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The Premium Freelancer Operating System

Solo Studio is designed as a centralized control center for modern freelancers and agencies. It simplifies client management, task planning, project tracking, professional proposal writing, automated billing, and detailed accounting.

Data is strictly structured to allow seamless linking across modules: a Client owns a Project, which compiles Tasks, triggers Proposals, and issues Invoices. All data points are secure, workspace-isolated, and synced to Supabase instantly.

Setting Up Your Studio in 5 Steps

1. Configure Profile: Navigate to Settings → Profile. Set your First Name, Last Name, and Timezone. (The timezone ensures the live clock on the top bar reflects your working hours correctly).
2. Establish Studio Defaults: If you are an owner/admin, go to Settings → Studio Defaults. Set your workspace Currency (e.g. USD, EUR, INR), Default Tax Percentage, and target Weekly Working Hours.
3. Add a Client: Navigate to the Clients module, click + New Client, and specify the client's Name, Email, and Company.
4. Initiate a Project: Open Projects, click + New Project, select your client, set the budget, and set start/end parameters.
5. Manage Tasks: Open Tasks, add key deliverables, and associate them with your project. Track task states as you proceed.

Desktop Interface Anatomy

• Left Sidebar: Houses the workspace brand, a switcher dropdown for moving between isolated businesses, and structured navigation menus grouped logically into core pages, tools, and configurations. It also shows a Sign Out button and Version History links.
• Sidebar Collapse Trigger: At the edge of the left navigation panel, you'll find a toggle button. Clicking this collapses the sidebar to maximize screen space for large data views, like spreadsheets or metrics charts.
• Fixed Top Bar: Contains your personalized greeting, a global search box that searches clients/projects/tasks/proposals/invoices in real-time, the Help button (which launches this portal), and a live timezone-adjusted digital clock.

Mobile Responsive Behavior

On tablet and mobile screens, the left sidebar is completely hidden. A dynamic Mobile Navigation Header appears with a collapsible hamburger menu. Clicking "Menu" drops down all navigation options, ensuring full mobile parity.

Contact Database & Relationships

The Clients page serves as your core CRM. Here you can add, view, filter, and edit details for each client contact.

Client Field Specifications

Client Actions & Lifecycle

• Adding: Clicking + Add Client opens a form in a paginated list. On submit, it syncs immediately.
• Editing: Clicking the edit pencil on a client row opens inline form fields. Saving applies changes and replicates modifications to any linked invoices and proposals.
• Deleting: Clicking the garbage bin icon displays a warning dialog: "Delete [Client Name] and related projects, proposals, and invoices?" confirming that cascading deletions are permanent.

Defining Scope, Budgets, and Rates

Projects link clients to billing targets and timelines. They are displayed in a paginated list with real-time budget calculations.

Project State Specifications

• Linked Client: Points directly to a client record (essential for invoice generation).
• Status Options: Supported statuses are strictly governed by the schema:
  active — Active work in progress.
  paused — Temporarily on hold.
  completed — Deliverables completed; ready to close.
• Budget (Cents): Fixed-fee total budget value stored in currency cents for accuracy.
• Hourly Rate (Cents): Billable hour rate (set to null if the project is strictly fixed-price).
• Date Ranges: startDate and optional endDate.

Filtering & Searching Projects

Use search parameters (url query ?q=) and custom dropdown filters on the projects page to isolate projects by Client or Status.

Task Board Fields & Schema Validation

Tasks are operational items assigned to specific team members and linked to clients and projects.

Filtering & Assignment Rules

The Tasks Board filters allow sorting by Status, Priority, Assignee, Client, and Project. Tasks automatically move columns when updated. Setting a task to 'done' updates the completedAt timestamp.

Pitching & Scope Estimates

Proposals act as initial templates before client acquisition. They let you sketch out values and project parameters.

Proposal Stages

Proposals strictly utilize the following stages in code:
draft — Local drafting state. Not yet shown to client.
sent — Delivered to the client; pending feedback.
won — Approved. Ready to be cloned/escalated to active project status.
lost — Rejected or expired.

Main Fields

• Value (Cents): Total estimated budget stored as cents (e.g. $10,000.00 is represented in code as 1000000).
• Notes: Rich text area outlining terms, deadlines, exclusions, and payment stages.
• Client ID: Points to the target CRM Client entry.

Billing Engine & Line Items

Invoices compute professional costs, tracking payments, tax percentages, and totals dynamically.

Invoice Structure & Status Workflow

An invoice has a Unique Serial Number, Issue Date, Due Date, Tax Rate Percent, and an array of Line Items (Description, Qty, Unit Price). Statuses are strictly managed:
draft — Editable, unsubmitted draft.
sent — Dispatched; waiting for client payment.
paid — Fully resolved.
overdue — Past its due date without full resolution.
void — Cancelled invoice. Keeps auditing records intact.

Dynamic Formulas & Math Logic

The billing engine executes the following calculations on load:

Subtotal = sum(LineItem.Quantity * LineItem.UnitPrice)
Tax = Subtotal * (TaxRatePercent / 100)
Total = Subtotal + Tax
Balance Due = Total - AmountPaidCents

Supported Payment Gateway Types

When recording a payment, you can select from the following methods: ACH, Card, Wire, UPI, Cash, Bank Transfer, or Cheque.

