Proposal and invoice tool for interior designers
Your design fee is the job, not something to make up on the sofa
Rooms, stages, fee and terms on a page the client approves; the engagement fee is paid as they do. At handover you mark the stage delivered, and the balance is paid on the same page, so the sofa never subsidises the drawings.
Get started freeThe problem
Sound familiar?
'Can't you make it up on the furniture?'
They pay for the sofa without blinking. Your fee for the concept, the drawings and the supplier emails behind that sofa is the line they negotiate away, because it arrived as a number in an email.
You front the supplier deposit and wait
The joinery needs a deposit to start. The client has not paid the stage invoice. You pay the supplier yourself to keep the program moving, and spend a month as the client's unofficial lender.
One room becomes the whole house, at the one-room fee
You scoped the living room. Now it is the kitchen, the main bedroom and 'while you are here, the powder room'. Each is a stage of work to you; to the client it is one conversation.
The solution
How VytDeal helps
Fee models that match how you charge
A fixed fee, packages for a consultation, a single room or a whole home, or a fee with hourly variations as one-off lines; a percentage-of-spend fee goes in as its dollar figure once the budget is set. Name the rooms, stages and site visits, so the powder room already has a price.
Engagement fee on approval, balance on the same page
Any share, 30 percent by default; many studios ask for half before concepts start. The client pays it on approval, by card or bank transfer, and the balance comes due on the same page when you mark the stage delivered.
Procurement paid before you place the order
Keep FF&E off the design fee page. Give procurement its own deal page with the deposit set to full payment, so the furniture budget and your procurement fee are paid before you order.
Your design agreement, accepted and recorded
Your terms go on the page: copyright staying with you, variations charged hourly, notice to terminate, the fee for the stage reached. The client ticks them to approve and the dated record carries what was accepted. GST is its own invoice line.
How it works
Three steps to getting paid
Scope after the site visit
Name the rooms, the stages from concept to documentation, the site visits and the exclusions. Add your terms, the deposit share and the expiry date, and save it as a template.
Send the link, not a PDF
The client opens it without an account, reads it with their partner, and approves. The engagement fee is paid on the same page.
Design, hand over, collect
You can see when they have opened it. Hand over the documentation, mark it delivered, and the balance comes due on the same link, before the drawings leave your studio.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can the design fee be invoiced per stage: concept, development, documentation?
A deposit on approval and the balance when you mark the work delivered: for most jobs the engagement fee, then the balance at handover. No chain of stage invoices; a later stage gets its own deal page when you reach it, with its own approval and record.
Can procurement at 100 percent up front be invoiced separately from fees?
Yes. Give procurement its own deal page with the deposit set to full payment, so it is paid in full on approval, before you order; the fee page keeps its own deposit and balance. For a large order, offer bank transfer, BPAY or PayID.
Can variations be billed hourly on top of a fixed fee?
State the hourly rate for brief changes in your terms. After approval the accepted scope cannot be edited, so a variation is priced as its own deal page, approved and recorded alongside the original fee.
Does my DIA-based design agreement attach as the contract?
Its clauses do: the seven day payment term, interest after 14 days, copyright staying with the designer, termination on 30 days' notice at the fee for the stage reached. They go on the page, the client ticks them to approve, and the dated record keeps them with what was shown. An emailed code at approval, if you require it, ties the acceptance to the client's address. The signed agreement is still the contract; the page records acceptance, is not a contract or an e-signature, and offers no legal advice.
Can I take an engagement fee that is non-refundable once concepts start?
The deposit share you set is paid on approval. Whether it is kept if they walk away after concepts is your term: write it on the page in plain words, proportionate to the work done, and it is part of what they accept.
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