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Service

Renovation website development

For directors of renovation, building and interior design businesses who need a website and project system built around enquiries that become proposals, proposals that become phases, and clients who want to see where their project is without ringing the site.

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The problem

What goes wrong today

Where it usually starts

A renovation business sells a project that runs for weeks or months, and most of the pain comes from the client not knowing where it is.

  • The enquiry arrives as a long email with photos of a kitchen and a sentence about budget that could mean anything.
  • A consultation is arranged by text.
  • The proposal is a long document written in a word processor with a total at the bottom and a payment schedule in the covering email, so when the second payment falls due the client asks what it was for.
  • Changes are agreed on site in conversation; the extra cost appears on the final invoice as a surprise.

Where it gets harder

Inside the business, the project manager keeps the programme in a spreadsheet, the designer keeps mood boards in a design tool, the subcontractors are in the phone's contacts and the specifications are attached to emails.

  • Approvals that should gate the next phase, the client signing off the tile choice or the joinery drawing, happen in a chat thread that cannot be found three months later.
  • At completion the snagging list is a walk round with a notebook, the client adds items by text for a fortnight, and nobody can say which are done.
  • The portfolio on the website is updated when someone remembers, with before photos nobody kept.

Scope of the service

What the build covers

A custom renovation build takes the shared trade core and stretches it over a project. The service area and quote request become a structured project enquiry that collects the scope, a budget band, the property and style references the client can upload. Job records become projects moving through enquired, consulted, proposed, in progress by phase, complete and snagged. Scheduling applies to consultations and to the site team's weeks rather than engineer slots. Quotes and invoices become a proposal with phases and a payment schedule, with online approval and deposits per phase. Before and after photos feed the portfolio, and the review request goes out at completion.

The project layer is what the business actually needs. Design consultation booking with the designer's availability and the home or studio location. A proposal built from phases, each with a description, a price and a milestone that releases the next payment. A project timeline the client logs into, showing phases, milestones and the approvals waiting on them, such as a specification document or a mood board to sign off; an approval recorded there gates the next phase. Mood boards and specification documents are versioned and attached to the phase they belong to, so the tile that was approved is the tile on record. Change requests are raised against a phase with a cost and an approval before the work. A snagging list at completion lets the client add items from their phone and the project manager mark them done with a photo. A subcontractor register holds trades, documents supplied by the subcontractor as supplied, and the phases they are assigned to.

Deliberately out of scope

  • Construction estimating and take-off tools, architectural drawing, accounting and payroll, and any verification of subcontractor insurance or qualifications, which are recorded as supplied by them

When the scope grows

Scoping scenario

A design-and-build firm with a designer, two project managers and a pool of fifteen subcontractors runs eight projects at a time and wants every client to see their timeline, approve specifications in the system and raise snags from their phone, while the directors see cash due by milestone across all projects. A sole-trader decorator who wants enquiries, a short proposal and a tidy portfolio needs a far smaller build, and the scope document names which is being made.

Deliverables

What you receive

  • Discovery notes from a walk-through of one project from enquiry to snagging sign-off
  • A scope document naming each project stage, the approval points and what stays outside the system
  • Design of the enquiry form, the proposal with phases, the client timeline and the snagging list on a phone
  • The build, deployed to your hosting or hosting we manage
  • Migration of live projects, proposals, subcontractor records and portfolio photos from existing tools where relevant
  • Training for the directors, project managers, designers and office, with a written guide
  • Handover material and ownership of the source code and your data

Process

How a project runs

Each stage maps onto the project view in your client panel. Durations are set in your proposal, never on this page.

  1. Onboarding

    Access to your current proposal template, programme spreadsheet, design tool exports and the subcontractor list, with one named contact.

    Project stage: Onboarding

  2. Planning

    Discovery with a director, a project manager and the designer; the phase model, approval points and payment schedule rules are agreed in the scope document.

