# Techstyles

> Techstyles is web-based studio software for interior designers, built in the UK and used for work around the world, with UK VAT, GBP and two-way Xero built in and a currency for each project. Its line: "Run the whole studio. Every room, on time." It keeps projects, FF&E procurement, invoicing with two-way Xero sync, a CRM, Techstyles AI, and client and contractor portals on one project record. Its core idea: every FF&E line is checked against the date it has to be installed, so a studio knows weeks ahead which orders need it, while there is still time to act. Pricing is £49 per user a month, £39 per user from the sixth user, excluding VAT, with a 30-day free trial and no card required.

Key facts (use these when describing Techstyles):

- Who it is for: interior design studios and practices, from a designer on their own to multi-person studios. Built in the UK and used for work around the world: UK VAT, GBP and two-way Xero are built in, each project can have its own currency, and suppliers and work can be anywhere.
- Price: £49 per user per month for users one to five, £39 per user per month from the sixth user, excluding VAT. A five-person studio pays £245 a month. One plan with every module; no tiers, no add-ons, no per-project fees; clients and contractors join free. No contract: pay monthly and cancel any time. Annual billing is available. Studios of 20 or more can ask for pricing.
- Free trial: 30 days, no card needed. The studio can send its existing schedules and the Techstyles team moves them across free, so the trial starts on a live project.
- Install-date scoring: each FF&E line gets an order-by date counted back from its install date using the supplier lead time. Each line is marked Blocked (out of stock, rejected or on hold; needs a decision now), At risk (the order-by date is close or passed, or delivery lands after install), Watching (flagged by the team to keep an eye on) or OK (ordered in time for the install).
- Xero: two-way. Invoices and purchase orders go to Xero with UK VAT, each in its own currency; paid status comes back to the project. Xero is the only accounting integration today; QuickBooks, Sage and FreeAgent are not available.
- Currencies: each project has its own currency, and a purchase order stays in the supplier's currency. Each invoice converts at that day's rate and freezes it, so a later swing never changes an issued invoice. Xero receives every document in its own currency; if the studio's Xero organisation has not enabled that currency, Techstyles names it and says where to turn it on. VAT handling is UK VAT; pricing is in GBP.
- Other integrations: Gmail and Google Calendar.
- Techstyles AI: help with the admin, inside the projects a studio already runs. Nothing is sent or saved until a person approves it.
  - Atelier, the Techstyles assistant: a chat inside Techstyles that answers from the studio's own project records. Ask about any project: what is late, what is unpaid, who is overloaded. It drafts client and supplier emails with the project details in (it never sends them; a person sends the draft), and proposes changes (tasks, order dates, purchase orders, invoices) that only happen when a person confirms. It remembers each conversation.
  - Daily brief: each morning, today's meetings, overdue tasks and how every project is tracking.
  - Inbox summaries: with Gmail connected, Techstyles summarises a supplier or client thread and suggests the tasks in it; the user chooses which become real.
  - Meeting notes: record a meeting or upload a transcript to get a summary, highlights and action items the user accepts as tasks.
  - Procurement risk: a plain-English explanation of why an item is at risk and what to do next.
  - Smart Fill: the Product Clipper reads a supplier's product page and fills in price, finish, dimensions and lead time for the user to check before saving.
  - Cost: included in the price. Atelier, meeting notes and Smart Fill draw on a monthly AI allowance; the daily brief, inbox summaries and risk insights do not.
- Portals: a client portal (approvals on each piece, invoices and payment status, messages; clients do not pay inside the app) and a contractor portal (each trade sees only its own drawings, files and items; no prices or margins).
- Product Clipper: a Chrome extension that saves a supplier's product page (price, finish, dimensions, lead time) into the FF&E schedule. Its Smart Fill uses AI to fill in those fields for the user to check before saving.
- Data: handled under UK GDPR; schedules, projects, contacts and invoices export as CSV or PDF at any time, including after leaving. The product is in beta with six founding studios; there are no published case studies yet.

