may
require an explicit decision before selection; inspect the dimensions and
source drawing rather than treating the warning as a formality.
The selected product is attached to the slot. Review the resulting schedule
row, quantity, cost and status before proceeding with client approval or
procurement. Selecting a candidate is not the same as placing an order.
## Change the choice
Unselecting returns the slot to **To be sourced**, while keeping requirements,
placements and candidates. You can compare another option without rebuilding
the original brief. Check any existing order separately before changing a
product that has already been purchased.
AI Chat beside the schedule can help find and add candidates. Name the slot
and the constraints, and review the options before asking it to select one.
# Change orders
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/change-orders
Scope that grows after the client has signed — documented, priced and agreed, without rewriting the original proposal.
The client wants the second bedroom done too. The joinery has to be
rebuilt because the survey was wrong. The sofa is discontinued and the
replacement costs more.
None of that belongs in the proposal the client already signed. It
belongs in a **change order**: a separate, priced, agreed document that
says what changed and what it costs.
The original proposal is the record of what was agreed *then*. A change
order is the record of what was agreed *since*. Keeping them separate is
what lets you answer "when did this become part of the job?" a year
later.
## The list
**Finance → Change Orders.** Each row: number, title, project, client,
status, created and total.
## Writing one
### What changed
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Project** | Which job this affects. |
| **Client** | Auto-filled from the project. |
| **Title** | Required. Name the change, not the document — *Additional bedroom — scope expansion*. |
| **Description of changes** | The scope change, **the reason**, and any relevant context. |
The reason is the part people skip and the part that matters. *Additional
bedroom added at client's request, 12 June* and *joinery rebuilt following
survey discrepancy* are different conversations six months later, and only
one of them is your cost to carry.
### What it costs
Fee lines, each with a **type** — **Service** or **Goods** — then
description, quantity, unit, unit price, markup % and tax %.
The split matters for the same reason it does on an invoice: design time
and purchased goods are priced and taxed differently, and a client reading
the document can see which is which.
### When it is paid
**Payment trigger**: **On acceptance** or **On date**.
Note what is missing: there is no *on phase completion* here, unlike a
proposal. A change order is a discrete addition, not a staged programme of
work — if the change is big enough to need its own phased schedule, it is
really a second proposal.
**Terms** is optional and free text, for anything specific to this change
— a revised lead time, a condition, a deadline for the client to decide.
## When to raise one
* **Scope grows** — a room, a piece of joinery, a service that was not in
the original proposal.
* **Scope changes shape** — same budget line, different work, different
cost to you.
* **Costs move materially** — a discontinued piece, a price rise, a
freight cost nobody expected.
* **Agreed scope changes** — use a separate record so the original agreement
and the later change remain understandable.
The assistant only edits draft finance documents. Manual editing controls
differ by document and status; do not assume issued documents are universally
locked. Review an existing document before changing it, and preserve the
agreed version when a new version or change order is appropriate.
## Sending it
**Mark as sent** changes the change order's status — it does not email
anything. Copy the client link and send it yourself.
## Two ways a change order gets accepted
Same pattern as a proposal: the client can accept it themselves on the
public link — typing their name, which Atelier records alongside their IP
address and the timestamp — or you can mark it accepted from inside
Atelier for an agreement reached elsewhere, with no equivalent record of
who agreed.
## After it is agreed
Either path creates a **DRAFT invoice for the full amount, automatically**.
It appears in **Finance → Invoices**, ready to check and send — you do
not build it by hand.
Once a change order leaves `DRAFT`, the assistant cannot touch it. A
change order the client has seen is the record of what they agreed to — a
further change needs its own change order.
# Finance dashboard
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/finance-dashboard
Invoiced, paid, outstanding and overdue across every project — and what needs chasing.
**Finance** in the sidebar covers the whole studio, not one project. It
opens on **Dashboard**. The current tabs, in order, are **Dashboard**, **Proposals**, **Invoices**, **Change Orders**, **Purchase Orders** and **Retainers**.
**Vendor Quotes** has moved to [Project → Documents](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes). Record and review received vendor quotes there; purchase orders remain in Finance.
## The four numbers
| Card | What it counts |
| - | - |
| **Total invoiced** | Total of non-cancelled invoices selected by issue date, including drafts; the count includes those drafts. |
| **Paid** | Payments recorded against those selected invoices. This is not a bank-receipts report filtered by payment date, and it excludes deposits recorded in Retainers. |
| **Outstanding** | Remaining balances on selected Sent, Viewed and Partially paid invoices. These can also be overdue. |
| **Overdue** | Remaining balances on selected invoices eligible for overdue status whose due date has passed. |
Switch the period with **This month · This quarter · This year · All
time**. The cards use invoice issue dates, not payment dates. The default is **All time**. An invoice without an issue date is included regardless of the selected period.
**Outstanding and Overdue overlap**; do not add them together. **Total invoiced** also includes drafts, so it is not a sent-invoices-only total. Review the invoice list when reconciling these figures.
## Needs attention
Below the cards, Atelier lists overdue and partially paid invoices — the
ones that need follow-up. This list covers all invoices and is not narrowed by the cards’ period selector. Open an item to inspect its balance and recorded payments.
When **Pending payment milestones** appears, review the proposal milestone and choose **Create invoice** to create its draft, or **View invoice** when one already exists. A milestone needs a linked project before an invoice can be created.
## The other tabs
* **[Proposals](/finance/proposals)** — What you send before the work is
agreed.
* **[Invoices](/finance/invoices)** — Created from a schedule or from
scratch, sent, tracked and marked paid.
* **[Change orders](/finance/change-orders)** — Scope changes after the
proposal is signed, documented and priced.
* **[Purchase orders](/finance/purchase-orders)** — What you send
vendors. Carries your studio details and the project ship-to address.
* **[Retainers](/finance/retainers)** — Client deposits received, amounts applied to invoices, and the remaining balance for each project.
## How documents reach people
**Atelier does not send email.** **Mark as sent** changes a document's
status — it does not deliver anything. For a proposal or change
order, copy the client link and send it yourself. On a draft invoice,
**Send & copy link** marks it sent and copies the link; it does not email it.
The action reads **Copy link** once the invoice is issued. A purchase
order has no client-facing link at all — **Download PDF** is the only way
to get it out.
The one exception is your account's own sign-in and studio-invitation
emails, sent by Clerk, Atelier's authentication provider — not by
anything in Finance.
## Document actions
Open the document to see its available actions. Workflow status changes do not record money received. For invoices, payment states follow recorded payments and applied retainers; **Record payment** logs a payment. AI finance editing remains limited to drafts.
## Before you send anything
Client documents pull from **Settings → Studio**: your logo, legal name,
business address, tax ID, currency, date format, and the payment block in
the invoice footer. Set those up once.
Invoices are usually created from a schedule rather than here, on the
schedule's **Financials** view, so the line items and totals carry across
with markup and tax already applied.
## Work with AI
[Read finance records and prepare drafts with AI](/ai/finance-drafts) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Invoices
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/invoices
Billing the client — from a schedule, from a contract, or from tracked time, with terms, tax and discount.
An invoice is a bill. In Atelier it is rarely typed from scratch, because
the numbers already exist somewhere — on a schedule, in a proposal, or in
the hours you logged.
**Three sources, one document.** That is the whole idea of the invoice
form.
## The list
**Finance → Invoices.** Filter by client, project or status; sort by
number, issue date, due date or total.
Each row: number (`INV-2026-002`), project, client, status, issue date,
due date, total.
## Building one
### The header
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Project** | Required. Everything else keys off it. |
| **Client** | Auto-filled from the project. |
| **Invoice number** | Generated for you (`INV-2026-003`) and editable, if your accountant has a numbering scheme. |
| **Issue date** | Defaults to today. |
| **Due date** | Set directly, or use the terms preset beside it. |
### Payment terms
The dropdown beside the due date holds the standard set:
**Due on receipt · Net 15 · Net 30 · Net 45 · Net 60 · Net 90**
Choosing one moves the due date; the date remains editable afterwards.
Terms on an invoice are a **due-date preset** — a single number of days.
The staged, trigger-based terms that govern a whole job live on the
proposal instead, as payment milestones. Two mechanisms, two places,
deliberately.
### Line items
Each line has a **type** — **Goods** or **Svc** — then description,
quantity, unit, unit price or rate, discount %, tax % and amount. The
**Columns** control hides what you are not using.
The type matters: the totals panel reports **products subtotal** and **tax
on products** separately, because goods and services are frequently taxed
differently.
### Where lines come from
Five buttons, and the last three are why the form is worth using:
* **From schedule** — pull the FF\&E straight off the project's schedule,
with markup and tax as costed. The usual route for a procurement
invoice.
* **From contract** — bill an agreed milestone from the proposal, rather
than re-keying the amount.
* **Time entry** — turn logged hours into billable lines at the project's
rate.
* **Add product / Add service** — a one-off line typed by hand.
For an FF\&E invoice, start from the schedule's **Financials** view and use
**Create invoice** there instead. Same result, fewer steps.
### Totals
Products subtotal, tax on products, a **discount** in currency rather than
percent, and total due.
## Before you send
1. **Check the studio details.** Logo, legal name, business address, tax
ID and the payment block in the footer all come from **Settings →
Studio**. Set them once, before the first invoice.
2. **Check every line's client price.** A row may use saved selling or
reference pricing even when vendor cost is blank. Review the invoice
preview, quantities and totals before saving.
3. **Check tax settings for this project.** Confirm the applicable treatment
with your studio's accounting process; imported rates need review.
4. **Check what the terms commit you to.** Net 90 on a job where you have
already paid the vendor is a cash-flow decision, not a formality.
## Sending it
Open the invoice and choose **Send & copy link** while it is a draft. This
marks it sent and copies a client link; it does not send an email. Paste the
link into your own message. For an issued invoice, the action reads **Copy
link**. **Save PDF** makes a fixed copy.
A cancelled invoice has no public page. Check its status before trying to
share it.
## Recording payments
**Record payment** logs
an actual payment — it is a new entry, not a checkbox — and you can add
as many as it takes:
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Amount** | What came in. Can be less than the balance — partial payments are normal, not an edge case. |
| **Date** | When it was paid. |
| **Method** | Bank transfer, card, cheque, whatever fits. |
| **Reference** | A transaction ID or note, for reconciling against your bank statement. |
Use the status control in the invoice header for the transitions currently
allowed, such as moving a draft to sent. Payment states are calculated from
the recorded payments: **Partially paid** when a balance remains and **Paid**
when recorded payments and any applied retainer cover the total. Use **Record payment** for money received;
changing a workflow status does not record a payment.
## After you send
The **Finance dashboard** tracks it from there: invoiced, paid,
outstanding, overdue, with overdue and partially paid invoices listed
under *Needs attention*.
A sent invoice is out of the assistant's reach. It writes drafts only —
once an invoice is `SENT`, and at every status after including `OVERDUE`
and `PAID`, changes are made in Finance by hand or superseded by a change
order.
## Apply money received in advance
For a project deposit, record it in **Finance → Retainers** and use **Columns → Retainer applied** in the invoice form. The available balance includes claims by other draft invoices. See [Retainers and client deposits](/finance/retainers).
**Balance due = invoice total − applied retainer − recorded invoice payments**, with a minimum of zero. Record each receipt once; applying a deposit does not mean receiving a new payment.
# Proposals
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/proposals
What you send before the work is agreed — scope, phases, fee and payment schedule in one document that becomes the project when the client accepts.
A proposal is the offer. It says what you will do, in what order, for how
much, and when you expect to be paid.
It is also the only document in Atelier that **builds the project**.
Accepting a proposal turns its phases into the project's phases — so the
shape you give the work here is the shape the job takes.
## The list
**Finance → Proposals.** Each row: number (`PROP-2026-001`), title,
client, status, created date, expiry and total.
Two ways to start:
* **New proposal** — build it in Atelier: scope, fee and payment schedule,
described below.
* **Upload signed document** — for a proposal agreed elsewhere. Atelier
reads it and fills the fields in for you.
## Uploading a signed contract
If the agreement already exists — signed on paper, drafted in Word, sent
as a PDF before you started using Atelier — you do not have to retype it.
**Upload signed document** takes a PDF, Word file or image and extracts
the **phases, fees and payment schedule** for your review.
*Smith Residence — Signed Contract*.
On **Auto-detect from document**, Atelier reads the name, address and
contacts out of the file and links a matching client — or creates one.
A close-but-not-exact match is put to you for confirmation rather than
guessed at.
Optional.
PDF, DOC, DOCX or an image.
It is a draft for review, not a finished document. Check the phases,
the fee and every payment milestone against the original before you
rely on any of it.
Uploading the file does not accept the proposal by itself — accepting is
a separate, deliberate step once you've checked what was extracted. And
Atelier does not verify that the file actually contains a signature; it
takes your word that this is a signed agreement. Treat it as your own
record, not as proof.
This is the route into Atelier for a studio with a drawer full of live
contracts. Because **phases become the project's own phases on acceptance**,
uploading an old agreement is not just filing a PDF — it reconstructs the
project's timeline from it.
Analysis costs one AI credit per document. See [AI credits](/ai/credits).
## Building one
The form has five blocks, and they are in this order for a reason: what
the job is, what you will do, what you charge, when you get paid, and how
you explain it.
### Project info
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Title** | Required. *Interior Design Proposal — Smith Residence*. |
| **Client** | Required. Pulls from your client records. |
| **Expiry date** | The deadline for responding to the offer. An accepted proposal does not become expired just because this date later passes. |
| **Project** | Link to an existing project, or leave it unlinked. |
### Phases — the scope
Phases are the stages of work: Concept Design, Design Development,
Procurement, Installation. Each has a name, an optional description and an
estimated duration in weeks.
