WaymarqWaymarq
Sign up

Case studies

How different businesses use Waymarq

Six worked examples, from one person to a fifty-strong practice, across construction, design, film and professional services — what you would switch on, what a week actually looks like, and what you get back. Find the one closest to your shape and the rest usually follows.

The six below are illustrative, not customer stories. Nobody in them is real and no quotes are attributed to anyone. They are worked examples of how a business of each shape might set the software up — written so you can judge the fit, not so we can claim a logo. The one above them is real.

The real one

How I built a client's project with Waymarq and an AI agent

I build Waymarq, and I used it to deliver a real client project — one that arrived as a hundred-page specification. I uploaded the spec and let Waymarq consume it: it read the document, asked me the questions the spec left open, and I added my own. The client answered those directly, through a link, so the clarification was part of the process rather than a thread of emails. Out of that came the breakdown — phases, tasks and the detail behind each one — which I presented back to the client.

Then I connected the AI agents I actually build with. Claude Code and Codex came first, over the REST API; MCP and the CLI came later and made it easier. Between me and Claude, the project got built — and as we worked, Waymarq kept the record automatically: what was done, what was in progress, what was blocked. The stakeholders could see the percentage complete and get live updates without needing to speak to me.

That is the loop the whole product is built around: the spec becomes a plan, the plan becomes the work, and the record keeps itself. It has been incredibly useful to me, and it is why I wanted to share it.

— Sean Barton, Tortoise IT

One person

A freelance designer

Three or four clients at once, each expecting to feel like the only one. No project manager, no admin day — every hour spent on process is an hour not earning.

Where it usually goes wrong

The work is fine. The edges are the problem: remembering which client is waiting on you, what you quoted six weeks ago, which "quick favour" has quietly turned into two days of unpaid work, and what to put on the invoice at the end of the month.

How they would set it up

  • A personal workspace — no team, no invites, no roles to think about.
  • One project per client engagement, priced as a fixed fee.
  • Time tracking on, so hours land against the task that caused them.
  • Budgets on, expenses on. AI left switched off.

A typical week

  • MondayOpen the dashboard: what is overdue, what is due this week, across every client at once.
  • MidweekA client asks for "just one more version". Raise a work order, price it at two hours, send it. They say yes — it becomes real tasks. They say no — it never touches the plan.
  • ThursdayA client asks how it is going. Send them a share link rather than writing an update: live progress, no rates, no internal notes.
  • Month endDraft a statement. It gathers the completed extras and the expenses actually incurred. Issue it, and record the payment when it lands.

What they get back

  • Every unbilled hour and agreed extra is in one list rather than in your head.
  • Scope creep becomes a priced decision instead of a quiet loss.
  • "How is it going?" is answered with a link, not an evening.

Five to fifteen people

A small architecture practice

Several projects running at different stages, a couple of freelancers in and out, and a director who needs to know what is landing next quarter without chasing everyone.

Where it usually goes wrong

Work arrives as a brief and leaves as a set of drawings, and in between it passes through feasibility, planning, technical design and site. Stages depend on each other and slip together. Nobody minds a delay; everyone minds finding out about it late.

How they would set it up

  • A business organisation with staff on whole-organisation access and freelancers on project-only access.
  • Phases that mirror how the practice already talks: Feasibility, Planning, Technical design, Tender, On site.
  • Phase dependencies, so a planning slip visibly moves everything behind it.
  • Project member roles — architect, technician, consultant — as labels on who is doing what.
  • Opportunities and quotes for the enquiries that have not been won yet.

A typical week

  • MondayWorkload report: who is genuinely overloaded and who could take the new enquiry.
  • TuesdayPlanning comes back with conditions. Push the phase; the timeline shows what moves with it, and offers to shift the dependent work.
  • WednesdayA new enquiry arrives. Log it as an opportunity, send a quote from the line-item builder. Accepted, it becomes a project with the fee already set.
  • FridayPipeline report before the directors meeting: what is open, what closed, and why anything was lost.

What they get back

  • Slippage is visible the day it happens, not at the next review.
  • A freelancer sees exactly one project and nothing else in the practice.
  • The gap between "we quoted this" and "we are building this" stops being a spreadsheet.

Twenty to fifty people

A fit-out and construction firm

Multiple sites, subcontractors on nearly every job, and margins that live or die on variations being recorded at the moment they are agreed.

Where it usually goes wrong

The plan is the easy part. The money is where jobs are lost: a client asks for a change on site, someone says "leave it with me", and three months later there is no record of what was agreed, by whom, or for how much.

How they would set it up

  • Working week and public holidays set once, so nothing is ever scheduled onto a bank holiday.
  • A concurrency limit per project matching how many trades can realistically work at once.
  • Suppliers for every subcontractor — contact details attached to the tasks they are doing, with no logins to manage.
  • Work orders as the standing answer to any variation.
  • Expenses on, with costs attributed to the work order that caused them.

