How Comms works
Rooms and who is in them, writing to your client, records in the thread, selection boards, Needs you, and what your client sees.
Written By Timothy Murenzi
Comms is every conversation about a project, with your team and with your client, in one place. The difference from a chat app is that the work comes into the conversation with you: an estimate, an invoice or a product is the thing itself in the thread, live, with whatever can be done about it right there.
Open it from Comms under People in the left sidebar. The badge shows how many unread messages you have.
Watch it: the Comms lesson in Campus (4:18, six chapters). Each section below names its chapter.
1. How the page is laid out
Watch it: chapter 1 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Rooms, and who is in them” (starts at 0:12).
The rail on the left: search, then Needs you and Unread, then your projects (each one opens into its rooms), then direct messages grouped by Team and Clients. + New sits at the bottom.
The middle shows whatever you picked: the Needs you list, a room’s thread, or one of a room’s tabs.
The right opens when you need it, for example for a record you clicked.
Each project shows its name and its client, and the number is unread messages. Under a project, # is a chat and the thumbs up is a selection board. A dot after a room name means your client can read it, so check for it before you type. Show N archived brings back archived projects.
2. Needs you
Watch it: chapter 5 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Needs you, and finding things” (starts at 2:59).
Needs you is not an inbox. It lists the things actually waiting, and who they are waiting on.
Waiting on you: things you owe someone, like a bill to approve, a question to answer or a draft to send.
Waiting on them: things you sent that have not come back, oldest first. Each row shows the record, the project and room, who it is waiting on and for how long, and the amount.
Narrow it with Money (invoices, bills, payments), Approvals (estimates, change orders, product decisions) or Mentions. Just mine shows the projects you are on the team for; Whole studio shows everything. An owner who is not on any project team sees an empty Just mine, so switch to Whole studio.
On a row, Nudge sends a reminder about that record (you confirm first), and Open → opens the record in a panel on the right without losing your place.
The search box at the top of the rail reaches everything said on every project you can see, including the record you only half remember.
3. Rooms, and who is in them
Watch it: chapter 1 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Rooms, and who is in them” (starts at 0:12).
A room is either client facing or it is not, and the header says which before you type a word. A team chat has nobody outside the studio in it.
Who is in a room comes in two halves:
Your project team is in every room on the project, automatically.
Clients and trades are added room by room. That half is the audience.
Kinds of room
Chat: a conversation about one thing, like a trade, a room or a phase.
Selection: products your client approves one at a time.
Presentation: a Canva, Google Slides or Figma board, a mood board or a PDF, with the conversation beside it.
Every project starts with one client chat and one team chat. Make another room only when it really is a separate conversation.
Create a room
Click + New channel under a project, or + New at the bottom of the rail. From + New you can also choose Message a person to start a direct message.
Choose the project and what it is: Selection, Presentation or Chat.
Give it a name.
Under Who is in it, tick the team members and clients. The note underneath confirms who will see it.
Click Create chat, Create selection or Create presentation.
The room menu
The header shows the room name, its project, the people in it, and a pill saying who can see it, for example Client facing · Elena Delgado, Marco Delgado. Beside it are Client view and the ⋯ menu.
Rename: the name your team sees. Rename for the client… sets a separate name your client sees.
Manage people: who is in the room.
Rooms [client] can open: one entry per client. See section 9.
Post the product schedule and Remove client access.
Put room away archives the room and keeps its history. Delete room removes it and its messages for good.
4. Writing in a thread
Watch it: chapter 2 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Talking to your client” (starts at 0:56).
A client facing room works the way any chat works. Write a line and send it. Press Enter to send and Shift + Enter for a new line. Your draft is kept if you leave the room.
@ mentions someone and tells them. Only people in the room are offered, so it doubles as a check that they are in it.
Reply (hover over a message) keeps the answer attached to the question.
Aa shows the formatting row, and Walter rewrites your draft for you.
Hover over a message to react, reply, or Pin to welcome so it is the first thing your client reads in their portal.
You can edit or delete only your own messages. A deleted message shows as “(message deleted)” for everyone.
5. Attaching documents and records
Watch it: chapter 3 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Money in the thread” (starts at 1:35).
Click + Attach. In a client facing room you only see what a client may receive: estimates, invoices, change orders, products, mood boards, documents and files. Purchase orders and bills show your costs, so they stay internal.
When you attach something, Workroom asks one question first: What does this hold up? One line, and your client sees why it matters instead of guessing. Click Skip to send it without one.
A record comes into the room as the thing itself, not a link to it: what it is, its total, who it is waiting on, and the actions that make sense for it.
If an estimate has been sitting a while, click Nudge on the card. Your client sees the same card in their own view with Approve and Request changes, and when they approve it, it is approved everywhere at once.
Each reader sees their own version of the card. Your cost, your vendor, model numbers and what you make never reach a client. That is handled, not something you have to remember.
6. Room tabs
Watch it: chapter 2 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Talking to your client” (starts at 0:56).
A project chat has Messages, Files, Finances, Budget, Products, Links and Overview tabs. Use Search this conversation on the right to find a message.
Files: everything anyone attaches is filed here too, so nothing is lost three weeks up the thread.
Products: the project’s product schedule. Group it by room, category or status, filter it, or print it. Carrier tracking moves pieces along on its own.
Budget: committed, invoiced, paid and outstanding.
Links: every link shared across the project’s rooms.
7. Selection boards
Watch it: chapter 4 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “Selection boards” (starts at 2:34).
A selection board is a room that holds pieces instead of messages. Every piece carries its image, its name and the price your client pays.
Open the board and click Add products.
Pick pieces from the project’s products, then click Add.
Your client approves or rejects each piece and can leave a note. The board keeps score at the bottom.
Answers land on your side as they come, so nothing has to be chased. If you remove a piece, its decision history is kept, and adding it again brings the same row back.
8. Direct messages
A direct message is a conversation with a person, not about a project, so it has no project tabs. Start one from + New › Message a person, or click a name under Team or Clients.
9. What your client sees
Watch it: chapter 6 of the Comms lesson in Campus, “What your client sees” (starts at 3:25).
Two questions come up all the time, and they have two different answers:
Which rooms can my client open? Answered in the room, one client at a time.
What do they see of the project? Answered on the project’s own Client portal tab. See The client portal.
In the room, open ⋯ › Rooms Elena can open (one entry per client) and tick the rooms that person can open. It saves on its own, and nothing else about the project changes. Under the room list, the menu says how much of the project each client sees, with a Client portal → link to where that is set.
To be sure, click Client view in the room header. You see the room the way your client does, with a bar saying so. Prices, vendors and studio notes are gone, and nothing you do there is saved. Click Exit preview to go back.
What a client cannot see is not there at all. Nothing is grayed out, so nothing invites a question about what is behind it.
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