Every piece of client work follows the same arc: someone has a need, you agree on scope and price, the work gets done, and then you get paid. Simple in theory. In practice, that arc passes through half a dozen people, a dozen decisions, and a trail of documents that need to be in the right place at the right time.
Cannelle is built around that arc. Every screen, every record, every report exists to make one step of that journey faster or cleaner. This post walks through the whole thing — from the first message from a client to the moment payment arrives — so you can see how the pieces fit together before you start configuring anything.
01
Quote
Capture the brief, agree on scope, send the quote.
02
Project
Convert the accepted quote into a live project.
03
Delivery
Break into tasks, assign resources, track progress.
04
Invoice
Bill the client and close the loop.
Most projects begin with a request — an email, a phone call, a message in Atelier. The client has something they need done and they want to know what it will cost. In Cannelle, that becomes a Quote.
A quote lives on the client record. You give it a title, set an expected delivery date, describe the scope, and add line items — each line representing a piece of work with its own rate and quantity. Cannelle calculates the total automatically. When the quote is ready, you can send it directly from the platform or download a PDF to attach to your own email.
If the client uses Atelier, they can submit quote requests themselves — filling in a title, description, target delivery date, and any reference files. The request lands in Cannelle as a new quote for your team to pick up, without a single email being exchanged.
// pipeline stages
As quotes move forward, the client record moves with them. A contact with an open quote becomes a Prospect. When the quote is accepted and a project is created, they become a Client. The pipeline updates automatically — no manual status changes needed.
Once the client gives the go-ahead, you convert the accepted quote into a Project with a single click. The project inherits the title, delivery date, and scope from the quote — nothing to re-enter. You assign a project manager and the project is live.
The project record becomes the operational hub for everything that follows. It holds the timeline, the task list, the resource assignments, the costs, the messages, and the documents — all in one place. Anyone on your team who has access can see where things stand without asking.
The summary view — status, delivery date, assigned manager, and a live count of tasks by status.
The full task list. Every piece of work that needs to happen to deliver the project.
All files related to the project — briefs, reference material, deliverables, and signed documents.
Costs, resource fees, and invoicing status. The financial picture of the project in one tab.
Internal notes and client-facing communications tied to the project.
The shared Atelier channel for this project — messages and files exchanged with the client, visible to both sides in real time.
Project configuration — code, billing details, and any project-level preferences.
Projects are made of tasks. A task is the smallest unit of work in Cannelle — the thing that gets assigned to a person, tracked, and eventually marked as done.
Each task has a type that determines how it is priced and what fields are relevant. Cannelle ships with task types for Translation, Interpreting, Copywriting, and general consulting work — each with its own structure. A translation task, for example, tracks word counts and a rate per word. A consulting task tracks hours and a day rate. The type you choose shapes the task form automatically.
Tasks have a status — New, In Progress, Delivered, Complete — that moves as the work moves. The project overview counts tasks by status so the project manager always knows, at a glance, whether things are on track.
// deadlines and delivery dates
Tasks can have their own delivery dates, independent of the project deadline. This matters when different parts of a project need to land with the client on different days — a common situation in multi-stage translation or publishing projects.
Not all work is done by your in-house team. Many professional services firms — translation agencies, consulting firms, marketing studios — rely on a mix of employees and external collaborators: freelancers, contractors, specialist partners. In Cannelle, these are called Resources.
When you assign a resource to a task, Cannelle records their agreed rate for that assignment. This feeds directly into the project's cost calculations — so the Finance tab always reflects the real cost of the work, not a rough estimate. Resources can see their assignments through Atelier, mark tasks as delivered, and submit their invoices without ever entering your main Cannelle application.
// for project managers
Track every resource assignment across a project in one place. See who is working on what, what rate was agreed, and whether their deliverable has come in — without any back-and-forth by email.
// for resources
Log in to Atelier, see your active assignments, upload deliverables, and submit invoices directly. No phone calls, no chasing — a clean self-service workflow from first brief to payment.
While the work is in progress, the project lives on your dashboard. Cannelle's dashboard widgets include an active projects list, a task overview by status, and an upcoming deadlines view — giving every team member a personalised snapshot without having to open every project one by one.
Client communication happens through the Atelier workspace linked to the project. Your team sends messages, uploads files, and shares updates in Cannelle — and the client sees it instantly in Atelier. They can reply, ask questions, and upload their own files. The same thread, seen from two different sides.
When all tasks are complete and the client has confirmed acceptance, the project status moves to Delivered. At that point, the project is ready to invoice.
// no status update meetings
Because every task, message, and document lives in the same place, project managers spend less time answering "where are we on this?" and more time actually moving things forward. The project record is the single source of truth — for your team and, through Atelier, for the client too.
With the project delivered, it is time to bill. From the project's Finance tab, you create an invoice — Cannelle pre-fills the line items from the project's scope, so most of the work is already done. Review the numbers, adjust if anything changed during delivery, and confirm.
The invoice gets a sequential number, a due date based on your payment terms, and a PDF. You can mark it as sent — which makes it visible to the client in Atelier — or download the PDF to send through your own workflow. If you operate in the EU, Cannelle can also export the invoice as UBL 2.1 XML for e-invoicing compliance with a single click.
When payment arrives, mark the invoice as paid. The project closes. The margin report updates. The client's commercial history grows by one more row. And somewhere, your next quote is already being written.
// the numbers are always there
Because costs are captured at the task and resource level throughout the project, the moment you create the invoice Cannelle already knows your margin. You do not need to reconstruct it after the fact. The Project Margins report picks it up automatically once the invoice is sent, giving you a running picture of profitability across your entire portfolio.
Want to see the whole flow in action? Try the live demo →