The communications log

Interior design runs on conversations that happen away from the keyboard: a call about brass finishes, a site visit where the GC mentions a ceiling height, a text confirming a delivery window. The communications log is where those land, so the project remembers them after you've forgotten.

Where entries are written

Entries are written on a project, under its Communication tab. Log what was said, who said it, and what it changes — one entry per conversation.

The studio-wide Communications page in the left nav is the read view: everything logged on every job, newest first, grouped by day.

What a good entry looks like

The demo studio's entries are the right shape:

Call with Catherine — she prefers unlacquered brass for the primary bath; requesting a Perrin & Rowe quote through the rep.

Site visit — framing complete in the great room; picture-light rough-ins marked on the north wall.

Each one carries a decision or a fact someone will need later. Compare with "talked to client", which records that time passed.

Write entries as though the person reading them is a teammate covering for you next week — because eventually that's who reads them.

Comments and mentions

Entries can be discussed in place: a teammate comments on an entry, and mentioning someone notifies them. That keeps the follow-up attached to the conversation it belongs to, rather than starting a parallel thread in email.

Contributors can edit their own entries — for the typo, the misheard number, the detail you remembered on the drive back.

What it isn't

The log is internal. It's not the client's message thread — that's the portal's Messages tab, which the client can see and reply to. Keep internal assessments ("budget is going to be a problem") in the log; keep things you'd say to the client's face in Messages.

Why bother

Three payoffs, all of them arriving later than the effort:

1. Continuity. A project that spans nine months outlives anyone's memory of the phone call in month two.
2. Cover. "We agreed unlacquered brass on July 30" is a better position than "I'm fairly sure we discussed it."
3. Handover. A teammate joining mid-project can read the log and be current in ten minutes.

Related

• Creating a project
• How the client portal works
• Tasks across the studio