Most architecture practices agree their fees stage by stage. Then many of them track time against one project code and invoice in round numbers when it feels about right. The result is familiar: a stage that quietly ran over, an invoice that went out late, and a director who only finds out a job lost money once it has closed.
Running time tracking and invoicing per RIBA stage fixes that. This guide shows how to set it up, what to watch at each stage, and the mistakes that cost practices the most margin.
The RIBA Plan of Work 2020 is the framework most UK practices use to structure a project, from the first conversation to the building in use. These are the eight stages, with what is worth tracking at each.
| Stage | What happens | What to track |
|---|---|---|
| 0 Strategic Definition | The client's business case and strategic brief | Time spent before a fee is agreed, so you know what winning the work really costs |
| 1 Preparation and Briefing | Project brief, feasibility studies, budget and programme | Feasibility hours against the stage fee; surveys and other disbursements |
| 2 Concept Design | Concept options agreed with the client | Design iterations: this is where extra rounds of changes eat the fee |
| 3 Spatial Coordination | The design is coordinated with engineers and other consultants | Coordination time, and planning work if your appointment includes it |
| 4 Technical Design | Detailed design and information for construction | Usually the largest share of hours; watch burn by grade, not just total |
| 5 Manufacturing and Construction | Building on site | Site visits, queries and inspections; long programmes need monthly billing |
| 6 Handover | The building is handed over and the contract concluded | Close-out time and any defects work |
| 7 Use | The building in use, including post-occupancy evaluation | Aftercare, often billed hourly as an additional service |
A project-level total only tells you how much time went in. Stage-level tracking tells you where it went, while you can still act on it.
Take the fee from your appointment and divide it across the stages you have been appointed for. Base the split on your own past projects where you can. For example, a practice might split a £100,000 fee across Stages 2 to 6 like this: Stage 2 £15,000, Stage 3 £20,000, Stage 4 £35,000, Stage 5 £25,000, Stage 6 £5,000. That split is only an illustration: yours should reflect the type of project and how your practice works.
For each stage, also note the hours that fee pays for at your blended rate. That is the number your team will actually manage against.
Set up each stage as a phase in your timesheet system, so staff pick the project and the stage in one step. Keep it to the stages and a small number of activities: if people have to choose from 40 codes, they will pick the first one.
Make sure it is quick. Timesheets that take a few clicks a day get filled in; timesheets that take twenty minutes on a Friday get guessed.
Fee burn is the share of the stage fee you have used, compared with how far through the stage you are. Once a week, look at every live stage:
Most practices use one of three methods, and many use all three on the same project:
Add disbursements and expenses to the same invoice, so they are not forgotten or billed months later.
Client changes after sign-off are where stage fees leak most. When work falls outside the agreed scope, give it its own line, agree it with the client, and log time against it separately. That way it is billed, and your stage figures stay honest for the next fee proposal.
Work in progress (WIP) is the value of work done but not yet invoiced. Look at it across every live project each month: high WIP on one job usually means an invoice is overdue or a stage has run over. Directors should be able to see this without asking someone to build a spreadsheet.
Milient Project Flow is built for architecture and engineering practices that work on fixed fees and stages. You can:
That means one place for the stage plan, the timesheets and the invoices, instead of a timesheet tool, a spreadsheet and your accounts package that have to be reconciled by hand.