ConsultIQ: B2B Management Consultancy Client Portal & Proposal Suite

Problem and target customer

Why this exists

Customer problem

Boutique consultancies often send proposals by email, track engagement status in internal documents, and share final files through disconnected folders. Clients cannot tell what needs approval or which deliverable is current, and consultants spend billable time reconstructing the record.

Who pays

Partners and project leads at boutique management consultancies that handle several active B2B engagements without a dedicated client operations system.

Business model

Monthly consultancy workspace subscription, tiered by active client engagements and storage.

Editorial note

The defensible record here is the client's decision on a specific version. A polished portal is useful, but the product earns trust only when both parties can distinguish draft scope from issued scope and current work from an obsolete attachment.

Keep the pilot deliberately below full professional-services automation. Proposal approval, milestone visibility, and deliverable acceptance form one coherent handoff; billing, resource planning, and qualified signatures introduce separate buyers and risk profiles.

Choose your next step

What do you need next?

Evaluate the operating tradeoffs quickly, or inspect how to build the MVP.

Evaluate this ideaSee the cost and deployment preview

Compare the three operating paths at the default workload before opening the full calculator.

See cost preview Build this ideaInspect the build blueprint

Review MVP scope, workflow, states, data rules, architecture, and acceptance criteria.

Open blueprint

Evaluation preview

What would it take to run?

Directional infrastructure estimates for the current 200 client artifacts assumption. Open the full calculator when you are ready to change it.

Open full cost and deployment

ManagedSelected

$5-$35/ month

Railway runs the app, database, and notification worker.

Lowest operating effort

Lean self-hosted

$7-$20/ month

A shared Hetzner cloud server runs Docker services with external object storage.

Lowest baseline cost

More control

$25-$90/ month

Dedicated or larger cloud resources isolate client traffic and document processing.

Most separation and control

Build blueprint

Build the first paid use case

Product goal

Who it serves and what it must change

Target user: A boutique consultancy partner and the designated client approver for each engagement.
Problem: Neither side has one authoritative place to approve commercial scope, see delivery progress, and confirm receipt of the latest work.
Measurable outcome: A pilot consultancy can send a proposal, capture an attributable approval, and complete one deliverable sign-off without relying on an email thread or shared-drive link.

MVP scope

What ships now and what waits

Included

Create a client, draft a versioned proposal, and issue a time-limited portal invitation.
Convert an approved proposal into milestones and deliverable requests.
Upload versioned files, collect client comments, and record explicit sign-off.

Excluded

Legally qualified electronic signatures.
Time tracking, invoicing, and accounting reconciliation.
Live document co-editing or a general-purpose CRM.

UX and user flow

Screens, actions, and states

Proposal Room

Show scope, fees, assumptions, version history, and the client's approval action.

Preview as clientIssue proposalApprove or request changes

Engagement Board

Summarize milestones, due dates, owner, and blockers for both parties.

Update milestoneAdd client requestOpen deliverable

Deliverable Review

Keep file versions, consultant notes, client comments, and sign-off together.

Upload revisionComment on versionAccept deliverable

Primary flow

A consultant creates a proposal from structured scope and fee fields.
The client follows a secure invitation, reviews the issued version, and approves or requests changes.
Approval creates an engagement with planned milestones.
The consultant uploads a deliverable and the client comments or signs it off.

Loading, empty, and error states

Proposal: draft, issued, changes_requested, approved, superseded
Milestone: planned, active, blocked, complete
Deliverable: requested, submitted, revision_needed, accepted
Invitation: pending, accepted, expired, revoked

Core entity outline

Entities and business rules

ClientAccount

Defines the client organization, contacts, branding boundary, and portal access.

Fields: name, primary_contact_id, brand_settings, status
Relations: Has many proposals, Has many engagements

ProposalVersion

Freezes the scope, commercial terms, and decision associated with one issued version.

Fields: proposal_id, version_number, scope_json, fee_terms, issued_at, status
Relations: Belongs to one client, May create one engagement

Engagement

Tracks the approved work, responsible consultant, and milestone sequence.

Fields: proposal_version_id, lead_id, starts_at, target_end_at, status
Relations: Has many milestones, Has many deliverables

DeliverableVersion

Stores each uploaded artifact and the client decision on that exact version.

Fields: deliverable_id, version_number, object_key, submitted_at, decision, decided_by
Relations: Belongs to one deliverable, Has many comments

Business rules

An issued proposal version is immutable; edits create a new version and supersede the old one.
Only a nominated client approver can approve a proposal or accept a deliverable.
Acceptance applies to one file version and is cleared when a consultant submits a revision.

Architecture and data flow

Components, integrations, and controls

Portal application

Serve consultancy and client views with organization- and engagement-level authorization.

Relational database

Persist immutable proposal versions, milestones, decisions, and audit metadata.

File gateway

Create short-lived upload and download URLs scoped to an engagement.

Notification queue

Deliver invitations and decision alerts with retry protection.

Integrations

Object storage for proposal exports and deliverable versions
Transactional email for portal invitations and approval notices

Data flow

Issuing a proposal stores an immutable snapshot before generating the client link.
An authenticated approval writes the actor, timestamp, IP metadata, and approved version in one transaction.
Deliverable files upload directly to storage; the portal records only verified object keys and version metadata.

