Verity for architecture practices
Fees are billed at stages while effort spreads unevenly across them, and approvals stall in offices you do not control. Verity records effort against stage and tracks approvals as work.
Verity runs the practice. Your drawing and modelling software stays where it is.
Verity / Projects
LiveLive projects
22
Stages over effort
7
Approvals pending
14
Unbilled stages
₹42 L
Needs attention
Illustrative figures. Verity shows your own projects in this shape.
How the business runs
An architecture practice bills against stages — concept, design development, statutory submission, tender, construction — each carrying a share of the fee that assumes a share of the effort. The effort rarely distributes the way the fee does, and the practice absorbs the difference silently. Seven stages over their effort assumption with no variation raised is a firm-level habit rather than seven mistakes.
The second characteristic is statutory approval. Submissions go to authorities whose turnaround the practice does not control, and downstream stages are blocked while they wait. Six approvals beyond expected turnaround is six projects whose fee stages cannot progress.
The third is revisions. Drawings are revised on client instruction, on consultant input and on site queries, and a revision issued without a recorded instruction becomes unpaid work discovered at the fee review.
The fourth is consultant coordination. Structural, services and specialist consultants produce inputs the architect depends on, and a late input is the architect’s delay in the client’s view.
The fifth is that completed stages sit unbilled because invoicing follows completion by whoever remembers.
Verity records effort against stage, tracks approvals and consultant inputs as work, and links revisions to instructions.
What Verity calls these things
What gets in the way
Architecture difficulties come from a fee structure that assumes an effort distribution the work does not follow.
Effort is not measured against the stage fee
A stage consumes far more than its fee assumes and the practice absorbs it without raising anything.
In Verity Effort is recorded against the stage, so overrun raises a variation decision rather than a silent absorption.
Approvals block downstream stages
A submission sits with an authority and the next fee stage cannot begin, with nobody tracking the elapsed time.
In Verity Approvals are work with expected turnaround and an age, so delays are visible and chaseable.
Revisions are issued without instruction
A drawing is revised on a verbal request and the effort has no commercial basis.
In Verity Revisions link to a recorded instruction, so unpaid revision work is visible as it happens.
Consultant delays become the architect’s delay
A late structural or services input holds the architect’s work and the client sees only the architect.
In Verity Consultant inputs are tracked as dependencies with owners and dates.
Completed stages go unbilled
Invoicing follows stage completion by whoever remembers, so cash lags work by weeks.
In Verity Stage completion raises the invoicing task with the fee attached.
Drawing versions proliferate
Several revisions circulate and site works from the wrong one.
In Verity Revisions are versioned records with issue history, so what was issued to whom is answerable.
The complete system
One system across stages, approvals, revisions and fees.
Work
Each project is work with stages, fee allocation per stage, effort recorded, dependencies and state.
Why it matters here The stage is both the fee unit and the delivery unit, and they diverge without a record.
In practice Seven stages over their effort assumption by seven hundred and eighty hours.
Workflows
Statutory submissions, approvals, site visits and inspections are steps with expected turnaround, owners and ages.
Why it matters here Approvals are outside the practice’s control and inside its programme.
In practice Six approvals beyond expected turnaround, blocking downstream stages.
Records
Drawings and specifications are versioned records with revision history, issue records and the instruction that prompted each change.
Why it matters here A revision without an instruction is unpaid work; a wrong version on site is a defect.
In practice Revisions issued without a recorded instruction across four projects.
Relationships
Clients, authorities and consultants carry their projects, correspondence, turnaround history and dependencies.
Why it matters here The practice depends on parties it does not control and is judged on their timing.
In practice Authority turnaround history informing realistic programme dates.
People
The team is modelled once, and every stage, revision and site visit carries who owns it.
Why it matters here Effort against stage is only meaningful with attribution.
In practice Effort by person against stage fee allocation.
Control
Fee stages, variations, additional services and invoicing move through defined steps with recorded decisions.
Why it matters here Additional services are the practice’s recoverable margin and are usually absorbed.
In practice A variation raised when effort passes the stage assumption.
Reports and analytics
Effort against stage fee, approval turnaround, revision volume by cause, consultant dependency delays and unbilled stages come from the records.
Why it matters here The practice’s profitability is decided stage by stage and is usually assessed project by project at the end.
In practice Effort against fee by stage type across projects, which shows where the fee scale is wrong.
Verity AI
Verity AI answers from your own project, stage, approval and fee records, respects permissions, and can create assigned follow-ups.
Why it matters here The valuable questions are about stages overrunning and approvals sitting.
