I wanted to provide an additional resource for my readers on business management software that is geared more towards architects. As many architects know, office software can be very challenging. I incorporated lots of feedback while asking colleagues and digging through the internet for the best solution.
In this article i have collected and tested the tools you will find below. Make sure to try them out.
Monograph – Best for small businesses and small teams
This project management software for architects was created by a group of architects and is used by hundreds of firms, like Workshop APD and JEMA. Features include task management, Gantt charts and timeline visualizations, budget and accounting management, and time tracking.
Monograph is cloud-based and intended purely for project management, so it doesn’t include any design, drafting, or modeling features. It has strong resource planning and forecasting capabilities and is consistently noted as easy to use.
Monograph starts at $45/month per user/month.Visit Website
Deltek Ajera – Best for an all-in-one solution
Built specifically around architecture and engineering best practices, this cloud platform is a robust project-based ERP.
Functionalities include project planning, project management, and Business Intelligence (BI). Deltek Ajera is intended for managing the entire project lifecycle, all the way through invoicing and accounting.
Deltek Ajera is known to have a bit of a learning curve, so it lost a few points in the usability section of the evaluation criteria.
Pricing for Deltek Ajera is available upon request.Visit Website
Taimer – Best for CRM capabilities
Taimer has capabilities in sales, project management, finance and accounting, and BI, which makes it a solid option for keeping all your business software and processes in one place.
Additional features relevant to architects include task management, resource scheduling and management, and document management.
As this tool is not specifically created for architects and architecture firms, not all of the features and functionalities are relevant or useful for architects, and it can take some time to sift through the many features to find the information or feature you are looking for.
Taimer starts at around $15/user/month (€13/user/month).Visit Website
Wrike – Best for mid-size and enterprise organizations
Wrike is a collaborative work management platform designed for creative agencies to plan, manage, and complete work at scale.
Project management features include custom workflows, custom dashboards, process streamlining, and collaboration functionalities such as discussion boards, document management, and version control.
One feature Wrike is missing is billing and invoicing capabilities, although it does have a time tracking tool built-in.
Wrike starts at $9.80 per user per month. Visit Website
Teamwork – Best for resource management and planning
Teamwork is an agency management system with triggers to automate your admin and keep projects moving towards completion. Teamwork is great for project planning and team collaboration right in the software.
The tool’s reporting features are helpful for resource planning as you can see reports on projects and individual tasks, which lends itself to forecasting future resources for projects and tasks.
Teamwork has a steep learning curve, as finding the feature or function you are looking for can be difficult amidst the sheer number of them. Some integrations don’t necessarily provide the value that users may be looking for.
Pricing starts at $10/month for 5 users.Visit Website
TeamGantt – Best for creating and maintaining Gantt charts
TeamGantt is a web-based tool with a simple interface for making Gantt charts that can be easily applied to architecture projects. The tool is to drag and drop, which makes it very usable.
TeamGantt also has features for resource and workload management and collaboration, including the ability to view team workloads at a glance, adjust team member availability, track time, and communicate between team members within the software.
TeamGantt works best for smaller and less complex projects, so you may run into some limitations for more complicated projects with lots of phases and task dependencies, or for projects with more team members involved.
TeamGantt starts at $24.95/month.Visit Website
Monday – Best for automation capabilities
monday.com is an intuitive tool for planning, tracking, and collaborating on projects.
The tool includes a robust set of options for automating repetitive and admin tasks, dashboards for tracking and reporting data, and multiple ways to view tasks and projects, including a timeline view, Kanban board view, and calendar view.
Task management features include setting deadlines and dependencies. The tool also includes file sharing capabilities.
This software is missing a few features that architects rely on, including forecasting for future projects and work; version control, which is critical for design; and billing and invoicing features.
monday.com starts at $14/month.Visit Website
Basecamp – Best for communication and collaboration
Basecamp is a project management and internal communication tool with features like project boards, file storage, and task check-ins.
The tool has many collaboration, document management, and task management features and functions, including to-do lists, message boards, calendars and schedules, file and document storage, and client access options. Its signature hill charts are great for visualizing project progress and noting issues or risks.
Basecamp doesn’t include time tracking or billing features, which may be inconvenient for architectural firms. Also, the tool has very limited direct integration options, although it does offer some through third-party tools such as Zapier.