Revenue Tracking & MTD/YTD Analysis

The Income page displays a breakdown of incoming payments. It charts financial summaries across a rolling 6-month window to display historical earnings.

Calculations

• Month-To-Date (MTD) Collected: Calculated as the sum of payments logged within the current calendar month.
• Year-To-Date (YTD) Revenue: Evaluates all payments recorded from Jan 1st to the current date.
• Net Profit Calculations: Dynamically computed as Revenue - Expenses.

Expense Log & Bookkeeping

Expenses track outgoing workspace cash flow, software, contractor payouts, and taxes. They can be linked to projects to compute exact project profitability.

Expense Schema Specifications

• Amount (Cents): Decimal values are stored as cents integers.
• Date: The exact transaction date in YYYY-MM-DD format.
• Description: Purpose or detail of the expense.
• Linked Entities: Optional links to a Project ID or Client ID.
• Receipt URL: Optional URL string to an uploaded invoice image or receipt file.

Verified Expense Categories

The database supports 43 categories: Client Payments, Team Salaries, Contractor Payments, Software Subscriptions, Hosting & Servers, Domain Renewals, Cloud Services, Office Rent, Coworking Space, Internet & Utilities, Marketing & Ads, Lead Generation, Sales Tools, CRM Expenses, Design Tools, AI Tools, Development Tools, API Costs, Travel & Meetings, Client Entertainment, Equipment & Hardware, Laptop & Accessories, Training & Courses, Legal & Compliance, Accounting & Taxes, Bank Charges, Payment Gateway Fees, Freelancer Payouts, Recruitment, Content Creation, Social Media Management, Branding, Video Production, and Miscellaneous Business Expenses.

Absolute Data Isolation

Workspaces keep client data, finances, templates, and team settings completely separate. Changing workspaces updates the active ID inside WorkspaceContext.

Workspace Member Roles

Permissions are strictly defined by role:

• Owner: Full read/write access. Can manage billing, workspace metadata, delete active workspaces, and approve members.
• Admin: Full read/write access. Can send invitations, modify studio defaults, and assign roles.
• Member: Regular read/write access to clients, projects, tasks, invoices, and accounting. Cannot edit settings.
• Viewer: Strictly read-only. Banners state: "You have view-only access in this workspace." All mutation controls are disabled.

Control Panel Operations

The Settings page adapts to display tabs according to the user's role.

Configurations Tab Overview

• Profile: Updates First Name, Last Name, and timezone string. Shows current build version of the app at the bottom.
• Workspace Members Admin/Owner only: Sends email-based invites to new members, setting their initial role. It also lists pending invites, allowing them to be revoked.
• Studio Defaults Admin/Owner only: Updates the organization's legal name, tax percentage rates, default currencies, and target weekly hours.
• Danger Zone Owner only: Allows permanent deletion of the active workspace. Requires typing the word "delete" to confirm.

Data Migration Templates

Admins can import tables of clients, projects, or tasks via CSV files. The importer runs checks to map headers and detect duplicate records.

CSV Column Specs

Import Logic

Templates can be downloaded from the Settings page. Duplicates are identified by email (for clients) or name (for projects). Users can choose to skip duplicates or overwrite them.

Cloud Connectivity Specifications

Solo Studio is a cloud-first application. It requires a continuous, stable internet connection to communicate with Supabase.

Offline Handling Protocol

1. Connection Verification: The client listens to the browser's "offline" and "online" events.
2. Offline Overlay Activation: If connection drops, a full-screen blocking overlay is displayed, preventing all navigation and input to avoid creating unsaved state.
3. Auto Recovery: Once internet connectivity is restored, the overlay is removed automatically.

Data Protection & Workspace Isolation

Your business metrics, client lists, and accounting records are highly sensitive. Solo Studio employs strict security protocols to keep your data safe.

Security Features

• Encrypted Transport: TLS/HTTPS is enforced for all traffic between your browser and the Supabase API.
• Row Level Security (RLS): The database uses RLS policies. User authentication tokens are checked on every query to ensure they only return rows matching the active workspace.
• Invite Token Validation: Workspace invitation tokens are hashed and validated on the server. They can only be claimed once, and the claimant's email must match the invite.

Resolving Interface Messages

"Could not load data" / Spinner Sticking

If the loading spinner remains visible or throws load errors, check the following:

• Check if your Supabase project is active or paused due to inactivity.
• Verify that all database migrations have been successfully run.
• Confirm that the client browser is not blocking API requests with ad-blockers or firewall rules.

"View-only access in this workspace"

This indicates that your role has been set to Viewer. You will be unable to add, edit, or delete items. Contact your workspace owner to request permission upgrades.

State Jumps Back / Red Save Banners

If your input fields revert to their previous values and a red banner appears at the top of the page, the server sync has failed. This is usually caused by network dropouts or schema validation errors. Dismiss the banner and retry.