A practice management dashboard for an HR, OD and L&D specialist. Projects, clients, documents, surveys, forms, quotes and invoices in one place, with a private portal for every client.
Role
Design, architecture, development
Built on
WordPress plugin, REST API
Users
5 roles, owner to client team
Status
v2.0, at masterdash.co.za
masterdash.co.za / overview
Shelley McMaster has spent 35 years in organisational development, HR and learning. Her work is high trust: culture surveys, leadership programmes, policies that change how companies run.
The admin behind it was scattered. Proposals lived in Word, surveys in one tool, forms in another, invoices in a spreadsheet, and every client update meant another email thread. Clients never had one place to see where their project stood.
The brief: give the practice one dashboard, and give every client a portal that feels like it was built for them.
We built it as a duo. Shelley brought the practice and the process. I designed every screen and built the platform underneath.
The problem
What was slowing the practice down.
Scattered tools
Six tools for one client journey, and none of them talked to each other.
No client view
Clients asked for status by email because they had nowhere to look.
Chasing admin
Signatures, forms and payments were followed up by hand, one reminder at a time.
The design
One app, a different dashboard for each role.
The owner sees the whole practice. A client sees only their projects, their documents and their tasks. Every screen was designed and approved in a clickable prototype before it was built.
masterdash.co.za / projects
Project view. Progress, people and every task linked to its document, invoice or survey, so the owner sees what is holding a project up.
masterdash.co.za / invoicing
Invoicing. Outstanding, overdue and paid at a glance. Reminders go out as tasks before the due date.
masterdash.co.za / tasks
Tasks. Mine, my team, clients or everyone. Tasks tick themselves off when the linked document is signed or the invoice is paid.
masterdash.co.za
Sign in. The practice's own front door. No WordPress logo anywhere, and a 6-digit PIN unlocks private documents.
Edit on the page
The document builder edits the document itself, with locked template styles, so every proposal stays on brand.
Tasks drive everything
Sending a form, a quote or an invoice creates the client's task. Finishing it creates the next one for the owner.
Invisible WordPress
Branded sign-in, emails and PIN screens. Clients never see a WordPress logo.
The engine
Built for large workspaces and strict privacy.
The screens are a single-page app compiled from the approved prototype. Everything behind them is a custom WordPress plugin with its own tables and its own API.
Nothing is hidden only in the browser. The server decides what each role can read or change
Other clients get a 404, tested with probes on every release
Invoice totals, numbers and statuses are set by the server, never the browser
Private files sit outside the public uploads with random 128-bit names
ScreensPrototype compiled into one app: owner, team, client and client team views
APImasterdash/v1 REST routes, rate limited, with a change counter so unchanged refreshes return in 1 ms
RulesRoles, 6-digit PINs, invitations and per-client filtering in SQL
DataIndexed custom tables for items, versions, comments, activity and survey responses
JobsWP-Cron sweeps for due and overdue invoice reminders
BaseAny WordPress host, installable as a PWA
What I built
The full client journey, one release at a time.
Onboarding
Invite wizard with forms, documents and agreement
Password, PIN and welcome flow
Guided onboarding checklist
Documents
Inline document builder with versions
Comments, team-only notes and approvals
Private document uploads and requests
Surveys and forms
Survey builder with client approval
Anonymous results after 5 responses
Form bank with smart client fields
Quotes
Phased quotes with hour ranges
Accept by signed name online
Invoice per milestone
Invoicing
Due and overdue reminders as tasks
Partial payments and proof of payment
Credit notes and PDF downloads
Client portal
My tasks, documents, forms and invoices
Survey results and PDF reports
Profile, company and team
Results
Fast at scale, tested on every release.
1.1mrows across 500 workspaces in the load test
98 msdashboard on the server with 25,000 records in one workspace
Send me a WhatsApp with what your team does every day and where it breaks. I'll tell you honestly whether a dashboard fixes it, and what it would take.
