Most studios run FF&E schedules in a spreadsheet, and most of them are right to. The software matters far less than one column.
The short answer
The software matters far less than one column. An FF&E schedule is a procurement document, and without a lead time column you have a list of things you like; with one you have a document that says which decisions must be made this month and which can wait. Excel or Google Sheets does the job for most studios — universal, cheap, and every supplier can read a CSV. A workable column set: reference, room, item, supplier, product code, finish, dimensions, quantity, unit and extended cost, lead time, order date, status, and a link to the spec sheet.
The column that decides everything
A furniture schedule lists furniture. An FF&E schedule is a procurement document. The difference is lead time.
Without a lead-time column you have a list of things you like. With one, you have a document that tells you which decisions must be made this month and which can wait — and that is the entire job.
Everything else on this page is secondary to that.
The spreadsheet answer
Excel or Google Sheets. Unglamorous, universal, free or near enough, and every supplier can read a CSV export.
Structure matters more than tooling. A workable column set: reference, room, item, supplier, product code, finish, dimensions, quantity, unit cost, extended cost, lead time, order date, status, and a link to the spec sheet.
If your schedule has those, it is doing the job regardless of what produced it.
The five formulas that turn a sheet into a system
The difference between a list and a working schedule is about five formulas, none of them clever. Written once at the top of the column, they hold for the whole project.
- Extended cost —
=Qty*UnitCost. Never type a total; the day you edit a quantity and forget the total is the day the budget quietly becomes fiction. - Budget by room —
=SUMIF(RoomColumn,"Kitchen",ExtendedColumn). One row per room on a summary tab, and you can answer “what is the kitchen costing?” in the meeting rather than after it. - Due on site —
=OrderDate+(LeadWeeks*7). Calculated, never typed, so it moves when an order slips. - Late warning —
=IF(AND(Status<>"Delivered",DueOnSite<TODAY()),"LATE",""), with conditional formatting on the word. The schedule then tells you what is wrong instead of waiting to be asked. - Order this month —
=IF(InstallDate-(LeadWeeks*7)<=TODAY()+30,"ORDER NOW",""). This is the one that earns the lead-time column: it converts a date into an instruction.
A schedule with those five is doing more for you than most procurement platforms, and it costs nothing but twenty minutes.
When a platform earns its cost
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| One or two projects, specification only | Spreadsheet |
| Client-facing schedules with images | Platform or InDesign export |
| Managing purchase orders and deliveries | Platform |
| Several concurrent projects | Platform |
| Team needs shared live data | Platform or shared sheet |
| Billing procurement as a service | Platform |
The dividing line is specification versus procurement. If you specify and hand over, a spreadsheet is sufficient. If you order, track and reconcile, a platform pays for itself in avoided mistakes.
The platforms
Programa — designer-focused, strong on presentation, popular with boutique studios.
Fohlio — specification-heavy, good for larger and commercial work.
Design Manager and Studio Designer — accounting-led, strongest where procurement is a revenue line rather than a service.
All are subscriptions, all are per-seat, and all are overhead below a certain volume. Cost the decision per project rather than per year — see software costs compared.
The verdict
Start in a spreadsheet with the right columns. Move to a platform when you are managing orders rather than choices, and not before.
The studios that struggle are not the ones using Excel. They are the ones whose schedule has no lead-time column, in whatever software.
