11 articles
Running an architecture practice
Everything about the running of a practice rather than the designing: how fees are structured and collected, what a variation is and when to claim it, how many projects one architect can actually carry, and what has to exist at handover. The commercial page these support is architecture practice management software.
How many projects can one architect actually run at once?The honest answer is not a number. It is a mix — and a practice can carry twelve projects comfortably or drown in four, depending entirely on which stages they are in.What an architect actually hands over at completionProjects rarely end. They stop being urgent, and the last ten per cent trails for months because nobody wrote down what finishing means.Handling client variations — without becoming the difficult oneEvery practice absorbs changes to protect the relationship. Almost none of them records the absorption, and at year end nobody can say which client cost what.Design fee vs supervision fee: the second fee most practices under-billAcross South Asia and the Gulf the architect usually supervises what they designed. Almost no practice management software was written for that, and the supervision fee pays the price.Should architects fill in timesheets? An honest answerTimesheets are the most resented instrument in professional services and one of the few that answers a question a practice genuinely needs answered.How to run a small architecture practice profitablyMost small practices are not short of work. They are short of the information that would tell them which work is worth having.Percentage, lump sum or hourly — how to price architectural workMost practices pick a fee model once and apply it forever. The model is a risk allocation, and the right allocation changes from project to project.How to structure architect fees by stage — and get paid on timeThe stage fee is the oldest instrument in architecture and the most casually applied. Most practices know the percentages and almost none of them can say what actually triggers the invoice.What a client approval portal actually needs to doApprovals that live in a WhatsApp thread are approvals you cannot prove. Here is what a portal has to do to be worth having, and what to check before buying one.From concept to handover: the design stages, and why your software should know themStages are not bureaucracy — they are how design risk is retired in order. Here is the ladder most projects climb, and what each rung means for drawings, fees and approvals.Getting client approvals in writing — without making the client do paperwork"But we agreed to this in the meeting" is the most expensive sentence in architecture. Approvals are the practice's only protection against free redesign — and they have to be effortless for the client, or they won't happen.
32 minutes of reading in this section.
Other sections
- Drawings, revisions and document control2 articles
- Construction, the site, and getting paid for it4 articles
- Bills of quantities and quantity surveying2 articles
- The money side of a project business2 articles
- People, payroll and the roster1 article
- Property, tenancies and the rent roll1 article
- Choosing software for a project business9 articles
- Building and designing in Pakistan3 articles
- The new Ofivio: three products, explained4 articles
Try it on your own work
Reading about how a practice should run is cheaper than software and slower than trying it. A free trial with your own projects in it answers more in an afternoon than any article.