Dovelumen and Comlumen join the Stacklumen product line
Two new products from Stacklumen: Dovelumen, branded client portals for service practices, and Comlumen, an independent news agency that checks every story before it runs.
On this page
On 6 November we added two products to the Stacklumen line. Dovelumen gives service practices a client portal in their own brand. Comlumen is an independent news agency. Each has a site of its own, and each has a page on stacklumen.com, at /dovelumen and /comlumen. This post covers what each one is, and where it stands today.
Dovelumen: client portals for service practices
Dovelumen gives every client a portal in the practice's own brand. Behind the portal it runs the work itself: proposals, approvals, agreements, invoices and weekly updates. It is made first for interior designers, and is in early access at dovelumen.com.
What a client sees
Clients are invited by email, in the practice's name, and sign in with their own address. The portal opens on what the client owes the practice, each item with its date:
- A selection to approve
- An agreement to sign
- A deposit to pay
New clients answer a short brief in the practice's colours and voice, saved at every step. Terms and any disclosures are signed, typed or drawn, before the work starts, and a signed copy is kept with who signed and when.
Each week the person running the project sends a short note with photos, the phase, the decisions made and the deliveries. A client can approve a proposal and pay its deposit in one step. Invoices are paid by card or bank transfer into the practice's own Stripe account; Dovelumen never holds clients' money. Clients can also invite the people they want involved, such as a partner or an assistant, and the practice sees who did what.
What the practice runs
What clients see and what the team runs are one record. A decision in the portal is already on the project, the purchase order and the invoice.
- Today opens the day on four figures, a list of what needs attention with the action beside each, and where every project stands.
- Entered once: each item follows itself through the project, from proposed and approved to ordered, received, invoiced and paid.
- Margins stay private: cost, supplier, markup and freight live on the practice's side. Proposals, invoices and the portal show the client's price only.
- Roles: owner, admin, designer and bookkeeper each see their part, and only the owner sets where client payments are paid out.
The page also lists the industries it is built to fit beyond interior design, including architecture, construction, home services, creative agencies and consultants. Agent features, such as drafted weekly updates, are described as planned and not available yet, with anything a client would see reviewed and sent by a person.
Comlumen: independent news, checked before it runs
Comlumen is an independent news agency. Every story is checked before it runs, every correction is published, and every byline links to a person's page. It is free to read at comlumen.com and is in private alpha.
How a story runs
Each step is recorded in the newsroom's own log:
- Written: a reporter writes the story. It cannot go to review without a headline, a body, a section and a byline.
- Reviewed: an editor edits it, and approves it or sends it back. A lead picture needs a description and a credit.
- Published: now, or at a scheduled time for an embargoed story.
- Corrected: a mistake is corrected on the story, dated, and listed on a public corrections page.
Opinion and analysis are labelled as such wherever a story appears.
For readers
Every story can be read without signing in. Your Stacklumen account is used for saving stories and following sections, writers and topics, and a For You page gathers new stories from what you follow. Live pages carry timestamped updates during breaking events, and every story and section has an RSS feed. The newsletter options can be chosen now, though nothing is sent yet, and the page says so.
Comlumen runs on the same CMS that Terminal's sites use, read through its Content API.
What it means for you
- If you run an agency on Stacklumen, nothing in your account changes. Dovelumen and Comlumen sit beside Terminal, the Hub, StackIDE and Stacklumen Base in the Products menu.
- If you work with interior designers or other service practices, Dovelumen's early access is open from its page.
- If you already have a Stacklumen account, you can use it to save and follow stories on Comlumen.
