iDesign Architects - Studio Command Centre

What we heard

Your most expensive hidden cost is proposal-writing time.

You have beautiful standard templates. You have years of rate data. What you do not have is a system that takes those inputs and gives you a draft. So every new project starts with you, alone at a laptop, assembling line items by hand. Three hours per proposal. Seventy percent of them never convert. That is your real cost.

Here is what you are dealing with

Proposal-writing is the tax you pay for every lead.

3 to 4 hours per client proposal, assembled by hand from your standard templates across 5 to 7 Excel tabs. Done by you, because nobody else in the studio knows the pricing logic.
Industry conversion on mid-to-high-ticket interior proposals is 20% to 30%. Meaning roughly 70% of that proposal time is effectively unpaid.
Every revision round the client asks for is another 60 to 90 minutes - open the workbook, change the rates, re-version the tabs, re-send. Two or three revisions is normal.
Behind that, the studio's full operating stack: a 7 to 8 sheet workbook per client (BOQ, proposal, costing, payments, contractor outflows, cashflow, revisions, drawings index). A team of 4 to 8 designers plus 2 managers, reporting verbally at 2pm and 4pm. No audit trail beyond what people remember.

Here is what you asked for

AI that drafts in your voice, using your templates.

AI-drafted proposals from your approved rate library, in your language, in your format. You review and sign off - never auto-sent to a client.
A single template + rate library that every proposal pulls from, so pricing stays consistent across projects and nobody hunts for last quarter's Excel.
Optional full ops layer: BOQ engine, cashflow, milestone payments, WhatsApp team surface - for when you are ready to digitise beyond proposals.
GST-aware from day one with SAC 998391 for design, SAC 9954 for site execution, HSN 9403 for furniture. Clean input for your CA.
No lock-in. Weekly Excel export to your Google Drive, forever.

What happens if nothing changes.

Two costs keep compounding. First, every unconverted proposal is three hours you will not get back, and the studio's proposal volume only grows. Second, from FY 2024-25 onwards, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs requires every company using accounting software to maintain an audit trail that is tamper-proof and retained for 8 years (MCA Rule 3, Companies Amendment Rules 2022). Spreadsheets do not produce that trail. You are one audit away from reconstructing three years of project-level inflows and outflows from memory.

What you get and what it costs

Four ways to start. Pick the one that fits this quarter.

Every engagement solves the proposal-time pain on day one. The only question is how far you want to go beyond proposals - into BOQ, cashflow, contractor dashboards, and the full studio operating system. Descriptive names, no milestone codes, no hidden totals.

The Proposal Engine, step by step

From blank Excel to sign-off draft in under 10 minutes.

This is how a new client enquiry becomes a cinematic website proposal in your voice, using your templates and your rate library. The AI drafts. You chat to edit it. You sign off. Never auto-sent. See the 5 UI screens in the team guide →

1

Your templates, imported

Your 3 standard documents (Profile, Scope, Estimated Cost) and rate library are loaded once. The system learns your tone and pricing logic.

2

New client brief in

Fill 6 short fields about the client - property type, rooms, budget range, referral, notes. Takes 2 minutes.

3

AI drafts in your voice

Under 90 seconds. Opens as a website preview - the exact format your client will see. Yellow-flags prices outside your historical pattern.

4

Chat to edit, in plain English

"Change Kitchen to 8L, add Italian marble note, timeline 5 months." The AI updates the proposal live, with a visible diff. In Marathi, Hindi or English.

5

Sign off and send

Swati approves on her phone. One tap sends to the client as a WhatsApp link. 8-year audit log retained automatically.

6

Client gets a website

Not a PDF attachment. They scroll on their phone, tap "Call Swati" from inside. PDF export is one click for anyone who wants paper.

What is in the full Studio Command Centre.

Every row below is part of the full Command Centre build. The Proposal Engine SKU is a focused subset - rows 1, 2, 10 and 12 only. Starter Pilot covers row 1 and a subset of row 2 against one live project.

