- Architects Industry Specialists · QuickBooks Certified · Free Health Check ($500 Value)
Bookkeeping & Accounting Services Built Specifically For Architects
From tracking billable hours across multiple design phases to managing project profitability on retainer and fixed fee contracts, your architecture firm needs a bookkeeper who actually understands how design practices operate. We handle your QuickBooks, project accounting, and financial reporting so you can focus on designing great buildings and growing your firm.
Not Sure If Your Project Finances Are Tracked Right?
Most architecture firms are losing thousands every year because their books do not track profitability by project phase or contract type. Our free QuickBooks assessment shows exactly where your profit is hiding across schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction administration.
We will connect with you ASAP. No spam. No pressure.
Why Most Bookkeepers Fail Architecture Firms
Your architecture firm is not a retail shop or a general contractor. You deal with project based revenue recognition across five AIA defined phases of service, percentage of completion accounting on long duration contracts, reimbursable expense tracking, consultant coordination costs, and cash flow gaps between milestone invoicing and actual collections. A general bookkeeper who has never handled an AIA B101 owner architect agreement or understood the difference between basic services and additional services revenue will cost you more than they save.
Sound like your situation? We built our Architect practice to fix exactly this.
They Do Not Track Revenue by Project Phase
Without income broken down by schematic design, design development, construction documents, bidding and negotiation, and construction administration, you have no idea which phase of service actually generates profit. You might be undercharging on CD production while your CA phase carries the entire project margin.
Architecture firms typically run on 8%–15% profit margins. When profits drop below that, the issue is rarely just pricing or workload. More often, it’s poor financial visibility. Without clean bookkeeping, you can’t see where profit is leaking.
They Mishandle Percentage of Completion Accounting
Architecture projects often span 12 to 36 months. When your bookkeeper uses simple cash basis accounting on a fixed fee contract, your revenue recognition is wildly inaccurate month to month. You need percentage of completion or completed contract method reporting that matches earned revenue to actual design effort delivered.
They Cannot Separate Billable Hours from Non Billable Overhead
Your principals, project architects, designers, interns, and administrative staff all have different billing rates and utilization targets. When your bookkeeper does not track billable vs. non billable time by employee classification, you cannot calculate your effective multiplier, your utilization rate, or your net revenue per labor hour. These are the metrics that determine whether your firm is profitable.
They Ignore Reimbursable Expense Tracking
Plotting costs, model making materials, travel to job sites, permit application fees, renderings from outside visualization studios, and consultant coordination expenses need separate tracking as reimbursable costs that get invoiced back to the client. A bookkeeper who buries these in general overhead is giving away money you contractually earned.
They Miss the Tax Deductions You Earned
Section 179 deductions on workstations, plotters, and 3D printers. Software subscription deductions for Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino, and Adobe Creative Cloud. Professional development and AIA continuing education credits. Professional liability insurance premiums. A bookkeeper who does not know these exist is leaving money on your tax return.
OUR SERVICES
Specialized Bookkeeping & Financial Services for Architecture Firms
We don’t just record your transactions. We build a QuickBooks system that gives you real financial visibility into every part of your HVAC operation. From job costing to seasonal forecasting to technician productivity, every number tells you something useful.
Project Based Accounting by Phase of Service
We set up your QuickBooks chart of accounts specifically for architecture firms. Every project gets tracked by AIA phase: schematic design, design development, construction documents, bidding and negotiation, and construction administration. You see gross profit by project, by phase, by client sector, and by contract type so you know exactly where your firm makes and loses money.
Consultant Cost and Reimbursable Tracking
Structural engineers, MEP consultants, landscape architects, civil engineers, lighting designers, and acoustic consultants all generate costs that flow through your contracts. We track each consultant invoice against project budgets, manage reimbursable expense categories separately from overhead, and ensure every dollar you are contractually owed gets invoiced back to the client.
Utilization Rate and Effective Multiplier Reporting
We build financial reports that show your firm's utilization rate by employee classification: principals, project managers, project architects, designers, and interns. You see your effective billing multiplier, your break even multiplier, and your net multiplier so you can benchmark your firm's performance against AIA Firm Survey and PSMJ benchmarking data for architecture practices your size.
Percentage of Completion Revenue Recognition
For fixed fee and stipulated sum contracts that span multiple months or years, we manage percentage of completion accounting in QuickBooks. Revenue is recognized proportionally based on design effort completed, not when invoices are sent or payments received. Your monthly financial statements reflect the actual economic reality of your project portfolio.
