A request desk for my website care plans. Clients ask for a change by form, by email or on a call, and every ask gets a number, a status page they can check without logging in, and a line in a monthly report that arrives in their own brand, free time included.
Care-plan clients send changes however they think of them: a text on a Saturday, an email with a screenshot, a mention at the end of a call. Things slip, and nobody knows how many hours are left. Mission Control gives every ask the same path. The client uses their private form link, emails requests@, or just tells me and I log it. They get a reference number right away and a status page they can check any time, no password. If I need something, they answer on that page or by replying to the email. When it's done, they get one or two plain sentences on what changed. At the start of each month, a report in their own logo and colors shows what changed, their hours, and the time I didn't charge for. Every business in these screens is made up.
Static pages and a handful of Vercel functions on Supabase and Resend, no framework, coded by hand after a clickable prototype and wireframes in Figma. Clients never sign in: their form link and every status link are signed tokens, and only a hash of each is stored. Email intake is an Apps Script in Google Workspace that checks requests@ every five minutes, turns mail from known contacts into tickets and threads [REQ-n] replies onto the right timeline. Hours are kept in quarter hours with one month of rollover, and every entry is tagged plan, no charge, included fix or monthly check, so the report can show the free time too. The tracker installs on a phone, signs in with a six-digit email code, and its Stats tab compares each client's real hours with every plan. Before launch the whole flow ran against a local stand-in for the database, the same one that made every render on this page, filled with made-up clients.
Open a system to see what it does, why it matters and, in Engineer mode, how it works.
Clients never make an account. Their form link and the link in every email are the key, and I can retire a form link in one click.
Links are HMACs of the client or request id with a server secret. Only a SHA-256 of each token is stored, and bumping a client's link version retires the old form link at once.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
The form, an email to requests@, or a quick call all end the same way: a numbered ticket and the same confirmation email.
An Apps Script in Google Workspace checks requests@ every five minutes and posts to an intake function behind a shared secret. Each Message-ID is handled once, unknown senders are labeled Unmatched instead of ticketed, and mail from my own addresses is skipped so nothing loops.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
The status page and every Done email show hours used and left. Unused hours roll over for a month, and if a job would go over, I say so before I start.
Balances are computed from plan history and time entries on every read: rollover is used first and expires after a month, only plan time counts, and an estimate bigger than what's left puts the ticket under Needs you.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
Small fixes the plan covers, monthly checks and favors are logged too, and the report lists them under Not counted, next to the requests they belong to.
Each time entry is plan, no charge, included fix or monthly check. Only plan time reduces the balance; the report groups the rest by kind and request.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
Each client's logo and three colors. The report page prints to PDF, and the email brings the headline numbers and a short In short.
The desk half (hours, what changed, waiting on you, not counted) is computed fresh when the page opens. My half (Google, AI assistants, site health, next month) is saved per month and carried forward as a draft, reviewed, then sent to every active contact.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
A private table compares each client's real hours over the last full months with every plan, including what extra hours would cost.
Last three and six full months, plan price plus extra time at $125 an hour against each tier, with the Topicweave tier left out. The same tab has the year in review and an effective hourly rate that counts the free time.
Switch Crew level to Engineer for the technical breakdown.
What the site does for the people who run it and the people who visit it.
Every request carries its source (form, email or tracker) and gets the same confirmation either way.
Status changes are timeline events; the client page shows the visible ones, my private notes stay private.
Meters turn amber, orange and red as the month fills; an estimate over what's left flags the ticket.
Not counted is grouped by kind (no charge, included fixes, monthly checks) with the requests it belongs to.
Suggest from this month drafts the In short from desk data; I edit it before it goes out.
Everything this mission delivered, planned and mocked up in Figma first, then built.
A live desk at desk.barajasdsgn.com: a private form link per client, status pages, eight automatic emails, email intake through Google Workspace, an installable tracker and monthly reports in each client's brand.
Platform · Year
Where it lives
ways to send a request: the form, an email, or just telling me
passwords for clients: the links in their emails are the key
minutes at most from an email to a numbered ticket
automatic emails, so nobody has to ask where things stand
Every tool this mission ran on. Pull one out of orbit and let go; it finds its way back.
Tools in orbit
