Studio Designer Tip of the Week: Are you generating effective reports to run your interior design business effectively?

This article was submitted by Barbara Viteri who is a business style manager for interior designers. Barbara uses Studio Webware to manage her projects.

Are you generating effective reports to run your business? There are many reports to choose from in project worksheets, but I primarily generate 2 important reports to view every week. I narrow them down to project management reports and expediting reports. These are the two I follow religiously to let me know where I stand with clients and vendors. You will find these reports in the “Reports” tab under Project Worksheets:

1. 2010 02 PW by Room.
2. 2010 10 PW for Expediting

Both these reports work hand in hand when following the progress of your client’s projects. You can get the answers and easily read the following:

The 2010 02 PW by Room report shows:

• Which items are pending payment from the client and which items you will need to pay for to the vendor.
• A per client room by room breakdown, which is helpful to keep track of pertinent items.
• On hand list of proposals, purchase orders and invoice numbers to reference by.
• A report total of pending payments from your clients and your future payments to your vendors.

The 2010 10 PW for Expediting report shows:

• Coordinating information from the 2010 02PW by Room that will list the clients room by room breakdowns.
• Vendor names and descriptions of each item.
• Expediting notes you’ve written, which is always important as this can be easily forgotten.
• Again a on hand list of proposals, purchase orders and invoice numbers to reference by.
• Date when a CFA has been approved.
• Vital date entries that show when items are estimated to ship, have been shipped, received and/or delivered.

These reports create a bigger picture of what is happening with your client projects. They help the designer save time and minimize mistakes when you don’t have a quick guide to follow. They especially come in handy when tracking the expediting portion on your business. We all know this is an element that is out of our control, but we can get a handle on viewing the progress of it on a report. I highly recommend styling and viewing these reports every week to help you run a more efficient and effective design business.