Based on feedback from interior designers like you, we’re continually working to make Houzz Pro all-in-one software even better, with more features that can save you time and make admin and design tasks easier. And now we’ll be sharing these updates quarterly via videos with folks from the Houzz Pro product marketing team as well as articles like this one. Here’s what’s new in the first quarter of 2024.

See the latest upgrades via video

Financial

Added discount line on proposals: Below the field for markup and above the one for tax on proposals, there’s now a field where you can add a discount. You can choose to make it a percentage or a dollar amount, and you can customize the name. The discount will be carried over to any invoices you create. Get the how-to for the discount line here.

Ability to group various items: Now you can group different parts of one item on a proposal—for example, fabric, frame, and labor for a custom chair—so that the client sees only their custom order. Just check off each item and click the Create Group button at the top. A crossed-out eye symbol indicates the client will not see the components you don’t want them to see. Get detailed instructions here.

Faster ACH payments: ACH payments used to take five to seven days to show up in your account; now payments will reach you within two business days. And there’s no additional charge for the faster service aside from the regular 1% ACH transaction fee. You also can make ACH payments the default on your Payments page. Get more info on online payment times here and learn about online payments in general here.

Status indicator for QuickBooks Online syncing: It’s easier to tell when docs have been pushed to QBO with the new status indicator at the top of each document. It will say, for example, Sync in Progress or Sync Complete. Click the indicator to get the date and time of the sync and other details, along with a link you can click to view it in QBO. Also, previously you had to issue an invoice for the information to sync, but now syncing happens automatically. You can review all your docs and their sync status via the Sync Dashboard in Houzz Pro, and filter by sync status as well as by type of document — very helpful for troubleshooting any issues. Your bookkeeper will love this! Learn more about syncing Houzz pro with QuickBooks Online here and see what the Sync Dashboard looks like here.

Ability to reorder scheduled payments: Easily switch up the order of payments and customize their names on your proposal, or on an invoice if you’re not doing a proposal.

Design Project Management

Clip multiple images at once: The Clipper tool can now gather up to five product photos from a website page in one go. In the upper-right-hand corner, click the Product Images button. A pop-up will show all the available images on the page, and you can click up to five of them, versus having to add each image individually. See more about how to use the Clipper tool here and here.

Selections tracker overhaul:

1. You’ll have to do much less horizontal scrolling to see all the Selections info.
2. There are new view options: Planning, Financials and Procurement in addition to the previously existing All view.
3. You can change the overall view from Stacked to Flat, which breaks everything out and is more linear.
4. You can customize the columns shown—for example, reordering them or adding new fields. 
5. There’s more granular sorting capability for categories overall. For example, you can sort by room and with the selections listed alphabetically from A to Z.

Get detailed info on using the Selections tracker here.

Files and photos have a comments field: Now you can add comments to create a chat with your client or your team about the file or photos, keeping all the back-and-forth in one place. Learn more about how to work with files and photos here and here.

Schedule tool overhaul:

1. Templates including standard scheduling phases are now included, along with multiple dependencies possible in each phase. For example, if you have the task “Finalize sofa order” in the purchasing and procurement phase, you might have two dependencies before that: “Choose sofa fabric” and “Order sofa fabric.”
2. New workday settings let you uncheck any days of the week that you won’t be working–say, Fridays in June and July—and the schedule will automatically adjust to incorporate the off days.
3. You can set a baseline timeline for your project. The baseline saves all the scheduling info at the time you click the Set Baseline button, so that if something changes, you can refer back to it to get a better grasp of where the project is currently at versus where it was.
4. You can easily drag and drop calendar items. For example, if the kickoff meeting gets moved, you can just click on it and drag it to the new date in the calendar.
5. You can now export the calendar view as a PDF or PNG to print or send digitally.

Get more info on creating a schedule here and see the schedule overview in Houzz Pro here.

Mobile App

The new AutoMate assistant handles tasks for you: Using AI technology, AutoMate responds to voice commands, such as “Look up info for client” and “Create task.” No need to type everything in manually anymore! Learn more about AutoMate here.

Watch the video explaining the Q2 2024 upgrades