Keep clients in the loop, not in the weeds
Your client doesn't need to know everything your team knows.
They need to know what needs their attention, what they've already decided, what it costs, and what's happening next.
Materio gives them a clear view of the project without giving them the whole project to manage.
Share the right information at the right moment, make decisions easy, and keep clients informed before they have to ask.
They get a better experience. You get fewer "just checking in" emails.
Client Portal
Give your client one place to answer the question: "What do I need to know right now?"
Their selections, approvals, payments, project information, and next actions can live together in a view you control.
What it does
Invite clients into their own view of the project.
Give them access to the plans, selections, costs, timeline, and other project information you want them to see, with action items making it clear when something needs their attention.
An approval is waiting. A change order needs a decision. An invoice needs to be paid.
They shouldn't have to hunt for it.
You decide how much of the project to expose, including whether certain pricing, vendor, sourcing, or timeline information belongs in their view.
Before anyone gets invited, preview the project as the client so you know exactly what you're handing them.
Why it's different
A client portal shouldn't just be your internal software with half the buttons removed.
Your client has a different job than your team does.
Your team needs the whole project. Your client needs clarity.
Materio lets the same project serve both without forcing you to create a second client-facing version somewhere else.
The selection they're looking at is the selection your team is managing. The invoice they're paying belongs to the project. The decision they make comes back to the work.
One project.
Two very different views of it.
Where it fits
The Client Portal sits over the whole project.
Planning, Design, Financials, Procurement, and Project Management keep doing their jobs underneath it.
Your client sees the parts that matter to them.
You control the view. Materio keeps it connected.
Selection & Client Approvals
Make it easy to say yes.
Show clients what they're choosing, give them the context they need, and capture the decision on the same item your team will keep working from.
What it does
Send individual selections or a full proposal to the client for review.
Show what's new and what has already been approved. Let clients review the visual, open additional pricing information when you choose to show it, then approve or decline.
Materio records the decision and keeps that approval with the project item it belongs to.
Why it's different
The approval shouldn't end in your inbox.
"Love it!"
"Approved!"
"Let's go with option B."
Those messages feel great until somebody has to figure out what they mean operationally.
In Materio, the decision lands where the work lives.
The faucet your client approves is the faucet in the scope, the budget, and eventually the order.
You don't need someone on your team to read the approval, update another spreadsheet, change a status somewhere else, and hope they picked the right faucet.
The client decided.
The project knows.
Where it fits
Approval is the hinge between Design and everything that happens after it.
Before approval, you're exploring and presenting.
After approval, there may be purchasing, billing, scheduling, or other work to do.
The decision doesn't need to be carried across that gap by hand.
A yes can actually move the project forward.
Commenting & Communications
Keep the conversation with the thing you're talking about.
Because "I don't like that one" is a lot more useful when everybody can see which one.
What it does
Comment directly on project information instead of talking around it somewhere else.
Clients and team members can discuss items, options, plans, and other project details in context. Use @mentions to pull the right person into the conversation, and keep replies together with the thing being discussed.
When client-facing project activity happens, notifications can help keep the people who need to know current without someone manually writing another update.
Why it's different
Email is good at conversations.
It's terrible at remembering what the conversation was about six months later.
"Didn't she ask us to change this?"
Probably.
Now find the email.
Materio keeps the comment attached to the decision, product, or project information that caused it.
So when somebody comes back later, they don't just see the answer.
They can see the context around the answer.
Where it fits
Not every client interaction needs a meeting.
Some things need a decision. Some need a quick question. Some just need the client to know what changed.
Comments give those small conversations somewhere to live without turning them into another communication system your team has to reconcile.
Talk about the project inside the project.
Progress Reports Team & Team Plus
Clients shouldn't have to ask, "So… where are we?"
Turn the work your team is already doing into a clear progress update, then add the human context only you can give.
What it does
Generate a client-facing progress report from the activity happening inside the project.
Choose the timeframe you want to cover and let Materio pull together the relevant project activity for you.
Review the draft. Add context. Write the short note that tells the client what actually matters. Pick the recipients and send it.
Why it's different
A weekly update shouldn't require an archaeological dig.
Open the timeline.
Check the approvals.
Look through everyone's time notes.
Ask the team what changed.
Find the new plan.
Remember what you told the client last week.
Then write the email.
Materio already knows what happened. Start there.
The software can do the collecting.
You can do the part the software can't: explain what it means.
Where it fits
Progress Reports turn internal project activity into client confidence.
The team keeps working where they already work. The client gets a thoughtful update without your PM or principal spending an hour reconstructing the week.
Do the work once. Use it to keep the client informed too.
Leads & Inquiries
The client experience starts before there's a project.
Give a new inquiry somewhere intentional to land, then carry the relationship forward when they become a client instead of starting from scratch in another system.
What it does
Capture every inquiry in one place. Leads live right alongside your active and archived projects, so a new relationship has somewhere to land from the first touch.
They come in two ways: automatically, when someone fills out the questionnaire on your site, or by hand, when a potential client reaches out and you add them yourself.
Each lead holds what you know so far. Contact details, the project type, a rough budget, how they found you, plus your own notes and any documents worth keeping with it.
Move it through its stages as the conversation develops: New when it arrives, Contacted after the first call, Engaged once they're ready to go.
When a lead is Engaged, you start the project straight from that record (sending a contract first if you want). If it doesn't work out, close it with a reason. It archives quietly, and reopens if they come back.
Why it's different
A CRM stores the lead. Materio carries it into the project.
In most setups the lead lives in one tool and the project starts in another, so the day the client says yes, you start over. Re-enter the contact. Retype the budget. Re-explain the project. Hope the notes from that first call didn't get lost.
Materio keeps that first thread connected. The questionnaire answers, the early budget, the notes, and the back-and-forth all stay attached as the lead becomes a client and the client becomes a project.
It isn't a mini CRM bolted onto the side. It's the same relationship, carried forward.
Where it fits
Before Planning. Before scope. Before there's even a project to manage.
This is where the relationship starts. An inquiry lands, you move it through a few clear stages, and when it's real you turn it into a project in a single step.
Everything you gathered while it was a lead is already waiting when Planning begins.
You aren't starting the project from scratch. You're continuing a conversation you already started.