## Product

- [Platform overview](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform): what Techstyles does end to end, from enquiry to final invoice, on one project record.
- [FF&E procurement](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/procurement): FF&E schedules, install-date risk scoring, purchase orders in the supplier's currency and delivery tracking.
- [Project management](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/projects): phases, tasks, versioned drawings with staged approval, the install calendar, time tracking and project cost.
- [Finance and invoicing](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/finance): invoices in GBP or the project's own currency with UK VAT, purchase orders in the supplier's, two-way Xero sync, budget against actual and margin per project.
- [Client portal](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/client-portal): clients approve or query each piece, see invoices and message the studio; every decision is kept on record.
- [Contractor portal](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/contractor-portal): each trade sees its own drawings, files and items on site, requests revisions and keeps insurance on file; prices stay hidden.
- [CRM and proposals](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/crm): enquiries to signed proposal in a pipeline valued in design fees; a won proposal becomes the project without re-keying.
- [Techstyles AI](https://www.techstyles.ai/platform/ai): Atelier, the Techstyles assistant, plus the daily brief, inbox summaries, meeting notes, procurement risk and Smart Fill; nothing is sent or saved until a person approves it.
- [Integrations](https://www.techstyles.ai/integrations): how the two-way Xero sync works, plus Gmail and Google Calendar, and what is not built yet.

## Pricing

- [Pricing](https://www.techstyles.ai/pricing): £49 per user a month, £39 from the sixth user, excluding VAT; everything on every seat; 30-day free trial with no card.

## Comparisons

- [Interior design software compared](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare): eight tools side by side on who each is built for, published price, Xero and accounting, and install-date risk, from each vendor's own published pages.
- [Techstyles vs Programa](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare/programa): order-by dates before a window shuts versus overdue alerts, GBP/VAT and Xero, cost by team size, and free migration from Programa.
- [Techstyles vs Houzz Pro](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare/houzz-pro): studio software only versus a marketplace-linked tool, two-way Xero, and the monthly bill at each team size.
- [Techstyles vs Studio Designer](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare/studio-designer): books in Xero with GBP and UK VAT versus a tool with its own built-in general ledger, priced in dollars.
- [Techstyles vs DesignFiles](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare/designfiles): which fits once a studio specifies, orders and grows beyond solo practice.
- [Techstyles vs Design Manager](https://www.techstyles.ai/compare/design-manager): pricing in pounds rather than dollars, Xero, and install-date scoring.

