Billing software for architecture owners

Architecture billing software

Your milestone billing is only cashflow if the milestones actually bill on time. Smarfle holds the phase structure on the project so each one raises on completion, and keeps retainer clients on their own monthly cadence.

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Smarfle · Architecture Recurring Billing
Next 30 days

$8,420

Active subscriptions

47

Upcoming auto-charges

Acme Office Park

Monthly maintenance

$485

in 3 days

Riverside Apartments

Quarterly service

$1,200

in 12 days

Downtown Plaza

Monthly recurring

$320

in 18 days

West End Hotel

Bi-weekly contract

$680

in 5 days
Auto-charge enabled · Stripe Connect0.5% platform fee

Real Smarfle UI · Live data from your architecture CRM

Why generic billing software fails architecture owners

Generic billing tools weren’t built for architecture. Smarfle was.

Generic billing software

What everyone else gives you

  • A large phase deposit takes a week to arrive as a check
  • Milestones go untracked, so everything bills at the end and cash arrives last
  • Retainer clients are billed inconsistently in the weeks you are busiest

Smarfle for architecture

Built for your actual workflow

  • Phase deposits move by bank transfer, which is what a sum that size should travel on
  • Each phase bills on completion and reports against the project as it goes
  • A monthly arrangement charges the card on file on its own date
Step-by-step

How architecture billing works in Smarfle

From the first touch to the closed loop. No missing pieces.

  1. 1

    The phase structure is agreed at appointment

    What each stage includes and what it is worth is recorded before any drawing starts, so no later charge is a reinterpretation of something.

  2. 2

    The opening deposit clears before work begins

    A request with its own date goes out at signing, so a principal's first week is spent designing rather than waiting on an envelope.

  3. 3

    A phase closing raises its fee

    Completion is what produces the charge, which is the only version where milestone billing actually behaves like cashflow.

  4. 4

    Retainer clients run on a separate rhythm

    An ongoing advisory arrangement charges monthly alongside any project work, so neither of the two ever waits on the other.

  5. 5

    Reimbursables ride on the next charge

    Printing, travel and consultant costs recorded at the point of spend are already on the following document rather than reconstructed at phase end.

Where architecture billing breaks down

The friction every architecture owner recognizes.

✕

A deposit on a large project travels by mail

The engagement is signed and the work cannot reasonably start until something clears. On a project this size that is a week of a principal's time waiting on an envelope.

✕

Retainer clients are billed when there is time

A monthly arrangement raised by hand competes with drawings and deadlines. It goes out late in the months the practice is busiest, which is most of them.

✕

Cashflow follows phases that have no dates

A phase ends when the work ends rather than on the first of a month. With nothing marking that transition, the billing which should follow it simply does not.

The math for architecture owners

60 billing points a year

Twelve live projects at four to six phases each gives roughly 60 moments a year where money should move. Each one currently depends on somebody noticing that a phase closed. Held on the project, the phase completing is what raises the charge, and retainer clients keep their own monthly rhythm alongside it.

12

Live projects

4-6

Phases each

~60

Billing points a year

Based on typical architecture operations. Your numbers may vary.

Features powering architecture billing

Each one a deep-dive in its own right.

Phase fees are quoted and signed

Each phase is an accepted estimate with its own value, so the fee structure is a document both sides hold rather than a clause in a proposal.

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Recorded hours test the fixed fee

Time logged against a phase shows whether a percentage fee covered the work, which is what a fee conversation on the next project needs.

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Drawings and approvals stay on the project

Issued sets, consultant reports and planning correspondence sit on the record, so a reimbursable charge can point at what it paid for.

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Clients follow the account themselves

A client sees phases billed, amounts paid and what is outstanding, which replaces the invoice query that usually arrives at the worst point of a phase.

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Architecture billing software questions

Offer both, with a date attached. Processing fees on a sum like this are not trivial, and waiting on a posted check holds up the start of design work.
Yes, with every phase billing as it closes. It is the only version where the fee arrives near the work, rather than the practice funding several months of drawings.
As a repeating charge on its own date against a card on file. It stops competing with deadlines, which is what makes it late in exactly the months you are busiest.
As its own document against the project when the client approves the extra scope. Absorbed into the next phase it becomes invisible, and invisible work is work you do not get paid for twice.
Yes, as different services with their own rates and their own cadence. They are different work at different intensities, and combining them is how construction administration ends up unbilled.

Moving your architecture billing software off another tool?

Most architecture businesses arrive at Smarfle from one of the tools below. See a side-by-side comparison.

Smarfle vs Smith.aiSmarfle vs CallRailSmarfle vs BrightLocalSmarfle vs GoHighLevel
See all alternatives →

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