Mullio vs. a spreadsheet
Most residential designers and small architecture studios track their jobs in a spreadsheet, a whiteboard or a sheet of paper. That's a fine system. Here's an honest look at when it's enough, and when it isn't.
Keep the spreadsheet if
- You have a handful of jobs going at once.
- You look at it every day and keep it up to date without thinking.
- Clients rarely call to ask where things stand.
- New jobs get started soon after the contract is signed.
Mullio is worth it if
- You have 10 or more jobs going and something always slips.
- New preliminaries sit while revisions and finals jump ahead.
- Clients call or text every week to ask for an update.
- You hunt through texts and email to find a client's markup.
Side by side
| A spreadsheet | Mullio | |
|---|---|---|
| Your list of jobs and their phase | Yes, one row per job | Yes, as a board with one lane per phase |
| Whose turn it is | Only if you keep a column up to date | Worked out from the phase and the client's answers |
| What to work on next | You decide each morning | Picks one job and says why |
| Jobs that have sat too long | Only if you remember to look | Shows up on This week by itself |
| Client questionnaire | A separate PDF or Word file | A link clients fill in on their phone |
| Where clients see status | They call or text you | A private page for each client |
| Messages and markups | Spread across texts and email | One conversation per project |
| Private targets | A date in a cell | A timeline bar per job, never shown to clients |
| Cost | Free | Free during early access |
The real difference: who does the upkeep
A spreadsheet only knows what you type into it. If you forget to change a status, it's wrong, and it never tells you that a job has been sitting for three weeks. The more jobs you have, the more of your week goes to keeping the list right instead of drawing.
Mullio works the other way around. You move a job to its next phase with one tap, and Mullio works out the rest: whose turn it is, how long it's been, which client hasn't heard from you, and which job to pick up next. There's nothing else to maintain.
What a spreadsheet does better: it's free, it's flexible, and you already know how to use it. If yours is working, keep it.
Switching takes an afternoon
If you do switch, bring your spreadsheet with you. Mullio imports a .csv or Excel file of your clients, then you pick each one's lane.