Mortar vs Design Manager for interior design studios
Design Manager has been running interior design businesses since 1984. If your firm needs a real general ledger inside the same tool as your purchase orders, with retainers, deposits, item-level margin and a reporting suite your accountant will like, it's one of the two serious choices, and your CPA has probably already mentioned it.
Mortar starts from a different place. It's the list the designer, the client and the orders all work from: the budget, the finishes schedule, the client's approvals and the purchase orders on one item, with the bookkeeping left to the accounting software you already run rather than rebuilt. Below is the honest breakdown, including who should pick Design Manager.
Comparing more than these two? See our full roundup of interior design project management software.
Written by Darren Clark — Founder of Mortar — 25+ years building software
Last updated November 4, 2026
Quick verdict
Choose Design Manager if you're a US firm that wants full accounting inside the project tool, you track margin at the item level, and you have someone on the team who will do the data entry that deep reporting needs. Choose Mortar if you want the budget, the selections, the client's decisions and the orders on one visual list that clients can open from a link, and you'd rather your accounting stayed in QuickBooks or Xero.
Side by side
How they stack up
Mortar
$59/user/mo
Unlimited projects, every feature, no onboarding fee — 7-day free trial, no card required
Best for: Solo to mid-sized studios that specify, order and bill the product and want the budget, the schedule, the client's decisions and the orders on one list
- Paste a product link and the details fill in, plus Save to Mortar for trade portals
- Live room and project budgets: on track, approaching, over, visible to the client at the level you choose
- Finishes schedule with reference codes and issued revisions that can't be edited
- Branded client portal with no login, price visibility per client, supplier hiding
- Quote requests, a Quote Inbox for forwarded supplier quotes, purchase orders, supplier payments
- Lead times on every item, with late items flagged against the build start
- Invoices from approved items, deposit and balance, paid by card or bank transfer
- Payment fees published on the pricing page, including Mortar's share
- Works anywhere; projects in USD, AUD, GBP, EUR or NZD
Design Manager
$79/user/mo
Core features included; teams over 10 quoted by sales; showroom and data-collection modules cost extra; discount for annual pre-pay; 7-day free trial
Best for: US residential firms that want accounting and project management in one system, and have someone to do the data entry that deep reporting needs
- Specifications, sourcing, purchase orders and vendor coordination
- Project profitability and item-level margin tracking
- Built-in accounting for designers: retainers, deposits, invoices, reporting
- Branded client portal: proposals and invoices, view-only or pay-online, card and ACH payments
- Real-time profitability and performance reports; project-level P&L, balance sheet, cash flow
- Product clipper, iPhone app, time billing
- "Optimized for US-based firms"; their pricing FAQ says some features aren't designed for use elsewhere
Feature by feature
Mortar vs Design Manager: feature comparison
Feature | Mortar | Design Manager |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | $59 per user / month | $79 per user / month, over 10 users by quote |
Free trial | 7 days, no card | 7 days, no card |
Full general-ledger accounting built in | ✗ — built to run alongside your accounting software, not replace it | ✓ |
Item-level margin and profitability reports | Trade cost, client price and margin on every item; budget vs actual by room and project | ✓ headline feature: margin analysis by project and item |
Client portal with no login | ✓ link, optional password, per-client price visibility | ✓ branded portal for proposals and invoices; login model not described on their site |
Finishes schedule with codes and issued revisions | ✓ | Spec writing from project data; issued revisions not listed on Design Manager's site |
Supplier quote requests + forwarded-quote inbox | ✓ | Not listed on Design Manager's site |
Purchase orders + supplier payments | ✓ | ✓ |
Lead times with late-item flags | ✓ | Not listed on Design Manager's site |
Invoicing + client payments | ✓ deposit and balance, card or bank | ✓ card and ACH through the client portal |
Payment fees published on the pricing page | ✓ 3.3% + 30¢ card, 0.4% bank capped at $15 | ✗ not on the pricing page |
Pass processing fees to the client | ✓ card-fee pass-through where the law allows (not for AU merchants) | Not listed on Design Manager's pricing page |
Outside the US | ✓ USD, AUD, GBP, EUR, NZD | "Optimized for US-based firms" (their FAQ) |
Paid add-on modules | None | Showroom and data collection, priced by sales |
A closer look at Design Manager
Design Manager, Inc. is based in New York and its pitch is "Run your interior design business profitably." The product is accounting-first: every purchase order, vendor bill, client invoice and deposit lands in a ledger built for how design firms recognise money, and the reporting on top of it is the reason CPAs who specialise in design firms recommend it. One of them, writing in 2023, puts it plainly: "All of my clients that use DM love the reporting features so they can keep track of the profitability of each project."