What you get (artifact)	What it does for you (outcome)
BOQ Engine with versioned rate library	One rate library for your studio. Reuse the same line items across projects. Price revisions take minutes, not hours. GST codes tagged at the item level.
AI Proposal Generator with natural-language chat editor	Draft proposals in your voice in under 10 minutes from your templates and rate library. Chat with the draft in plain English ("change Kitchen to 8L, add Italian marble note") to edit anything. Output is a cinematic website link with one-click PDF export. Never auto-sent.
Milestone Payment Tracker	Payments mapped to the Indian construction schedule - booking, design, execution, handover, retention. Inflows and outflows in one screen per project.
Project Cashflow Rollup	Client inflows and contractor outflows in a single view per project and across the studio. Know which project is funding which.
WhatsApp Team Surface (Cloud API)	Replaces the 2pm and 4pm verbal standup. Designers post updates, photos and voice notes. Managers review in one feed. No app installs for anyone.
Mobile Site-Visit Capture	Photo + voice note from site, auto-transcribed, auto-tagged to the project. Reaches the Command Centre before the designer is back in the studio.
Revision Diff View	See what changed between BOQ v3 and BOQ v4 at a glance. The single feature Excel is worst at, and the one your managers will use daily.
Contractor Payment Dashboard	WhatsApp-native payment confirmations to contractors. No app install. No lost acknowledgements.
GST-aware Invoicing	Invoices generated with the right SAC / HSN combinations, ready to hand to your CA. Matches your current books without rework.
Weekly Excel Export to your Google Drive	Non-negotiable safety rail. Everything in the Command Centre flows back to Excel weekly. If you ever want to walk away, nothing is locked in.
Hindi and Marathi training videos + 2-day Pune onsite	Every screen is walked through in your team's languages. Onsite for hypercare week so managers get real answers in person.
Audit trail for MCA Rule 3 compliance	Immutable log of every BOQ, proposal and payment change. 8-year retention. Ready for any future audit.

Lowest-barrier trial

Studio Starter Pilot

Migrate one live project in three weeks. See how the system handles your real workflow.

₹60,000

one-time, three weeks. GST as applicable.

One active project migrated
Read-only mirror, Excel stays running
Rate library + weekly Excel export operational
100% credited back if you proceed to Proposal Engine or Command Centre within 60 days

Start here

Proposal Engine

Solve the proposal-writing pain first. The one feature you will use every week from week four.

₹1,50,000

one-time setup. GST as applicable.

+ ₹5,000 / month

AI proposal generator in your voice, using your 3 existing documents
Natural-language chat editor - edit anything in plain English
Cinematic website output per client + one-click PDF export
60 drafts/month, 21-day hypercare, GST/SAC/HSN-tagged rate library
4 weeks to live, Hindi/Marathi training videos, 100% creditable to Command Centre (90 days)

See the 5 UI screens in the team guide →

Full studio build

Studio Command Centre

Every artifact in the scope table above. BOQ, cashflow, WhatsApp, contractors, audit trail.

₹5,50,000

one-time setup. GST as applicable.

+ ₹15,000 / month

Includes everything in Proposal Engine
Plus BOQ engine, cashflow, WhatsApp team surface
Plus milestone payments, contractor dashboard, site capture
Plus MCA Rule 3 audit trail, GST invoicing, 30-day hypercare
10 to 12 weeks to live

No monthly, one cheque

Command Centre Prepaid

Same full build. Year one monthly bundled into setup, clean capex line for your CA.

₹6,50,000

one-time, build + 12 months. GST as applicable.

Identical scope to Command Centre
No monthly invoice for 12 months from go-live
Year two renewal ₹1,80,000 / year as Compliance, Hosting & Continuity
Recommended if your books prefer capex over recurring opex

Prices valid for 14 days from proposal date. + GST as applicable (9% CGST + 9% SGST, same-state Maharashtra). Prices include all training, hypercare and Pune onsite visits.

Why these prices.

Proposal Engine (₹1,50,000) covers roughly 45 engineering hours of template ingestion, prompt engineering, rate-library migration and AI orchestration, plus Hindi/Marathi training videos and 14 days of hypercare. Studio Command Centre (₹5,50,000) covers roughly 150 engineering hours for the full phased build, plus 30 days of hypercare and the 2-day Pune onsite. Both shown as flat numbers because you should not have to watch a timesheet to know what you are paying for.

