Time tracking for architects: know what a job takes

Time tracking helps you see what an architecture job really takes, including the extra site visit or the third kitchen design.

You don’t send that log to a boss. You keep it so the extras still have a date attached when you need them.

This guide is for a solo architect or a tiny studio where each person keeps their own record. You can use phase labels without taking on staff timesheet approvals.

What the fee alone cannot show

You might charge a percentage of construction, a fixed fee, hourly with a cap, or a mix: fixed through design, hourly once construction starts. The fee alone doesn’t tell you how many hours the work took.

Effective rate is the fee divided by the time you spent, before overhead. Your tracker supplies the hours. A fixed fee is a number you already have. A percentage of construction cost waits on that cost.

A two-hour site visit takes more than two hours if you also drive there, write field notes, and follow up. Count those hours too.

An extra visit can disappear into one construction administration (CA) pile. A kitchen you already finished can need a redraw. None of that shows up if the only number you have is the fee.

What to put on each entry

Keep the labels small enough that you’ll use them on a jobsite.

That’s close to manual time tracking for any solo practice, with one architect-specific rule: do not dump everything into construction administration. CA names a phase, but it doesn’t tell you what happened that day.

Two kinds of labels let you filter by project and activity. One says which project the work belongs to. The other says what kind of work it was, so you can total site visits across every job at once.

Start with project, extra, and site visit. Add schematic, design development, and construction documents later if you need those totals. Use Extra for work outside your original plan.

A day that still makes sense in October

Here is a hypothetical day:

The kitchen line names the extra work. That gives you a specific revision to discuss with the owner or allow for in the next quote.

Choose whether to include the drive in the visit or give travel its own entry. Use the same approach throughout the project so you can compare visits.

Separate a contractor call from modeling when you want to compare those activities. One project total is still useful if that is all you need.

What this log is for

Count the visits. Filter one project to site visits and look at the rows. Suppose you planned for six visits. If the next visit would go past that number, discuss the extra work with the owner before the next trip.

See the extras. Tag work that wasn’t in the original plan: a late revision, a quick look that became an evening, or unexpected permit comments. Extra shows how much time the plan missed.

Check the fee. For a completed project, open the full project total. Divide the agreed fee by those hours. If a $28,000 job took 280 hours, the fee works out to $100 an hour before overhead.

For the next similar job, adjust the hours for differences in scope and complexity. You could multiply that estimate by your target hourly rate as a starting point for the fee. Use a target that covers business costs as well as your pay. At $150 an hour, 280 hours requires a $42,000 fee.

Capture on the phone. Clean at the desk

1. Start when the work starts. Pick the project, start the timer, write a rough note. Don’t pause the drawing to perfect the wording.
2. Stop when you switch. Keep different projects separate. Within one project, give a call or extra work its own entry when you want to compare those hours. Tiny interruptions for the same project can stay in its block.
3. Tag extras while you still remember they were extras. Next month, you might not remember why they were outside the plan.
4. Once a week, filter. Site visits on this job. Extra across every job. The project total against the fee.

If you forget a timer, look for clues: the field report, sent PDFs, email timestamps, the photos on your phone. Those clues can help you estimate a missing block, but they don’t establish every start and stop.

You don’t need a firm stack

For a one-person studio, look for a timer you’ll start in the driveway, a few labels, and edits when the day got messy. A CSV export gives you rows to share with the owner or your accountant.

Software built around staff timesheets and shared billing can add setup a solo practice doesn’t need. Automatic tracking based only on laptop activity won’t record a site visit while the laptop is closed. A tracker that requires a network connection won’t run in a basement with no signal.

If you want a private record, check where the tracker stores client names, notes, and rates.

Where TimeRetain fits

TimeRetain is a manual timer for keeping each job’s hours and notes together. When an owner asks about extra work, you can find the visit or revision and see how long it took.

You don’t need an account. The primary record stays on your device. If you enable optional Sync, TimeRetain stores an encrypted copy on its servers.

Once the job is complete, compare its hours with your fee. Use what you learn when you estimate the next similar project.

Keep a clear record of your next site visit.

Start tracking →

Start with one project

For one week, track a single job: project, start, stop, a one-line note, and Extra when the work wasn’t in the fee. If travel is part of the visit, start when you leave. Otherwise, give travel its own entry and start the site-visit entry when the visit begins.

Then read it back. Count the visits. Add up Extra. Divide the fee by all the project’s hours once it is complete, not just this week’s hours.

If unplanned work or visits took more time than expected, discuss the remaining work and budget with the owner while the job is still open. Use those hours when estimating the same kinds of work on the next project.