**Phases become the project's phases on acceptance — there is no pricing
here.** This is the hinge between Finance and the project: when the client
accepts, the phases you listed appear on the project's Timeline, with dates
derived from the durations you gave. They do not become tasks — the task
board is yours to fill. Describe the job as you intend to run it, not as a
sales document.
Duration is estimated, not dated. You are telling the client *six weeks of
design development*, not committing to a calendar before the job has
started.
### Fee — what you charge
Four fee types:
| Type | Use it when |
| - | - |
| **Fixed** | One agreed price for the whole scope. Simplest to sell, riskiest to deliver. |
| **Hourly** | Billed against tracked time. Suits open-ended or advisory work. |
| **Cost-plus** | Your margin on what the job costs — common in procurement-heavy schemes. |
| **Mixed** | A combination: fixed design fee plus a procurement margin, for example. |
The fee is **independent from the payment schedule** — the form says so
itself. How much you charge and when it arrives are two separate
decisions, and keeping them separate is what lets you offer the same price
on friendlier terms.
### Payment schedule — when you are paid
A list of milestones, each with a name, an amount and a **trigger**:
| Trigger | Fires when |
| - | - |
| **On acceptance** | The client accepts the proposal. This is your deposit. |
| **On date** | A fixed calendar date. |
| **On phase completion** | A phase from the scope above finishes. |
That third trigger is the one worth understanding. It ties money to
progress rather than to the calendar, so the client pays for design
development when design development is done — not on the 15th regardless.
A schedule that works for most residential jobs:
1. **Deposit — on acceptance.** Enough to commit the client and cover the
first stage.
2. **Stage payments — on phase completion.** One per phase, so cash
follows the work.
3. **Balance — on phase completion.** Against the final phase, usually
installation.
### Narrative — how you explain it
Three free-text blocks, and the part clients actually read first:
* **Introduction** — you and the project, briefly.
* **Scope of work** — what is included *and what is excluded*. The second
half is what prevents an argument in month four.
* **Terms & conditions** — payment terms, revision policy, cancellation
clause.
## Sending it
**Mark as sent** changes the proposal's status — it does not email
anything. Copy the client link (**Shared**, in the proposal toolbar) and
send it yourself.
## Two ways a proposal gets accepted
* **The client accepts it themselves**, on the public link. They type
their name and click **Accept** — Atelier records that name alongside
their IP address and the timestamp, as a separate record. This is the
version with a real audit trail: who agreed, and when.
* **You mark it accepted**, from inside Atelier — for a deal closed by
phone, in person, or on paper. Nothing verifies this beyond your own
say-so; there is no equivalent record of who agreed to what.
Either path lands on the same `ACCEPTED` status and has the same effect:
* **A DRAFT invoice is created for every milestone** in the payment
schedule — not just the deposit.
* If the proposal wasn't linked to a project, accepting it can create
one, using the proposal's phases as the project's phases.
**Editing an accepted proposal changes what the client sees, immediately.**
Open one and Atelier says so: *"This proposal has already been accepted.
Changes will update the live link immediately. To keep the original,
create a new version instead."* The client is holding a live link, not a
copy. If you need the original preserved — and you almost always do,
because it is the record of what was agreed — create a new version rather
than editing in place.
Once a proposal leaves `DRAFT` the assistant cannot change it, at any
later status including `ACCEPTED`. Changes are made in Finance — a new
version, or a change order.
Scope that grows after acceptance does not belong in a revised proposal.
It belongs in a change order, which keeps the record of what was agreed
when.
To start from previous work, use [Copy documents and use templates](/projects/copy-and-reuse-documents). Review the new document before sharing or issuing it.
# Purchase orders
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/purchase-orders
What you send a vendor to place an order — the one document in Finance that faces a vendor rather than a client.
Everything else in Finance faces the client. A purchase order faces the
other way: it is what you send a vendor to buy the thing.
That difference runs all the way through the document. A PO carries
**trade price** — what you pay — not the selling price the client sees. It
carries a delivery address rather than a billing address. And its status
tells you where your money is, not where theirs is.
## The list
**Finance → Purchase Orders.** Each row: PO number, vendor, project,
status, created and total.
## Open and update an order
Click the PO number or its open control in **Finance → Purchase Orders** to
read the document, edit it or download its PDF. Its line specification includes
the details the vendor needs to identify the piece, such as model, dimensions,
material and finish where recorded.
The list's status control offers the allowed next actions: **Draft → Sent →
Confirmed**, cancellation before settlement, and reopening a cancelled order
as a draft. These record workflow changes; marking an order sent does not
email the vendor.
## Raising one
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Vendor** | Who you are buying from. Pulls their record. |
| **Project** | Which job it is for. |
| **Delivery address** | Where the goods go. Usually the site or your warehouse, not your office. |
| **Notes to vendor** | Special instructions, lead-time notes, anything they need to read. |
| **Line items** | Product name, quantity, unit and **trade price**. |
**Download PDF** produces the document to send. **Create PO** records it
in Atelier.
Unlike a proposal, invoice or change order, a purchase order has no
client-facing link — there is nothing to share, and nothing for a vendor
to open in a browser. **Download PDF** and your own email are the only
way it leaves Atelier.
**Trade price, not selling price.** The line total on a PO is your cost.
Markup lives on the schedule and reaches the client through an invoice —
it never appears on a document a vendor sees.
## The efficient way to do it
Raising POs one product at a time is slow. The schedule does most of the
work for you:
1. **Start from the Overview.** The project Overview's **Ready to order**
card counts everything the client approved that nobody has ordered.
That is the queue.
2. **Group the schedule by vendor.** On the Procurement view, **Organize
→ group by vendor**. Each group is now one purchase order.
3. **Raise one PO per vendor.** Six items from one vendor is one order,
one delivery and one conversation — not six of each.
4. **Record it back on the schedule.** PO number, order date and the
vendor's promised ship date go on the Procurement view, and the items
move to **Ordered**.
Fill in the vendor's terms before you need them — deposit, balance, lead
time, return policy. They live on the vendor record, and they are what
tell you whether the installation date you just promised is real.
## Tracking what you have ordered
The PO is the commitment; the schedule is where you watch it arrive.
Tracking number, carrier, estimated ship and actual delivery all live on
the Procurement view, against the items themselves.
Keeping both in step is what makes *where is the sofa* answerable without
opening your email.
## Changing an order
Once a PO leaves `DRAFT` the assistant will not change it, and neither
should you quietly. A vendor working to an order they have already
received needs a new one, or a conversation.
This is not bureaucracy. The vendor has already begun cutting fabric to
the order in their hand — a silently amended PDF on your side changes
nothing in their workshop.
# Retainers and client deposits
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/finance/retainers
Record an advance payment for a project, apply it to invoices and track the amount still available.
Open **Finance → Retainers** to track client deposits received in advance. Each deposit belongs to one project. Recording it in Atelier does not collect or transfer money.
## Record a deposit
1. Choose **Record deposit**.
2. Select the **Project** and enter the **Amount** actually received.
3. Check the **Received** date, choose the payment **Method**, and add a **Reference** and notes if needed.
4. Save the deposit and check the project's balance.
The available methods are Bank transfer, Check, Credit card, Cash and Other. Use a bank reference or other clear identifier so the entry can be reconciled later.
## Read the balances
| Column | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **Received** | Deposits recorded for this project. |
| **Applied** | Retainer amounts claimed by its non-cancelled invoices, including drafts. |
| **Available** | Received minus Applied: the amount still available to another invoice. |
Open a project row to see **Deposits received** and **Applied to invoices**. Draft invoices also reserve their retainer amount, so two drafts cannot use the same available deposit. Voiding an invoice releases its claim.
## Apply a retainer to an invoice
1. Open the invoice form for the same project.
2. In **Columns**, enable **Retainer applied**.
3. Enter the amount under **Retainer applied (\$)**. The form shows what is available; use **Apply all** or **Apply the balance** when offered.
4. Save and review the invoice's retainer deduction and **Balance due**.
5. Return to **Finance → Retainers** to check the updated Applied and Available amounts.
The invoice balance is its total minus the applied retainer and payments recorded against that invoice, with a minimum balance of zero. For example, a $3,000 invoice with $1,000 of retainer applied and a separate $500 payment has $1,500 left to pay.
Do not also record the same applied deposit as a new invoice payment: that would count the same money twice. A deposit on one project cannot be applied to another project's invoice.
## Correct an entry
Expand the project row and use **Remove this deposit** to remove an incorrect deposit record. Atelier refuses removal when it would leave less received than invoices have already claimed. Correct the relevant invoice applications first, then record the correct deposit if needed.
Removing a record does not refund money. Check the actual payment history before changing financial records.
See [Invoices](/finance/invoices) for recording additional payments and [Finance dashboard](/finance/finance-dashboard) for the separate invoice summary.
# Finding your way around
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/getting-started/finding-your-way-around
The sidebar, Home, Inbox and the project workspace explained.
Atelier has one sidebar on the left that never changes, and a work area on
the right that does. Learn the sidebar and you can find everything else.
## The sidebar
| Item | What it is |
| - | - |
| **Home** | Your day: tasks assigned to you, the Today planner, and your projects. |
| **Inbox** | Notifications: task activity assigned to you, plus client comments and approvals on shared pinboards. |
| **Projects** | Every project in the studio. |
| **Library** | Studio-wide records: **Products**, **Clients**, **Vendors**. |
| **Time** | Time entries and reports. |
| **Finance** | Dashboard, proposals, invoices, change orders, purchase orders and client retainers across projects. |
| **Pinned** | Schedules and pinboards you have pinned for quick access. |
At the bottom: **Get help**, **Start timer**, and **AI Chat**.
The studio name at the very top opens the account menu — **Settings**,
**Back office** and **Log out**.
## Home
Where you land when you sign in: **My tasks** on the left, **Today** on the
right, your projects below. It answers what you personally are doing,
across every job.
Covered properly in [Home](/tasks/home).
## Inbox
Two things land here: your own team's task activity (assigned to you,
replied to, reacted to), and everything a client does on a shared
pinboard — comments on individual items, and approvals.
Selecting a row shows the item they were reacting to — the product image, the
comment, the date — and a link straight to the pinboard it came from.
Clearing the Inbox is a reasonable way to start the week.
## The project workspace
Use the project tabs to move between its work:
* **Overview** — The timeline of phases, cards for anything that needs
attention, your pinboards, a recent activity log and project files.
* **Tasks** — The project's task board, with Board, Timeline and List views.
* **Schedule** — FF\&E schedules for the project, with version and status.
* **Pinboards** — Every pinboard in the project, with image counts.
* **Documents** — Vendor paperwork and quotes, checked against project schedules.
See [Documents and vendor quotes](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes).
### Needs your attention
On the Overview, Atelier surfaces the things that quietly go wrong on
interiors jobs:
* **Ready to order** — items the client approved that nobody has ordered yet.
* **No price set** — items on a schedule with no estimated cost, so your
budget is lying to you.
* **No room assigned** — items that will be awkward at installation.
* **Phase ends soon** — a phase due to close within days.
## AI Chat
The **AI Chat** button opens a panel beside whatever you are looking at. Ask
it about your own data — *what's overdue this week?*, *add Holly Hunt as a
vendor*, *start a timer on the Birchwood project* — and it acts on the
studio you are signed in to.
The Claude connector supports a subset of Atelier capabilities. Direct finance-document tools and
full pinboard editing require AI Chat inside Atelier. The connector can still prepare project briefs and help with vendor pricing. See
[Assistant capabilities](/ai/what-the-assistant-can-do).
# Your first project in 10 minutes
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/getting-started/first-project
Build a real project end to end — client, phases, pinboard, schedule, invoice.
The fastest way to learn Atelier is to run one small job through it. Use a
real project if you have one; a made-up one-bedroom apartment works just as
well.
By the end you will have a client, a project with a timeline, a pinboard you
can share, a costed schedule and an invoice.
## 1. Add the client
Go to **Library → Clients** and choose **Add client**. Only the name is
required. Everything else — legal name, billing address, email, phone,
tax-exempt status — appears on invoices and purchase orders later, so it is
worth filling in properly the first time.
Client names are not de-duplicated. If you have worked with someone before,
search the list rather than adding them again.
## 2. Create the project
Go to **Projects** and choose **New project**. Pick the client you just
created and give the project a name — most studios use the address, for
example `123 Maple Street`.
Worth setting now:
| Field | Why it matters |
| - | - |
| **Status** | New projects start as **Lead**. Move to **Active** once the job is signed. |
| **Budget** | Shown against your spend on the schedule's Financials view. |
| **Hourly rate** | Used when you log billable time on this project. |
| **Ship-to address** | Printed on purchase orders. |
| **Project type** | For example *Single Family Residential*, *Commercial*. |
## 3. Lay out the timeline
Open the project's **Overview** tab. The **Timeline** strip is empty until
you add phases — Concept Design, Design Development, Procurement,
Installation, whatever your process looks like. Each phase has a start date,
an end date and a colour.
Atelier shows today's position on the timeline and warns you on the Overview
when a phase is about to end.
## 4. Build a pinboard
Open the **Pinboards** tab, choose **New pinboard**, and name it after the
room — `Bedroom`, `Living room`. Use **Add image → Upload image** for
references, and **From product library** or **Import from URL** for products
that should enter the schedule on approval. Add text labels to explain the scheme.
**Add page** gives you a second board in the same document, so one pinboard
can carry a whole presentation.
## 5. Share it with the client
Create a schedule in the project first. In the pinboard toolbar choose
**Share**, select it under **Approved items will be added to**, then choose
**Create link** and copy the link. Your
client opens it in a browser, with no account and nothing to install. They
can comment on individual items and approve them.