The trade is data entry. The same CPA notes that "in order to review comprehensive reporting, data input can take longer to enter." That's not a knock; it's the price of a real ledger.
Pricing is $79 per user per month with everything core included, and sales handles firms over ten seats. Clients can pay invoices by card or ACH through the portal. The processing rates aren't on the pricing page, so ask before you commit; Mortar prints its fees next to the subscription price.
Two things to know before you commit. Design Manager says it is optimised for US firms and that some features aren't designed for use elsewhere. And the showroom and data-collection modules are priced separately through sales.
What are our strengths?
Mortar
- The item carries the whole job — the same line is the budget entry, the schedule row, the client approval, the PO line and the invoice line
- Clients open the project from a link, no login, and see exactly the pricing level you've set for them
- Forward a supplier's quote to the Quote Inbox and it lands as priced lines; raise the PO from approved items
- Lead times on every item, and anything that won't land before the build starts is flagged
- Fees on the pricing page: card 3.3% + 30¢, bank 0.4% capped at $15, including our share
- $59 against $79 per user, no add-on modules, and it works the same in Sydney or London as in New York
Design Manager
- Full general-ledger accounting inside the project tool: retainers, deposits, vendor bills, client invoices
- Margin analysis by project and item, with project-level P&L, balance sheet and cash flow reports
- Forty years in the category, and the tool many design-firm CPAs already work in
- Time billing, a product clipper and an iPhone app included in the core subscription
- Card and ACH payments through a branded client portal
Which one is for you?
When to choose each tool
When to choose Mortar
- You specify, order and bill the product, and want all of it on one list the client can open
- Your client should see the live budget and approve selections without a login
- You keep your books in QuickBooks or Xero and your accountant likes it that way
- You're outside the US, or you don't want a second ledger to feed
- You want the payment fees in writing before you sign up
When to choose Design Manager
- You want the general ledger inside the project tool, and the reporting that comes with it
- You track margin at the item level on every project and report on it to partners
- You're a US firm with someone on the team who will do the data entry
- Your CPA already works in Design Manager and you'd rather not change that
Frequently asked questions
Is Design Manager accounting software or project management software?
Both, by design. It's one of the few tools in the category with a full general ledger built in. Mortar is not accounting software: it does budgets, orders, invoices and payments, and is built to run alongside QuickBooks or Xero rather than replace them.
Can I move from Design Manager to Mortar?
Mortar imports a CSV or spreadsheet of your items and builds the rooms for you, with column mapping you save once. Ask Design Manager what it exports before you plan the move; we couldn't find an export spec on their site.
Which is cheaper?
Mortar, at $59 per user against $79, with no add-on modules. For a three-person studio that's $177 against $237 a month before any annual discount on either side.
Does either one publish its payment fees?
Mortar does, on the pricing page. Design Manager's pricing page doesn't list processing rates; ask their sales team.
The verdict
One list, or one ledger
The item carries the whole job. In Mortar the same item is the line in the budget, the row on the finishes schedule, the thing the client approves, the line on the purchase order and the line on the invoice. Change it once and every view keeps up, and there is no second entry for the ledger. If you want the general ledger inside the project tool, that's Design Manager's lane, not ours, and it's a good lane. For a studio that would rather its accounting stayed where its accountant is, Mortar is the lighter, cheaper tool, and it isn't US-only.
See Mortar
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