The Basecamp Business tier costs $99/month.
Hubstaff
Hubstaff is particularly suitable for time tracking and managing productivity. With Hubstaff, architects and engineers can keep track of their projects, while team members can also monitor their working hours from any device- whether they are on or off a job site. It features a project timesheet where these respective data go into. Users can also manage payroll and invoicing from the dashboard.
At the same time, it offers a great means of analyzing and concluding based on the reports provided by the tool. After the project, the project manager or architect can use the task and time data to conduct an estimation of future jobs to ensure profitability for their company.
Also, the tool can be used with a special feature, “Hubstaff Tasks” to manage projects and time appropriately. Hubstaff also assists in creating checklists, customizing workflows, keeping time and tasks in sync, all of which are necessary for tracking time and project effortlessly.
Archisnapper
Archisnapper is a project management tool used by architects to conduct field reports, punch lists, and safety reports. Specifically designed to help architects and engineers transcend the traditional means of observing and recording on-site data, ArchiSnapper assists in sketching lines, marking up blueprints, photographing, and generating and distributing reports.
It has a way of organizing and classifying, and uploading data in the cloud such that team members have access from different locations and on any kind of device.
CMAP
CMAP is a unique management tool that also doubles as accounting software to manage project-based businesses. An edition of the software is tailored to meet the needs of architects and engineers, particularly to assist with job costing and for easy project planning.
The platform provides managers with a means of tracking project performance with time live-sheets, purchase invoices, and expenses. With the tool, managers can handle resource planning more effectively and organize the workload schedule of their teams efficiently. Architectural and engineering companies can use CMAP for CRM and opportunity management.
Deltek Ajera
Deltak Ajera is an ERP tool used by architecture and engineering firms. It is used to help companies enhance their profitability and rate of utilization. Perfectly assists with the functions of optimizing back-office accounting processes. It offers AEC professionals efficiency with accounting responsibilities including billing and payroll. Deltek Ajera is specifically built around architecture and engineering practices, boasting of an all-in-one solution.
With functionalities including project management, planning, and Business Intelligence (BI), Deltek Ajera is primarily intended for managing the project lifecycle through invoicing and accounting. Also, with project management features such as scheduling and real-time overview of projects and tasks, managers and architects can generate automatic reports that can be distributed via the platform.
Ajera is available on different platforms including premise and cloud with CRM functionality as extra and supporting modules.
Priority Matrix
Priority Matrix is simple and user-friendly. It is a project management tool that can be used to manage resources and track project progress. Its solution is dedicated to architecture firms, particularly to save the teams hours of work.
It offers visibility on projects and enhances scheduling and assignments of tasks. Priority Matrix has basic project management templates that can be used to create reports easily, based on the data in the tool.
6. Monograph
This is a project management software for architects best suitable for small businesses and teams. It was created by a team of architects and is now widely used by hundreds of firms including Workshop APD and JEMA.
Some of the features are task management, timeline visualizations, budget and accounting management, Gantt chart, and time tracking. It is a cloud-based tool purely intended for project management. As a result, it doesn’t include drafting, modeling, or design features. Monograph boasts of exquisite and reliable resource planning as well as forecasting capabilities. It is therefore acclaimed “easy-to-use”.
Taimer
Taimer is another versatile software for architectural project management. It is mainly intended to be used for CRM capabilities. Architects and project managements can find a great deal of help with the use of Taimer, especially to estimate and track sales quotes, and ultimately stay on top of their finances.
It has unique capabilities in sales, finance and accounting, BI, and project management. Thus, it is a great option for keeping all business software and processes in one place. Architects can use features including resource scheduling and management, document management, and task management.
Cedreo
Topping our 12 best architecture software programs for beginners, Cedreo is a home designer software that allows you to create 2D and 3D home decor models and floor plans. It’s the ideal floor plan software for home builders and contractors, remodelers, and interior designers. It covers a wide range of features specific for construction and home design businesses, allowing you to create an unlimited number of construction home projects and share them instantly with your team.
Cedreo offers a home decoration tool that lets you and your clients visualize 3D home designs in a few clicks. It is fully customizable, enabling you to match exactly the unique styles and tastes of your clients. You can choose from a large selection of textures, coverings, and materials to build interior decoration.