Every comment and approval lands in your **Inbox**.
## 6. Start the schedule
Open the **Schedule** tab and the schedule you selected for sharing. Products
approved through linked pins are already there as **Approved**; do not add them
a second time. Plain image approvals stay on the board. Add any other products
you need, then verify quantities and rooms.
The Planning view is where you work day to day: brand, material, finish,
quantity, retail price, lead time and status for every line.
## 7. Cost it
Switch to the **Financials** view. Enter what the vendor charges you in
**Vendor cost**, then set a markup — either per line, or on everything at
once with **Apply markup to all**. **Apply tax to all** does the same for
sales tax.
Atelier calculates the selling price, the profit per unit and the client
total, and shows the running spend against the project budget at the top of
the view.
## 8. Invoice
Still on the **Financials** view, choose **Create invoice**. The schedule
lines become invoice lines with your markup and tax already applied.
The invoice carries your studio branding, business details and payment
instructions from **Settings → Studio**, so set those up before you send the
first one.
## What next
* **Set up your studio** — Logo, currency, tax and payment terms — everything
that appears on client documents.
* **Invite your team** — Roles and what each one can do.
* **Add products from vendor sites** — Import from a URL or capture with the
Chrome extension instead of typing.
* **Procurement** — Purchase orders, order dates, tracking and delivery.
# The newcomer flow
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/getting-started/the-newcomer-flow
The first screen in an empty studio — paste a few product links and a board is built, then approving a pin puts it in the schedule.
A studio made a minute ago is empty, and an empty workspace does not explain
itself. The newcomer flow is what fills it: paste two or three links
to products you are considering, and Atelier builds a board from them. It
exists to show the loop the rest of the product is built around — **pin it,
approve it, it is in the schedule** — before anyone has had to learn where
anything lives.
It appears on Home, once for each person, and only while the studio has yet to
produce a schedule line — so it is normally the first day, but a colleague
joining an empty studio months later meets it too. You can leave at any point,
and you can come back.
## What you see first
The screen says **Your workspace is ready**, greets you by name, and gives you
one thing to do: a box reading *Paste your product links and I'll build the
board*.
Beneath it is a single alternative — **No links to hand? Start with three
products I picked** — for anyone who wants to see the flow without going to
find URLs first. There is deliberately no third option. Two buttons that do
the same thing make a choice out of what should be a start.
## Paste the links
Any product page from a vendor's site will do, pasted as plain addresses. Up
to **six** links are read at a time; past that the extra ones are ignored and
you are told so, rather than left to wonder why a board came back short.
Atelier reads each page and tells you how many it is working through. What it
takes from them is the product and its specification — the same import that
[bringing a product in from a URL](/product-library/import-a-product-from-a-url)
uses, so the board is built out of real records rather than pictures.
A page it cannot read a product from is named and left off the board. The
answer to that is another link, so the box stays where it is.
## Name the project
While the board builds, the flow asks what to call the project. A brand-new
studio is offered **Sample Project**; a studio that already has projects of
its own is offered **New project** instead.
## Approve a pin
When the board is ready the flow points you at it and stops. The last step
happens on the board itself, not in the conversation, because that is where it
will happen every time afterwards:
**See it on the board** takes you there.
The pin opens. This is the part people miss — the flow says it out loud
for that reason.
The pin becomes a line in the schedule, carrying its price and
specification with it.
That is the whole loop, and the flow says so when it sees the first line
appear. Everything else in Atelier hangs off it: a schedule line is what
becomes a purchase order, an invoice line, a budget figure.
## Leaving, and coming back
Closing the flow says *not now*, not *never*. In its place a **Get started**
card appears on Home, with the same way in. If you had already built a board,
it reads **Pick up where you left off** and takes you back to it.
The card carries its own ✕. That one is final — it is recorded against your
membership rather than the browser, so it holds on every device and does not
return on the next visit.
The flow and the card are per person, not per studio. A colleague joining
later gets their own introduction, whatever you did with yours.
## When it stops appearing
Both the flow and the card go away on their own once the studio has produced
its first schedule line — no dismissing required. Work is the signal; having
been shown the introduction is not.
Lines on the seeded example project do not count. Looking at the example is
not work, and Atelier does not treat it as such.
Nothing the flow makes is special. The project, the board and the schedule
line are ordinary records — rename them, add to them or delete them exactly as
you would any others.
# Welcome to Atelier
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/getting-started/welcome
What Atelier is and how it's put together.
Atelier holds the whole of an interior design project: the client, the
concept, the products you specify, what they cost, what you charge, what has
shipped, and what has been paid. One place, one set of numbers.
## How Atelier is put together
Start with these four records:
* **Studio** — Your workspace. Your branding, currency, tax settings and team
live here, and everything below belongs to it.
* **Clients** — The people you bill. A client can have several contacts and
several projects.
* **Projects** — One per job. Holds the timeline, tasks, pinboards and
schedules for that job.
* **Product library** — Every product your studio has ever specified, shared
across all projects. Specify a piece once, reuse it forever.
Inside a project you work in two places:
* **Pinboards** are how you show the idea. A canvas of images, plans,
materials and product shots that the client can open, comment on and
approve.
* **Schedules** are how you deliver it. An FF\&E list with quantities, costs,
markup, lead times and procurement status, which turns into purchase orders
and invoices.
A pin on a board and a row on a schedule can reference the same library product.
The schedule keeps its own job-specific cost; changing the library price does
not automatically reprice an existing schedule row.
## A typical week
Open **Home**. Your overdue and upcoming tasks are on the left; drag what
you intend to do into **Today**.
Browse vendor sites, capture products into the library, drop them onto a
pinboard for the living room.
Share the pinboard with the client. They comment and approve in their
browser. Their replies land in your **Inbox**.
Approved items go onto the schedule. Set vendor cost and markup, apply
tax, see the client total against the project budget.
Raise purchase orders to vendors, create the client invoice from the
schedule, log your hours.
## The example project
A new studio is not empty. It arrives with one worked example — **Riverside
Condo** — carrying a finished pinboard, 26 products in the library, a schedule
built from them and the client it is all for. It exists so the screens have
something in them the first time you open them: an empty schedule teaches
nothing about what a schedule is for.
It is a complete project, finance included. The client has a name, a billing
address and contact details, so Finance, invoices and purchase orders all have
something real to work from on your first day — nothing in the example is
waiting on a field you have to fill in before it will render.
You will know it by the **EXAMPLE** badge on its card, and by the line where
every other project shows its status, which reads *Explore me* instead. Its
card is deliberately quieter than the rest — dashed border, muted image — so it
never gets mistaken for work.
Everything in it is real and editable. Change prices, restyle the board, set
statuses and watch the totals move; it is a sandbox that behaves exactly like a
live project because it is one.
The example client is invented — the address is nobody's and the email cannot
receive mail, so there is no way to write to it by accident. Delete the example
whenever you have seen enough and its client goes with it, leaving nothing
behind in your client list. Two things keep that client: another project using
it, or your having edited it — editing a sample client is how you say it is
yours now, and Atelier stops treating it as sample data.
## Where to start
The fastest way to understand Atelier: build a real project end to end.
The sidebar, Home, Inbox and the project workspace explained.
Set up your studio and using Atelier from Claude are covered later in this
Help Center, in the Settings and AI sections.
## Your first 14 days
Your first studio receives a 14-day trial from signup, with no card required. The trial is available once per account and verified email; additional studios require a subscription. Check **Settings → Billing** for the end date, included AI credits and subscription options. Subscribe to continue after the trial; your project data is retained. See [AI credits](/ai/credits).
# Build and edit a pinboard with AI
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/ai-builder
Use AI Chat to compose and refine an open board, or assign a task to your AI teammate for a background draft.
There are two ways to build with AI: **AI Chat** beside an open pinboard, and a **task assigned to the AI teammate**. Both produce editable board items for you to review.
## Edit the board in front of you
1. Open the target pinboard, then **AI Chat**.
2. Name the page and the result you want. Pages are numbered from 1 in the app.
3. Name the products, provide vendor links or attach the reference images you want to use.
4. Wait while **AI is editing…** is visible. Avoid moving the same items during the edit.
5. Review the page and product details. Refine with another request or edit by hand.
### Prompts to try
| Goal | Example request |
| - | - |
| Arrange a room scene | “On page 2, arrange the chair, rug and pendant as a living room vignette. Rug underneath, pendant above. Keep the chair as the focus. No captions.” |
| Compare products | “On a new page, arrange these three armchair options in a row with equal spacing. Label them A, B and C.” |
| Refine a layout | “On page 1, align the three material samples and move the heading above them. Keep the product images.” |
| Add a reference | “Add the attached room photo to page 1 as a reference image with the caption ‘Palette direction’.” |
| Clean up images | “Remove the backgrounds from the chair and side table on page 2. Keep the room reference photo unchanged.” |
| Prepare a decision | “List the products on page 2 and their current approval status before making any changes.” |
AI Chat can add images, text and arrows; crop and remove backgrounds; move, align and distribute items; manage pages; read and post item comments; and approve or reject pins when asked. For product approval, name the destination schedule. These board editing abilities require the pinboard context in Atelier; the external Claude connector has a smaller tool set.
## Ask for a scene or a comparison
For a scene, describe the room, the anchor piece and where objects belong relative to one another. For a comparison, ask for a row or grid. Say whether to add captions and which page to use.
Provide product dimensions when relative scale matters. The result is a visual composition, not a measured drawing or proof that furniture will fit. Check dimensions, variants, pricing and image quality before presenting it.
## Undo an AI edit
After the edit finishes, use **Command+Z** on Mac or **Ctrl+Z** on other keyboards, or the touch Undo button. AI edits join the open board's editing history. Redo uses **Command+Shift+Z** or **Ctrl+Shift+Z**.
Review any schedule changes separately. Editing history is not a permanent version archive, and it does not recall content someone has already seen through a shared link.
## Build a draft through a task
Create a project task with the room brief, required pieces and references in its description. Assign it to the **AI teammate** in the assignee picker. The agent works in the background and posts progress and a link to the board on the task.
For example: “Create a living room concept board for this project. Use warm neutrals, oak and olive accents. Include seating, a rug and lighting. Separate the overall direction from the product options.”
Open the resulting board and check every page. If the AI teammate is unavailable or the task reports an error, use AI Chat or build manually rather than assuming a board was created.
## Credits and review
AI work uses studio credits; usage depends on the work performed. Read [AI credits](/ai/credits) for where to check consumption. Keep the final sourcing, approval and commercial decisions under your review.
When offered after an AI turn finishes, **Undo last change** in AI Chat restores the last supported edit on the board currently open. The action disappears when that board is no longer open. Review the canvas after undoing.
# Build a pinboard
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/build-a-pinboard
Create a room presentation with uploaded images, library products, labels and multiple pages.
Start with a pinboard inside a project. For a first presentation, use one reference image, three products and a short heading.
## Add images and products
Open **Add image** in the toolbar and choose:
| Option | What to do |
| - | - |
| **Add product** | Opens a product form to create a product directly from the board. |
| **Upload image** | Choose a local image for a plan, material, sketch or reference photo. |
| **From product library** | Search for an existing product and choose its image. The pin stays connected to the product record. |
| **Import from URL** | Paste a specific vendor product page, then choose **Import**. Check the imported product details before relying on them. |
Select the correct page before adding an item. If a product page cannot be imported, use the [Product Clipper](/product-library/chrome-extension) or [add the product manually](/product-library/add-a-product-manually), then place it from the library.
You can also click empty canvas and paste a vendor product URL with Command+V or Ctrl+V. Atelier imports it onto the active page near your click. Deselect images first: pasting a URL with an image selected attaches a source link instead.
## Arrange the page
Click an item to select it. Drag to move it and use a corner handle to resize it. Select several items with **Shift-click**, or drag a selection area on empty canvas, then use **Align & distribute** to line them up.
Use **Order** to put a rug behind a chair or a label in front of an image. **Flip** mirrors an image. **Crop** changes its framing; **Erase** provides background removal and a manual pixel eraser.
Use [Perspective](/pinboards/change-image-perspective) to angle a rug or other image using four corner handles. You can place objects across the full page, including its edges. To move an item to an adjacent page, deliberately drag it fully beyond the top or bottom boundary; ordinary positioning near the edge keeps it on the same page.
For a layered room scene, start with clear individual product photos. See [Crop and remove backgrounds](/pinboards/crop-and-remove-backgrounds).
## Add words and callouts
* **Add text** creates a separate label for a heading or room note. Select it to change its text style, size, colour or weight.
* **Add caption…** on a selected image attaches a caption to that image. It moves with the image.
* **Line tool** draws a divider. Hold **Shift** for horizontal or vertical. Select the line and choose **Arrow** for a callout. Press **Escape** to leave drawing mode.
Use labels such as *Living room — option A*, *Oak finish* and *Existing rug — retain*. A short caption should make sense when you are not there to explain it.
## Add and compare pages
**Add page** adds another page. Click the page name to rename it. Open the page counter, such as **1 / 3**, for the page navigator: jump between pages, reorder them, insert a page or duplicate an existing one.
For an alternative, duplicate *Option A*, rename the copy *Option B*, then change the products or layout. Check the copy's product decisions before using it for a new approval round.
Deleting a page removes its images, text and arrows. A nonempty page asks for confirmation. Undo can restore the deletion during the current editing session; keep a duplicate when you need a lasting alternative.
Use [Hide page from clients](/pinboards/hide-pages-from-clients) to keep working pages out of the live presentation. To reuse an entire board in another project, see [Copy documents and use templates](/projects/copy-and-reuse-documents).
## Review and share
Use **Fit** to see the whole page. Check headings, image quality, product details and page order. Use **Pin** to keep the board in your sidebar.
