Architecture practice management software
Practice management written around how Indian studios actually get paid: stage fees on the Council of Architecture pattern, GST on the invoice, Razorpay settling into your own account, and drawings that stay locked until the stage clears.
What “practice management” means for a studio this size
In a large firm it means resourcing, timesheets and utilisation. In a five-person Indian practice it means something narrower and more urgent: knowing which client owes what, which drawings went out against which stage, and where the current set is. Software that starts from timesheets solves a problem you do not have yet and leaves the one you do have untouched.
The Indian specifics, not an afterthought
The fee is usually a percentage of project cost on the Council of Architecture pattern, collected in stages, with GST on top and a documentation charge that sits outside the percentage. Payment arrives by UPI as often as by transfer. Settlement has to reach the practice's own account rather than a platform's. None of that is exotic; it is simply what an Indian practice does, and a tool built elsewhere treats every part of it as a custom field.
Where the money actually leaks
Not in the big disputes. In the stage fee that was never invoiced because the drawings had already gone out, the third revision round nobody priced, and the six weeks between issuing a set and being paid for it. Attaching the invoice to the deliverable closes the first and the third. A variation log closes the second.
What it deliberately is not
It is not CAD, it does not draw anything, and it has no ambition to be your accounting package. It sits between the drawings you produce and the fee you are owed for them. If you already run Tally or Zoho for the books, keep them: this is the layer above, where the client, the set and the invoice meet.
A month in a practice that runs this way
The schematic set is ready. You attach the stage invoice and issue it. The client pays by UPI on their phone that evening and the drawings open by themselves. Three weeks later they ask for a fourth revision; it is logged as a variation with a number against it, and the conversation lasts one message instead of three. None of this is dramatic. It is four or five small frictions removed from every project, every month.
- No stage fee issued and then quietly forgotten
- No revision round absorbed because nobody wrote it down
- No week spent reconciling somebody else's settlement statement
Off the ledger, onto the workspace
A generic PM tool with “project”, “task” and “time entry”, and a custom field where the fee stage is meant to go.
Client, stage, set, invoice: the four things an Indian practice actually tracks, as first-class objects.
Invoices raised in a spreadsheet, GST worked out by hand, and the payment chased over WhatsApp a month later.
A stage invoice attached to the set it releases, with GST on it, paid by UPI or card at the client's convenience.
A gateway that holds the money and settles from a platform account you then have to reconcile against.
Your own Razorpay account, your own settlement cycle, your own statement. Nothing sits in between.
“Just one more small change”, four times, none of them priced and none of them written down.
Included rounds are stated, further rounds are logged as variations, and the fee conversation has a document behind it.
Built to carry the weight
Written for a small practice
Clients, drawings and fees. No timesheets to fill in, no resourcing board nobody updates, no module you will never open.
Fees the way you quote them
Percentage of cost, per square foot or lump sum, split into stages, with the documentation charge and GST where they belong.
Money that goes straight to you
Connect your own Razorpay account. Every client payment settles into it directly; we never hold, route or touch it.
The stage gate
The set unlocks when the stage payment clears. The most reliable collections process is the one nobody has to run.
Revisions, counted
Included rounds, then a logged variation with a price against it. An argument becomes arithmetic.
One current set
Versioned drawings with superseded revisions kept, so the record can always show what was live on any given date.
Everything, in the file
Clients and projects
- One workspace per client, isolated below the interface
- Status: pending, active, inactive, suspended
- Every drawing, invoice and message in one place
Fees and payment
- Stage-wise invoices on the CoA pattern
- GST and documentation charge on the invoice
- Razorpay checkout: cards, UPI, netbanking
- Settlement into the practice's own account
Drawings and control
- Versioned sets; superseded revisions retained
- Release gated on a confirmed payment
- Expiring, revocable links for consultants
- Audit log of issue, unlock and download
Three moves, nothing to chase
Set the fee once
Percentage, per square foot or lump sum, split into the stages you invoice against. GST and the documentation charge sit on top.
Issue against a stage
The set goes out with the stage invoice attached to it. The client gets the notice; the drawings stay locked.
Paid, then released
The payment settles into your account, the set unlocks, and the stage closes itself in the record.
The collections process that works is the one nobody has to run. Put the invoice on the set, and the awkward conversation simply stops arising.
Put your practice on it
We're onboarding our first studios now, one at a time, with personal setup for each practice: we help you connect your Razorpay account, add your first clients, and put a set of drawings behind a payment gate. Tell us about your studio and we'll get back to you within one working day.
- No card, no commitment, no obligation to continue
- Payments settle into your own Razorpay account
- Bring the file formats you already work in
Questions, answered
Straight answers about architecture practice management software, in plain language.
Ask us anythingSoftware that runs the business side of a studio rather than the drawing side: which clients you have, what has been issued to them, what they owe, and what has been paid. In a large firm it extends to resourcing and utilisation. In a practice of two to fifteen people it is really three things (clients, drawings and fees) and a tool that covers those three well is worth more than one that covers twelve badly.
Yes. The fee is set up as a percentage of project cost, per square foot or a lump sum, and split into the stages you actually invoice against: concept, preliminary, drawings for approval, working drawings, and the site period on the CoA pattern. Each stage becomes an invoice that can be attached to the set it releases. The documentation charge and GST sit on the invoice rather than being worked out separately afterwards.
Into your own bank account, through your own Razorpay account, on Razorpay's normal settlement cycle. AtelierLab never holds, routes or touches the money; it connects your account and reads back a verified confirmation that the payment succeeded. That confirmation is what unlocks the drawings.
No, and it does not try to be. If you run Tally or Zoho Books, keep them. This sits a layer above: it produces the stage invoice, takes the payment, and ties both to the drawings that were issued. What your accountant needs at year end still comes from your books.
Possibly not. A practice where one person issues every drawing and remembers every invoice is genuinely fine on a spreadsheet. The point at which it stops being fine is usually one of two: a second person starts issuing drawings, or the total of unpaid stage fees gets large enough that chasing it becomes a weekly job in itself.
Not yet. Payments run through Razorpay and are priced in rupees, which makes India the only market the product is honestly ready for. The practice guides on this site are useful anywhere; the software is India-only for now.