What is not in scope for this engagement.

3D rendering or moodboard generation (you already use SketchUp and AutoCAD)
CAD or BIM file authoring
HR, payroll or salary processing
Client-facing website redesign
Public website chatbot (available as a Phase D upsell after 60 days of system adoption)
VLM drawing-to-BOQ extraction (available as a Phase D upsell, KPI-gated)
Legacy project backfill older than the last 20 projects

Keeping this list explicit keeps the engagement focused. Every item above can be added later via a written change request, not surprised in.

Ready to begin? Sign digitally in under 2 minutes.

Once you sign, we schedule the kickoff within 5 working days. No back-and-forth email trails. No courier pickup. Digital signature is legally valid under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Start signing on WhatsApp Read the detailed SOW first

Digital signatures accepted via WhatsApp-shared PDF or a zoho-signed link. Hard copy also available on request.

For FinanceFull line items and payment schedule.

Option A - Proposal Engine

4 weeks to live. ₹1,50,000 setup + ₹5,000 / month.

Line item	Amount
Discovery + your template and rate library audit	₹30,000
AI proposal generator build (prompt engineering, 3-column output, human sign-off gate, PDF export)	₹70,000
Rate library migration + GST/SAC/HSN tagging + weekly Excel export	₹25,000
Training videos (Hindi + Marathi + English) + 14-day hypercare	₹25,000
Proposal Engine setup total	₹1,50,000

Payment schedule	Amount
On signature of SOW (50%)	₹75,000
On go-live (50%)	₹75,000
Payment schedule total	₹1,50,000

Monthly ₹5,000 covers AI API usage up to 60 proposal drafts, hosting, L2 support up to 2 hours. Billed in advance on the 1st, 7-day payment terms, starts one month after go-live. + GST.

Option B - Studio Command Centre

10 to 12 weeks to live. ₹5,50,000 setup + ₹15,000 / month.

Line item	Amount
Discovery, schema audit and data migration (last 20 projects)	₹1,20,000
Core Command Centre build (BOQ engine, proposal, payments, cashflow, WhatsApp surface)	₹2,80,000
Team rollout: Hindi/Marathi training videos + 2-day Pune onsite	₹80,000
30 days hypercare after go-live	₹70,000
Command Centre setup total	₹5,50,000

Payment schedule	Amount
On signature of SOW (50%)	₹2,75,000
On build kickoff (25%)	₹1,37,500
On go-live (25%)	₹1,37,500
Payment schedule total	₹5,50,000

Monthly ₹15,000 covers hosting, AI API up to 50 drafts, L2 support up to 4 hours, feature upkeep. Billed in advance on the 1st, 7-day payment terms, starts one month after go-live. + GST.

Option C - Command Centre Prepaid

Same Command Centre scope. Y1 monthly bundled into setup.

Payment schedule	Amount
On signature of SOW (50%)	₹3,25,000
On build kickoff (50%)	₹3,25,000
Prepaid total	₹6,50,000

No monthly for 12 months from go-live. Year 2 renewal ₹1,80,000 / year as Compliance, Hosting & Continuity.

Option D - Studio Starter Pilot

3 weeks. ₹60,000 one-time. 100% creditable within 60 days.

Payment schedule	Amount
On signature	₹30,000
On completion of the 3-week pilot	₹30,000
Pilot total	₹60,000

TDS. You may deduct TDS at 2% under section 194C or 10% under section 194J as applicable. TDS certificate Form 16A expected quarterly, all options.

For IT / TechTechnology stack and integrations.

Database and backbone. Supabase (Postgres, hosted) for structured data, or Airtable if your team prefers a spreadsheet-feel interface. Chosen together in week one.
Interface layer. Retool or Softr for internal dashboards. Mobile site capture via a lightweight web app (no App Store install).
Automation. Make.com for workflow glue - BOQ to proposal to invoice cascade.
WhatsApp. Meta WhatsApp Business Cloud API, a verified business number in your studio's name.
AI layer. Anthropic Claude Sonnet for proposal drafting, Whisper for voice-note transcription. Runs behind a server-side proxy, your keys never exposed to the browser.
Backup. Weekly Excel export auto-written to your Google Drive every Sunday night.
Audit trail. Append-only change log per entity, immutable for 8 years.