Then [share the board](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client) for feedback or [save a PDF](/pinboards/export-a-pinboard-to-pdf) for a fixed presentation copy.
# Change image perspective
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/change-image-perspective
Shape an image with four corner handles to place a rug, artwork or material into a room composition.
![Perspective]()
**Perspective** — see [all editor icons](/pinboards/editor-reference).
Use **Perspective** to change the apparent angle of an image. For example, narrow the far edge of a rug so it appears to lie on the floor beneath a chair. This changes the image on the pinboard, not the product's dimensions or specification.
## Shape an image
1. Select one image on the board.
2. Choose **Perspective** in its floating toolbar, or right-click the image and choose **Perspective**.
3. Drag one of the four corner handles. The corner you drag moves independently; the other corners stay in place. The handles keep the shape from folding over itself.
4. Adjust the remaining corners to match the scene. For a rug, move the two far corners inward and keep the near edge wider.
5. Choose **Done** and wait for **Perspective applied** before continuing.
Use **Order → Send to back**, or **Layer → Send to back** in the right-click menu, to place the rug behind furniture. Move and resize the finished image to position it.
## Reset, Cancel and Done
| Control | Result |
| - | - |
| **Reset** | Returns the corner handles to a rectangle during the current perspective edit. |
| **Cancel** | Leaves perspective editing and restores the shape from when you opened it. |
| **Done** | Applies the shape and saves the resulting image to the board. Wait for processing to finish. |
After **Done**, the transformed result becomes the image used for later edits. Opening Perspective again and choosing Reset does not recover the earlier original image. Use Undo while the edit is available in the current session, or keep a duplicate before experimenting.
## Combine with other image tools
[Remove the background](/pinboards/crop-and-remove-backgrounds) if the photograph has unwanted surroundings. **Crop** changes the visible framing; **Perspective** changes the shape. Perspective works on an image, not a text label or line.
Check the finished composition using **Fit**, then review the shared presentation or PDF. Avoid using a perspective image to communicate exact product dimensions: keep those in the product details.
## Ask AI to help
With the board open, try: “Apply perspective to the rug so the top edge is narrower, as if it lies on the floor. Keep the chair unchanged.” Name the image and the intended result explicitly. Review the result and use Undo if needed.
# Client feedback in the Inbox
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/client-feedback-in-the-inbox
Every comment and approval from a shared pinboard, in one feed — and what to do with each one.
**Inbox** in the sidebar collects everything your clients do on shared
pinboards. It is the one screen where client feedback cannot get lost
behind a WhatsApp thread.
The Inbox isn't client-only. It's also where you hear about your own
team: someone assigned you a task, replied on one, or reacted to your
comment. Client rows and teammate rows sit in the same feed, sorted
newest first — the icon on the left tells them apart.
## The feed
Newest first. Each row shows the pinboard, who acted, and what they did:
* *A client approved: Ondé Sofa — Restoration…*
* *A client commented: Can we change fabric?*
* *A client approved: Flower Crown Pink Met…*
Approvals and comments carry different icons, so you can scan for decisions
and ignore the chat.
Selecting a row opens the detail: the item image, the comment, the date,
and **Open pinboard** to see it in context.
## Working through it
If the pin was linked to a product, approval already did the work —
Atelier adds it to the project's schedule and sets it to **Approved**
for you, no extra step. It will start counting in the project
Overview's *Ready to order* card. Only a plain image (a mood shot, a
plan) needs nothing more; it was never meant for a schedule.
*Can we change fabric?* is a task, not a message. Turn it into one so
it does not evaporate.
Open the pinboard and answer on the item, so the thread stays attached
to the thing being discussed.
Clear the Inbox on Monday morning. It takes ten minutes and it is the
cheapest way to find out that a client approved something three weeks ago
that nobody ordered.
## What doesn't show up here
Only pinboards notify. A client viewing a shared **schedule** can look —
not comment, not approve — so nothing from a schedule share reaches the
Inbox. Acceptance of a **proposal** or **change order**, and invoice payment
progress, should be checked in **Finance** or on the document itself.
# Crop and remove backgrounds
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/crop-and-remove-backgrounds
Frame an image, make a product cutout and refine its edges for a layered room presentation.
![Crop]()
**Crop** — see [all editor icons](/pinboards/editor-reference).
Use **Crop** to change the visible area of a photo. Use **Remove background** to isolate a product. Use **Pixel eraser** to refine a cutout by hand.
## Crop an image
1. Select the image on your pinboard.
2. Choose **Crop** in the item toolbar.
3. Adjust the crop to keep the part you want, then apply it. Choose **Cancel** to leave without applying the crop.
4. Check the result in the board, especially if the image is rotated or flipped.
Cropping does not identify the product or change its dimensions in the library.
## Remove a background
1. Select a product photo.
2. Open **Erase → Remove background**.
3. Wait for processing, then check that the product is complete: legs, edges, fringe and thin stems are easy to miss.
4. Place the cutout over the other images to check how it reads in the composition.
Use a photograph of one product with a clear outline where possible. A styled room photo may need manual cleanup, and background removal is not guaranteed to isolate the piece you intended.
Atelier reuses an available cutout for the same source image in your studio. Reuse does not incur another background-removal charge. A different source photo may need fresh processing. Check [AI credits](/ai/credits) for recorded usage.
## Refine with the pixel eraser
Open **Erase → Pixel eraser**. Adjust the brush and erase the parts you do not want. Switch to **Restore** to paint pixels back from the available original image. Choose **Done** to save, or **Cancel** to leave without saving this session's edits.
If you erase the whole image, Atelier asks you to restore some of it instead of saving an empty result. Use **Reset** or **Restore**, then try again.
Keep the composition at a realistic visual scale, but do not treat a pinboard as a measured drawing. Confirm actual product dimensions separately before specifying or ordering.
## If the result is wrong
Try Undo while the editing history is available, restore edges manually, or choose a cleaner product photo. See [Pinboard troubleshooting](/pinboards/troubleshooting) for import, image and export problems.
Use [Perspective](/pinboards/change-image-perspective) to shape an image with four corners. See [Editor controls](/pinboards/editor-reference) for line drawing, right-click actions and shortcuts, and [Hide pages from clients](/pinboards/hide-pages-from-clients) for working pages.
# Editor controls and shortcuts
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/editor-reference
Find board, page and item controls, plus keyboard and touch gestures for pinboards.
Board controls sit in the top toolbar. Page controls sit beside the page name. Item controls appear when an item is selected.
The pictures below use the same icon shapes as Atelier, enlarged for readability. Labels remain alongside them for search and screen readers. **Text** means that the control is identified by its wording rather than an icon.
## Board controls
| Icon | Control | What it does |
| - | - | - |
| Text | Page counter, such as **1 / 3** | Opens the page navigator. Jump, reorder, insert, duplicate or delete pages; pin the navigator open while working. |
| ![Pin]()
| **Pin / Pinned** | Adds or removes the board from the sidebar's pinned items. This is separate from pinning the page navigator. |
| Text | **Save PDF** | Opens export options, including studio branding. |
| ![Share]()
| **Share / Shared** | Creates or disables a public link and selects the schedule for client approvals. |
| ![Add]()
| **Add page** | Adds a page to the presentation. |
| ![Add]()
| **Add image** | Offers **Upload image**, **From product library**, **Import from URL** and **Add product**. |
| ![Add text]()
| **Add text** | Creates a separate text label. |
| ![Line tool]()
| **Line tool** | Drag to draw a line. Hold Shift for horizontal or vertical; Escape leaves drawing mode. Select the line and choose **Arrow** to add an arrowhead. |
| ![Undo]()
![Redo]()
| **Undo / Redo** | Touch controls for stepping through available editing history. On desktop, use the keyboard shortcuts below. |
On smaller or short windows, ![More]()
**More** contains **Add page**, **Pin**, **Save PDF** and **Share**.
## Add image menu
| Icon | Option | What it does |
| - | - | - |
| ![Upload image]()
| **Upload image** | Adds an image from your device. |
| ![From product library]()
| **From product library** | Places an existing library product. |
| ![Import from URL]()
| **Import from URL** | Imports a vendor product page. |
| ![Add product]()
| **Add product** | Opens a new product form. |
## Page controls
| Icon | Control | What it does |
| - | - | - |
| Text | Page name | Click to rename; Enter saves and Escape cancels. |
| ![Zoom out]()
Fit ![Zoom in]()
| **− / Fit / +** | Changes your view of the canvas. It does not change PDF output. |
| ![Duplicate page]()
| **Duplicate page** | Copies the layout and items to another page. |
| ![Hide page from clients]()
![Show page to clients]()
| **Hide page from clients / Show page to clients** | Controls whether this page appears through the client link. Hidden pages remain in the editor and designer PDF export. |
| ![Delete page]()
| **Delete page** | Removes the page and its contents; a nonempty page asks for confirmation. The current session’s Undo can restore a page, but is not a permanent recovery archive. |
The open eye means the page is visible: click it to hide the page. The crossed-out eye means the page is hidden: click it to show the page again.
## Selected image controls
| Icon | Control | What it does |
| - | - | - |
| ![Comments]()
| **Comments** | Opens feedback attached to this item. |
| ![Details]()
| **Details** | Opens the image or linked product drawer. You can also double-click an image. |
| ![Order]()
| **Order** | Brings the selection to the front or sends it to the back. |
| ![Flip]()
| **Flip** | Mirrors an image horizontally. |
| ![Crop]()
| **Crop** | Adjusts the visible framing. |
| ![Perspective]()
| **Perspective** | Shapes one image using four corner handles; **Done** applies it. See [Change image perspective](/pinboards/change-image-perspective). |
| ![Corner rounding]()
| **Corner rounding** | Rounds the image corners. |
| ![Erase]()
| **Erase** | Offers **Remove background** and **Pixel eraser**. |
| ![Align and distribute]()
| **Align & distribute** | Aligns to the page or other selected objects; distributes three or more objects. |
| ![Delete]()
| **Delete** | Removes selected items. |
**Add caption…** belongs to the image. A standalone label created with **Add text** is independent. Selecting text opens **Text style**, including font, size, bold and colour controls.
## Right-click menu
Right-click an image to open named actions with short descriptions. **Product details** opens its details, **Layer** contains **Bring to front** and **Send to back**, and **Erase** contains **Remove background** and **Pixel eraser**. **Perspective** is available for a single image. **Align & distribute** offers page alignment and selection actions. The menu reflects the selected items.
| Icon | Menu action | What it does |
| - | - | - |
| ![Bring to front]()
| **Bring to front** | Places the selection in front of other objects. |
| ![Send to back]()
| **Send to back** | Places it behind other objects. |
## Lines and arrows
Use ![Line]()
**Line tool** for a divider, then select it to switch between **Line** and ![Arrow]()
**Arrow**. Drag its endpoints to adjust the direction and length. Center guides help place it on the page.
## Keyboard and mouse
Click the canvas outside any text field before using editing shortcuts.
| Action | Mac | Windows / other keyboards |
| - | - | - |
| Undo | Command+Z | Ctrl+Z |
| Redo | Command+Shift+Z | Ctrl+Shift+Z |
| Copy selected items | Command+C | Ctrl+C |
| Paste copied items | Command+V | Ctrl+V |
| Delete selected items | Delete / Backspace | Delete / Backspace |
| Add to a selection | Shift-click | Shift-click |
| Pan the page | Hold Space and drag | Hold Space and drag |
Copied board items can be pasted onto another page or board in the same app session. Pasting a product URL after clicking empty canvas imports the product onto that page near the clicked position. Pasting a URL with an image selected instead attaches a source link to that image; it does not create a library product. Pasting plain text with an image selected adds its caption.
## Undoing AI edits
Edits made by AI Chat while this board is open join the board's editing history. Wait for **AI is editing…** to finish, review the result, then use Undo if needed. Undo is editing history for the current session, not a saved version archive. It is not a way to recall shared links, orders or payments.
## On a phone or tablet
Tap to select an item. **Press and hold, then drag** to move it; a normal swipe can scroll without moving the item. Use the visible Undo and Redo buttons, and look in **More** for sharing and export.
See [Pinboard troubleshooting](/pinboards/troubleshooting) if a control seems missing or an edit does not look right.
When offered after an AI turn finishes, **Undo last change** in AI Chat restores the last supported edit on the board currently open. The action disappears when that board is no longer open. Review the canvas after undoing.
# Export a pinboard to PDF
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/export-a-pinboard-to-pdf
Save a landscape presentation with named pages and optional studio branding.
A PDF is a fixed copy of the board at export time. Use it for printing, an email attachment or a record of a presentation round. Use a [shared link](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client) when you want current content and item feedback.
## Save the file
1. Check the board's page order and give each page a meaningful name.
2. Choose **Save PDF** in the toolbar, or under **More** on a smaller screen.
3. Choose whether to include your studio branding, then continue the export.
4. Open the generated PDF and check every page before sending it.
Each board page becomes an A4 landscape PDF page. The board title and page names accompany the composition. Your current zoom does not change the export.
## Check the result
* Are all images present and sharp enough at the intended reading size?
* Are labels readable, with nothing clipped or hidden behind another item?
* Are cutout edges, cropped images and arrows correct?
* Are the page names, order and branding right?
A failed image download can leave a blank area even when the file is generated. If an image is missing, check that it loads on the board, retry the export, or replace it with an accessible image.
| Need | Use |
| - | - |
| Client comments and approvals | Shared pinboard link |
| Current presentation after edits | Shared pinboard link |
| Offline viewing or printing | PDF |
| Fixed record of this presentation round | PDF saved with a clear date or revision name |
A PDF does not collect approvals or comments back into Atelier.
## Hidden pages and perspective
The designer’s **Save PDF** exports every page, including pages marked **Hide page from clients**. That setting only filters the live client link. Review the PDF before sending it.
