Organization of Design Projects in Design Manager

The organization of a Project or Projects in Design Manager begins with the Client.  A Client may have one or more Projects.  Usually a Project is established for each major grouping of work done for the Client.  As an example, a Client may have a main residence and a summer home.  Normally, two Projects would created for this Client, one for the main residence and the other for the summer home.  An example for a commercial Client might be a bank with several branches.  In this case, the corporate bank office would be the Client.  Then, a Project for each branch would be created.  In some instances, a client may have on-going work that is continuous, spanning many years.  A Project could be established at the beginning of each year to help organize the work by year in such a circumstance.

Projects in Design Manager are made up of the Project itself, Locations, Groups (an optional tier), Items, and Components.  The Project holds the client’s billing address, contact information, site address, etc.

Locations are used to arrange a Project into logical and useful divisions.  Locations are usually rooms in a house such as “Master Bedroom” or “Kitchen”, but can be as creative or descriptive as “Floor Tile and Installation” or “Time Charges for Design Work”.  Locations can then be populated with Items.

Items are the finished merchandise or service that is provided to the client and will be displayed on the Proposal and Client Invoice.  An Item is comprised of one or more Components.

Components appear on purchase orders to your vendors, but NOT on the Proposals or Client Invoices allowing completely different information to be displayed to your clients and vendors.  Lastly, Groups can be optionally used to associate particular Items together within a given Location.

For example, you might be making a custom sofa for your client’s family room.  The Location would be “Family Room,” the Item would be the “Sofa,” and the Components would be the frame, the fabric, upholstery work, and freight charges.  If Groups are being utilized, the Item for the sofa may be included in a Group for "Sofas and Love Seats" within the "Family Room" Location.

Imagine the organization of the Project information in a hierarchy, beginning with the Project.  Each Location is then listed under the Project.  If Groups are being used, they would appear beneath the respective Location.  Within the Location, or Group, each Item is displayed along with each Component under its Item.  Using our example, the Project might look like this:

Mr. and Mrs. John Smith

 Smith Summer Home

         Family Room

                 <Sofas and Love Seats>

                         Custom Sofa

                                 Frame

                                 Shipping Charge for Frame

                                 Fabric

                                 Shipping Charge for Fabric

                                 Upholstery Work

                                 Shipping charge for finished sofa

                         Item #2

                                 Component for Item #2

                                 Component for Item #2

                         .

                         .

         Kitchen

                 <Group #1>

                         Kitchen Item #1

                                 Component

                                 Component

                         Kitchen Item #2

                                 Component

                                 Component

                         .

                         .

 Smith Main Residence

 .

 .

 .

Each Project can have up to 10,000 Items and Locations, with up to 1000 Components in each Item—No Project is too big for Design Manager!