Case study
A client portal that ends the email chase for reports and bookings
Think Fire Defence's property management clients chased reports, certificates and survey dates by email, and every request landed on the same office team. We built a client portal integrated with BigChange where each property manager can download documents, see compliance dates, book surveys only when TFD is in the area and view invoices.
2026
- 4–5
- office staff fielding every client requestbefore the portal
- 2 clicks
- to confirm a survey booking from an email link2026
The challenge
Think Fire Defence is a passive fire protection company working nationally and growing fast. Its property management clients relied on email to get completed reports, request insurance certificates and confirm survey dates, so every request landed on the same office team of four or five. Clients booked surveys through an open Setmore calendar that let them pick dates when no engineer was in the area, and answering status questions meant digging through spreadsheets. As job volume grew, the admin would grow with it.
What we did
- March 2026 — mapped how property managers request reports, certificates and survey dates, and where the office's time goes
- Phase 1 — document hub, compliance calendar, survey booking and invoice viewing
- Phase 2 — BigChange integration, booking limited to dates TFD is in the area, and client onboarding
- Next — invoices automated through FreeAgent, deeper BigChange integration and a fire door app
What we built
Job data flows straight from BigChange, so reports appear once a survey is complete and the booking calendar only offers slots when engineers will actually be nearby. The compliance calendar shows every property's upcoming surveys and inspections, flags overdue items in red and keeps the full inspection history.
- Document hub for reports, certificates and accreditations
- Compliance calendar with overdue items flagged
- Survey booking limited to dates in the area
- Invoice viewing and PDF download
- Live job data from BigChange
The result
Reports, certificates, compliance dates, bookings and invoices now sit behind one login for each property manager, so routine requests no longer need an email to the office, and a survey can only be booked on a day TFD is in the area. It was built so that growing the business does not mean growing the back office at the same rate. TFD has since asked us for the estimate-chasing agent we built for Future Group.
- BigChange