Finish Perspective with **Done** and wait for it to apply before exporting. Check that transformed images, captions and studio branding appear correctly in the downloaded file.
# Hide pages from clients
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/hide-pages-from-clients
Keep working pages in the editor while showing only selected pages through the client link.
![Hide page from clients]()
**Hide page from clients** — see [all editor icons](/pinboards/editor-reference).
Hide a page when it contains an unfinished option or internal working material that should stay out of the live client presentation.
1. Open the page in the pinboard editor.
2. In the bar beside the page name, choose the eye control labelled **Hide page from clients**.
3. The page becomes faded in your editor. It remains available for your team to edit.
4. Open or reload the client link in a separate window and check the visible pages.
To include the page again, choose **Show page to clients** in the same page bar.
## What hiding changes
The shared link omits the hidden page and its items. Clients cannot use that link to approve or comment on those hidden items. Remaining pages appear consecutively. If every page is hidden, the client has no pages to view.
Hiding does not delete the page or undo previous decisions. It cannot recall material a client has already viewed or downloaded; a client with the presentation open should reload it.
**Save PDF in the designer's editor includes every page, including hidden pages.** Hiding controls the live client link. Review the exported PDF before sending it; use a separate presentation containing only the intended pages when you need a client-only PDF.
Continue with [Share a pinboard](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client) to select the approval schedule and create or disable its link.
# Products, links and approvals
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/link-pins-to-products
Distinguish reference images from library products and understand how approved pins become schedule rows.
A pinboard image can be a reference photo, an image with a source URL, or a placement of a library product. Only a pin linked to a library product can become a product row automatically when approved.
## Add a linked product
Use **Add image → From product library** and select a product, or **Add image → Import from URL** to import a vendor product page. Double-click the resulting pin, or select **Details**, to review its product record.
Check the name, variant, image, vendor, price and dimensions. A caption such as *Oak armchair* is useful presentation text, but it does not prove that a product record is linked.
If you uploaded a reference image first, add the intended product from the library and use that linked placement for procurement approval. Pasting a source URL onto the reference image only attaches a link.
## Approve from inside Atelier
Open a product pin's drawer and choose **Approve**. When the schedule picker opens, choose the destination schedule or **Create new schedule**, then confirm **Add to schedule**.
The product is added as **Approved**, or its existing row in that schedule is reused. Check the schedule name and row after approving. Approval of a plain image stays on the board and does not add an item to the library or schedule.
## Approve through a client link
Before sharing, create a schedule in the same project and choose it under **Approved items will be added to** in **Share**. A client approving a linked product adds or updates its row there automatically.
In **Share**, select an existing schedule or create a named empty schedule before creating the link. A guest cannot create a missing schedule themselves. If the link later has no valid destination, create and select one in Atelier before asking the client to retry.
## Understand what stays connected
| Record | What it holds |
| - | - |
| Library product | Shared product identity, images and reference pricing |
| Pinboard placement | That pin's layout, caption, comments and link to a product or schedule row |
| Schedule row | The project's quantity, cost, markup, tax and procurement progress |
The schedule row receives an initial price when it is created. Its job-specific cost is then stored on the row; changing the library price does not automatically reprice an existing row. Review cost and quantity before using the row in an invoice or order.
A product may appear on several boards. A copy is another placement, so do not assume a decision on one placement approves every copy or another project's schedule. Check each placement's details and destination.
## If the client changes their mind
Review the pin and its linked schedule row together. Rejecting or resetting a pin is not a reliable substitute for changing procurement records. Confirm the schedule's status and any purchase order separately before taking further action.
Continue with [Sharing and client feedback](/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client) or [Item statuses](/ffe-schedules/item-statuses).
# Pinboards overview
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/overview
Present a design with images, linked products and named pages, then collect client decisions.
A pinboard is a project presentation made of images, text and arrows. Use it for a mood board, a room scheme, material options or a client approval round. Each pinboard can contain several named pages.
## Start a pinboard
Open a project, choose **Pinboards**, then **New pinboard**. Give it a clear name, such as *Living room — concept*. Open the board to edit it.
## Choose what to add
| Item | Use it for | What approval does |
| - | - | - |
| Uploaded image | Mood photography, a plan, a sketch or a material reference | Records a decision on the board; does not create a schedule product |
| Linked library product | A specific piece you may purchase | Adds or updates a product row in the selected schedule |
| Text or arrow | A heading, explanation or callout | Provides context for the presentation |
A website link attached to an image is a reference. It does not, by itself, turn that image into a library product.
## A complete room workflow
1. **Build the scheme.** Add reference images and library products, then arrange and label them.
2. **Create alternatives.** Duplicate a page and change the pieces you want to compare.
3. **Prepare approval.** Create a project schedule and select it in the board's **Share** dialog.
4. **Share the link.** Clients can open it without an Atelier account, comment and make item decisions.
5. **Follow up.** Read client feedback in **Inbox**, then check approved products in the schedule before ordering.
Approval records a design decision. It does not place an order or record a payment.
## Choose your next guide
Add images, products, captions and pages.
Find selection tools, keyboard shortcuts and touch controls.
Understand which product and schedule a pin is linked to.
Give a clear brief and review the result.
Use [Perspective](/pinboards/change-image-perspective) to shape an image with four corners. See [Editor controls](/pinboards/editor-reference) for line drawing, right-click actions and shortcuts, and [Hide pages from clients](/pinboards/hide-pages-from-clients) for working pages.
# Share a pinboard with a client
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/share-a-pinboard-with-a-client
Choose the approval schedule, create a client link, collect feedback and disable access when needed.
Clients can view a shared pinboard in a browser without an Atelier account. The link shows the current presentation when they open or reload it.
## Before sharing
* Check every page, caption and product variant. [Hide working pages](/pinboards/hide-pages-from-clients) that should not appear to the client.
* Use linked library products for pieces you want to move into procurement.
* Choose a clearly named project schedule to receive approved products.
* Remember that anyone with the link can open it. Share it only with the intended recipients.
## Create the link
1. Open **Share** in the pinboard toolbar, or in **More** on a smaller screen.
2. Choose a schedule for approved items. To make one here, choose **Create new empty Schedule**, enter a name under **New empty Schedule**, then choose **Create**. If the project has no schedules, this form is already shown. **Create link** stays unavailable until a schedule is selected.
3. Choose whether to **Show studio logo & name**.
4. Choose **Create link**, then **Copy**.
5. Send the copied link using your usual email or messaging service.
Once sharing is enabled, the toolbar button reads **Shared**. Creating the link does not send a message to the client.
## What the client can do
The client opens an item to review it, **Approve** or **Reject** it, and open its comments. When posting a comment, the client supplies a name and email; the name appears with their comment. This is guest identification, not an Atelier account.
Comments stay attached to the item. A comment badge helps you see which pieces have feedback. Ask for a specific decision, such as *Please approve the chair and rug, and comment on the fabric option*.
## What an approval changes
| What the client approves | Result |
| - | - |
| A linked product | Adds or updates that product in the board's selected schedule as **Approved** |
| A plain reference image | Records approval on the board; creates no schedule product |
Client comments and approvals appear in **Inbox** with a link back to the pinboard. Open the schedule to verify quantities, costs and status before ordering. No order is placed by approving a pin.
If approval fails because no schedule is linked, return to **Shared**, select a project schedule and ask the client to retry.
## Update or stop sharing
Edits to the board appear through the existing link; the client may need to reload. Export a PDF first if you need a fixed record of a presentation round.
To stop access, open **Shared → Disable link**. This stops the live link; it cannot recall a PDF or image somebody already saved.
Continue with [Client feedback in the Inbox](/pinboards/client-feedback-in-the-inbox).
# Pinboard troubleshooting
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/pinboards/troubleshooting
Resolve missing controls, failed product imports, cutout issues, approval errors and incomplete exports.
| Problem | What to check and do |
| - | - |
| I cannot find Share, Save PDF or Add page | Open **More** on a small or short window. |
| I cannot find Crop, Erase or Details | Select one image first. Text and arrows have different controls. |
| An item will not move on my phone | Press and hold the item, then drag. A normal swipe is used for scrolling. |
| A caption moved with its image | Attached captions move with the image. Use **Add text** for a separate room note. |
| A pasted link did not create a product | A source URL is just a reference. Use **Add image → Import from URL** or **From product library** for a linked product. |
| A vendor URL cannot be imported | Check that it is a specific product page. Try the Product Clipper or add the product manually, then place it from the library. |
| Background removal kept too much or removed an edge | Use **Pixel eraser** and **Restore**, or use a clearer individual product photo. |
| The pixel eraser will not save | If the whole image is transparent, use **Reset** or **Restore** to bring some of it back before choosing **Done**. |
| A client cannot approve a product | Check that sharing is enabled and the board has a destination schedule selected in **Shared**. Guests cannot create the missing schedule. |
| An approved image did not appear on a schedule | Only pins linked to library products create schedule rows. Reference images stay on the board. |
| A copy has a different approval state | Decisions and schedule links belong to placements. Open the copy's details and check the destination instead of assuming approval carries everywhere. |
| An AI edit changed the wrong layout | Wait for the edit to finish, use Undo while the history is available, then name the exact page and items in a revised request. |
| Undo does not restore an old version | Editing history is session-based. Undo can restore a deleted page while its history is available in the current session. Use dated PDF exports to retain a presentation record. |
| A PDF has a blank image | Confirm the image loads on the board, retry, or replace the inaccessible image. Inspect the new PDF before sending. |
| A client sees old content | Ask them to reload the live link. A downloaded PDF does not update. |
If the problem continues, use **Get help** in Atelier or email [hello@getatelier.design](mailto:hello@getatelier.design). Include what you tried, what you expected, the time of the error and the exact message. Share a screenshot with private client information removed.
## Perspective, page visibility and pasted URLs
| Symptom | What to check |
| - | - |
| Perspective is missing | Select one image, then use its toolbar or right-click menu. Text and lines do not use perspective. |
| Reset did not recover the original photograph | Reset affects the current corner edit. After Done, use available session Undo or your duplicate. |
| A page is faded or missing from the client link | Check **Hide page from clients** in the page bar. Use **Show page to clients** and reload the link. |
| A hidden page appears in my PDF | Designer PDF export includes all pages. Page hiding filters the live client link only. |
| A pasted URL changed an image instead of importing a product | Deselect the image and click empty canvas before pasting. A selected image receives the URL as its source link. |
| Create link is unavailable | Select a schedule, or create a named empty schedule inside Share first. |
# Add a product manually
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/product-library/add-a-product-manually
For trade-only pieces, antiques, bespoke joinery and anything without a web page — and what to fill in so the entry is worth having.
Plenty of what you specify has no product page: the trade-only fabric
house, the dealer's one-off console, the joinery you are having made. These
get entered by hand.
## Identity — always fill these
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Name** | How you will search for it later. Specific beats poetic — *Ondé Sofa, 3-seat, boucle* finds itself; *Living room sofa* does not. |
| **Brand** | Manufacturer or maker. For an antique, the dealer or period. |
| **Vendor** | Who you buy from. Links to the vendor record with its contacts and terms. |
| **Category** | Furniture, lighting, decor, textiles. Drives grouping on every schedule. |
| **Type** | The narrower kind — sofa, pendant, side table. |
## Specification
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Material** | What it is made of. |
| **Finish** | Colour, fabric, plating — the variant you are specifying. |
| **Dimensions** | Width, depth, height. Worth the thirty seconds: it is the field everyone needs on installation day and nobody recorded. |
| **Description** | Anything the fields do not cover — construction, provenance, care. |
## Commercial
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Retail price** | The public price. Reference. |
| **Vendor cost** | Set the job-specific trade cost on the schedule row after adding the product. |
| **Lead time** | As the vendor quotes it. Free text — *14–16 weeks*, *ex-stock*. |
## Images
Upload as many as you have. The primary image is what appears on
schedules, PDFs and client-facing views, so choose the one that represents
the piece rather than the prettiest room shot. Crop it if the vendor's
photography is the wrong shape.
## Worth being fussy about
* **Name it findably.** You are writing for yourself in eighteen months,
searching a library of two thousand products.
* **Set the category.** An uncategorised product falls out of every
grouping on every schedule.
* **Record dimensions.** The single most-missed field, and the one that
causes trouble on site.
* **Attach the vendor.** Without it, procurement has no contact and no
terms to work from.
## Bespoke and one-off pieces
Still worth entering. Joinery, a commissioned rug, a reupholstery job: each
needs a cost, a lead time and a place on the schedule. Name them clearly —
*Joinery — master bedroom wardrobe* — so they are obviously not catalogue
items.
For a client's existing furniture that stays in the scheme, add the product
and set the schedule status to **Reuse — no purchase**. It appears in the
specification, costs nothing, and never reaches procurement.
# Atelier Product Clipper
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/product-library/chrome-extension
A Chrome extension that saves a product into your library straight from the vendor's page, without leaving the site.
Sourcing happens in a browser with fifteen tabs open. The **Atelier
Product Clipper** saves a piece into your product library from the page
you are already looking at — no copying the URL, no switching to
Atelier, no losing your place.
**Install:** [Atelier Product Clipper on the Chrome Web
Store](https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/atelier-product-clipper/kelcapmohpmjifgehpkglcgkbcldpghh)
## Install it
On the Chrome Web Store.
Choose **Add to Chrome**, then confirm.
Click the puzzle-piece icon beside the address bar and pin Atelier.
You will use it often enough that hunting through the extensions
menu each time gets old.
With your Atelier account. It saves into the studio you are signed
in to.
## Use it
Open a vendor's product page — the page for the specific piece, with the
finish or fabric you are specifying already selected — and open the
clipper.