For OperationsAssumptions we are making.

Your team uses WhatsApp on personal devices already - no new hardware, no new numbers.
Your 7 to 8 sheet Excel template is consistent across projects enough to schema-map (we will confirm in week 1).
The principal designer is the final approver on proposals that go to clients. The system will gate on your sign-off.
Last 20 projects are migrated. Older projects stay in your Excel archive and are not backfilled.
Your CA accepts standard SAC/HSN tagged invoices in either PDF or Tally-compatible export format.
You will commit a minimum of 2 hours per week of your own time for UAT during the 10 to 12 week build. This is reviewed at week 2 and is a gate for Phase 2 start.

For the Principal ArchitectFrequently asked questions.

Which one do I pick - Pilot, Proposal Engine, or Command Centre?
If you want to see a real project in the system before committing, start with the ₹60,000 Pilot (3 weeks). If you want to solve the proposal pain immediately without changing the rest of your operations, start with the ₹1,50,000 Proposal Engine (4 weeks). If you already know you want the full ops layer, start with the ₹5,50,000 Command Centre (10 to 12 weeks). Pilot credits against either of the other two. Proposal Engine credits toward Command Centre for 90 days.
Does the AI draft in my actual voice?
Yes. During the template audit we ingest at least 5 of your past approved proposals. The AI is instructed to match your tone, your section order, your phrasing conventions. You review every draft and can edit freely before sign-off. Confidence score shown on every AI line; anything more than 10% off your historical pattern is flagged visually.
What if I want to change something in the draft - do I have to learn some tool?
No. You chat with the draft in plain English. Type "change Kitchen to 8L and add a note about Italian marble, also make the timeline 5 months" and the AI updates the proposal with a visible diff. Every change is logged, roll back any edit. Nothing to click through, nothing to memorise.
Can I give instructions in Marathi or Hindi?
Yes. The chat editor understands all three - Marathi, Hindi, English - and mixed. "Master bedroom cha budget 20% kami kar" works exactly the same as "Cut the master bedroom budget by 20%". The AI responds in whatever language you typed in.
Does the AI send proposals to my clients without my approval?
No. There is no auto-send, in any SKU. Every proposal requires your explicit sign-off before it reaches a client. The AI drafts, you review, you send.
Is my team going to have to learn new software?
In the Proposal Engine, the only user is you. In the Command Centre, the team-facing surface is WhatsApp, which they already use. The new screens are only seen by the 2 managers and yourself.
What if we sign Command Centre, start, and the team refuses to use it in month three?
Week-6 adoption checkpoint is written into the SOW. If fewer than 40% of your new projects are in the system by week 6, we pause the remaining build and refund 30% of the unused Phase C fees, and offer to pivot to the Proposal Engine at ₹1,50,000. Contractual, not a polite promise.
Am I locked in?
No. Weekly Excel export to your own Google Drive runs in every SKU. If you ever stop paying, you walk away with every proposal, every rate line and every project in Excel format. Month-to-month after year one with a 90-day exit notice.
What is ₹1,50,000 again? And ₹5,50,000?
₹1,50,000 is the one-time setup for the Proposal Engine. Monthly is ₹5,000. ₹5,50,000 is the one-time setup for the full Command Centre. Monthly is ₹15,000. The Prepaid variant (₹6,50,000 one-time) bundles year one monthly into setup.
What about my setup cost if we cancel early?
Setup is non-refundable after build kickoff. Monthly is pro-rated for the termination month.
Will you name our studio publicly?
Only with your written consent, after 90 days of live usage. Founder-status references get a 15% lifetime discount on monthly as the thank-you.

What could go wrong, and how we have pre-handled it

The five risks we flag before you do.

Every engagement at this scale has predictable failure modes. Naming them up front is how we keep the conversation honest.

