FF&E specification
FF&E specification software for interior designers
In Aestima the specification sits on the estimate line itself. The fabric on a sofa, the finish on a console table, the floor it belongs to and the procurement phase it falls in are fields on the line you already priced, so the schedule you send a client is built from the same rows as the quote.
Specification columns, switched on when you need them
The line-items grid carries a group of FF&E fields that stay out of the way until a project firms up: procurement phase, floor or level, colour, finish or material, fabric specification, detailed specification notes, and the Client flag described below. They are hidden by default, because an estimate being priced does not need them.
Turning them on is one step rather than seven. Aestima ships a shared column preset called FF&E Schedule that shows the specification fields together with the item title, room, quantity, dimensions, lead time and supplier. Choose it and the grid becomes a specification sheet; switch back and it is an estimate again. The underlying rows never change, so nothing is duplicated and nothing has to be kept in step.
Dimensions are held as separate width, depth and height figures, in millimetres or in inches, which is what lets them print as one formatted line on a spec sheet rather than as whatever somebody typed into a free-text box.
A, B and C phases, visible at a glance
Each line can be assigned to procurement phase A, B or C. The grid colours the row to match - green for A, amber for B, pink for C - so the state of a long schedule is readable without opening anything. A row you have given a colour of its own keeps that colour, which takes precedence over the phase.
Phase is an ordinary column, so it sorts and filters like any other. Gathering every phase A item uses the same controls as the rest of the grid rather than a separate screen, and spec sheets follow whatever you have filtered or ticked.
The Client flag, and what it actually does
Every line has a Client tick-box, on by default, which you can set inline in the grid without opening the item. Unticking it excludes that line from FF&E schedule PDFs generated for the client, and withholds its images from the client portal.
That covers budget placeholders, provisional items kept on record after they were rejected, trade-only notes and builder's work, and internal lines such as project management fees. The line stays fully visible in your own grid and in your own totals. The flag changes what prints for the client, not what you can see.
One item, four documents
A spec sheet is a single page describing a single item: your branding, the photograph, and the specification in a labelled block. Aestima produces them for the lines you have ticked, or for the lines currently in view if you have ticked none, and tells you how many it is about to build before it starts.
Which fields appear is decided by who the sheet is for, and the renderer reads that decision rather than making its own, so a trade price cannot reach a client sheet by accident.
Client copy
The specification, the photographs, the lead time and your price. No supplier, no supplier product code, no trade price.
Supplier or purchase-order copy
The supplier, their product code, quantities, finishes, the delivery location and the current status of the line. No prices at all.
Internal copy
Everything the other two carry, with both the trade and client prices together. Internal notes stay off even here, and have to be switched on deliberately.
Inventory & Install Pack
The end-of-job handover: one document with a branded cover and contents page, then a page per item. It covers the lines ticked for the inventory, or, if you have not ticked any, the lines that carry a photograph. Hidden supplier cost lines are never included.
Each of the four starts from a preset you can then adjust for one document without changing the preset itself.
The client-facing FF&E schedule
The schedule is a print template of its own type, so it can be laid out exactly the way your practice already presents one. Print templates in Aestima are built per practice rather than issued as a fixed default. If you already have a schedule you like the look of, send us the PDF and we rebuild it as an editable template with your live figures flowing into it - that works from a PDF with real text in it, rather than a scan of a printed page.
When you print it, your room and group names become the headings, you tick which rooms to include, and every line whose Client flag is unticked is left out without your having to remember it. The result can be downloaded, opened in the browser, filed against the estimate as an attachment, or emailed to the client.
The line, and the piece on it
Specification work happens on the line item, so that is where the detail and the photographs live.
See it against your own schedule
We will walk you through it using the kind of work your practice does: a real estimate, a real specification, and the documents you would send to a client and to a supplier.
Request a walkthrough