It reads the page and fills in what it can find: name, brand, price,
images, dimensions, materials. Check the result, correct anything that
came across wrong, and save it to your library.
### Worth checking every time
| Field | Why |
| - | - |
| **Price** | Sites show retail, sale and member prices. Make sure the number that landed is the one you mean. |
| **Brand** | Retailers sometimes put their own name here instead of the manufacturer's. |
| **Images** | It may grab a lifestyle shot rather than the product on white. |
| **Variant** | Confirm the finish or fabric matches what you had selected on the page. |
| **Dimensions** | Occasionally the packed size rather than the product. |
Vendor trade price, lead time and your own category almost never come
from the page. Add them while you still have the vendor's site open.
## Clipper or URL import?
Both do the same job. The difference is where you are standing.
| | **Clipper** | **Import from URL** |
| - | - | - |
| Where you work | On the vendor's site | In Atelier |
| Best for | A sourcing session, tab by tab | A list of links collected earlier |
| Steps per product | One | Copy, switch, paste |
| Several at once | One at a time | Paste a batch |
Use the clipper while you browse and the URL import for the links you
emailed yourself last week. They fill the same library.
## Notes
* The clipper saves into the studio you are signed in to. If you work
across more than one, check which before a long session.
* Products land in the shared product library, so anyone in the studio
can specify them straight away.
* Search the library before clipping something you may already have —
Do not assume that different links or variants will be merged automatically.
# Import a product from a URL
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/product-library/import-a-product-from-a-url
Paste a vendor's product page and let Atelier pull the name, brand, price, images and description.
The fastest way to get a product into your library. Paste the vendor's
page, Atelier reads it, you check the result.
## Import one
The page for the specific product, not the category listing. If the
piece has variants — a fabric, a finish, a size — select the one you
are specifying first, so the URL points at it.
From the product library, choose to import from a URL and paste.
Atelier extracts what it can find: name, brand, description, price,
images, dimensions, materials.
Vendor trade price, lead time and your own category almost never come
from the page. Add them now, while you have the vendor's site open.
Extraction quality depends on the vendor's site. Well-built retail sites
give you nearly everything; some trade sites give you a name and one image.
Either way it beats typing.
## What to check every time
| Field | Why |
| - | - |
| **Price** | Sites show retail, sale and member prices. Make sure the number that landed is the one you mean. |
| **Brand** | Retailers sometimes put their own name here instead of the manufacturer's. |
| **Images** | The extractor may grab a lifestyle shot rather than the product on white. Set the image you want as primary. |
| **Dimensions** | Occasionally in the wrong unit, or the packed size rather than the product. |
| **Variant** | Confirm the finish or fabric matches what you selected. |
## Importing several at once
Ask Atelier's AI or the Claude connector with a list of URLs and it will
import them in one go. Useful after a sourcing session with fifteen tabs
open.
If you spend a lot of time on vendor sites, the Chrome extension removes
the copy-paste step entirely.
# The product library
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/product-library/the-product-library
Every product your studio has specified, in one searchable catalogue shared across all projects.
The product library is studio-wide. A product you add on one project is
available on every other one, with its brand, price, dimensions, finish and
images intact. Specify a piece once; reuse it for years.
Find it under **Library → Products**.
## What the list shows
| Column | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Product** | Thumbnail, name, and the vendor SKU or ASIN underneath. The icon beside the name opens the original vendor page. |
| **Brand** | The manufacturer or retailer. |
| **Unit price** | Retail price per unit, in your studio currency. |
| **Used in** | Which projects and pinboards this product appears on. Empty means nothing is using it yet. |
The header shows how many products your studio holds — *411 products in
your studio*.
## Search
The search box matches on name and brand. It searches the whole library,
not the current page, so there is no need to scroll first.
Before adding a product, search for it. Different URLs or manual entries can create separate records. Search for
the product and check its variant before importing or adding another copy.
## Three ways to add a product
* **Import from URL** — Paste a vendor product page. Atelier pulls out the
name, brand, price, dimensions and images.
* **Chrome extension** — Capture products as you browse, without leaving the
vendor's site.
* **Add manually** — For trade pieces, bespoke joinery and anything without
a public page.
**Import from URL** and **Add product** both sit at the top right of the
library.
## What a product record holds
| Field | Used for |
| - | - |
| Name | Everywhere the product appears. |
| Brand | Grouping, filtering, purchase orders. |
| Category | How schedules group rows — *Furniture*, *Decor*, *Lighting*. |
| Type | Finer classification within a category. |
| Material, Finish | Shown on the schedule Planning view and in specifications. |
| Dimensions | Free text — keep your studio's convention consistent. |
| Unit price, Currency | The retail price. Vendor cost and markup are set per schedule row, not here. |
| Vendor | Who you buy it from. |
| Product URL | The vendor page, linked from the list. |
| Images | Several per product; the first is the one shown everywhere else. |
| Description | Notes and spec detail. |
Pricing lives in two places on purpose. The **library** holds the retail
price — what the piece generally costs. A **schedule row** holds what you
are paying the vendor on this job and what you are charging this client.
Changing a schedule row never rewrites the library.
## Where products get used
Once a product is in the library it can be:
* placed on a **pinboard** and linked to a pin, so the client sees the real
piece;
* added as a row on an **FF\&E schedule**, where it picks up quantity, room,
markup, tax and procurement status.
The **Used in** column tells you which. It is also a safety net — check it
before you change a price on something that is already in front of a
client.
## Browse visually or as a list
Use **Grid view** for product image cards or **List view** for a compact list. Search works in either view. Open a product to inspect the exact variant and details; switching views does not create copies or change product data.
## Work with AI
[Manage products and contacts with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Copy documents and use templates
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/projects/copy-and-reuse-documents
Reuse schedules, pinboards and proposals across projects while starting client decisions and document history fresh.
Use **Copy to project** for a specific new job, or **Save as template** to keep a reusable studio starting point. Both create a separate document; review its products, prices and wording for the destination project.
## Copy to another project
1. Open the source document's actions menu in the project's schedule or pinboard list, or the proposals list.
2. Choose **Copy to another project…**, enter a name and select **Destination project**. Create another project first if none is available.
3. For a pinboard, choose how its schedule should be handled:
| Option | Result |
| - | - |
| **Copy linked schedule** | Copies the source board's schedule into the destination project too. Available when the source has a linked schedule. |
| **Link an existing schedule** | Connects the new board to a schedule you choose in the destination project. |
| **Pinboard only** | Copies the board without an approval schedule. Choose a destination schedule before sharing. |
4. Choose **Copy to project**, then open and review the new document.
## Save and use a template
Choose **Save as template…** in the document's actions menu, give the template a clear name, then choose **Save template**. A studio template remains available independently of its original document.
In the destination project, choose **Use template** for the document type, select the template and enter the new document name. For a proposal, select its project if prompted.
A pinboard template saves only the board. Its schedule must be saved as a separate schedule template. When using a pinboard template, choose **Pinboard only**, **Link an existing schedule**, or **Create a new empty schedule**, then create the pinboard. This differs from copying a board together with its linked schedule.
## What starts fresh
| Document | Reused content | Fresh state |
| - | - | - |
| Schedule | Products, pricing, columns and layout | Approvals, sharing and order history |
| Pinboard | Presentation layout and items | Approvals, client comments and sharing |
| Proposal | Wording, phases, fees and payment structure | Destination project's client; signatures, dates and sending history |
Check copied page visibility before sharing a board. Check variants, quantities, prices and the destination client before issuing any document. Copying a signed proposal creates a new draft; it does not transfer the original client's acceptance.
# Create a project
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/projects/create-a-project
Set up a project with its client, address, dates, budget and billing rate.
A project is one job for one client. It holds that job's timeline, tasks,
pinboards, schedules and files.
## Before you start
The client must exist first. If they don't, add them in **Library → Clients**.
## Create it
Go to **Projects** and choose **New project**.
Only the client and a name are required. Most studios name projects after the
address: `123 Maple Street, Springfield`, `456 Oak Avenue, Unit 4`.
## The fields, and where they show up later
Filling these in now saves work later, because Atelier reuses them across
documents.
### Status
Where the job is in your pipeline. New projects default to **Lead**.
| Status | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **Lead** | Enquiry or pitch. Not yet signed. |
| **Active** | Live work. |
| **On hold** | Paused, but expected to resume. |
| **Completed** | Delivered. |
| **Lost** | Didn't convert. |
| **Archived** | Out of the way. Hidden from the main Projects list, still searchable. |
Change it any time from the project header.
### Dates
**Start date** and **End date** frame the project. **Install date** is the
day the job lands on site — the date lead times are measured against. These
sit behind the phase timeline on the project Overview.
### Budget
The total the client has agreed to. Atelier shows your running spend against
it on the schedule's **Financials** view, so you can see how much room is
left before you specify the next sofa.
### Hourly rate
One rate for every hour on this project, whoever logs it — the blended
arrangement. Leave it blank and each person bills at their own role's rate
instead, which is the usual case. See
[How hours are priced](/time-tracking/rates).
### Ship-to address
Street, apartment or suite, city, state, postal code, country. Printed on
purchase orders, so vendors know where to deliver. Often the site address
rather than the client's billing address — those are separate fields, on the
client record.
### Project type and style direction
**Project type** is a free label — *Single Family Residential*,
*Commercial*. It appears as a chip in the project header and is useful when
you filter later. **Style direction** and **description** are notes for your
team, shown on the Overview.
### Floor area
Area in m². Optional, useful for per-square-metre reporting.
## Add a cover image
The image on the project card is the first thing anyone sees in the Projects
grid. Set it from the project Overview — most studios use the hero render or
the main pinboard.
# Documents and vendor quotes
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes
File vendor paperwork, compare it with the schedule and review quoted costs inside a project.
Open a project's **Documents** tab for vendor quotes, order confirmations, invoices and packing lists. This keeps the paperwork beside the project and the schedule it refers to. **Vendor Quotes is no longer a Finance tab**; its entry point is here.
A **vendor quote** records what a vendor offers to supply and at what cost. A **purchase order** records what your studio orders. A **client invoice** records what you bill the client. They have different roles in the workflow.
## Add vendor paperwork
1. Open the project's **Documents** tab.
2. Drop a vendor document into the upload area, or click to choose a file.
3. Check which schedule the document is being compared with. Select the right table if it is missing or wrong.
4. Open the document and review the recognised information and findings against the original.
Findings distinguish **Mismatch**, **Check** and **Note**. A result of **All checks passed** means the available checks passed; still review the original specification and terms before ordering.
## Apply a suggested change
A document can suggest changes to schedule data. Review the proposed field values before choosing **Apply**. **Dismiss** leaves that proposal unapplied.
Use **Fill empty fields** when you want a preview of information that could fill gaps. After editing the schedule, use the document's re-check control to compare it again.
## Record a quote without a file
Choose **Record a quote a vendor sent** in the project's Documents tab, or use the manual quote entry offered in the documents area. Set the vendor, quote number, dates, validity, lead time, terms and line prices. Link quote lines to the relevant schedule items.
If you are asking for a quote first, start with **Get a quote** from the schedule. A requested quote records that you are waiting for an answer; a quote entered after a vendor has answered starts as received.
| Quote status | Meaning |
| - | - |
| Requested | You have asked for pricing and are waiting for a reply. |
| Received | The vendor's offer has arrived for review. |
| Accepted | Your studio has accepted the recorded quote. |
| Expired | The quote is no longer current. |
| Declined | Your studio is not using the offer. |
## Accept and check the result
Review quoted units, prices, quantities and linked rows before accepting. Acceptance can update eligible linked rows' **Vendor cost**. Read the result: unlinked lines, conflicting costs or incompatible units may need a decision before their price can be applied.
Resolve those lines individually. Do not assume that accepting a quote has applied every amount, allocated all freight and tax, or placed an order. Confirm the schedule totals and create the [purchase order](/finance/purchase-orders) when ready.
## Keep a useful record
Attach the original quote and subsequent vendor documents. Keep validity dates and promised dates up to date, and review unresolved findings when the vendor sends a revision. Use [Procurement view](/ffe-schedules/procurement-view) to track the schedule items through ordering and delivery.
## Ask AI to help with the paperwork
AI can save and find project files, prepare pricing-request wording, list overdue pricing responses, and preview quote comparisons. Creating a request does not send an email, and saving an attachment does not apply its prices. See [Project workflows with AI](/ai/project-workflows).
# Phases and the timeline
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/projects/phases-and-the-timeline
Break a project into stages with dates and colours, and read the timeline on the project Overview.
A phase is a stage of the job — Concept Design, Design Development,
Procurement, Installation. Phases give the project a shape and drive the
timeline on the Overview.
## Add a phase
From the project **Overview**, add a phase with:
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Name** | *Concept Design*, *Joinery*, *Installation*. |
| **Start date** | Required. |
| **End date** | Required. |
| **Colour** | Optional. Used on the timeline bar — worth setting so the eye can tell stages apart. |
| **Order** | Optional. Position in the sequence; the first is 0. |
Phases can overlap. Real projects do.
## Reading the timeline
The Overview draws every phase as a bar across the months, with a vertical
marker on today. In one glance: what stage the project is in, what is
coming, and whether you have run over.
The project header shows the current phase as a chip beside the status, and
the top right of the timeline shows how long is left in it — *3d left ·
Concept Design · Due Jul 30*.
## Phase ends soon
When a phase is close to its end date, Atelier raises a **Phase ends soon**
card in **Needs your attention** on the Overview, with the number of days
and the date.
It is a nudge, not a blocker. Either the work is nearly done, or the dates
need moving — both are better decided now than at the end of the month.
## Editing and reordering
Phases can be renamed, redated, recoloured and reordered at any time.