With Cedreo, you can also create realistic 3D renderings that you can easily share and present at client meetings. This way, your clients can visualize home interior designs and floor plans realistically. In addition, Cedreo offers collaborative tools that allow you to work with your clients more closely. For instance, you can use 3D renderings and make changes to home decoration designs instantly.
The software is also handy in remodeling projects. It offers a wide array of furniture selections in 3D, such as bathroom cabinets, bathtubs, tiles, toilets, sinks, and more. This allows you to do full-scale redesigns or expansions in multiple rooms. You can also take advantage of Cedreo’s landscaping features to build realistic exterior landscape designs.
Detailed Cedreo Review
Esri CityEngine
Esri CityEngine offers a basic version for beginners and more advanced edition for expert users. It allows users to create thoughtfully designed buildings that enhance communities around them. Powered by a 3D production and visualization tool, the software helps urban planners, architects, entertainment and game studios to render realistic cityscapes or share with ArcGIS online.
The unprecedented 3D details allow designers to evaluate the feasibility of structures before they move to the next phase of actual development. The details are powered by a professional modeling engine along with robust procedural technology, features that will keep advanced users busy while creating stunning 3D cities. If you are faced with repetitive tasks for any project detail or its assessment, Esri CityEngine makes it easy to customize the interface and create automatic workflows, making your life easier.
Detailed Esri CityEngine ReviewREAD MORE
Esri CityEngine eliminates the need to generate 3D cityscape designs and models from scratch: you can simply feed the system any available Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data, attributes, 2D data, create procedure rules and the software will do the rest. Urban planners can simply alter rule parameters and see the overall effect on the resulting 3D scapes.
The easy-to-use software is available for Linux, Mac and Windows users. Pricing is by quote once you contact the vendor.
CorelCAD
A venerable name in graphics applications, Corel dives into professional computer-aided design with CorelCAD, which helps architects and other design professionals to create 2D and 3D structures with technical precision. Beginners and experts alike will find the software easy to handle, allowing them to represent their visual ideas faithfully and facilitate faster and more efficient execution and collaboration.
CorelCAD allows beginners to work with 2D materials and transform them into 3D rendering, with easy editing provided by polar guides, object snaps, grips and powerful 3D modeling tools. Beginners will also find helix tools useful for creating 2D spirals, drawing constraints and dimension tools when they need accurate measurements.
Detailed CorelCAD Review
Support for DWG file format and other CAD applications allows users to share and collaborate with expert colleagues and stakeholders. You can start using the application for USD 699 per user, with a mobile implementation that you can use to generate quick sketches when you find yourself in a remote location.
Floorplanner
Aspiring or new architects who want to get their hands dirty on interior design will like how Floorplanner combines ease of use and thoughtful features to make the most of available interior space in both workplace and home settings. Through the cloud-based application’s flash programming technology, architects and clients can play with wall and flooring ideas, furniture and decorative objects in an interactive dashboard environment.
3D room designs, living room and kitchen plans come alive following precise measurements, free in the basic plan or just USD 14.95 per user per year on the PLUS plan. The application provides a library of objects to go with rich tutorials so users can make the most of the program right away.
Detailed Floorplanner Review
It also allows you to export your design ideas to PDF, great for easy sharing and collaboration. It offers branding and comes with an iPhone or iPad app for times you have to work remotely.
SmartDraw
Architecture is not all about stunning exterior and interior designs—it is also about technical diagrams and flowcharts for times when architects have to deal with the inner layout of buildings to make them functional and useful for the structure dwellers within. SmartDraw is one such tool, and it also helps beginner architects work out their organizational charts and other visual presentations to give them a complete picture of their projects.
Visual plans from electrical circuits to roof visuals allow architects to plan their strategies carefully and efficiently from the beginning. It helps them communicate their ideas better, and using such tools make their learning process less steep than if they were using simple pencil and paper resources.
Detailed SmartDraw Review
With SmartDraw, architects have a choice of schematic diagrams, graph-based diagrams or chart-based diagrams to express their ideas better. If you are going to use this alone, you can start using the application for a one-time license purchase at USD 297 value.
Conclusion
You have been creating beautiful designs that people love. However, making them a reality has not bee as easy as you hoped. In fact, managing your project from start to finish can be a nightmare as you find you’re struggling to manage multiple projects as well as bill fees. This is why it’s time to consider using the right Business Management Software for Architects for your growing business.