CutDesk — the client side of editing, handled

A client portal for freelance video editors that turns a brief into a quote, a review link and an invoice on its own, so the editor only edits.

I'm Muse, a freelance video editor in Lagos (reels, YouTube long-form, podcast clip packs, promo ads). Every job I've done ran over WhatsApp and X DMs: I retyped quotes by hand, counted revision rounds in a chat thread, answered "is it done yet?" and chased invoices. CutDesk is the portal I built on Base44 so that part runs itself.

What it automates

• Brief in, quote out. A public brief form prices the job live from my rate card as the client types (format, quantity, captions, extra raw footage, and a 1.5x rush multiplier under 48 hours). Submitting it creates the client and the project, sets the deadline and issues a quote page the client approves with one tap.

• Review links with timecoded notes. Every cut gets a public review link, no login. The client scrubs the cut, leaves notes at exact timecodes, and either requests changes or approves. "Request changes" burns one of the included revision rounds and moves the job back to editing; a round past the included two is priced automatically.

• Invoices that write themselves. "Approve this cut" issues a numbered invoice with 7-day terms, a printable page and a mark-as-paid flow. Overdue invoices flag themselves on the desk.

• One desk for the studio. A six-stage pipeline (brief, quote, edit, review, delivered, paid), due-next countdowns, reminders generated from the live data, and an activity trail per job.

Time saved per client job (my own estimates from how my jobs run today, not measured in a study)

• Quoting: about 20-30 minutes of back-and-forth per job becomes zero; the client sees the price while filling the brief.

• Revision tracking: about 10-15 minutes per round spent collecting feedback from voice notes and screenshots, and arguing about which round we're on, becomes a list of timecoded notes with the round already counted.

• Status chasing: about 10-15 minutes per job of "is it done yet?" messages disappears; the client has the link.

• Invoicing: about 15-20 minutes per job of writing, sending and chasing the invoice becomes one click on the client's side.

Roughly an hour to an hour and a half saved per job, and the parts that used to get lost in a chat thread (the quote, the notes, the round count, the invoice) now have one place.

How it was built on Base44

Built from scratch in a day in the Base44 editor. Base44 entities hold the clients, projects, quotes, review notes, invoices and activity; the pricing, round counting, invoice numbering and reminders are app logic on top of them. The design is a custom system I specified prompt by prompt: Instrument Serif for display type, Inter Tight for the UI, JetBrains Mono for every timecode and amount, a near-black "cutting room" palette with one record-light orange, and a playhead motif that carries the project's stage through the whole product (the landing hero scrubs itself through the six stages, every desk card carries a mini scrubber, and the client's notes sit as markers on a real scrubber under the video). Mobile-first on every page: a bottom tab bar on the desk, a sticky estimate bar on the brief, sticky actions on the review page.

The demo workspace is open: submit a brief, leave a note on the Nova Fitness cut, approve it and watch the invoice appear, mark it paid. Demo footage is royalty-free from Pexels.

Links

• Live app: https://cutdesk.base44.app

• Walkthrough video: attached (and on X)

• X post: https://x.com/musepriest/status/2112564985968623713

Music: original track made with Eleven Music (ElevenLabs).

I built Clientdesk: a client portal and back office for freelance designers that takes a project from brief to paid with automation doing the busywork.

How it works😍 1. A client fills in a 4-step brief.

2. AI writes a plain-English scope, suggests a price range and timeline, and scores the lead 1-5.

3. The client gets their estimate on screen and books a 20-minute call from the studio's real availability. The estimate and confirmation emails are triggered automatically.

4. Marking a lead Won creates the project with milestones and a 50% deposit invoice.

5. A daily check flags overdue invoices (and sends a polite reminder) and leads that need a follow-up.

Every automation writes to a live Automation feed on the dashboard, next to revenue and pipeline charts, so the freelancer sees what happened without opening anything.

Why: as a freelancer I lose hours on the same steps for every enquiry: writing a scope, guessing a price, chasing a call, chasing an invoice. Clientdesk does those steps the moment they are needed.

Try it: send a brief at /start, then open /admin and watch it appear in the feed and on the leads board (demo data, no login).