In this article
Architects bill four ways: a fixed fee, hourly, a percentage of construction cost, or by completed phase. Most engagements use a blend, and the blend is where firms lose money without noticing.
Percentage of fee looks simple. Split the fee across phases, invoice each phase as it completes. The complexity is entirely in what "completes" means.
Fix the split at the contract, not at the invoice
The fee split should be agreed once, in the contract, and never renegotiated silently at billing time.
An illustrative split, not an industry benchmark:
| Stage | Share of fee |
|---|---|
| Preparation and brief | 5% |
| Concept design | 15% |
| Spatial coordination | 20% |
| Technical design | 30% |
| Manufacturing and construction | 20% |
| Handover and use | 10% |
The percentages matter less than the fact that they are written down before work starts. A split invented at the point of invoicing is a negotiation, and you will lose it more often than you win it.
Decide what triggers an invoice
This is the part that goes wrong. There are three defensible triggers and one indefensible one.
- Phase marked complete. Clean, unambiguous, and it is the one to default to.
- Deliverable issued. Good where the phase has a single clear output.
- Percentage complete, assessed. Necessary for long phases, but somebody has to make an honest assessment.
- Hours burned against the phase budget. This is the indefensible one, because it bills your inefficiency to the client.
Track the overrun even though you cannot bill it
You still need to see it. A phase priced at 30% of the fee that consumed 45% of the effort is telling you something about how you priced, and the only way to price the next one better is to have the number.
This is the argument for logging time against phases even on fixed fee work, where the hours do not appear on any invoice. They are not for billing. They are for pricing the next project.
Handle variations as their own phase
When scope changes, resist adjusting an existing phase percentage. Add a variation as a new line with its own fee and its own trigger.
It keeps the original split honest, it makes the conversation with the client concrete, and at the end of the job you can see what you were paid for the work you agreed against the work you were asked for later.
What to expect from software
Any tool worth using should let you define phases, assign a fee share to each, log time against a phase, and raise an invoice from a phase without retyping the amount.
Rizqo does that. Each phase has its own amount and progress percentage, hours log against phases, and an invoice is assembled from phase progress and unbilled time rather than rebuilt by hand. Architecture billing software describes the full flow. When a proposal is accepted, the project opens prefilled with its title, client and value, and the phases are set up on the project. What Rizqo will not do is tell you the margin on a phase, because that needs staff cost data and Rizqo does not hold any.