Cash Flow Forecasting for Architecture Firms
Architecture firms face predictable cash flow challenges. Milestone billing creates gaps between work performed and payment received. Consultant invoices arrive on different schedules than your client billings. We build 13 week cash flow forecasts that account for your project pipeline, billing milestones, consultant payment obligations, and payroll commitments so you always know your runway.
Tax Ready Financial Statements
Your monthly profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are prepared using architecture industry standard categories that your CPA actually wants to see. We track Section 179 eligible equipment purchases, software subscriptions for Revit and AutoCAD, professional liability insurance, AIA membership dues, and continuing education expenses throughout the year.
FREE ASSESSMENT
Free Architect QuickBooks Health Check — Valued At $500
Is your QuickBooks file actually set up for architecture firm accounting? Most are not. We review your chart of accounts, project tracking structure, timesheet integration, and consultant cost management and deliver a detailed report showing exactly what needs to change so your financial data tells you the truth about every project, every phase, and every team member in your firm.
What The Health Check Covers
- Full review of your chart of accounts for architecture industry alignment
- Project profitability audit across all active and recently completed jobs
- Utilization rate and multiplier analysis by employee classification
- Consultant cost and reimbursable expense tracking review
- Custom action plan with priority fixes ranked by financial impact
Get Your Free Financial Assessment
We'll connect with you ASAP. No spam. No pressure.
HOW IT WORKS
How We Transform Your Architecture Firm Accounting in 4 Steps
Getting started takes less time than you think. We handle the heavy lifting.
1
Free QuickBooks Assessment
We start with a complete review of your current QuickBooks setup. We look at how your chart of accounts is structured, whether your projects are tracked by phase of service, how your timesheet data flows into your accounting, and where your consultant cost and reimbursable tracking breaks down. This takes about 30 minutes and costs you nothing.
2
Custom Architecture Chart of Accounts Build
Based on the assessment, we rebuild your QuickBooks file with a chart of accounts designed specifically for architecture firms. Income accounts broken out by project phase and contract type. Expense categories that separate direct project costs from firm overhead. Consultant cost tracking tied to individual projects. Job templates that make every new commission trackable from proposal through project closeout.
3
Ongoing Monthly Bookkeeping
Every month, we categorize your transactions, reconcile your bank and credit card accounts, process your accounts payable and receivable, and deliver your financial statements by the 15th. We handle the data entry from your consultant invoices, software subscriptions, reimbursable receipts, and timesheet exports from Deltek Ajera, BQE Core, Monograph, or whatever project management platform your firm uses.
4
Financial Reporting and Strategy
You get a monthly profit and loss by project, a cash flow forecast updated for your current project pipeline, and a quarterly review call where we walk through your numbers and identify opportunities to improve margins. We show you which project types are profitable, which phases eat your budget, and where your overhead rate is trending relative to industry benchmarks.
COMPARE
Architect Specialized Bookkeeping vs. Generic Bookkeeping
| Feature | BrightPath CFO | Generic Bookkeeper |
|---|---|---|
| Project tracking by AIA phase | Separate P&L by schematic design, DD, CD, and CA with gross profit per phase |
All project revenue in one line item with no phase level detail |
| Consultant cost tracking | Structural, MEP, civil, and specialty consultant costs tied to individual projects |
Consultant invoices coded to generic expense accounts with no project link |
| Reimbursable expenses | Plotting, travel, permits, and renderings tracked separately and invoiced to clients |
Reimbursable costs buried in general firm overhead |
| Percentage of completion | Revenue recognized proportionally based on design effort delivered |
Cash basis or invoice basis with no alignment to work completed |
| Utilization & Multiplier reporting | Billable hours, utilization, and effective multiplier tracked by employee classification |
No labor productivity metrics or benchmarking data |
| Cash flow forecasting | 13 week forecast adjusted for milestone billing cycles and consultant payment schedules |
No forecasting or generic templates without architecture context |
| Architecture chart of accounts | Custom accounts matching AIA Firm Survey and PSMJ benchmarking categories |
Generic chart of accounts from QuickBooks default template |
| Software & Equipment | Section 179 tracking for plotters, workstations, and 3D printers plus software categorization |
Basic depreciation with no industry specific asset categorization |
CLIENT RESULTS
What Business Owners Say About BrightPath CFO
Chad is wonderful to work with! He is a QuickBooks expert, very friendly, responsive, and goes the extra mile. Highly recommend!!