In practice "Which stages are over their effort assumption?" returns seven with variation reviews assigned.
Communication
Client instructions, consultant correspondence and authority queries attach to the project and stage.
Why it matters here A verbal instruction that prompted a revision is the basis for charging for it.
In practice The instruction behind a revision, recorded when it was given.
Locations
Sites and studios are locations with visits, observations and issues recorded against them.
Why it matters here Site observations are records the practice needs later.
In practice Site visit observations recorded against the project and date.
Orders
Stage invoices, variations and collections are recorded against the project.
Why it matters here Completed and unbilled stages are the practice funding the client.
In practice Forty-two lakh of completed stages not invoiced.
Suppliers
Consultants carry their appointments, deliverable dates, turnaround and fees.
Why it matters here Consultant dependency is the most common cause of an architect’s programme slipping.
In practice Consultant deliverables tracked as dependencies with dates.
Work in motion
These already happen. Recorded against stages, the fee scale finally gets tested.
Recording the effort assumption is what makes the later comparison possible.
The invoicing task at completion is what stops cash lagging work by weeks.
Tracking elapsed time is what turns an uncontrollable delay into a chaseable one.
A revision without a recorded instruction is unpaid work nobody decided to do.
Practices usually discover a bad fee scale one project at a time; this shows the pattern.
Verity AI
Verity AI reads the same project, stage, approval and fee records the practice creates as it works. It answers across projects, respects permissions, and can turn an answer into variations and chases.
Verity / Ask
Verity AI only returns what the person asking has permission to see.
Without chasing
Each runs from the project records at the point the condition is met.
When
Effort passes the stage assumption
When
An approval exceeds expected turnaround
When
A stage completes
When
A revision is issued without an instruction
When
A consultant deliverable passes its date
What you can understand
Stage economics and programme dependency from the practice’s records.
Verity records the practice. Drawing, modelling and document management software continues as it is.
One system, different ways of seeing it
Everyone works from the same records.
Partner
Which stages lose money?
Effort against fee by stage type, variations absorbed, unbilled stages, fee scale evidence.
Project lead
What is blocking this project?
Approvals pending, consultant dependencies, stage effort against fee, revisions outstanding.
Architect or technician
What am I working on and against what?
Assigned stages and packages, effort to record, revisions and their instructions, site visits.
Practice administrator
What is unbilled and unowned?
Completed stages not invoiced, approvals unchased, consultant deliverables late.
Where it is used
Effort recorded against the stage that carries the fee, so a systematically under-priced stage type becomes visible across projects.
Statutory submissions as work with expected turnaround and elapsed time, so an uncontrollable delay becomes chaseable.
Revisions linked to the instruction that prompted them, so unpaid revision work is visible as it happens.
Consultant deliverables tracked as dependencies with dates, since their delay becomes the architect’s in the client’s view.
Completion raising the invoicing task, so cash follows work rather than memory.
Drawings versioned with issue records, so what was issued to whom is answerable.
Effort against fee across stage types, which is how a practice learns its fee scale is wrong before another project proves it.
Getting there
Drawing, modelling and document systems continue and are mapped during implementation. Projects with stages and fees, consultants, authorities and live approvals are brought across.
Implementation runs about four weeks: discovery and mapping, configuration, migration, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Questions
No. Drawing, modelling and document management continue and are mapped during implementation. Verity holds the practice record — stages, fees, effort, approvals, revisions, consultants and invoicing.
Verity AI answers questions from your own project, stage, approval and fee records: which stages are over their effort assumption, which approvals are beyond expected turnaround, how much completed work is unbilled, which revisions lack a recorded instruction. Each answer can become a variation or a chase.
Because the fee is staged and effort is not. A project can end broadly on fee while two stages inside it consumed far more than they were paid for — and those stage types will be under-priced on every future appointment.
Submissions are work with an expected turnaround drawn from your own history and an elapsed time against it, so a delay you do not control becomes visible, chaseable and reflected in the programme.
Revisions link to the instruction that prompted them. A revision without a recorded instruction is unpaid work, and seeing it as it happens is the only way to raise it as an additional service rather than absorb it.
Consultant deliverables are tracked as dependencies with agreed dates, so a late structural or services input is visible as the cause of the architect’s delay rather than absorbed into it.
Stage completion raises the invoicing task with the fee attached, so completed work does not sit unbilled while the practice funds the client.
About four weeks: discovery and mapping of stage structures and fee scales, configuration, migration of live projects and consultants, then an ongoing operations partnership.
They are the same stage types on every project. Tell us how effort is recorded today.