Panzo
Projects and site

The design stage and client approvals

Track the design stage, share drawings for review and record client approvals and design freeze.

The Design tab gives designers, sales and site teams one shared view of where a project's design stands: the designer and theme, key dates, revisions, and whether the client has approved. Moving the design stage forward is also what unlocks Procurement, so this is where design work turns into a green light for buying.

What the Design tab shows

The Design tab is a read-first overview that sits inside a project. It pulls together the facts that people keep asking about, so nobody has to chase the designer for a status. In one screen you see:

  • The assigned designer and the project theme.
  • Key dates: the brief date, target, review and approval dates.
  • The current design stage and overall design progress.
  • A revision count and the latest reason a revision was raised.
  • The client-approval status for the project.
  • Design files attached to the project's Design folders.

Design progress is the average completion of the project's design tasks, so it moves as real work is logged rather than as a number someone types in.

Updating design work and sharing drawings

Day-to-day design work is updated the same way as site execution, so there is only one habit to learn. Design tasks appear as live cards right on the Design tab, and each drawing or deliverable is attached to the project so reviewers can open it.

  1. Open the Design tab

    Go to the project and open its Design tab for the current snapshot.
  2. Update a design task

    Update progress, log hours, or send work up for approval directly from the task card, without leaving the tab.
  3. Attach the drawings

    Upload the drawings and presentations to the project's Design folders so the reviewer sees the current files.
  4. Edit the brief and dates

    Use Edit Brief to set the designer, theme, and the brief, review and approval dates.

Important

What revision tracking does and does not do today

Panzo stores a revision count and the latest reason for a change, which is enough to see how much a design has churned and why. It is not a per-revision version history, and there is no on-drawing markup or pin-commenting on the drawings themselves. Capture review comments in the review task or against the attached file for now.

Client approval and the design freeze

Rather than a loose tick box, client sign-off is tied to the plan's Client Approval task. When that task is completed, the approval strip reflects it, so what the tab shows as approved matches what the team actually agreed. This keeps everyone honest about what is frozen before money starts moving.

The design stage is more than a label. Advancing it to the design-ready point is what unlocks the Procurement phase, so procurement cannot run ahead of an unapproved design. Treat reaching that stage as your design freeze.

Stage and gate reference

What you seeWhat it means
Design stageThe current step of design. Moving it forward is what gates and unlocks Procurement.
Design progressThe average completion of the project's design tasks, updated as work is logged.
Revision count and latest reasonHow many times the design changed and why the most recent change was raised.
Client approvalDriven by the plan's Client Approval task, so approved means the task is done.
Design filesDrawings and presentations attached to the project's Design folders.

Key takeaways

  • The Design tab is a shared status view: designer, theme, dates, revisions and approval in one place.
  • Design tasks are updated in-tab, the same flow as daily site updates.
  • Advancing the design stage is what unlocks Procurement, so treat it as your design freeze.
  • Client approval follows the Client Approval task, not a manual tick.
  • Only a revision count and latest reason are stored today. There is no version history or on-drawing markup.

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