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Professional services · Architecture

Stages 0 to 7, on rails.

RIBA stages, drawings, change orders, fee proposals — one stack from feasibility to handover. Practice-friendly, regulator-friendly.

Sole practice · partnerships
RIBA Chartered
Change-order admin per project
Fee realisation, year one
Architects Sole practice · partnerships3–25 staff RIBA Chartered−4.5 hrs Change-order admin per project+12% Fee realisation, year one
The architecture practices stack

Six instruments, calibrated.

RIBA stages, drawings, change orders, fee proposals — one stack from feasibility to handover. Practice-friendly, regulator-friendly.

01 · Stage tracking

Where every project sits, RIBA Stage 0 to 7.

Live board across active projects, by stage, by lead. Where work is pooling, where it's parked — visible without an interrogation.

  • RIBA stage board
  • Per-project lead view
  • Stage-gate sign-offs
  • Monograph, ArchiOffice, custom
02 · Drawings & versions

One source, version-aware, sent to client and contractor.

Drawings live in one place, versions tracked, who-saw-what logged. The contractor gets the right rev; the client signs the latest.

  • Version-controlled drawings
  • Issue log per project
  • Client + contractor delivery
  • Bluebeam, custom + Drive
03 · Fee proposals

Templated, scope-tracked, change-aware.

Proposals built from rate cards and scope catalogues, signed off in writing, tracked against actuals. Fee creep is visible, not retrospective.

  • Proposal templates
  • Scope catalogue
  • Actual vs estimated tracking
  • Custom, BTC
04 · Change orders

Approvals before they hit the model.

Client asks for a tweak — captured, scoped, costed, approved in writing, and only then drawn. The change-order conversation that doesn't happen at handover.

  • Change-order intake
  • Cost + time impact
  • Client e-sign approval
  • Custom workflow, DocuSign
05 · Compliance

RIBA + ARB record-keeping, CDM, building control.

Records the regulator wants — on-going CPD, CDM duties, building-control submissions — kept as you work, not at audit.

  • CPD log per architect
  • CDM duty checklist
  • Building control submissions
  • Custom, Builda
06 · BrainBase

Drawings, specs, supplier rates — searchable across projects.

The practice's design brain, indexed. Past details, supplier rates, specification clauses — retrievable in seconds, owned by the firm.

  • Drawing detail library
  • Spec clause archive
  • Supplier rate card
  • AI-assisted retrieval
Sample engagement

The practice that cut change-order admin to ninety minutes.

Eleven staff. Twenty-six active projects. Change orders in email threads, signed at the end.

A residential practice ran projects in Monograph but tracked change orders in Word docs and email. Three-week build: change-order intake form, cost-and-time impact calculator, e-sign on the iPad before drawing changes. Six months in: change-order admin cut from six hours per project to one and a half, fee realisation up twelve percent, fewer disputes at handover.

How we measure: Change-order admin measured as cumulative time logged against change-order activities per project across 26 active projects; fee realisation = billed / proposed fee, weighted by project value.

−4.5 hrschange-order admin per project
+12%fee realisation, year one
0 disputesat handover, year one
Adjacent industries

Different shape of the same problem.

If your work isn't exactly this, the nearest sectors share the rhythm. Or browse every industry we build for.

Map the practice.

Bring a live project, a fee proposal, and a change-order email thread. We diagnose from the trail.