    Project stage: Planning

  3. Design

    Clickable designs of the enquiry form, the proposal as the client reads it, the timeline with an approval pending and the snagging list on a phone.

    Project stage: Design

  4. Development

    Enquiries, consultations and the portfolio first; then proposals with phases and payments; then the client timeline, documents and approvals; then change requests, snagging and subcontractors.

    Project stage: Development

  5. Client review

    Your team runs one live project through the test system alongside the spreadsheet, including a specification approval, a change request and a snagging round.

    Project stage: Client review

  6. Revisions

    Findings are corrected and re-checked against the scope document and the approval rules.

    Project stage: Revisions

  7. Ready for launch

    Live projects and subcontractors imported, client logins issued, proposal output checked against your template, launch list signed.

    Project stage: Ready for launch

  8. Delivered

    Projects run in the new system; hosting and maintenance continue under their own agreement if chosen.

    Project stage: Delivered

Integrations

Commonly integrated

Systems this kind of business usually asks us to connect. Each integration is confirmed during discovery; none is assumed.

  • Card payment and bank transfer providers for deposits and milestone payments
  • Email and SMS providers for consultation confirmations, approval requests and milestone notices
  • Design tools and file storage for mood boards and drawings
  • Accounting software for phase invoices, retention and subcontractor costs
  • Calendar feeds for designers and project managers
  • Electronic signature services for proposals where a signature is required

How we would approach it

Worked example

Concept demo

A design-and-build firm running eight projects with client approvals

The situation

A design-and-build firm was fielding daily calls from clients asking where their project was and arguing about changes agreed on site.

Why it is a custom build

The approval that gates the next phase and the change request that must be agreed before the work is what makes this a custom build; project tools show a timeline but do not hold the client's agreement against it.

The scope we would propose

  • A structured enquiry with budget band and style uploads feeding a consultation booking
  • A proposal built from phases with a payment released at each milestone and approved online
  • A client timeline showing the current phase, the next milestone and any specification or mood board waiting for sign-off, with the next phase unable to start until it is given
  • Change requests raised against a phase with a cost and client approval before the work
  • A snagging list the client adds to from their phone
  • A subcontractor register with documents recorded as supplied and the phases each trade is assigned to

Concept demo: a scoping scenario written to show how we would approach the work. It is not a delivered client project.

Pricing

What affects the price

Every proposal is priced on scope. These are the factors that move it most for this kind of build.

  • Number of concurrent projects, project managers and designers
  • The phase and payment schedule model and whether signatures are required
  • Client timeline with approvals, documents and change requests
  • Mood boards and specification documents and the design tools they come from
  • Snagging lists with client access from a phone
  • Subcontractor register and phase assignment
  • Portfolio with before and after and the volume of photos to import
  • Hosting choice: your own hosting or ours

Start from a package

Renovation business package

Project enquiries with budget band and style references, consultation booking, phased proposals with payment schedules, a client timeline with approvals, mood boards and specifications, snagging lists and a subcontractor register.

Custom build
View the package

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

How do you decide between a custom build and the package?

If your proposals, phases, approvals and snagging fit the way the renovation business package works with configuration, we quote for the package and say so. Custom work is the honest route when estimating or design tools must be connected, when retention and valuation rules apply or when the approval flow has several parties. Discovery is where we tell you which.

Can the client approve specifications in the system?

Yes. A document or mood board attached to a phase can be marked as requiring approval; the client approves it from their timeline, the approval is recorded with the version approved, and the next phase can be set to wait for it.

How are changes handled mid-project?

A change request is raised against a phase with a description and a cost. The client approves or declines it from the timeline before the work is done, and approved changes appear on the payment schedule rather than as a surprise at the end.

Does the system verify subcontractor insurance or qualifications?

No. The register records documents as supplied by each subcontractor with the dates they state. Checking them remains your procedure; the system makes no claim about them.

Who owns the system afterwards?

You do. Source code, proposals, documents and project data are handed over at delivery. Hosting and maintenance are optional and separately agreed.

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