You keep running Excel in parallel and never fully migrate.

Mitigation. Two built-in safety nets. First, you can start at Proposal Engine (₹1,50,000) or Pilot (₹60,000) instead of the full Command Centre - both are designed so you can stop there if that's all you actually use. Second, if you do take the full Command Centre, the week-6 adoption KPI is written into the SOW: fewer than 40% of new projects in-system triggers a 30% refund and a pivot back to the Proposal Engine SKU. Your 2 hours per week of UAT time is a signed clause.

Team drops the system in month 3.

Mitigation. Training videos in Hindi and Marathi, not just English. We onboard the 2 managers first (hardest converters), designers second. Excel export runs weekly as a fallback, so the team never feels cornered.

Scope creeps via verbal asks on site.

Mitigation. Change requests only honoured in writing, priced at ₹2,500 per hour with a written impact estimate you approve before any work begins. No verbal CR is ever actioned. This clause is in the SOW signature page.

AI-drafted proposal or BOQ hallucinates and damages client trust.

Mitigation. Three-column output (AI draft, your historical pattern, final). Confidence score shown on every draft. Quantity deviations from historical patterns flagged when they exceed 10%. Mandatory human sign-off. No client ever receives an AI draft un-reviewed.

Monthly fee starts to feel like wasted spend in month 4.

Mitigation. Prepaid SKU (₹6,50,000) bundles year one monthly into setup, so there is no month 4 invoice. Year two is framed as Compliance, Hosting and Continuity - the 8-year MCA audit trail is the anchor value, not "maintenance".

How to evaluate this proposal, if we were you.

These are the five criteria that matter when you put any proposal for this kind of build side-by-side. Use this as your internal rubric.

Time to first real value. Can you see the system handle one real project inside three weeks, before you commit the full budget? (The Pilot SKU is designed exactly for this.)
Code and data ownership. Do you own your code, your data, your team's training videos on day one? What is the export path if you walk away?
Pricing transparency. Can the vendor show you the hour budget and the cost drivers without hedging? Are the setup and monthly numbers the same in the hero, the table and the FAQ?
Adoption risk handling. Is there a contractual kill clause if your team does not adopt it by a named date? Or are you the one left holding the bag?
India-first specifics. Does the system speak GST with correct SAC/HSN codes, MCA Rule 3 audit trail, Hindi and Marathi training, and WhatsApp as a first-class surface - or is it a US template with a rupee sign?

The detailed Scope of Work document covers every commercial, legal and operational clause referenced above - cancellation, IP ownership, liability cap, TDS, jurisdiction, change requests, revisions caps. Read the full SOW here.

What we have built before

Four adjacent builds. Same DNA.

Every engagement on this list was built by the same team, on the same stack, for an Indian SME. Client names withheld under NDA, references available on request after a first conversation.

Real Estate - Pune

Developer portal + AI chatbot that qualifies leads 24x7.

Built a property discovery portal and an always-on WhatsApp + web chatbot that handles first-round qualification for incoming leads - site visit scheduling, budget shortlisting, project matching. Replaced three people in rotation.

Outcome: 70% of initial enquiries handled end-to-end by the bot. Human team now only sees pre-qualified site-visit intents.

Mutual Fund Distribution

WhatsApp AI for an MF distributor. Compliance-safe from day one.

WhatsApp-native SIP reminders, portfolio review requests and personalised content for an AMFI-registered distributor's client book. Every outgoing message is pre-compliance-checked. Zero auto-send of investment advice.

Outcome: SIP reminder response rate 3.2x higher than email. Compliance officer approved templates, zero flags in 90 days.

Sports E-commerce - Pune

Full digital transformation: security fix, inventory, website rebuild.

A 40-year-old sporting goods retailer with a hacked WordPress site and 96% of inventory invisible online. Delivered security remediation, inventory digitisation and a new storefront in phased rollout. Same stack family as the Command Centre.

Outcome: first sale from the digital storefront inside 21 days of launch. Inventory visibility online moved from 4% to 92%.

Financial Advisory

WhatsApp AI agent for an investment advisor. Token-metered.

