Smart: less administration, more creating

Business context

In 2023, the concept of Smart was created in Germany – a user-friendly web application that supports artists and small creative businesses with tax settlements and day-to-day operational tasks. The goal was to simplify order handling and invoicing in order to reduce administrative burdens and enable creators to focus on creative work.

As a product, Smart automates and organises processes related to order and invoice management. It offers order processing, automatic email notifications, customer database management, quick access to documents, real-time progress tracking through an intuitive dashboard, and reminders for unpaid invoices.

To bring this vision to life, Smart partnered with Leaware – a team specialising in the development of innovative web applications. The shared goal was to create a centralised platform that would streamline and automate the entire order management cycle while ensuring efficient communication and seamless document handling.

Challenge

The key challenge was to design a web application covering the full order lifecycle – from intake, through invoicing, to fulfilment – while maintaining high performance and ease of use. The interface had to be intuitive, and the system needed to support various automated order statuses, contextual email notifications, and the ability to add and manage customers.

In addition, fast document generation and downloading, a clear dashboard for real-time order tracking, document draft creation, and automatic reminders for overdue payments were essential. All these elements had to work consistently and reliably in the day-to-day environment of users with no IT background.

Solution

Leaware built Smart using modern web technologies and frameworks, delivering an intuitive, high-performance interface for order management, invoice issuance, and invoice handling based on configurable, automated statuses. A robust email notification mechanism triggered by specific events was integrated, along with a customer management module.

The platform was equipped with fast document generation and downloading, draft creation capabilities, and reminders for unpaid invoices. The dashboard aggregates key data and provides up-to-date visibility into fulfilment progress. Thanks to automation, the time needed to process orders and prepare invoices was reduced, resulting in greater operational efficiency.

The application was further extended with modules that increase business value: Expenses Management for transparent cost reporting and control, Employment Management to streamline HR processes, Budget Overview offering insight into financial structure and resource allocation, Governance and Community supporting collaboration and sound governance practices, Payments Expenses enabling efficient export of payment data to XML, Payroll ensuring accurate payroll settlements, and Multiple Documents Downloading for bulk document downloads and well-structured archiving.