Planning: where scope is born
Every project starts with scope: the services you'll provide, the products you'll specify, the finishes you'll select, and the work it will take to bring it all together.
That scope becomes the source of truth for what follows: budgets, boards, proposals, contracts, orders, schedules, and more. Everything builds from it. That's why we call the scope the spine of every project in Materio.
Start with a list, start on the plan, or build both as the project takes shape.
Scope of Work Builder
Build the whole project in one place, from design services and fees to every fixture, finish, furnishing, and piece of work the job requires.
What it does
Add everything you're responsible for delivering to one living scope of work.
Organize it by room and category. Add your design services and fees. Build out lighting, plumbing, furniture, finishes, construction work, or whatever else belongs in the project. For product items, you can add options, quantities, pricing, and the details you'll need later.
It'll feel familiar if you're used to building scope in a spreadsheet. The difference is what happens next.
You only build it once.
The same scope can become your budget, feed a proposal or contract, give you the products for a design board, and carry purchasing items forward when it's time to order.
Why it's different
Your project shouldn't have to be rebuilt every time you need something from it.
A scope in one file, a budget in another, products copied onto a presentation, numbers copied into a proposal, then everything entered again when it's time to purchase. That's where details start drifting and someone has to keep putting the pieces back together.
Materio keeps the pieces connected.
The faucet on the floor plan, the faucet on the board, the faucet in the budget, the faucet your client approves, and the faucet you eventually order aren't five copies of a faucet.
It's the same faucet moving through the project.
And the scope is bigger than products. Your services, fees, materials, construction work, and everything else you're delivering can live alongside them, ready to be organized and filtered for whatever comes next.
One scope. One project. No rebuilding it in five different places.
Where it fits
This is the spine of the project.
Design builds from it. Budgets total from it. Proposals and contracts pull the right parts of it forward. Procurement uses it when it's time to buy.
As the project gets more detailed, the scope gets more detailed with it. You aren't leaving Planning behind. You're building on the work you already did.
Floor Plans & Takeoffs
A list tells you what the project needs. The plan shows you where it goes. In Materio, those two things stay connected.
What it does
Upload your floor plans and elevations, then connect the physical parts of your scope to their real locations.
Drop a marker to place an item you've already created, or create a new scope item right from the drawing. Start with the list, start with the plan, or bounce between the two. Materio doesn't force you into one way of working.
You can also measure and count directly on the drawing.
Measure the bathroom floor and use that square footage for the tile quantity. Count fixtures from the plan. Take the measurements that would normally end up scribbled on paper or copied into another spreadsheet and connect them back to the item they're actually for.
Why it's different
In most project software, the floor plan is something you upload and look at.
In Materio, it's part of the project.
A light fixture can live on the plan where it belongs, while staying connected to the same fixture you're designing around, budgeting for, presenting to the client, and eventually purchasing.
When the plan and the project information live separately, someone has to keep them aligned. When they're connected, a location isn't just another field to remember. It's part of the item itself.
That's especially useful once more people touch the project. Your team, builder, installer, and trades don't just need to know what something is. They need to know where it goes.
Where it fits
The plan gives physical context to the parts of your scope that belong somewhere.
Those locations carry forward into room-by-room organization, specifications, quantities, and handoff documents like the material & finish schedule.
And one important distinction: Materio isn't CAD.
Keep drawing in AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, or whatever works for your team. Bring those drawings into Materio, then connect the work of actually delivering the project back to them.
Item Budgets & Estimates
Put a number on the project before every decision is final, then let the budget get smarter as the project does.
What it does
Add an estimate to each part of the scope and Materio rolls those numbers up into the project budget.
Early on, those numbers might be rough. A $5,000 lighting allowance. $20 per square foot for tile. A ballpark for a custom piece that hasn't been quoted yet.
That's fine.
Planning isn't about knowing every final cost on day one. It's about knowing enough to steer the project.
As selections firm up, quantities become clearer, and real costs come in, you can refine those numbers without starting over somewhere else.
Why it's different
The budget shouldn't live off to the side in a spreadsheet.
Put the number on the item itself, and it stays tied to the thing you're budgeting for.
The estimate for a faucet lives with the faucet. When that faucet becomes a real selection with a real price, you're not trying to remember which row in an old spreadsheet it was supposed to replace.
The same idea carries through the rest of the project. Your budget isn't a snapshot of what everyone thought six weeks ago. It's connected to the scope that's actually moving forward.
Less reconciling. Less double entry. Fewer moments where someone asks, "Wait, which number is current?"
Where it fits
The budget starts taking shape in Planning, but it doesn't stop here.
Use early estimates to set the target. Refine them through Design as selections become real. Compare them against purchasing costs through Procurement. Keep the financial picture connected as scope changes and the project moves forward.
You shouldn't have to rebuild the budget every time the project gets more real. Materio lets it grow with the work.
Project Timelines
Scope tells you what has to happen. The timeline tells everyone when.
Turn the project into a sequence of phases, deadlines, and planned work so the team can see the road ahead before the work gets busy.
What it does
Break the project into phases and map out the work inside them.
Set dates, assignees, and descriptions for planned work. Connect phases with dependencies when one part of the project can't begin until another is ready. Put important project deadlines, including selection due dates, onto the schedule so decisions happen in time for the work that depends on them.
Choose how much of the timeline your client sees, and keep an eye on deadlines and deliverables across projects as your firm gets busier.
Why it's different
A timeline shouldn't be a pretty Gantt chart you build once and spend the rest of the project apologizing for.
It should help the work happen.
In Materio, the timeline lives with the same project your team is designing, purchasing, and managing.
Planned work can turn into the tasks people actually see when it's time to do it. Selection deadlines sit closer to the selections they're protecting. And as the project moves, the schedule stays part of the work instead of becoming a presentation of what everyone hoped would happen six months ago.
The timeline isn't another picture of the project.
It's part of how the project moves.
Where it fits
The best time to build the timeline is before everyone needs it.
Planning defines the scope, early budget, locations, and sequence of work. From there, the timeline keeps running underneath Design, Procurement, installation, and closeout.
You plan it here. The whole project works from it.