For architecture practices, time is the most valuable resource, and the one that always seems to run out first. Architects juggle design work, client meetings, and deadlines, all while handling mountains of admin and project coordination. The result is late nights, shrinking margins, and missed opportunities for growth.
In independent and growing practices, where one person often wears many hats, every lost hour is critical. Time spent chasing documents, updating spreadsheets, or resolving project misunderstandings is time taken away from design and clients.
Watch this webinar to see how Stephen George + Partners LLP manage to save their time efficiently.
A large share of wasted hours comes from repetitive admin tasks: spreadsheets, emails, and manual resourcing that drain productivity. Scope creep and unclear deliverables make matters worse, as projects expand without clear agreements on time and fees. Without visibility into budgets and progress, teams often discover problems too late, and disconnected tools only add to the double work.
This isn’t just a minor inconvenience. It’s a profession-wide issue. According to RIBA’s Workplace Conditions and Wellbeing 2025 report:
For practices with limited resources, the pressure is even greater. Every lost hour compounds the problem, adding to longer working days, tighter margins, and increased stress. Inefficiency doesn’t just cost money, it costs people.
Kari Liljebäck, Administraton Manager at HLM Architects
When time slips away, the impact is felt across the entire business. Projects run into delays, creating frustration for clients. Teams are stretched thin, leading to stress and burnout. With so many hours unaccounted for, profitability takes a direct hit. In a competitive market, these pressures can limit a firm’s ability to grow and take on the projects they really want.
Certain activities or clients naturally require more time, but with better visibility into workload and profitability, practices can make more informed decisions. Having an easy way to plan projects, from resourcing to scheduling, means you’re less likely to overwork existing staff or scramble to recruit at the last minute. Better planning upfront creates greater efficiency and saves time overall.
It’s also far more expensive to rework tasks than to get them right the first time. Every time a drawing or report needs to be redone, hours are lost. With clearer workflows and accessible project data, firms can spot potential issues sooner and prevent wasted effort.
Tom Ternoot, Partner & Managing Director at PM Architects
1. Joined-up approach
Reduce the duplication of effort and fragmentation of key project information. Centralising the core project management in one system reduces errors and saves time to focus on valuable tasks including fee earning activities.
Your system should be design specifically for architects and should include:
2. Monitor Profitability Per Project Type
Have real-time data you can trust which gives an accurate view of performance against targets for different project types such as by sectors, clients, and services.
Use these insights to:
3. Bill Promptly
Delays in invoicing can be unnecessarily damaging to cashflow, especially when some clients can be slower to pay.
Instead issue invoices immediately based on agreed completion of tasks or milestones. Consider reducing payment terms and create an escalation process for tackling debtors early.
4. Track Actual vs Estimated Hours
It’s easy for time to go on unforeseen work. Tracking hours gives insight into whether your pricing and estimates are realistic across your team.
It is therefore important to secure accurate timesheets consistently on projects which enables the comparison of estimated vs. actual time per phase.
On live projects which are over budget, use this information early to determine whether any actions are available to improve the situation.
For future projects refine proposals and improve forecasting accuracy.
5. Plan for success
Project plans should be joined-up and give useful information for different purposes from an individual’s current week, upcoming project deadlines for the month ahead, and the longer-term practice-level view.
Visibility of longer-term resource plans gives greater understanding of capacity to avoid overload, ensure the coordination of the team to the requirements of projects, and offers a clearer picture of recruitment needs.
Resource plans also provide valuable forecast costs to complete the project and the overall estimated profit.