A typical week

  • On siteClient asks for a change. Raise a work order there and then: what, why, how much, fixed or a range. Agreed means it becomes scheduled tasks; absorbed means it is recorded as given away rather than forgotten.
  • WeeklyEach site lead updates the board. The Gantt shows whether the programme is actually behind, not just whether it feels it.
  • MonthlyDraft a statement per job: completed variations and incurred costs, issued, then part payments recorded as they arrive.
  • Post-jobLook back at what was billed against what was absorbed. That number is the difference between a good job and a busy one.

What they get back

  • Every variation has a price, a date and a name against it.
  • Absorbed work is measured rather than invisible, so goodwill is a decision.
  • What is owed, and how late it is, is one page rather than a reconciliation exercise.

Six to ten people

A brand and web studio

The same shape of project over and over — discovery, identity, rollout — for a different client each time, plus a long tail of small retained jobs.

Where it usually goes wrong

Setting up each new project from scratch is half a day nobody bills for, and every producer does it slightly differently. Meanwhile the small retained jobs are individually too minor to plan and collectively where the month goes.

How they would set it up

  • One well-built project used as the pattern for every new engagement, so the phases and checklists are identical every time.
  • A backlog per retained client for the small stuff, kept off the timeline where it would only add noise.
  • Checklists for the repeatable steps and a test plan on anything with an acceptance bar.
  • Client share links instead of weekly status emails.
  • AI planning for the occasional project that arrives as a twenty-page brief.

A typical week

  • New jobCopy the shape of the last one rather than starting from an empty page — the phases, the checklists and the review steps are already right.
  • DailyThe board is the standup. Cards carry checklist progress, so "nearly done" has a number behind it.
  • ReviewClient feedback lands as comments on the task it concerns, rather than in an email thread nobody can find in three weeks.
  • Month endTime log report by client: what was billable, what was internal, and what was quietly given away.

What they get back

  • Every project starts consistent instead of depending on who set it up.
  • Small retained work is visible without cluttering the plan for the big work.
  • The gap between what you quoted and what it actually took stops being a feeling.

Project-based, three to twenty per job

A video production company

Short, intense projects with a crew that changes every time, hard external deadlines, and a client who wants to see cuts rather than a task list.

Where it usually goes wrong

Pre-production, shoot and post are genuinely sequential and a slip in one compresses the next. Freelancers need to see their own job and nothing else. And the money is fiddly: kit hire, travel and location fees mount up per job and are easy to forget when invoicing.

How they would set it up

  • Phases that match the real process: Pre-production, Shoot, Edit, Delivery — with dependencies, so a shoot delay visibly moves the edit.
  • Freelance crew on project-only access; staff on whole-organisation access.
  • Suppliers for kit hire and studios, attached to the tasks that use them.
  • Expenses on, with costs attributed as they are incurred rather than reconstructed later.
  • Calendar events for shoot days, so they sit alongside the task dates.

A typical week

  • Pre-productionBuild the plan and lock the shoot dates as calendar events. The Gantt shows whether delivery is realistic before anything is promised.
  • Shoot weekLog expenses as they happen — hire, travel, catering — against the job rather than in a shoebox.
  • PostClient asks for a further round of changes beyond what was quoted. Raise a work order, price it, and it either gets agreed or it does not happen.
  • DeliveryStatement gathers the agreed extras and the incurred costs. Part payments recorded as they land.

What they get back

  • A slipped shoot day shows its consequences immediately, not at delivery.
  • A freelancer sees exactly the job they are on.
  • Every recharged cost is captured at the moment it is spent.

Fifty or more, several disciplines

A multi-disciplinary architecture and engineering firm

Dozens of live commissions across architecture, structures and services, run by different associates, with directors who need a portfolio view rather than a project view.

Where it usually goes wrong

Every associate runs their projects well; nobody can see across them. Resourcing is guesswork, the fee position on any given job takes a week to establish, and the question "are we going to hit our number this year?" is answered with a spreadsheet that is out of date by the time it is circulated.

How they would set it up

  • One organisation, one project per commission, consistent phase names across disciplines so the portfolio reads coherently.
  • Work stages as phases with dependencies, and a payment schedule per stage so fee draw-down is modelled rather than remembered.
  • Project member roles so it is clear who is the architect, the engineer and the consultant on each job.
  • Viewers for the people who need to see progress but have no business seeing fees.
  • Opportunities and quotes for the bidding pipeline.

A typical week

  • MondayThe team Gantt, grouped by person, for the resourcing meeting: every associate's open work on one shared timeline, who is double-booked this fortnight, who has room for the next commission. A director sets the date range to the current quarter and exports it as a PDF to bring into the room.
  • OngoingAssociates work their own projects normally. Nothing about the portfolio view asks them to do extra admin.
  • MonthlyBudget report across every commission: fee, hours, cost to date. Pipeline report for what is still to land.
  • QuarterlyWon versus lost, why, and the forecast by expected close month — the board pack largely writes itself.

What they get back

  • A portfolio view that does not depend on anyone filling in a return.
  • Resourcing decisions made against a real, shared timeline rather than instinct or six separate project views.
  • Fee position on any commission answerable in seconds, not days.

Not sure which one you are?

Start with the demo project — a complete worked example you can click around, seeded into your own account and removable in one click. Or read the setup documentation first.

Get started freeRead the docs