Changing dates redraws the timeline immediately and updates the phase chip
in the project header.
Set phases up when you create the project, even roughly. A timeline with
approximate dates is far more useful than an empty one, and it is what makes
the Overview worth opening.
## Work with AI
[Change project phases with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Project overview
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/projects/project-overview
The timeline, the things that need attention, recent activity and project files.
The **Overview** is the project's front page. It is built to answer one
question in five seconds: is anything wrong here?
## The header
Project name, site address, a link to the client, and three chips:
**status**, **current phase** and **project type**. Below them the project
description, and the **Team** and **Budget** summaries.
The cover image sits to the right — usually the hero render or the main
pinboard.
## Timeline
Every phase as a coloured bar across the months, with a marker on today. The
top right shows how much of the current phase is left.
## Needs your attention
A row of cards, each counting a specific way an interiors project goes wrong.
**A card appears only when it has something to report**, so the number of them
varies by project and by week — this is a list of what is wrong, not a
dashboard of everything that could be. When nothing qualifies the block says so
outright: *Everything is on track · nothing needs attention*.
Most of them are counting **item statuses** on the project's schedules, which
is why keeping statuses honest is what makes this block worth looking at:
| Card | What it counts |
| - | - |
| **Pending approval** | Items specified and waiting on the client. |
| **Awaiting for too long** | Of those, the ones pending more than seven days — the prompt to chase. |
| **Ready to order** | Items the client approved that nobody has ordered. The gap between yes and bought, and the most common source of a late installation. |
| **No price set** | Items with no selling price. Every one makes your budget figure optimistic. |
| **No room assigned** | Items with no space against them. Painful on delivery day, when nobody knows which floor the console goes to. |
The rest watch the project around them: **Overdue tasks**, **Client
reactions** waiting in the Inbox, deliveries **arriving this week** and items
with **no tracking info**, **over budget** and **budget 80% reached**, an
**unpaid invoice**, and a **phase ending soon**.
Each card is a count and a link. The status-driven ones above open a schedule
filtered to that condition — the one with the most matching items, so on a
project running several schedules the card's count can be higher than the list
you land in front of. The rest take you where that problem lives instead: the
task list, the Inbox, the project's schedules, the timeline.
Either way the aim is to get them to zero, or to know why you have not.
## Pinboards
A strip of the project's pinboards with thumbnails, so you can jump straight
into whatever you are presenting.
## Recent activity
A log of what changed and when — *Soleil Pendant Light updated*, *Ondé Sofa
updated* — with **17 more** to expand the full history.
Useful for two things: picking up a project you have not touched in a
fortnight, and working out who changed a price.
## Project files
Proposals, contracts, engagement letters — the documents that belong to the
job rather than to a schedule. **Upload file** adds them.
Use these files for general project reference. For vendor paperwork that
should be checked against a schedule, open the project's **Documents** tab.
See [Documents and vendor quotes](/projects/documents-and-vendor-quotes).
## Preview the work in progress
Pinboard and schedule previews remain available across project phases. Open a preview to continue working on that document. The pinboard list also includes image thumbnails to help distinguish presentations.
To reuse a board, schedule or proposal for another job, see [Copy documents and use templates](/projects/copy-and-reuse-documents).
# Glossary
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/reference/glossary
The words Atelier uses, and exactly what each one means here.
Interiors vocabulary varies by studio and by country. This is what these
words mean *in Atelier*, which is not always what they mean in your
office.
## Structure
**Studio** — Your workspace. Holds your branding, currency, tax settings,
team and everything below. One studio per subscription.
**Client** — The entity you invoice. Can have several contacts and
several projects.
**Contact** — A named person on a client or vendor record, with their own
email, phone and role.
**Project** — One job for one client. Holds phases, tasks, pinboards,
schedules and files.
**Phase** — A stage of a project with a start date, end date and colour.
Phases draw the timeline on the project Overview.
**Vendor** — Anyone you buy from: manufacturer, showroom, dealer,
workroom, fabricator, freight company.
## Specifying
**Product library** — The studio-wide catalogue of every product you
have specified. Shared across all projects.
**Product** — A single item in the library, with brand, category,
dimensions, retail price, vendor and images.
**Pinboard** — A shareable canvas of images, plans, materials and product
shots. Can hold several pages.
**Pin** — One item on a pinboard. A pin **linked** to a library product
carries that product's real price, brand and vendor.
**FF\&E** — Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment. The standard industry term
for everything specified into a space that is not the building itself.
**Schedule** — The FF\&E list for a project: what goes in, how many, what
it costs, and where it is in procurement. Planning, Financials and Procurement views, plus All for the full table.
## Money
**Retail price** — The public price of a product, held in the library.
Reference only.
**Vendor cost** — What the vendor charges *you* on this job. Trade price.
It is the normal pricing base for items purchased through the studio.
**Markup** — Your uplift on the vendor cost, as a percentage. Set per item on
a schedule, where the column is **Markup %**. The same number reaches the
client under a different name: see *Procurement fee*.
**Procurement fee** — What your markup is called on an invoice. It is not a
second charge and not a different number — it is the schedule's **Markup %**,
wearing the wording your studio chose in **Settings → Studio → Procurement fee
label**. Building an invoice from a schedule shows it against each row as
*35% procurement fee*, so a studio that renamed it to *Design Management* will
read that instead. Rename it there rather than editing invoices one by one.
**Selling price** — The saved client price per unit, reflecting the pricing
and client discount you set.
**Client total** — The schedule row's client unit price × quantity, plus
its tax and shipping. Review the invoice preview before billing.
**Budget** — The total the client has agreed, set on the project. Shown
against spend on the schedule's Financials view.
## Documents
**Proposal** — What you send before the work is agreed.
**Invoice** — A bill to the client. Usually created from a schedule, so
line items, markup and tax carry across.
**Change order** — A documented, priced change to agreed scope. The
record of what the client signed up to after the original proposal.
**Purchase order (PO)** — What you send a vendor to place an order.
Carries your studio details and the project's ship-to address.
## Procurement
**Lead time** — How long a piece takes to arrive, in the vendor's own
words. Free text, because vendors quote it in incompatible ways.
**Est. ship** — An actual date the vendor expects to ship, on the
Procurement view. Unlike lead time, this is a date.
**Status** — Where a schedule item is in the flow, from *Pending* to
*Paid*.
**Ready to order** — Items the client has approved that nobody has
ordered yet. Counted on the project Overview.
**Reuse — no purchase** — A status for the client's existing furniture
that stays in the scheme. Appears in the specification, costs nothing,
never reaches procurement.
**To be sourced** — A status for a piece you know is needed but have not
found yet. Holds its place on the schedule and in the budget.
## Working
**Inbox** — Your notification feed: task activity involving you (assigned,
replied to, reacted to), plus every comment and approval from shared
pinboards. Shared schedules don't notify — they're read-only for the
client.
**My tasks** — Everything assigned to you, across all projects.
**Today** — Your private notepad for the day. Nothing arrives in it
automatically; nobody else can see it.
**Pinned** — Schedules and pinboards you have pinned to the sidebar.
**Requirement slot** — A schedule row describing something to source, such as
“Dining pendant, quantity 2”, before an actual library product is chosen.
**Vendor quote** — The vendor's offer and prices, recorded under the project's
Documents tab. Acceptance can price eligible linked schedule rows; it does not
place an order.
**Source link** — A website reference attached to a pin. It is not the same as
linking the pin to a library product.
# When something looks wrong
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/reference/when-something-looks-wrong
The handful of things that surprise people, and what is actually going on.
Most confusion in Atelier comes from a small number of deliberate design
decisions. Here they are, with what to do about each.
Items with no cost count as nothing. Check the project Overview's
**No price set** card — it lists exactly which rows are missing a
vendor cost, and each one is quietly flattering your number.
Tasks with no start or due date can't be placed on a timeline, so
they aren't drawn. Add dates, or use Board or List instead.
My tasks shows work assigned to *you*. An unassigned task sits on
the project board and in nobody's day. Check assignees on the
project board.
Today is a notepad, not a filter — nothing arrives in it
automatically. Pull tasks over from My tasks, or type straight into
the box.
Correct. The library holds the **retail price** — what a piece
generally costs. A schedule row holds what you are paying the
vendor and charging this client *on this job*. Editing a row never
rewrites the library.
Do not assume that different links or variants will be merged automatically. Search before adding —
and if two copies already exist at different prices, decide which
is right before either one reaches a schedule.
Two controls fix this. **Organize** changes what rows group by,
**Columns** changes what you see, and both are set per view — so
Planning can group by room while Procurement groups by vendor.
Collapse the groups you aren't working in.
Requirement slots intentionally have no product until you source one.
Product-list imports create products, but cannot supply images or links
missing from the source. Check the import mode and mapped fields. See
[Import and export](/ffe-schedules/import-and-export).
Expected, if the invoice is not a draft. The assistant writes
drafts only; once a document has been sent it is yours to change in
**Finance** or through a change order.
Shared links stay live, so the content updates — but check you
shared the right object. A shared pinboard does not include the
schedule, and vice versa. Check the client column selection in the schedule's **Share** dialog;
the working table has separate settings.
Still stuck? **Get help** at the bottom of the sidebar.
For canvas editing, image processing, approval and PDF problems, see
[Pinboard troubleshooting](/pinboards/troubleshooting).
## Contact support from the app
Choose **Get help → Contact us** in the sidebar to open the support form. Include the page you were using, the action you tried, the result and a screenshot with private client details removed. **Get help → Help Center** opens these guides.
# Studio settings
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/settings/studio-settings
Your studio profile — branding, business details, currency, payment instructions, invoice numbering and what your team can see.
Everything here appears on documents your clients and vendors read, or
governs how money is calculated. Worth twenty minutes once, before you
send the first invoice.
**Settings → Studio.**
## General
**Studio name** — shown at the top of the sidebar and on documents. **URL
slug** — lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens.
## Business info
Shown in the header of invoices and purchase orders.
**Studio logo** — PNG with a transparent background, or SVG. Renders
around 20px tall, so a square or horizontal mark works better than a full
lockup. A live sidebar preview sits underneath.
**Show studio name in the sidebar** — with a logo set and this off, the
sidebar shows only the mark. With no logo, the name always shows.
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Legal name** | If different from the display name. The one that belongs on an invoice. |
| **Business email**, **Phone**, **Website** | Contact details on client documents. |
| **Business address** | Your registered address. Not the delivery address — that lives on the project. |
| **Tax ID type** and **Tax ID** | For invoices in jurisdictions that require it. |
## Currency & locale
**Currency**, **Date format**, **Timezone**. Used across all financial
documents and calculations. Set before you cost anything — currency is
not a display preference, it is the unit every number is in.
## Payment settings
Shown in the footer of invoices — how and when to pay.
| Setting | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Show payment instructions on invoices** | Puts bank details and payment notes in the footer. |
| **Default payment terms** | The preset applied to new invoices. Overridable per invoice. |
| **Accepted payment methods** | Free text: bank transfer, Zelle, Venmo. |
| **Bank / transfer details** | Account number, IBAN, routing, SWIFT. Printed on invoices. |
| **Payment notes** | Appears at the bottom of every invoice. |
The payment note is the cheapest debt-collection tool you have. An
invoice that tells the client exactly how to pay gets paid sooner than
one that makes them ask.
## Invoice numbering
Assigned automatically in sequence. **Prefix** (letters and numbers
only), **Format** (e.g. Prefix · Year · Number), **Start from** — for a
new studio, or after migrating so your sequence continues rather than
restarting. A live preview shows the result.
## Procurement fee label
How your studio refers to the markup charged on schedule items. Used as
the line-item name when an invoice is built from a schedule — so this is
the wording the client reads next to your margin. *Procurement Fee* is
the default; studios that describe it differently should change it here
rather than editing every invoice.
## Invoice defaults
Which optional columns appear on new invoices. Always visible:
description, unit, unit price, amount. Then:
| Toggle | What it does |
| - | - |
| **Markup (shown to client)** | Shows cost, markup and sell price. **Discloses your margin.** |
| **Shipping** | Per-line shipping on product items. |
| **Discount** | A discount column. |
| **PO Number** | A PO field in the header, for clients who require one. |
| **Notes per line item** | A note against each line. |
| **Retainer applied** | A retainer deduction in the totals. |
| **Brand & model in item descriptions** | Includes brand and model in auto-filled descriptions from a schedule. |
**Markup (shown to client)** is the one to think about before turning on.
It is the difference between a client seeing *Procurement Fee £4,200* and
seeing exactly what you paid for every sofa.
Turning **Brand & model** off hides your sourcing from the client —
dimensions and finish still show, so the specification stays readable,
but the trail back to the vendor does not. Studios that have been
disintermediated once tend to turn it off.
## Member access
What team members on the **Member** role can see. Owners and admins
always see everything.
* **Project budgets** — budgets and budget analysis on project pages.
* **Schedule costs & margins** — trade prices, markup and profit columns.
* **Finance section** — whether Finance appears in their sidebar at all.
# Team and roles
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/settings/team-and-roles
Team roles and access permissions: what members can see, including Finance, budgets and schedule costs.
**Settings → Team** lists everyone in the studio, their role and rate,
and who still has a pending invite.
## Role and access are two different things
Every member has both, and they do unrelated jobs.
| | Role | Access |
| - | - | - |
| Answers | What they *do* | What they can *see* |
| Example | Lead Designer | Admin |
| Used for | Assignment, rates, reporting | Permissions |
| Changing it | Doesn't affect permissions | Doesn't affect their job title |
Making someone a **Design Director** does not give them access to
finances. Making someone an **Admin** does not mean they run projects.
