One vendor raises a price. Forty houses just changed.
Spec building is the same package, repeated. That is the efficiency and it is also the exposure — because when a vendor moves a price or a lead time, it does not move one job, it moves every plan carrying that item. Workroom holds the package as a record rather than a habit, so you can see every house it touches before the increase reaches your margin.
Five of these eight are not yet acknowledged. A 6% increase from this vendor would reach $1,156.80 across the open lines on this filter alone.
One vendor, filtered across every plan and lot carrying their package.
Trusted by the studios doing the work
The package, once
a plan’s finish schedule reused across every lot that carries it
Filter by vendor
every open order with one supplier, across every lot, on one screen
Drift, caught early
a lead time that slipped on one lot is a warning about the next twelve
Margin per plan
which plan actually earns, not which one you assume does
The exposure nobody prices
A 6% increase is not one problem. It is forty.
A supplier sends a letter: prices up 6% from the first of next month. In a custom firm that is a conversation with one client. In a production firm it is every lot with that item still specified but not yet ordered — and the honest answer to “how many is that” usually takes somebody two days and a spreadsheet.
Because the specification and the purchase orders are the same records, that question is a filter. Every lot, every plan, every unordered line with that vendor on it, with the value attached.
The buyer sees one house. You are running the same package across the next eleven.Project by Gruver Cooley
Repeatable, without being rigid
The package is the asset. Protect it.
The whole model depends on specifying once and building many. The moment that package lives in a spreadsheet, a shared drive and somebody’s memory, the thing you built the business on starts drifting lot by lot.
One schedule per plan — every field on the line, from finish and model number to lead time and freight, so a lot inherits the package rather than a fresh guess.
Upgrades without a rewrite — a buyer’s change becomes a change order against that lot, and the base package stays intact for the next one.
Substitutions that stick — when a line is discontinued you replace it in the package, not in eleven separate schedules.
Production work fails on sequence rather than on design. Two lots wanting the same trade in the same week, a lighting package landing after drywall, a closing date built on a lead time somebody quoted in March.
Portfolio view puts every lot on one timeline with its phases, and utilization shows whether the people exist to hit them. The crunch in October is visible in July, which is the only time it is fixable.
The plan you sell most is not always the one that pays
Volume hides margin. A plan that moves quickly can be the one carrying the thinnest package, and without a per-project audit the difference stays invisible until the year closes.
Workroom audits each lot the same way — profit and margin, quoted against actual, best and worst category — so the comparison between plans is evidence rather than instinct, and the next package gets priced on what the last one really cost.
Live — buckets refresh automatically from product status + timelogs.
ProfitabilityAt risk
Total profit$96,420
Margin14.2%
Total designer cost$582,880
Total paid by client$679,300
Based on this project, consider raising your average FF&E markup to ~31% on future projects to hit a healthier margin.
Derived from live budget data. Paid by client = fee + FF&E + expenses actually collected (paid); designer cost = FF&E cost, expenses, and contractor bills incurred. The gap is cash profit to date; design-fee labor isn’t dollarized, so it flows to profit.
Rate Variance
Supporting detail — what was quoted to the client versus what actually happened, and why, so the next project can be priced correctly. The suggested rate is what you’d need to charge to hit your target margin.
Design FeeOn target
Quoted$48,000$160.00/hr
Actual (paid)$48,000
Delta$00.0%
Suggested rateat target
FF&EUnder target
Quoted$186,400$112.30/sq ft
Actual (paid)$186,400
Margin23%target 30%
Suggested rate$121.40/sq ft
Best margin Top 3 categories
Lighting41%
Rugs32%
Case goods24%
Worst margin Top 3 categories
Seating9%
Tables11%
Millwork12%
Questions we hear
Production building, specifically answered
Is Workroom a construction management system?
No. It does not do takeoffs, bid levelling or field daily logs. It holds the specification, the procurement, the trade bills, the change orders and the money on each lot — which is the half most builders currently run in spreadsheets. Firms with heavy construction tooling generally keep it and use Workroom as the record that owns the selections and the spend.
Can I reuse a plan’s package on a new lot?
Yes. A plan’s finish and FF&E schedule is a set of records, so a new lot starts from the package rather than from a blank sheet — carrying vendor, model number, finish, lead time and freight with it.
How do buyer upgrades work?
As a change order against that lot, so the base package is never edited by an individual buyer’s choice. Approved changes crossing a share of the contracted budget flag automatically, which is how upgrade creep gets papered rather than absorbed.
What happens when a vendor discontinues something?
You replace it in the package once. Anything already ordered keeps its history on the lot it belongs to, and the open lines are visible through the same vendor filter you would use for a price increase.
Do you handle warranty and punch after closing?
Partly today — receiving, damage and claim windows are tracked against the item and the purchase order. A dedicated designer and receiver portal for deliveries, damage, repairs and returns is on the roadmap.
For firms building the same house twice
Bring us one plan and the lots running it.
We will set the package up on the call, then filter it by vendor — and you can see exactly what one supplier’s increase would cost you across the release.
