Know what the fee has cost you before the project ends.
Architectural work is quoted as a fee and delivered as hours. The two only meet at the end, and by then the answer is either a comfortable margin or a lesson.
HourToBill records hours against a client with the rate attached, shows what has accumulated as you go, and turns the month into an itemised PDF. It is not project management software and it does not pretend to be.
Due 30 September 2026 · Net 30
The fee is a budget. Hours are the spend.
A fixed fee is a bet on how long the work will take. Take it without a record of the hours and you never learn whether you won. Take it with one, and the next quote is priced on what the last one actually cost rather than on what you hoped it would.
The dangerous phases are rarely the drawings. It is the revision after a planning comment, the coordination calls that were going to be brief, the meeting with a contractor that ran two hours over. Individually each is small and unbillable-feeling. Together they are the difference between a profitable job and a busy one.
So record everything, including what you never intend to bill. An entry left off an invoice is not wasted: it is the only honest measure of what a client actually costs you, and the reason to raise the fee next time rather than absorb it again.
For hourly work the invoice is the whole point. Each entry carries a date, your description, the hours to two decimals and the amount, in the order the work happened. A client reading down the page can follow the month without a phone call, and an invoice nobody queries gets paid on time.
Against practice and project tools.
Monograph, BQE Core, Deltek Ajera and Total Synergy are practice management systems built for architecture, with phases, resourcing and fee tracking. This is hours and an invoice.
| What you get elsewhere | What you get here |
|---|---|
| Project phases, fee schedules, percentage-complete and resourcing plans. | A client, a rate and the hours. Phases are something you keep elsewhere. |
| Consultant sub-fees, disbursements and expense recharging. | Absent. Hours only, so expenses are billed however you bill them today. |
| Multi-person timesheets, approval and utilisation reporting. | One person. No timesheets to approve and nobody to chase. |
| Per seat per month, usually with a minimum and an onboarding fee. | $12 a month, one plan, one person, nothing gated. |
Read this before you subscribe.
There is no fee or phase tracking. You cannot set a project fee and watch a percentage burn down against it. If that is the number you manage the practice by, Monograph exists for exactly that and this will disappoint you.
There are no expenses, disbursements or consultant sub-fees. Printing, planning fees and the structural engineer are not recorded here.
There is one level of grouping, the client. Practices with several projects for one client usually create one client record per project, which works but repeats the address.
The person this fits is a sole practitioner billing hourly, or one who quotes a fee and simply wants to know what it cost. For a studio with staff, resourcing and phase reporting, this is the wrong shape of tool.
Before you buy.
Can I track hours against a project rather than a client?
There is one level, the client. Most sole practitioners create one client record per project, which gives per-project totals at the cost of repeating the address on the invoice.
Can I see what a fixed-fee job has cost me so far?
You can see the hours and their value accumulating for that client. There is no fee to burn down against, so the comparison to the quoted fee is one you make yourself.
Can I record time I do not intend to bill?
Yes, and you should. Track it and leave it off the invoice. Unbilled time is the only honest measure of what a client really costs, and the argument for your next fee.
Does it handle expenses or disbursements?
No. Hours only. Printing, planning fees and consultant sub-fees are billed however you bill them now.
Can I use different rates for different work?
Rates are per client. For two rates with one client, most people create two client records, or add an entry by hand with the hours adjusted to the value.
Can I try it before signing up?
Yes. The demo runs the whole product in the browser, including downloading a real invoice, with no account and no email address.