### Roles
**Principal · Design Director · Lead Designer · Senior Designer ·
Interior Designer · Junior Designer · Design Assistant · Project Manager
· Procurement Manager · Drafter (CAD) · Studio Manager · Bookkeeper ·
Marketing**
**— No role —** leaves the job role unset. Without a project flat rate, that
person's time has no role rate to use. Assign a role if you bill their time by
role; see [How hours are priced](/time-tracking/rates).
### Access levels
| Level | Sees |
| - | - |
| **Owner** | Everything, including billing. One per studio. |
| **Admin** | Everything operational — projects, schedules, costs, finance. |
| **Member** | Everything *except* what you have restricted in **Member access** on Studio settings: project budgets, schedule costs and margins, and the Finance section. |
The Member restrictions are set once, studio-wide — not per person. If
you need one member to see costs and another not to, that is not
something roles can express today; the honest workaround is to make the
one who needs costs an Admin.
## Inviting someone
Their email address is all you need.
Start at **Member**. Easier to widen access than to explain why
someone saw a margin they shouldn't have.
So assignment and reporting mean something.
Open Studio settings → Member access and decide about budgets, costs
and the Finance section before the person logs in, not after.
If freelancers or contractors work in your studio, set Member access
first and invite second. The default is generous.
# Home
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/tasks/home
Where you land when you sign in — what you're doing today, across every project.
Home answers one question: what should I do today?
## My tasks
Lists everything assigned to you, split into **Upcoming**, **Overdue** and
**Done**, each with a count. Every row shows which project it belongs to
and its current status.
## Today
A planner, not a filter. Drag a task in from My tasks, or type straight
into the box — use `@` to attach the task to a project as you type.
Anything you don't finish rolls over to tomorrow.
Quick-added tasks with no project attached can be renamed in place: click
the title to edit it, **Enter** or clicking away saves, **Escape** cancels.
Project-linked tasks work as before — clicking one opens its full detail.
## Your projects
Below My tasks and Today, a grid of your projects, and a card to create a
new one.
## Work with AI
[AI task planning, checklists and timers](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Task details
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/tasks/task-details
Inside a single task — description, to-dos, priority, dates, assignees and comments.
Opening a task gives you the full record: what needs doing, who is doing
it, by when, and everything that has been said about it.
## The fields
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Title** | What needs doing. A verb helps — *Order the dining chairs* beats *Dining chairs*. |
| **Description** | Context, links, decisions. Anything the person doing the work will need. |
| **Status** | To Do, In Progress, In Review, Done. Matches the board columns. |
| **Priority** | For sorting and filtering when the list gets long. |
| **Start date** | When work can begin. Drives the Timeline view. |
| **Due date** | When it must be finished. Overdue tasks surface in **My tasks**. |
| **Assignees** | One or several. Determines whose **My tasks** it lands in. |
| **Project** | Which job it belongs to. Tasks created from Home without one are standalone. |
## To-dos
A checklist inside the task. Use it when a task is really several small
steps that don't each deserve their own card:
* *Order the dining chairs* → confirm fabric · get final quote · raise PO ·
send deposit
Ticking items off shows progress without anyone having to ask. When a
to-do turns out to be a day's work, promote it to its own task.
A task with eight to-dos and no assignee is a project, not a task. Split
it.
## Assignees
Assigning is what makes a task visible — it moves the task into that
person's **My tasks** and starts counting against their overdue list. An
unassigned task exists on the board and in nobody's day.
Several assignees are allowed. One is usually better: shared ownership is
how things get dropped politely.
Assigning someone notifies them — it shows up in their **Inbox**, the
same feed that carries client activity from pinboards.
## Comments and activity
The comment thread keeps the conversation attached to the work rather than
in email — and a reply, or a reaction to your comment, notifies the
people involved the same way. Alongside it, an activity stream records
what changed and when
— status moves, reassignments, date changes.
Useful when you pick a task up cold and need to know why the due date
moved twice.
## From the assistant
Tasks are among the things Atelier's AI can create and update directly —
*add a task to chase the Holly Hunt order, due Friday, assign it to me*.
## Work with AI
[Manage tasks with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.
# Board, timeline and list
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/tasks/views
Three ways to look at the same tasks, and when each one is the right choice.
Every project has a **Tasks** tab. The tasks are the same in all three views
— only the shape changes.
## Board
The default. Four columns, left to right:
**To Do → In Progress → In Review → Done**
Drag a card between columns to change its status. Each column header shows a
count, and the **+** beside it adds a task straight into that status.
Use the board when you are running the week and want to see where work is
stuck.
## Timeline
The same tasks laid out against dates, using their start and due dates.
Use it when you are sequencing work — checking that the joinery survey
happens before the joinery order, or that nothing lands during the client's
holiday.
Tasks with no dates don't appear on the timeline. If the view looks emptier
than expected, that is usually why.
## List
A dense table: title, assignee, status, priority, dates. Best for reviewing
a lot of tasks quickly, or for a status meeting where you read down the
list.
## Filter and sort
Two controls sit beside the view switcher.
* **Filter** narrows what you see — by assignee, status, priority or date.
* **Sort** reorders within the current view.
Filters apply to whichever view you are in, so you can filter to one
designer and then switch between board and timeline without losing it.
## Create a task
**New task**, top right. A title is all you need. Everything else —
description, priority, start and due date, assignees, to-dos — can be added
later from the task itself.
Tasks don't have to belong to a project. Anything you create from **Home**
without attaching a project is a standalone task, visible only in **My
tasks**.
# How hours are priced
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/time-tracking/rates
The rate card: what each role bills at, how a project can override it, and why time sometimes logs without a price.
A studio does not bill every hour at the same price. The principal's afternoon
and the design assistant's afternoon are not worth the same to the client, and
a client who negotiated a rate card expects those numbers and not your
standard ones.
Atelier prices an hour from **who logged it**, with two places a project can
overrule that. Getting the rate card right once is what makes every time report
and every hourly invoice correct afterwards.
## The studio's rate card
**Settings → Studio → Roles & rates** holds the roles your studio bills as,
each with a default hourly rate. A new studio starts with thirteen, from
**Principal** down
through **Design Director**, **Lead Designer**, **Senior Designer**, **Interior
Designer**, **Junior Designer**, **Design Assistant**, **Project Manager**,
**Procurement Manager**, **Drafter (CAD)**, **Studio Manager**, **Bookkeeper**
and **Marketing**.
They are a starting point, not a fixed list — rename them, remove the ones you
do not use, add your own. **Rates arrive unset**, because there is no sensible
default for what your studio charges. Until you fill them in, nothing is
priced.
Changes here save as you make them; there is no Save button on this section.
## Who bills as what
A person's rate comes from their **job role**, set against them in
**Settings → Team**.
This is not the same thing as their access level. Owner, Admin and Member
decide what someone can see and change; the job role decides what their hour
costs. Someone can be an Admin and a Junior Designer, or a Member and the
Principal. [Team and roles](/settings/team-and-roles) covers the distinction.
On a project without a flat rate, a member with no job role is not billed at
all. Their time is logged and counted in hours, but it carries no money,
because there is no role to look a rate up by — and no per-role rate can rescue
it, on the project or in Settings. If a person's hours keep coming back
unpriced, this is the first thing to check.
A project flat rate does cover them, since it is read before anyone's role is.
## Overriding it on a project
Two overrides live on the project, both in the project's own settings rather
than on the overview screen. Open the project and edit it to reach them.
### Per-role rates for this project
A negotiated rate card, one line per role. Type a number against **Lead
Designer** and lead designers bill at that rate on this project alone,
everywhere else unchanged. The box shows the studio's own rate as its
placeholder, so you can see what you are departing from. Leave it blank and the
studio rate applies.
This appears once the project exists. It is not on the create form — there is
no project to hang a rate on until the project has been made.
### A project flat rate
**Project flat rate** bills every hour on the project at one price, whoever
logged it. It is the blended-rate arrangement: one number in the contract,
regardless of who does the work.
Left empty, each person bills at their role's rate. Filled in, it wins over
everything else — including any per-role rates you set on the same project, so
setting both is not a way to price some roles differently.
## The order, in one place
For every hour logged, Atelier takes the first of these that has a number:
If the project has one, that is the price. Nothing below is consulted.
The negotiated rate card, if this role has a line on it.
The default from Settings → Studio → Roles & rates.
The hour is logged and counted, but not priced.
## When time shows no money
Hours with no money against them are normal in three cases, and they are worth
telling apart:
| What you see | Why |
| - | - |
| A person's hours unpriced, everyone else's fine | They have no job role in **Settings → Team**. |
| Everyone on one role unpriced | That role's rate is blank, in Settings and on the project. |
| Hours logged but not billable | Only billable time is priced. Non-billable time is meant to have no money against it. |
In a shared report the rate column reads **—** where there is no rate, and
**Mixed** where the rows behind a figure were billed at more than one.
Fill the rate card in before anyone starts logging time. Rates are read when a
report is drawn rather than stamped onto each entry, so a rate added later
prices the hours already logged — but a month of unpriced time is a month you
cannot bill from confidently.
The exception is a **locked** shared report, which keeps the figures it was
locked with. Correcting a rate afterwards does not change what the client has
already been shown.
# Time reports
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/time-tracking/time-reports
Hours and value by project, a daily breakdown, and a PDF you can put in front of a client.
The **Reports** tab of **Time** turns logged hours into two things: a
per-project summary, and a picture of where the days actually went.
## By project
One row per project, for the selected range:
| Column | What it tells you |
| - | - |
| **Hours** | Everything logged. |
| **Billable** | The portion marked billable. |
| **Amount** | Billable hours at the project's rate. |
With a **Total** row underneath.
The two most useful numbers are next to each other on purpose. **Hours**
against **Billable** is your recovery rate — the share of your week that a
client is paying for. A project where they diverge sharply is either
badly scoped or being given away.
A project showing hours but **\$0.00** has nothing priced behind it: usually
someone with no job role, or a role whose rate is still blank. See
[How hours are priced](/time-tracking/rates). Fix it on the rate card or the
project, not here.
## Daily breakdown
Every day in the range as a bar, with its total beside it. Empty days
show a dash.
It answers questions a table cannot: whether the work is spread or
crammed, whether you are logging at all on Fridays, whether a "quick" job
quietly ate a fortnight.
## Range
**Today · Week · Month · Custom.** Custom is the one to use for a billing
period that does not match a calendar month, or for the life of a single
project.
## Getting it out
* **Save PDF** — a formatted report. For a client who wants to see what
the hours went on, or for your own records at month end.
* **Share** — a link, rather than a file.
Read the report before you send it. It shows descriptions written for
yourself, and *fixing my mess from Tuesday* reads differently to a client
than it did to you.
## What to do with it monthly
1. **Check for unbilled time.** Compare Hours against Billable. Decide
deliberately what you are absorbing.
2. **Check for zero-rate projects.** Any project with hours and no amount
is time you cannot bill.
3. **Bill the hourly work.** Pull the entries onto an invoice with **Time
entry**.
4. **Look at the fixed-fee jobs.** Hours on a fixed-fee project don't
invoice, but they tell you whether the fee was right — which is what
you price the next one from.
That last step is the one studios skip and the one that compounds. A
fixed-fee job you lost money on is only a lesson if you know you lost
money on it.
# Tracking time
Source: https://help.getatelier.design/time-tracking/tracking-time
A running timer or a manual entry, against a project and optionally a task — and what makes an entry billable.
Design time is the part of an interiors job that most often goes unbilled,
because nobody wrote it down. **Time** in the sidebar is where it gets
written down.
## Two ways to log it
* **Start timer** — at the bottom of the sidebar, from anywhere in
Atelier. Runs while you work.
* **Add entry** — after the fact, with start and end times you type in.
This is most people, most days.
## The entry
| Field | Notes |
| - | - |
| **Start** and **End** | Date and time for each. Duration is calculated and shown as you type. |
| **Project** | Searchable. What the time is billed against, and where the rate comes from. |
| **Task** | Optional. Ties the time to a specific piece of work. |
| **Description** | *What did you work on?* Free text. |
| **Billable** | A checkbox, **on by default**. |
**Billable is on by default.** Uncheck it for anything you are absorbing —
a courtesy call, redoing your own mistake, an internal review. Billable
entries are eligible for invoicing; you still need to add them to an invoice.
### Writing a useful description
The description is what your client reads on the invoice line. *Design
work* invites a question. *Joinery elevations — master bedroom, revision
2* does not.
Write it as though it will be read by someone deciding whether to pay it.
It will be.
## The entries view
Range: **Today · Week · Month · Custom**. Above the list, two running
figures — **Total** and **Billable** — so the gap between them is visible
at a glance. That gap is your unbilled time.
Search filters by description; the filter control narrows by project or
billable status.
**Export** produces a CSV of exactly what's on screen — the same range
and the same filters, never a different set. If the export covers more
than one person's time, it carries a **Person** column, so a team export
tells you whose hours they are rather than just how many there were.
Log time while the work is fresh, including calls, emails and site visits.
Review the project and description before using an entry on an invoice.
## Turning time into money
* On an **invoice**, use **Time entry** to pull logged hours in as
billable lines.
* On a **proposal** with an **Hourly** or **Mixed** fee type, tracked time
is what the fee is measured against.
The rate comes from whoever logged the hour: their job role's rate, which a
project can override for that role or replace with one flat rate for everyone.
[How hours are priced](/time-tracking/rates) sets out the order. A project
without a flat rate is not unpriced — it bills at role rates.
## From the assistant
Starting and stopping a timer is something Atelier's AI can do directly —
*start a timer on the Birchwood project*, *stop my timer*. Useful when you
remember you are working before you remember to open the app.
## Work with AI
[Start, pause and stop timers with AI](/ai/tasks-projects-and-timers) explains supported actions, example requests and what to check after an edit.