The Desk • Software for people who book work
The bookings you lose are the ones nobody wrote down.
Every enquiry, quote, contract and invoice in one place, under your own name. Built to run our own roster, and now sold to anyone who books work for a living.
- EnquiryArrives from your website on its own
- QuotePriced off your rate card, sent as a link
- ContractSigned on the same link
- InvoiceYour numbering, your bank details
- PaidTracked against the booking
No card charged for fourteen days • Cancel in one press
What the old way costs
The arithmetic nobody does
Nothing here is dramatic. That is the problem with it. Work does not disappear in one expensive moment — it leaks, in ways that never appear on a statement because the money simply never arrives.
The enquiry
Sits in a shared inbox over a weekend because it was not obviously anyone’s. By the time it is answered the booker has asked three other people.
The quote
Sent, and then nothing. Not refused — just never followed up, because nobody was told to and nothing reminded anyone.
The invoice
Not disputed. Not queried. Two months old, and nobody has looked at the folder since the night of the show.
The Desk is £39.99 a month. One fee you would otherwise have chased, one date you would otherwise have lost, and it has paid for a year. If it saves you an hour a month, it has paid for itself twice.
What it replaces
One place instead of seven
What you are using now
- A booking spreadsheet only you understand
- An inbox folder that counts as a CRM
- A Word contract, printed, signed, scanned, emailed
- An invoice template with last client’s name still in it
- A separate mailing list tool, billed separately
- A note on your phone about who owes what
- Memory, for everything else
What you would have
- Enquiries arriving from your site by themselves
- Every contact, matched and with their full history
- Contracts signed on a link, in the browser
- Invoices numbered in your sequence, with your bank details
- A newsletter with the consent records built in
- A list of what has gone quiet, at the top of the page
- One place, on any device, that both of you can see
What it does
Built for booking, not adapted for it
Not a general CRM with your industry bolted on the side. It knows what a date, a fee and a booking are, so you are not translating your work into somebody else’s fields.
Enquiries
Two lines in your website’s booking form and every enquiry lands here by itself, with the sender added to your contacts and their history started.
Quotes
Worked out from your rate card rather than from memory. The client gets a private link showing the fee, what it covers and what sits outside it, and two buttons. Say yes and the date is held.
Contracts
Written from the agreed quote and signed on the same link. No attachment, no printing, no scanning something back.
Invoices
Numbered in your sequence, carrying your bank details and your payment link, with what is outstanding tracked against each booking.
Contacts
Everybody who has ever written in, matched on their email rather than added twice, with a running timeline of everything between you.
Newsletter
Only to people who said yes, with where each yes came from recorded, because that record is what makes it lawful. One-press unsubscribe on every send.
Merchandise
A shop with products, discount codes and orders, so the record and the T-shirt are counted in the same place as everything else.
Needs a nudge
The top of the list shows what has gone quiet. An unanswered enquiry, a quote nobody replied to, a held date not confirmed, an invoice thirty days old.
Who sees what
Five roles. The numbers a colleague should not see are filtered on the server and never reach their browser, rather than being hidden with styling.
Making it yours
There is nothing in here with our name on it. Fill in one page and every document, page and email carries your business instead.
Your name and logo
Upload a logo, set your colours, and quotes, contracts, invoices and the client portal all follow. Your clients see you, not us.
Your company details
Registered name, company number, VAT number, address. Printed where they legally need to be, without you formatting anything.
Your bank details
Account, sort code, IBAN, and your own payment link as a button. Your clients pay you directly — no money passes through us.
Your rate card
Your formats, your regions, your fees, and your own walk-away numbers, which only the roles you choose can see.
We use it every day
Not a side project
This was not built to be sold. It was built because we needed it, and we still run our own roster on it every day. Every booking Emberlight takes goes through the same screens you would be using.
Andrew Collins · Founder, Emberlight Artists
Which means two things worth knowing. When something is broken, it is broken for us too, and it gets fixed. And nothing is on this page that we have not used in anger — there is no roadmap section here, because a roadmap is a list of things that do not exist yet.
One price
Everything is in it
£39.99a month, including VAT · £33.33 plus £6.66 VAT
- Every part of the desk, nothing held back
- As many colleagues as you need, at no extra cost
- Fully branded as your business
- 14 days free, nothing charged until it ends
- No setup fee, no contract, no minimum term
- Your data exported to a spreadsheet whenever you want it
- Cancel from inside the product, in one press
If you cancel during the trial you are not charged at all. If you cancel later, you keep working until the month you have paid for runs out, and nothing is deleted afterwards.
Questions
What happens to my data if I stop paying?
Nothing is deleted. The desk locks and everything stays where it is. Start the subscription again and it comes back as it was. If you want it out first, the export gives you a spreadsheet of every enquiry, contact and invoice.
Do my clients see Emberlight anywhere?
No. Quote pages, contracts, invoices, the client portal and every email carry your business name, your logo, your colours and your bank details.
How do I get paid by my clients?
Directly. Invoices carry your own bank details and, if you want one, your own payment link. We never hold or handle your clients’ money — that is deliberate, and it means there is nobody standing between you and what you are owed.
Is it only for music?
It was built for artist management, so it thinks in dates, fees and rate cards. That fits anyone who sells their time on specific days — speakers, photographers, DJs, celebrants, tutors, small production companies. If you invoice for a diary rather than for hours, it will fit.
How long does it take to set up?
You can be sending a quote the same afternoon. Fill in your business details and bank details on one page, put your rate card in, and that is the setup. Connecting your website’s booking form is two lines, and if you would rather we placed them, send us the file and we will.
Do I need to be technical?
No. It runs in a browser, there is nothing to install, and nothing to keep updated. If you can use online banking you can use this.
Can I add my colleagues?
Yes, as many as you need, at no extra cost. There are five roles, so an assistant can handle enquiries without seeing your margins.
Is the price fixed?
The price you subscribe at is the price you keep. If we change what new subscribers pay, you stay where you are unless you choose to move.
Where is the data kept?
On our UK hosting. Each subscriber’s data sits in its own store, unreachable from any web address, and no other desk can read it.
Fourteen days, no card charged.
If it is not doing something useful by the end of the second week, walk away and you will not have paid us anything.