Asana, Monday, and ClickUp were built for software teams. Design firms don't run on tickets and sprints — they run on project phases, billable hours, client reviews, and final deliverables. We build internal project tracking software shaped like the firm, not like a Trello board.
Designed around how design firms actually work — proposal, design, build-doc, client review, invoicing — with everything linked to the same project record.
Each project has the phases your firm actually has. Time, files, and tasks attach to phases. Managers see where each project is at a glance.
Time is logged inline against project phases — not in a separate timesheet app that requires a Friday-afternoon reconciliation.
Every customer's projects, contacts, files, and history in one place. Searchable across all projects.
Files scoped to projects with permissions that follow the team. Bus-factor reduces — onboarding a new hire is one access list, not five.
Real-time hours per project, per phase, per employee. Compare estimate to actual without running a manual report.
If you have offices in different regions, they share the same projects and data — without IT setting up parallel SaaS subscriptions for each.
Generic PM tools are great when your work is shaped like theirs. When it isn't, every workaround compounds into the day-to-day grind.
| Generic PM SaaS | Custom-built tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Project model | Tasks with due dates — design firms don't run on those | Phases that mirror your actual project lifecycle |
| Time tracking | Separate tool, or a paid add-on | Built in, attached to project phases |
| Per-seat cost | Scales linearly forever | Fixed — add the next 10 hires for free |
| Cross-project reporting | Possible, usually a separate "business plan" tier | Native — your data, your queries |
| Adapting to your workflow | You bend the firm to fit the tool | Tool bends to fit the firm |
| Right at small size | Yes — generic PM is fine for small teams | Overkill until ~10 people |
A bespoke project-tracking system for a multinational home design firm — with time tracking, customer database, secure file storage, and real-time employee efficiency metrics. Replaced four disconnected SaaS tools with one internal platform.
Team size, current tool stack, where the workflow breaks down. We'll come back with whether custom is the right move at your size — or whether a smaller fix would do.
Or email [email protected]. Same inbox.
Not sure if custom is right for your size? Start with the audit.
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