Software for architecture practices, from the first sketch to the final certificate
An architecture practice is three businesses wearing one name: a design studio, a document-control operation, and — in most of the world — a construction supervision consultancy. Software written for only the first of those leaves the other two in spreadsheets, which is where practices lose fees they have already earned.
What a practice has to keep straight, in the order it happens
- 01Win the work: proposals, fee schedules and what was promised
- 02Move it through stages, with deliverables owed at each one
- 03Author, revise and issue drawings — with a record of every issue
- 04Get the client's approval in writing, attached to the revision approved
- 05Measure and price, where the practice also prepares the bill
- 06Supervise the site, where the practice also supervises
- 07Invoice the stage, collect the fee, and know what the project cost in staff time
What actually changes on the Monday after
- Drawing revisions live in WhatsApp and someone builds the old one
- The BOQ is a spreadsheet nobody dares to re-open
- Approvals are agreed on a call and remembered differently
- Nobody can say what a project has actually earned this month
- Every question starts with “who has the latest file?”
- One drawing register — revisions and transmittals with a history
- Take-off to BOQ to purchase order, all on the same numbers
- The client approves the revision, in writing, on the portal
- Stage fees and receivables come out of the work itself
- One project, one truth — VO answers before you ask
The part most practice software gets wrong
Most established practice-management software assumes an architect who designs, hands over and bills by the hour. Across South Asia, the Gulf and much of the rest of the world the same practice supervises construction and earns a second fee for it. If the software cannot hold a design fee and a supervision fee on one project, that second fee is tracked in a spreadsheet and, reliably, under-billed. Why generic accounting mishandles a practice covers the accounting half of this.
Where to start, depending on what hurts
| What is going wrong | Start here |
|---|---|
| Somebody built the wrong revision | Drawing management |
| Approvals are remembered differently | Client portal |
| Stages slip and the fee slips with them | Practice management |
| We prepare bills and re-type them for the contractor | BOQ |
| The books are a month behind and the supervision fee is missing | Accounting |
| We cannot say what a project cost us in staff time | HR |
What a practice usually adds
Almost every practice starts with Ofivio AEC on its own: Studio, Manager, HR and Finance. Practices that prepare bills add the Planning & QS module. Practices that supervise add the Build module. Double-entry books come with the Accountant module, usually when the principal gets tired of being the bookkeeper. Nothing has to be bought in advance — modules are bought inside Ofivio from OfiMart and add departments to the same workspace, so the projects and people already there stay put.
Who this is not for
If you are on this list, Ofivio is the wrong purchase and we would rather you know now than in month three.
- Sole practitioners with one or two live projects — the honest answer is that a folder and an invoice template are still enough
- Practices looking for CAD or BIM authoring, or model coordination
- Firms whose entire billing model is hourly time-sheets and nothing else
- Studios that never issue drawings outside the office
The products behind this
Questions people actually ask
We are five people. Is this too much system?
Do we have to buy every module?
Does it work if we also supervise construction?
Keep reading
- Practice management for architects, built around the stages the work moves throughSolutions
- Drawing management where a revision has a reason, an author and a paper trailSolutions
- A client portal that produces a record, without making the client learn softwareSolutions
- BOQ software where the bill is data, not a spreadsheet with a nicer borderSolutions
- The best architectural practice management software in 2026Comparisons
- Practice management software for architecture firms in PakistanRegion
- From concept to handover: the design stages, and why your software should know themDesign
- Ofivio AEC, explained: one product for architects, engineers and contractorsProducts
- Can you run an architecture practice on a generic project tool?Comparisons
- The new Ofivio, explained: three products, what each plan carries, and where the old products wentCompany
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