Billing software for interior design owners

Interior design billing software

Placing an order for a client means carrying their purchase on your account until they decide to pay you back. Smarfle makes the deposit a condition of the project, so the order and the payment become one decision rather than two conversations.

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Smarfle · Interior Design Recurring Billing
Next 30 days

$8,420

Active subscriptions

47

Upcoming auto-charges

Acme Office Park

Monthly maintenance

$485

in 3 days

Riverside Apartments

Quarterly service

$1,200

in 12 days

Downtown Plaza

Monthly recurring

$320

in 18 days

West End Hotel

Bi-weekly contract

$680

in 5 days
Auto-charge enabled · Stripe Connect0.5% platform fee

Real Smarfle UI · Live data from your interior design CRM

Why generic billing software fails interior design owners

Generic billing tools weren’t built for interior design. Smarfle was.

Generic billing software

What everyone else gives you

  • A design fee deposit sits in the mail while the schedule waits
  • Furniture deposits are chased by phone and email while the supplier waits
  • Hourly billing is applied inconsistently across designers

Smarfle for interior design

Built for your actual workflow

  • Procurement deposits move by bank transfer and clear in days rather than in a mail cycle
  • A request with bank transfer on it clears in days, so the order ships
  • Time gathers into the monthly document and the card on file is charged
Step-by-step

How interior design billing works in Smarfle

From the first touch to the closed loop. No missing pieces.

  1. 1

    The engagement opens with a design fee

    The first money is agreed and requested at signing, which sets the tone for a relationship that is going to run for a year.

  2. 2

    Procurement deposits gate the orders

    A vendor order is placed against money that has arrived, so a client's furniture is never sitting on your account waiting for them to get to it.

  3. 3

    Hours accumulate against the project

    Sourcing trips, revisions and site visits log as they happen, so the monthly charge is built from a record rather than from an evening of recollection.

  4. 4

    Design and goods bill as two things

    What you charge for your work and what you bought on the client's behalf go out separately, so neither one distorts how the other reads.

  5. 5

    The install closes the account

    Deposits, hours and delivered goods are already recorded, so the final document reconciles rather than surprises anybody.

Where interior design billing breaks down

The friction every interior design owner recognizes.

✕

The first deposit sets the tone

It is the opening money in a relationship that will run for a year. Asked for casually it arrives casually, and everything after it follows the same pattern.

✕

Hourly work is billed monthly and recorded never

Sourcing, revisions and site visits happen across weeks. A monthly figure assembled from memory is always lower than the truth, and it never gets questioned.

✕

Vendors want paying before clients do

A workroom needs a deposit to begin and a client pays when the piece arrives. The months between are funded by the designer, on every order, on every project.

The math for interior design owners

Half a million out on your name

Nine projects each carrying fifteen to sixty thousand dollars of orders puts between a hundred and thirty-five and five hundred and forty thousand dollars of client purchases against your name at any moment. No design fee covers that exposure. Making the deposit a condition of the order removes it rather than financing it.

9

Live projects

$15k-60k

Procurement each

$135k-540k

Funded at any time

Based on typical interior design operations. Your numbers may vary.

Features powering interior design billing

Each one a deep-dive in its own right.

Procurement sits against the project

Vendor invoices, freight and receiving charges record on the project, so the difference between what you paid and what you billed is a figure.

Learn more

Specifications and approvals stay on the record

Signed specs, vendor acknowledgements and the client's approvals live on the project, so a change order can point at what changed.

Learn more

Design fee and goods are separate services

Fee and procurement are defined as different services, so two things with different margins are also two things on the account.

Learn more

Clients see their own balance

A signed-in client finds deposits applied, goods ordered and what remains, which answers the question that otherwise arrives before an install.

Learn more

Interior design billing software questions

Bank transfer offered as well as card, on a dated request. On five figures of furniture the card cost is real and the delay is worse, because the workroom is waiting.
Hours attach to the project while the work is happening and gather into a charge on its own date. Reconstructed at month end, the figure is always lower than the truth.
Yes, each phase raising its own charge. It matches how the work is delivered and stops a year-long project from being funded by the designer until the install.
As separate arrangements on the one project. Combined, a client reads a single total and assumes the design charge was vast when most of it was their own sofa.
Your margin lives in the sell price you put on the item. There is no automatic uplift over what the vendor charged, so the number is one you choose per piece.

Moving your interior design billing software off another tool?

Most interior design businesses arrive at Smarfle from one of the tools below. See a side-by-side comparison.

Smarfle vs Smith.aiSmarfle vs CallRailSmarfle vs BrightLocalSmarfle vs GoHighLevel
See all alternatives →

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