Software for small architecture firms: from schematic design to CA billing

A custom house can take a year and a half from first sketch to certificate of occupancy, and the fee arrives in pieces: a retainer, then schematic design, design development, construction documents and months of construction administration billed while the contractor builds. Between those invoices the owners change their minds about the kitchen, the contractor asks which CD set is current, and nobody remembers what was approved at the DD review. In a one- to three-person firm, that's where the admin hours go.

AIA phases and fee methods

AIA's B101 owner-architect agreement organizes basic services in five phases: schematic design, design development, construction documents, procurement (bidding or negotiation) and construction, the phase most firms call CA. Its compensation section has fill-ins for a stipulated sum or a percentage basis, and room for another method such as hourly billing rates. In the 2017 edition the percentage is a share of the owner's budget for the cost of the work, and AIA explains that progress payments already made aren't adjusted when that budget changes later. For custom homes, AIA publishes B110, a residential agreement adapted from B101 that adds prompts for consumer-protection and lien-law provisions.

SoloWOS doesn't write or license AIA documents. Complete the agreement in AIA Contract Documents, export it as a PDF and send it through E-Signatures; the phase split you agreed to becomes the line items of your proposal and your invoices.

A residential project, step by step

1. The owners fill out your project inquiry form: new house, addition or renovation; lot size; the square footage they want; construction budget; when they hope to break ground. If they pick renovation, a conditional question asks the year the house was built. On submit, they go straight to your booking page.
2. They book a 90-minute "Site visit and programming" meeting type with an hour of buffer on each side for the drive. The address is a required booking question, because each meeting type has one fixed location.
3. You send a proposal with one line per phase and your fee split, for example 15% schematic design, 20% design development, 40% construction documents, 5% bidding and 20% CA on a stipulated sum. The retainer goes in as the deposit percentage, the proposal expires in 30 days, and additional services get their own line at your hourly rate.
4. On acceptance, the proposal creates a signature request for the agreement PDF: both owners sign in order, then you.
5. The retainer invoice is created from the accepted proposal. When each phase closes, create its invoice in Invoicing (duplicate the last one and change the line). CA goes on an invoice that repeats monthly and ends after the number of months in the construction schedule, say 10.
6. Schematic options and DD plans go to the owners for approval in their client portal. They pin a comment on the wall they want moved, or approve a version with their name. Files can be PNG, JPG, WebP or PDF up to 25 MB, with up to 50 versions kept in the history.
7. The CD set goes out through Document Tracking as a PDF of up to 25 MB, with the viewer's email and the date stamped on every page. When revision 2 is issued, revoke the old link and the contractor can't open the superseded set anymore.

A typical week

• Monday: two inquiries from the weekend. A couple with a sloped lot already booked Thursday's site visit from the form.
• Tuesday: you upload version 3 of the second-floor plan. By lunch the owners have pinned a comment on the stair and approved the primary suite.
• Wednesday: an addition client gets the DD invoice and pays it by card that evening.
• Thursday: site visit, 90 minutes plus the drive. Back at the office you record a 4-minute walkthrough of the model for an owner who lives out of state.
• Friday: the monthly CA invoice for the Elm Street house went out on its own, and Document Tracking shows the contractor opened revision B twice.

All 13 tools, one by one

How an architect uses each tool, in the order a project meets them:

• Link in Bio: a page with three finished projects, your inquiry form and your state license number, linked from your Instagram and Houzz profiles.
• Short Links: a QR code on the job-site sign that opens your project page; if you rebuild the page, change where the link points and keep the sign.
• Forms: the project questionnaire with lot size, budget and questions that appear only for additions or renovations, so the site visit starts with half the program written.
• Scheduling: the site visit with drive-time buffers and the address as a required question, plus a separate meeting type for SD and DD review meetings at your office.
• Proposals: one line per phase with your fee split, the retainer as a deposit percentage, an expiration date and additional services at your hourly rate.
• E-Signatures: the owner-architect agreement exported as a PDF and signed by both owners in order, plus phase sign-off letters. Solo includes 15 signature requests a month.
• Document Tracking: CD sets and permit drawings as PDFs up to 25 MB, watermarked with the viewer's email, with the old revision's link revoked the day the new one is issued.
• Screen Recording: a walkthrough of up to 5 minutes on Solo through the model or the plan set, for the owner who can't make the review meeting; they comment at the second they have a question.
• Notes & Boards: minutes from each owner-architect-contractor meeting and a board per project with the RFIs and submittals you owe an answer on, each with a due date.
• Time Tracking: a timer on a project per phase, so you learn whether the DD fee covered the hours before you quote the next house at the same percentage.
• Invoicing: the retainer from the proposal, a phase invoice when each phase closes and CA on a monthly repeating invoice, paid by card through your Stripe account or by bank transfer with the details you list.
• Expenses: plotting and printing, drives to sites, consultant fees and software subscriptions, each with the receipt photo, plus profit for the month.
• Automations: if the CD-phase proposal hasn't been accepted 5 days after you sent it, a follow-up email; anyone who already accepted is skipped.

SoloWOS or HoneyBook: which fits

Choose HoneyBook or Dubsado if:

• You want one invoice to carry a payment schedule that bills itself in parts. SoloWOS needs a separate invoice per payment.
• You want long, multi-step workflows that run a whole project (Dubsado is known for them) or a native mobile app with QuickBooks Online sync (HoneyBook).
• Your firm has employees and needs project accounting and staff utilization: look at architecture practice-management software instead, and check their sites.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You share CD sets and want to know who opened which revision, and to shut off the old one.
• Card payments should land in your own Stripe account.
• You want hours per phase, plan approvals and recorded walkthroughs in the same account as the proposal and the invoice.

SoloWOS features checked on October 23, 2026. HoneyBook and Dubsado rows come from their own pages, as summarized in our HoneyBook and Dubsado comparisons; check their sites for current prices.

Start with these three

Proposals with one template per project type and your phase split, E-Signatures for the owner agreement, and Document Tracking for the first CD set. Plan approvals in the client portal come next, once a client has two options to pick from.

Free tools that help

• Project cost calculator to turn hours per phase into a stipulated sum.
• Profit margin calculator after consultants, renderings and printing.
• Freelance rate calculator for the hourly rate on additional services.
• Mileage deduction calculator for site visits and CA observations.
• QR code generator for the job-site sign (point it at a short link).

What SoloWOS won't do for an architect

• No CAD or BIM: SoloWOS doesn't open DWG, RVT or SKP files. Export to PDF what the owner or the contractor needs to see.
• No AIA documents, no review of the contractor's pay applications and no construction cost estimating.
• Storage is 5 GB on Solo, so keep models and the project archive in your own storage.
• No project accounting with staff utilization or earned value; the time report shows hours by project and client.
• Owners can't upload files to the portal or through a form, so surveys and old drawings arrive by email.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.