Architecture Firm Software: Projects, Timesheets and Fee Invoicing

An architecture practice sells its time in stages, over months or years. A house runs from concept through permit drawings to site supervision. The fee is agreed at the start, but revisions, client meetings and site visits eat into it quietly. By the time the building is on site, nobody is sure whether the job made money, and the second fee instalment is late because nobody sent the invoice when the design stage closed.

You don't need more drawing tools; you already have CAD and a folder structure you trust. What most practices lack is the business side in one place: enquiries, live commissions, the team's hours and which fee stages have been billed. Here is how Saauzi handles that, and where it stops.

What software an architecture firm actually needs

• An enquiry pipeline with the proposed fee and the next follow-up.
• A record for each commission with a fixed fee or hourly rate, a budget, dates and a way to pause it while approvals hold things up.
• Timesheets across every project, including unpaid work such as competition entries.
• Fee invoices by stage with your tax and PAN/VAT, tracked until paid.
• Staff, interns, leave and hiring, plus a cash book that matches the bank.

Our plain-English guide to ERP for small businesses explains how one system covers that list.

How Saauzi's apps fit a practice

When you sign up and choose architecture firm as your industry, Saauzi switches on Projects, CRM, HRM and Cashbook. Other apps can be installed from the hub later.

Projects: one project per commission

Create a project for the client with a fixed price for the agreed fee, a budget, and start and due dates. While drawings wait on municipal approval, set the status to on hold. If the client asks for work outside the agreed scope, a separate hourly project keeps those extra services apart from the fixed fee.

Each fee stage becomes a task on the board (to do, in progress, done), assigned to the architect responsible with a due date. A hypothetical split for a house:

When a stage closes, raise a numbered invoice from the project for that instalment, with any discount and your taxes, and track it from draft to sent to paid. It prints your practice's name, address and PAN/VAT.

Timesheets: where the fee actually goes

Everyone logs hours against the project and task, marked billable or non-billable. On a fixed fee, the timesheet shows when revisions are eating a stage's hours, while there is still time to agree revision rounds with the client. Log competition entries as non-billable so the effort stays visible. The Saauzi Projects guide covers the details.

CRM: from enquiry to commission

Each enquiry is a lead with contact, company, source, deal value (the proposed fee), owner and expected close date. You set the stages, for example Enquiry, Site visit, Fee proposal sent, then Won or Lost. Log the site visit as a meeting, add a follow-up call as a task, and see every open proposal on the board.

HRM and Cashbook

HRM holds departments, employee profiles with employment type, including intern for architecture students on placement, and leave requests a partner approves or rejects. Openings for a junior architect go on a public careers page, and applicants move from applied through interview to hired or rejected. Cashbook records fee receipts and expenses such as plotting, site travel and software licences, reconciled daily.

A hypothetical month at a five-person studio

Say you have a fixed fee of NPR 900,000 for a three-storey house, budgeted at 350 hours.

• Week 1: the client signs off the concept after a third revision. The timesheet shows 70 hours against 45 planned, so you agree a limit on revisions for the next stage, then raise the concept invoice for NPR 135,000 plus VAT.
• Week 2: permit drawings go in and the project moves to on hold. The team shifts to an hourly café fit-out.
• Week 3: a school board enquires about a hostel block. You add a lead at NPR 2,400,000.
• Week 4: the concept fee arrives by bank transfer. You mark the invoice paid, record it in Cashbook, approve an intern's exam leave and move two applicants to interview.

A checklist for choosing practice software

1. Does it handle fixed fees and hourly work?
2. Can you pause a project while approvals are pending?
3. Can you invoice stage by stage, with your tax and PAN/VAT?
4. Does it handle interns and part-time staff, and their leave?

Where Saauzi fits and where it doesn't

Saauzi fits small and mid-sized practices that run fees, hours and enquiries in spreadsheets today. It does not replace your technical tools:

• No drawings or document management. It doesn't store or version drawings, issue transmittals or keep revision registers.
• No estimates, BOQs or material take-offs. Cost planning stays with your quantity surveyor or spreadsheet.
• No site diaries, and no connection to CAD or BIM software.
• No client portal or e-signatures.
• No payroll or attendance. Salary sits on the profile, but staff are paid outside Saauzi.
• Cashbook is not full accounting. Your accountant keeps the books and files VAT returns.

What it costs

Your first app is free forever. One flat subscription unlocks every Saauzi app: NPR 1,500 per user per month or NPR 12,000 per user per year (US$20 or US$200 internationally). A five-person studio on monthly billing would pay NPR 7,500 (US$100) a month. See the pricing page.

FAQ

Can Saauzi bill fees stage by stage?

Yes. Raise an invoice from the project as each stage closes and track it until paid.

Can I store drawings in Saauzi?

No. Keep drawings in your existing file system. Saauzi handles the fee, the hours and the team around them.

Does it prepare cost estimates or BOQs?

No. There are no estimates, BOQs or take-offs.

If your fees, hours and enquiries live in three spreadsheets, bring them together and see which stages have been billed. Find out what Saauzi sets up for architecture firms, and start with one app free.