Luxury design-build firm · Construction & Real Estate · Build 10
A design-build firm's people, properties and projects — one portal, every mailbox.
A residential design-build firm ran on scattered ClickUp spaces, personal inboxes and texts. We rebuilt ClickUp around the property as the anchor, then put a portal on top: a CRM of people, properties and projects, each person's own mail and calendar, Google Drive, texting alerts, a roadmap priced before it's approved, agreements signed in the browser, and every birthday and anniversary worth remembering.
3.
Google services wired in — each person's Gmail and Calendar, and Drive
4.
Linked record types — people, companies, properties, projects
0.
Passwords — everyone signs in with an email code
The brief
Owners change, builders come and go — the house stays. The records were organized around everything except the house.
The problem
A design-build job outlives its client: owners change, builders come and go, the house stays. The firm's records were organized by whoever hired them, scattered across ClickUp spaces, and every conversation lived in someone's personal inbox or phone.
The solution
Rebuild ClickUp with the property as the anchor, then put a portal on top that the whole firm works from: CRM records, every project's work, each person's own mail and calendar, Drive, texting alerts, a priced roadmap and agreements signed in the browser.
01 · The CRM
People, companies, properties and projects — linked.
A property outlives its owners, so it's the anchor: projects live inside properties, people and companies link to them by role. Every record opens in the portal and edits in place; linked records are links, so you click from a project to its property to its owner.
- The property as the permanent anchor
- Records edited in place
- One click from project to property to owner
portal — CRM · records
4
record types
1
anchor: the property
∞
owners over time
12 Ridge Lane — residence
property · 2 projects
Kitchen & primary suite
project · design phase
J. Alvarez — owner
person · since 2024
every record links to the next — project → property → owner, one click each
02 · Every mailbox
Each person's own Gmail and calendar, inside the portal.
Threads matched to the right client and property, summarized in plain English — what you owe them, what you're waiting on — with branded replies, attachments, and a one-click task that links back to the email. Each person sees the mailboxes they've been granted, nothing more.
- Per-person mail and calendars
- Plain-English summaries
- Email → task, linked both ways
- Google Drive folders per project
portal — correspondence
Client thread · matched to 12 Ridge Lane
Re: Tile selections for the primary bath
In plain English: the client approved the tile, wants the vanity quote by Friday.
You owe them: the vanity quote.
Waiting on them: the plumbing fixture list.
the email became a task — linked back to the thread both ways
03 · The priced roadmap
Every item shows hours and cost before it's approved.
The client sees what's planned, what it costs, and approves it in the portal — so nothing starts without a yes, and nothing is a surprise on the invoice.
- Hours and cost up front
- Approve in the portal
- Planner built around each person's calendar
portal — roadmap
Client — owner's view
reads ClickUp live via APISupplier portal — phase 1
6 h · approvedField photo uploads
10 h · awaiting youWeekly progress digest
4 h · scopedhours and cost are shown before anything starts
04 · Agreements
Drafted by AI, signed by both sides, filed on the record.
Claude drafts the agreement from the scope; the client signs in the portal, the firm countersigns, and the executed PDF lands on the CRM record. Any edit after a signature voids it.
- Both signatures bound to the document
- Signed PDF on the CRM record
- Texting alerts for project managers
portal — agreements
Claude drafts the agreement
from the scope
Client reviews and signs in the portal
no PDF ping-pong
Countersigned — executed
any edit after signing voids it
Signed PDF filed on the CRM record
with a record in Agreements
both signatures are bound to the exact document they signed
The outcome
The whole firm, one portal — and a client view of the same data that never needs a status email.
One place for the whole operation — and a client-facing view of the same data that never needs a status email.
Want a system like this one?
A 30-minute call to map what you have to what you need. Fixed-fee where the scope is known, $100/hr beyond it, and everything documented so your team runs it without me.
The client is not named. Every name, address and figure shown is illustrative.
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