Failure handling

Leave a proposal in draft if PDF generation or notification fails
Allow a consultant to resend an expired invitation without changing the proposal version
Keep the previous file version available when a replacement upload fails

Security

Scope every query to the consultancy and client account
Require step-up confirmation for approval actions
Use expiring invitations and signed file URLs
Record access and decision events without exposing them to unrelated clients

Rate limits

Limit portal invitation sends per client contact
Throttle signed-file URL creation
Restrict repeated approval attempts and login challenges

Deliverables and acceptance

Definition of done for the MVP

Deliverables

Consultant administration app
Branded client portal
Versioned proposal and deliverable model
Signed file flow
Decision audit trail and test suite

Acceptance criteria

A consultant can issue version 1, respond to a change request with version 2, and prove which version the client approved.
Approval creates one engagement with the configured milestones and does not duplicate on refresh.
A client from account A cannot view a file or URL belonging to account B.
When an invitation expires, the client sees a recovery path and the consultant can issue a replacement without recreating the proposal.

Recommended stack

Enough technology for the first version

Application

Next.js and TypeScript

Supports authenticated portal routes, printable proposal views, and server-side authorization in one app.

Data and auth

PostgreSQL with Auth.js

Relational constraints fit versions, approvers, milestones, and tenant isolation.

Documents

Cloudflare R2

Signed access keeps client files private and avoids proxying large uploads.

Notifications

Resend with queued jobs

Invitations and approval alerts need reliable retries and stable message IDs.

Why this is sufficient

A conventional relational web app is the safest MVP because the product promise depends on version identity and authorization, not advanced collaboration. Keep files in object storage and decisions in the database.

Not required for the MVP

LLM APIReal-time document editorSearch cluster

Next stepTurn the blueprint into an execution plan

Copy the build prompt, model the operating cost, and choose where to deploy.

Build and ship

Execution

Build, price, and deploy the MVP

Once the blueprint is clear, use the prompt, cost model, and deployment options to start building.

Build prompt

Copy this into a builder

Build a TypeScript monolith with PostgreSQL and object storage so proposal versions, client approvals, milestones, and file access share one authorization boundary.

Build prompt

Your build prompt is ready

Open the prompt pack whenever you are ready to take this blueprint into your builder.

Based on the blueprintReady for your builderFollow-up steps included

Cost calculator

Model the MVP operating cost

A technical run-cost estimate for the first production version. Team, acquisition, payment fees, and business COGS are excluded.

Estimated monthly total$5-$35

$5-$35 per 200 client artifacts

Client artifacts / month200 client artifacts

Selected pathEasiest

Pricing checkedAug 2, 2026

Cost breakdown

$5-$35 per month

Low and high values allow for usage variance and plan headroom.

Managed portal deployment

Railway runs the app, database, and notification worker.

500 client artifacts included, then $2-$8 per 500 client artifacts

$5-$35

Transactional email

Portal invitations and proposal or deliverable decision alerts.

3K client artifacts included

Client file storage

Estimate for PDFs and office files stored in R2 with signed access.

500 client artifacts included

Included

Application and database compute
Notification worker
Beta-scale email
Proposal and deliverable storage estimate

Not included

Consultant labor
Legal review of approvals
Payment processing
Document malware-scanning vendor
Custom enterprise identity

Pricing basis

The estimate combines the selected infrastructure path, required operating modules, selected optional modules, and usage above included monthly allowances. Taxes and regional uplifts are excluded.

Railway pricing Resend transactional email pricing Cloudflare R2 pricing

Deployment options

Pick the operational tradeoff

Choose based on operating preference, not only the headline price.

EasiestRecommended

Railway

Ship the portal, database, and notification worker with little infrastructure setup.

$5-35/month before email and file usage

Good fit

Quick deployment
Managed services
Preview environments

Limitation

Usage billing requires monitoring as files and traffic grow.

Open Railway

Cheapest

Vultr

Run the app, worker, and database on one small Vultr VPS with Docker Compose and explicit backups.

$7-20/month before backups and add-ons

Good fit

Low baseline
Docker deployment
Predictable resources

Limitation

You operate patches, backups, monitoring, and restore tests.

Deploy on Vultr View the lean VPS guide

More control

DigitalOcean

Separate application, worker, data, storage, and backup responsibilities as the workload grows.

$25-90/month before email and file usage

Good fit

Resource isolation
Private networking
Custom retention

Limitation

Requires active infrastructure ownership.

Explore DigitalOcean View the separated cloud guide

Start building

Prototype, automate, then deploy

Recommended route

01Vibe-coding builderPrototype the proposal-to-delivery path

Use Lovable to test the branded proposal view, approval action, milestone timeline, and deliverable sign-off with real consultants and clients.

Open Lovable 02AutomationRelay approved engagement events

Use Make only after the core flow works to notify an internal channel or create a finance task when a proposal is accepted.

Open Make 03DeployDeploy a private client workspace

Host the portal and database on Railway while keeping proposal PDFs and deliverables in signed object storage.

Open Railway

ConsultIQ: B2B Management Consultancy Client Portal & Proposal Suite

Is this worth validating?

Build this if

Avoid this if

Validate first

Why this exists

Customer problem

Who pays

Business model

What do you need next?

What would it take to run?

Build the first paid use case

Who it serves and what it must change

What ships now and what waits

Included

Excluded

Screens, actions, and states

Primary flow

Loading, empty, and error states

Entities and business rules

Business rules

Components, integrations, and controls

Integrations

Data flow

Failure handling

Security

Rate limits

Definition of done for the MVP

Deliverables

Acceptance criteria

Enough technology for the first version

Next.js and TypeScript

PostgreSQL with Auth.js

Cloudflare R2

Resend with queued jobs

Why this is sufficient

Not required for the MVP

Build, price, and deploy the MVP

Copy this into a builder

Your build prompt is ready

Model the MVP operating cost

Usage assumptions

$5-$35 per month

Included

Not included

Pricing basis

Pick the operational tradeoff

Railway

Good fit

Limitation

Vultr

Good fit

Limitation

DigitalOcean

Good fit

Limitation

Prototype, automate, then deploy

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