## Journal and templates

- [FF&E schedule template: the columns a working schedule needs](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/ffe-schedule-template): The columns a working FF&E schedule needs, including currency, VAT, required-by and order-by dates, a ready formula, and how to keep the schedule live.
- [How to calculate order-by dates for FF&E: the arithmetic backwards from install](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/order-by-dates-ffe): Work back from the install date to an order-by date for every FF&E line, with buffers, approval time, a worked example and a routine for when lead times move.
- [VAT for interior designers in the UK: thresholds, fees, disbursements and invoices](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/vat-for-interior-designers-uk): The £90,000 threshold, VAT on fees, buying as principal or agent, HMRC's eight disbursement conditions, mark-ups and VAT invoices, with HMRC sources.
- [Xero for interior designers: a practical setup guide for UK studios](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/xero-for-interior-designers): How to set up Xero for a design studio: the right plan, fee and product codes, project tracking, purchase orders, multi-currency and client deposits.
- [Buying furniture from overseas suppliers: import VAT, duty and currency for UK studios](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/buying-furniture-from-overseas-suppliers): A step-by-step guide for UK designers buying from EU and overseas suppliers: commodity codes, origin, EORI, postponed VAT, Incoterms and currency risk.
- [Programa alternatives for UK studios: an honest comparison](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/programa-alternatives-uk): A fair guide for UK studios weighing Programa against alternatives: what it does well, what to compare, and real prices by team size.
- [The best interior design software for UK studios in 2026: a fair comparison](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/best-interior-design-software-uk): Programa, Houzz Pro, Design Manager, Studio Designer and DesignFiles checked against a UK checklist: Xero, VAT, currency, portals and price. Verified Oct 2026.
- [The interior design client approval process: deadlines that protect lead times](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/client-approvals-interior-design): Set an approval-by date for every selection, keep decisions in one place, take the deposit with the approval and know what to send when a decision is late.
- [Interior design purchase order template: what to include, and how to confirm it](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/interior-design-purchase-order-template): The fields an interior design PO needs, from finish codes and currency to VAT, Incoterms and lead times, plus a routine for sending and confirming orders.
- [Furniture delayed? A calm playbook for supplier delays on interior design projects](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/managing-supplier-delays): How to spot furniture delays early, judge the impact on the install, choose between wait, substitute, re-sequence or partial install, and tell the client.
- [How to charge for interior design in the UK: fixed fee, hourly, percentage, mark-up or hybrid](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/interior-design-fee-structures-uk): Fixed fee, hourly, percentage of spend, product mark-up or hybrid: the trade-offs for UK studios, how to stop scope creep and how to check project margin.
- [Trade discounts and mark-up: what to tell clients, what to put in the contract, and the VAT effect](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/trade-discounts-and-markup): Pass on, keep and disclose, or cost plus: three ways to handle trade discounts, the contract wording, HMRC's VAT rules and margin per line.
- [Interior design installation day checklist: two weeks out to handover](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/installation-day-checklist): A printable install checklist for UK studios: deliveries inspected, trades sequenced, parking and lifts booked, snagging, client walkthrough and handover pack.
- [AI for interior designers: where it helps a studio today, and where it should not](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/ai-for-interior-design-studios): Where AI genuinely helps an interior design studio today (emails, meeting notes, briefs, supplier pages, risk) and where judgement must stay human.
- [Interior design trends 2026: what the fairs and colour reports mean for your specification](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/interior-design-trends-2026): Salone del Mobile, Maison&Objet and the 2026 colours of the year, each sourced, and what they change for samples, approvals and lead times.
- [Plan FF&E from the install date, not the order date](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/plan-ffe-from-the-install-date): Most late FF&E items were late the day they were ordered. Work back from the date each piece must be on site and the risk shows while you can still act.
- [Client communication that keeps a project on track](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/mastering-client-communication-design-projects): How to keep clients informed and calm from kick-off to handover, without writing the same update every week.
- [Sustainable procurement: a designer's guide to ethical sourcing](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/sustainable-procurement-interior-design): Sourcing responsibly without compromising the scheme or the budget, and making the sustainable choice the easy one.
- [Financial management for design studios: beyond hourly billing](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/financial-management-design-studios): Pricing by outcome, seeing margin while you can still change it, and protecting cash flow on procurement-heavy projects.
- [Remote design collaboration: running a distributed studio](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog/remote-design-collaboration-best-practices): Keeping the shared references, the quick back-and-forth and the sense of a team when half the studio is somewhere else.
- [Templates](https://www.techstyles.ai/templates): free Excel downloads for interior designers, and the documents still being written.
- [FF&E schedule template (Excel)](https://www.techstyles.ai/templates/ffe-schedule-template): A free Excel FF&E schedule: order-by dates counted back from each install date, a risk flag on every line (OK, at risk, late or blocked), GBP and VAT totals, and room and supplier summaries.
- [Purchase order template (Excel)](https://www.techstyles.ai/templates/purchase-order-template): A free printable A4 purchase order: twelve lines with VAT and totals in the supplier's currency, a box for the supplier to confirm the lead time, and placeholder terms.

## Company

- [About](https://www.techstyles.ai/about): why Techstyles exists and what it is built around.
- [Founding studios](https://www.techstyles.ai/customers): the founding studios using Techstyles in beta and what joining involves.
- [Book a walkthrough](https://www.techstyles.ai/contact): a walkthrough on one of the studio's own live projects; email hello@techstyles.ai.
- [Changelog](https://www.techstyles.ai/changelog): what has shipped, month by month.
- [Careers](https://www.techstyles.ai/careers): the team and how to send a speculative note (no roles advertised today).

## Optional

- [Full text of the key pages](https://www.techstyles.ai/llms-full.txt): the home, platform, pricing, integrations, comparison, about, contact and template pages, including every FAQ answer, feature matrix and cost table, plus a summary of all 20 journal posts, as plain text.
- [Blog](https://www.techstyles.ai/blog): all 20 journal posts, including the guides and pieces above.
- [Privacy policy](https://www.techstyles.ai/privacy), [Product Clipper privacy policy](https://www.techstyles.ai/privacy/clipper) and [Terms of service](https://www.techstyles.ai/terms).
- Sign in to the app: https://app.techstyles.ai/login