Who runs the FF&E list while you run the project?
On most residential and boutique-hospitality projects, the furniture is the design. And the procurement leg — quotes, freight, customs paperwork, factory follow-ups, damage claims — is where unbilled designer hours go to die. Not because designers can't do it. Because every hour on a PO is an hour not on the drawing.
Where the hours actually go
Count them across a typical three-month install window: chasing freight quotes and comparing them line by line; decoding landed-cost math your client will ask about anyway; emailing factories about finish samples; re-confirming lead times when one slips; receiving, inspecting, and filing the damage claim on the piece that arrived wrong. None of it shows up on your invoice. All of it shows up in your margin.
What a rail changes
A procurement rail through DAF Global Connect means you spec the room and sign one plan; everything after the signature has an owner who isn't you. One purchase order across the suppliers named on that plan. Supplier price visible on every line plus a flat 20% service fee — so you can show your client the entire cost structure without hiding anything, and your markup conversation stays yours.
The pieces that break projects are logistics, not taste: the freight leg, the customs leg, the claim on the damaged crate. Those are exactly the parts that move in-house when someone else owns the rail. Your name stays on the invoice; the factory relationship stays with us.
The honest test
Send us the FF&E list from a live project. We come back inside one business day with supplier names, per-item landed cost and a delivery window — the first plan is free, no meeting attached. If the numbers don't beat what your current back office produces, keep your current process with our compliments. If they do, you just bought back a slice of your quarter.
DAF charges a flat 20% on aggregate landed cost — supplier price, freight, duty, inspection, delivery — itemized on every plan. Install labour is billed at cost and carries no fee.