Samantha Pettie
Service Company, Maryland
Chad is an excellent communicator and Quickbooks expert! Highly recommend!
Jared Becker
Service Company, Maryland
Chad know books, and he is quick. He’s a Quickbooks wizard!
Stuart McGeady
Service Company, Maryland
PRICING
Outsourced Bookkeeping, Controller & CFO Services Built For Growing Architecture Firms
FOUNDATION
Bookkeeping Services
$399
- Monthly QuickBooks reconciliation and cleanup
- Monthly P&L and Balance Sheet
- Sales tax tracking
- Monthly P&L and Balance Sheet
- Vendor and customer management
- Email support from our certified team
FOUNDATION
Controller Services
$1,199
- Advanced financial reporting and analysis
- Budget vs. actual analysis
- KPI tracking and custom dashboards
- Cash flow forecasting
- Monthly strategy calls
- Accounts receivable and payable management
- Process optimization
STRATEGIC
Fractional CFO Services
Custom
Everything in Bookkeeping, plus:
- Strategic financial planning and road mapping
- Scenario modeling and financial forecasting
- Fundraising and investor relations support
- Pricing strategy analysis
- Weekly executive briefings
- Annual budgeting and planning
- M&A advisory and acquisition support
- Dedicated CFO partner
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Bookkeeping & CFO Services
Why do architecture firms need specialized bookkeeping instead of a general bookkeeper?
Architecture firms operate on project based revenue models with multiple phases of service, consultant coordination costs, reimbursable expenses, and long duration contracts that require percentage of completion accounting. A general bookkeeper typically does not know how to set up QuickBooks for phase based project tracking or how to calculate utilization rates and effective multipliers. The result is financial data that cannot tell you whether your construction document phase is actually profitable or whether your schematic design fees are subsidizing every project.
How do you track profitability across different phases of architectural service?
We set up separate income and expense classes in QuickBooks for each AIA defined phase of service. Schematic design gets its own revenue and cost tracking. Design development, construction documents, bidding and negotiation, and construction administration are each isolated. Every labor hour logged by your team and every direct cost assigned to a project gets allocated to the correct phase. After a few completed projects, you see exactly which phases generate profit and which consistently run over budget.
Do you integrate with architecture project management software?
Yes. We work with the QuickBooks integrations built into Deltek Ajera, BQE Core, Monograph, Harvest, and other project management and time tracking platforms used by architecture firms. We reconcile the timesheet and expense data that syncs from your PM software into QuickBooks, fix miscategorized transactions, and ensure your project cost tracking stays accurate as new time entries and invoices flow in.
How do you handle consultant costs that flow through our contracts?
We create separate expense subcategories in QuickBooks for each consultant discipline: structural engineering, MEP engineering, civil engineering, landscape architecture, lighting design, acoustics, and other specialty consultants. Each invoice gets coded to the correct project and consultant category. We track consultant costs against your project budgets so you know your pass through markup and whether you are staying within the consultant allowance defined in your owner architect agreement.
How quickly can you get our books caught up if they are behind?
Most architecture firm catch up projects take two to four weeks depending on how far behind your books are. We prioritize getting your bank reconciliations current, then rebuild your project tracking structure, and finally recategorize historical transactions so your financial statements are accurate going back to the start of the current fiscal year.
Can you help us understand our utilization rate and multiplier?
That is exactly what our reporting system is designed to show you. After two to three months of clean data with timesheet integration, you will see utilization rates by employee classification and your firm’s effective billing multiplier. Most firm owners are surprised to learn their actual utilization sits between 55% and 65% when the AIA benchmark target is closer to 65% to 70% for a healthy practice. This data drives staffing decisions, fee negotiations, and overhead reduction strategies.
Do you work with our CPA at tax time?
Yes. We deliver tax ready financial statements to your CPA, including a clean profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and supporting schedules for depreciation, software subscriptions, professional liability insurance, and Section 179 deductions. We coordinate directly with your CPA so they have everything they need without chasing you for documents during tax season.
Service Areas
Serving Maryland & Beyond
Don’t see your area listed? Contact us — we work with businesses nationwide.
FAQ
Financial Insights for Growing Businesses
LET'S TALK
Ready to Get Financial Reporting You Can Actually Use?
Stop guessing and start running your business with accurate financial statements, monthly insights and tax-ready books. Schedule a free accounting assessment and find out exactly what your business needs.
Get Your Free Financial Assessment
We will connect with you ASAP. No spam. No pressure.