Studio Designer’s Blog for Design Business Excellence

If you’re still using spreadsheets to manage interior design project budgets, you’re not alone. But they may be creating more work for you than you realize. Many designers rely on Excel or Google Sheets because they are familiar and flexible, or because their current platform doesn’t fully support budgeting. Others are juggling email, spreadsheets, and PDFs just to keep a project financially organized. Studio Designer takes a different approach by building budgeting directly into the project itself. Below is how designers rethink budgeting when spreadsheets start getting in the way.  

Explore some of the most common tax write-offs available to interior design firms and learn how proper documentation of business-related expenses can make a significant impact. 

Every designer knows that communication is part of the craft. Proposals and presentations set the tone for trust and collaboration, especially when working with a new client. Some clients want transparency at the line-item level. Others prefer to see pricing as whole amounts rather than all the minutiae and details. Neither approach is right or wrong. The key is matching the presentation to your process and the relationship you have with your client. 

Looking for the best interior design software? Compare Studio Designer with Mydoma, DesignFiles, Programa, Design Manager, and Houzz Pro to find the right fit for your business.

One challenge I see often: teams rely on Project Worksheets to see the cost of furniture, lighting, fabric, custom goods but quietly miss the everyday office costs tied to running a project. Those “little” charges don’t always show in the item list, and the project ends up looking better on paper than it does in the bank. 

Keeping the same rates year after year might feel like the easier option, but it comes at a cost.