For architects
Your fee proposal is the appointment. Make sure it gets signed.
Small practices and sole architects often start work on a letter and a handshake: a site visit, a fee letter as a PDF, and then sketch options while the formal appointment sits unsigned. When the brief grows from a rear extension to a loft as well, or the planning application needs a second round, the fee conversation starts from a document the client may never have read closely.
ApeiroCraft sends the fee proposal as a link set out by work stage — what each stage delivers, what's excluded, which consultants are separate — so you can see when the client opens it and comes back to it. They sign in the browser, and each stage is invoiced from the accepted proposal.
Where architecture fees leak.
Design work before appointment
Sketch options go out before the fee letter is signed, because the client is keen and the job feels certain. If they stop after concept, you've done a stage of work on goodwill.
Brief creep between stages
A scheme grows, a second set of options is requested, or the planning authority asks for changes. Without an agreed number of design iterations per stage, every redesign is an argument.
The fees that weren't yours
Structural engineer, surveys, planning application fees, building control — clients often assume your fee covers them. Unless the proposal says otherwise, your fee looks larger and less clear than it is.
Stage by stage, from fee letter to final account.
Fees laid out by work stage
Write each stage — brief, concept, developed design, planning, technical design, construction — as its own section with deliverables and a fee line, so the client sees what they're buying at each step.
Know whether it's being read
The proposal link records each open and re-open. A client returning to the fee section three times is weighing it; one who never opened it needs a different nudge.
Signed before concept design
The client signs in the browser. The signature records name, email, IP and a UTC timestamp, and the signed proposal can't be edited afterwards — your scope and exclusions are fixed on record.
Invoice each stage as it completes
One click turns the accepted proposal into a draft invoice with the stage lines. Trim it to the stage you've completed, send with your payment link, and convert again at the next stage.
What an architect's fee proposal has to include.
Professional bodies publish their own appointment documents, and many practices use them for larger jobs. For the smaller residential work where a fee proposal does the job, these are the sections that prevent the usual disputes.
Stages and deliverables
If it's left vague
The client expects planning drawings and construction details for the concept fee.
With ApeiroCraft
List each stage, what drawings or documents it produces, and where your service ends.
Design iterations
If it's left vague
Options keep coming back with 'just one more' variation until the stage has been designed three times.
With ApeiroCraft
State how many design options and rounds of changes each stage includes, and how further changes are charged.
Exclusions and third-party fees
If it's left vague
Surveys, engineers, planning and building-control fees all appear to be part of your number.
With ApeiroCraft
Separate your fee from consultants, statutory application fees and surveys, and say who appoints them.
Site visits during construction
If it's left vague
Weekly site visits are expected because the client assumed the job included contract administration.
With ApeiroCraft
Say whether site visits are included, how many, or whether they're charged per visit or hourly.
Pausing or stopping
If it's left vague
The project stalls after planning and there's no agreement on what's owed.
With ApeiroCraft
State that fees are payable stage by stage and what's due if the client pauses or ends the appointment.
- Stage invoices from one accepted proposal — no re-typing the fee schedule.
- Editable tax-rate field and currency set per invoice.
- Notes per project for planning references, site details and consultant contacts.
Common questions.
How do architects usually structure fees for small projects?
Common structures are a fixed fee per work stage, a percentage of the construction cost (often re-calculated when the cost is known), hourly rates for advisory or open-ended stages, or a mix — fixed fees up to planning, then hourly or percentage for construction-stage work. ApeiroCraft doesn't recommend a fee; it lays out whichever structure you use and invoices it stage by stage.
What does a residential extension proposal look like here?
An introduction restating the brief; stages from measured survey through planning, each with deliverables and a fixed fee; technical design as an optional stage priced separately; exclusions for structural engineering, party-wall matters and statutory fees; two design iterations at concept; and fees payable at the end of each stage. The client opens it after your site visit, signs it a week later, and you invoice the first stage from the accepted proposal.
When is ApeiroCraft the wrong tool for an architecture practice?
It isn't practice-management software: there's no timesheet or resource planner, no project accounting or fee-to-hours tracking, and no drawing register. Practices that bill hourly against timesheets need a time-tracking tool alongside. ApeiroCraft is useful where the problem is getting a clear fee proposal signed and invoiced, not running the studio's finances.
Can I use my professional body's appointment form?
Many practices send a short fee proposal for the commercial terms and attach or reference the standard appointment for the full conditions. ApeiroCraft handles the fee proposal and signature; whether that replaces a formal appointment for your work is a question for your professional body or adviser.
Can I bill a percentage-of-cost fee?
You can write the percentage and the basis in the proposal, then set the invoice amount when each stage is due. Invoices are editable drafts before you send them, so the stage figure can reflect the updated cost.
Get the fee proposal signed before the first sketch.
Write your stages once, reuse them for every residential enquiry, and invoice each as it completes.
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