ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING

Bill by project phase without losing the fee to unbilled effort

  • Bill each phase - schematic through construction administration - against its own fee
  • See percent-complete and fee burn per phase, not just for the whole project
  • Staff architects, structural, MEP, and civil from one capacity view
  • Track sub-consultant costs and reimbursables against the contracted allowance
  • Flag revision rounds that run past the contracted scope before they are absorbed
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Phase Billing Status

Riverbend Civic Center
Schematic Design
Fee $84,000 · Lead: A. Baugh
Billed 100%
Design Development
Fee $126,000 · Lead: R. Okafor
Billed 100%
Construction Documents
Fee $210,000 · Lead: R. Okafor
68% complete
Construction Administration
Fee $98,000 · Not started
Scheduled
Fee vs. Effort4% Under Fee
How A&E Firms Actually Bill

Phase fees, hourly overages, and reimbursables - tracked in one ledger

A design contract is rarely one number. It is a percentage fee split across phases, hourly rates for additional services, sub-consultant costs passed through at cost or with a markup, and a reimbursable allowance for printing, permits, and travel. CrmLeaf PSA holds the fee for each phase separately, logs time once per task, and routes it to the phase fee, the hourly overage, or the reimbursable line - so the project manager sees fee burn per phase rather than one blended number at the end.

Where Design Fees Slip

Six places phase fees and design effort quietly slip

PainEffort is tracked for the whole project, so a phase can overrun its fee while the project still looks profitable.
SolutionEach phase carries its own fee and budget, with burn tracked against that phase as timesheets are approved.
PainPercent-complete for an invoice is estimated in a meeting, then reconciled against actual effort weeks later.
SolutionPercent-complete is derived from task progress on the phase, so the billing figure and the delivery figure are the same number.
PainClient-requested revisions past the contracted rounds get absorbed because nobody logged them as additional services.
SolutionRevision rounds are tracked against the contracted count, and effort past it is logged to an additional-services line for billing.
PainSub-consultant invoices arrive after the phase is billed, so the pass-through and markup miss the billing run.
SolutionSub-consultant commitments sit on the phase from the start, so their cost and markup are visible before the invoice is raised.
PainStaffing across architecture, structural, MEP, and civil lives in separate schedules, so double-booking surfaces at the deadline.
SolutionOne capacity view across every discipline, with conflict detection before a deliverable date is committed.
PainReimbursables - printing, permits, travel - are collected at the end and often exceed the allowance unnoticed.
SolutionExpenses post to the project as they happen and track against the contracted reimbursable allowance.
Modules Used

Built from the CrmLeaf PSA modules architecture and engineering firms use most

Project & Milestone ManagementTime Tracking & TimesheetsResource & Staff SchedulingClient Billing & InvoicingContracts & ProposalsClient Portal
100%
Of phases with fee burn visible before invoicing
31%
Reduction in unbilled additional-services effort
2 days
Average time-to-invoice after phase sign-off
90 days
Forward capacity visibility across every discipline
FAQ

Questions architecture and engineering firms ask

Common questions from design practices about phase billing and multi-discipline resourcing.

Industries We Serve

Built for service businesses with different delivery models

From IT and consulting to legal and accounting firms, CrmLeaf PSA adapts to how your teams plan work, allocate resources, and bill clients across recurring and project-based engagements.

IT & Managed Services

Manage SLA-based delivery, recurring retainers, and technical projects in one pipeline.

SLA Ready

Consulting & Advisory

Coordinate consultants, utilization, and milestone billing across multi-client programs.

Advisory Flow

Marketing & Creative Agencies

Track campaigns, revisions, and retainers while keeping client approvals in one portal.

Campaign Ops

Audit, Tax & Accounting

Plan seasonal workloads, monitor deadlines, and bill mixed fixed-fee and hourly engagements.

Compliance Focus

Legal Firms

Manage case timelines, client communication, and matter-based billing with full audit trails.

Matter Tracking

Staffing Agencies

Handle recruiter pipelines, contractor allocations, and multi-client staffing engagements with confidence.

Placement Ops

Architecture & Engineering

Bill each design phase against its own fee and staff across disciplines without conflicts.

Phase Billing
See how each business model uses CrmLeaf PSA

Stop absorbing design effort the fee never covered.

Start your 14-day free trial and see fee burn, phase progress, and discipline capacity in one platform.

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