Token-priced WhatsApp AI agent for a registered investment advisor - handles routine client questions, routes compliance-sensitive ones to the human advisor, logs every message for audit. Runs on the same LLM orchestration we will use for your proposal generator.

Outcome: 4-5 hours per week of advisor time freed from routine Q&A. Audit log extractable in a single CSV any time the auditor asks.

A note on the Pune interior-design segment specifically: you will be our first architecture + interior-design firm deployment. In exchange, founder-status pricing applies - 15% lifetime discount on monthly in return for being our named reference site (only with written consent) after 90 days of live usage. References from the four builds above are available on a 30-minute call if useful.

What the first two weeks look like

Day by day, week one and two.

The first 14 days are the most important of the engagement. Everything that can be locked in early is locked in early. If something is going to slip, you see it in week 1, not week 8.

Day 1 (Monday)

Kickoff call + schema discovery begins.

A 90-minute call with you and the 2 managers. Screen-share your current Excel workbooks. By end of day we have a tagged inventory of every sheet, every field, every calculation rule.

Day 2 - 3

Schema mapping document shared for your review.

Every Excel column becomes a database field in a document you sign off on. This is the blueprint. Nothing gets built until you approve this.

Day 4 - 5

Rate library and BOQ engine skeleton set up.

Your historical rate library is migrated in. SAC/HSN tagging applied. First sample BOQ produced from an old project for a gut-check comparison.

Day 6 - 10 (Week 2)

First live project migrated in parallel to Excel.

You pick one active project. We migrate it into the Command Centre alongside Excel. You and the 2 managers review both and tell us what is missing. Week-2 checkpoint call at the end.

Day 11 - 14

Weekly Excel export confirmed operational + go / adjust decision.

The safety-net Excel export runs its first automated cycle to your Google Drive. You decide whether Phase 2 (Manager Tools) starts on schedule or with scope adjustments. This is the explicit gate - you are never forced forward.

What you own at the end of the engagement.

On the day of go-live, the keys are in your hand. Nothing is held back, nothing is held hostage. Exit path is always possible.

GitHub repository

Private repo in your name. Every line of code, every config, every prompt template. Free transfer to your own GitHub org if you prefer.

Credentials vault

Every API key, every service account, every admin login in a vault you control. Not stored on our servers.

Runbook PDF

Every weekly, monthly and quarterly process in one PDF. What breaks, who to call, how to fix. Your team, not ours, can keep the system running if we ever stop.

2-hour handover call

End-of-engagement walkthrough with your 2 managers. Every dashboard, every failure case, every recovery path.

Training video library

Hindi, Marathi and English walkthrough videos of every screen. Hosted on your Google Drive, yours to re-use when you onboard a new designer next year.

Paperclip company ID

Your studio registered as an organisation in our ops platform. Ticketing, support requests and monthly reports live here, transparent to you.

Who on your side needs to see what.

Share this proposal as one link. Each person on your side finds their lane in the table below.

Role	What this means for you	Jump to
Principal Architect (Ar. Swati Vaidya)	A system that holds every live project, without your team needing to learn anything new beyond WhatsApp. The revision-diff view alone saves the 2pm conversation.	Context & outcomes →
Finance / CA	GST-ready invoices with correct SAC and HSN codes, monthly payment schedules, TDS handled, audit trail for MCA Rule 3. Clean inputs for Tally or your books.	Pricing & schedule →
Managers (2)	Replaces the 2pm and 4pm verbal standup with a WhatsApp feed they can actually read. Site-visit capture and revision-diff land on their phone, not the designer's laptop.	What they own daily →
Site Execution Team	No new app to install. Everything happens in WhatsApp on their existing phone. Photos, voice notes, payment confirmations.	Team surface →
Clients of the studio	They see cleaner, faster, more consistent proposals, generated from approved BOQs you have already signed off on. Never auto-sent.	AI safety & sign-off →

Ready to see one project live in three weeks?

Start with the ₹60,000 Pilot, credit it 100% toward the full Command Centre if you proceed. Or sign the full Command Centre directly and kick off within 5 working days.

WhatsApp Shruti to begin

Stop writing proposals from scratch.