--- title: "Time tracking for architects: a log you can filter" url: "https://timeretain.com/blog/time-tracking-for-architects" description: "A guide to time tracking for architects in a solo studio: log projects and site visits, find extra hours, and check a fee against the hours you spent." --- # Time tracking for architects: a log you can filter August 13, 2026 7 min read By David from [TimeRetain](/) ![Soft 3D clay desk scene with a small house model, a peach timer, unlabeled drawing sheets, a mug, and a plant on cream wood.](/_astro/hero.D1LKUcuv_UXnM8.webp) Time tracking for architects is a log of project hours you can filter later, when the extra site visit or the third kitchen shows up. You do not send that log to a boss. You keep it so the extras still have a date attached when you need them. A lot of advice assumes you run a firm: staff timesheets, phase codes, utilization reports. This guide is for a solo architect or a tiny studio that bills its own work and still needs a record of the hours. ## A percentage fee still needs a timer 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 invoice often has no hour column. The hours still decide whether that fee paid for the work. Effective rate is the fee divided by the time you spent. Your tracker supplies the hours. You already know the fee. Guessing from the feel of the job is how construction administration eats the price. Site visits look like two hours on site until you count the drive, the field notes, and the follow-up. Extra visits get dumped into one “CA” pile and written off. A kitchen that was already signed gets redrawn as a courtesy. None of that shows up if the only number you have is the fee. If your owner-architect agreement treats extra visits or extra submittal reviews as additional services, that clause only helps when you can say which visit this was. Have the count. This is not contract advice. ## What to put on each entry Keep the labels small enough that you will use them on a jobsite. Field Why keep it Project Which job the hours belong to Start and stop Real boundaries. Keep the drive in the visit unless the agreement wants travel on its own line Note The event, in words you will still understand next month: “Framing walk,” not “CA” Kind of work A tag you will filter on: site visit, extra, travel, modeling, admin. Skip tags you will never query That is close to [manual time tracking](/blog/manual-time-tracking) for any solo practice, with one architect-specific rule: do not dump everything into construction administration. CA is a phase, so it is a weak line on a log. Two kinds of labels cover the filtering you will do. 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. You do not need a phase tree before you can start a timer. Schematic, design development, and construction documents can wait until you know you will sort on them. Tag extras because they were not in the fee. ## A day that still makes sense in October Date Start End Project Note Kind Total Aug 13 09:00 11:40 Chen addition Wall sections at the stair Modeling 2h 40m Aug 13 11:40 12:05 Chen addition Contractor call on beam size Modeling 25m Aug 13 13:30 16:10 Chen addition Framing walk, drive included Site visit 2h 40m Aug 13 16:10 16:55 Chen addition Kitchen after signed DD Extra 45m Aug 13 17:00 17:35 Walsh kitchen Permit comments Admin 35m The kitchen line is the one that would have vanished, and the one you need when you decide whether to send an extra-services note or raise the next fee. The agreement decides whether travel is its own entry. If it treats the trip as one visit, start when you leave, stop when you are back, and name what you walked. Splitting the drive is ceremony you will skip on the third trip of the week. If the agreement asks for travel as its own kind of time, give the drive its own entry and a travel tag. Stop when you arrive, start again for the walk, then do the same for the drive home. When a contractor calls, stop the modeling session and start a new one. A timer that keeps running through the call makes both numbers wrong. ## What this log is for **Count the visits.** Filter one project to site visits and look at the rows. If the agreement included six, and this is the seventh, you have a list with dates. You still write the note to the owner. **See the extras.** Tag work that was not in the fee: a revision after a signed phase, a “quick look” that became an evening, permit comments nobody scoped. Extra names hours the price did not include. **Check the fee.** Open the project total. Divide the agreed fee by those hours. If a $28,000 job took 280 hours, you earned $100 an hour before overhead. If your practice needs $150, the next similar job is underpriced, or the extras should have been billed, or both. You can do all three from a filter and a total. ## Capture on the phone. Clean at the desk Jobsite cell service is a rumor. Start the timer before you need the network. 1. **Start when the work starts.** Pick the project, start the timer, write a rough note. Do not pause the drawing to perfect the wording. 2. **Stop when you switch.** A new project, a contractor call, or an extra that was not in the fee gets its own entry. Tiny interruptions can roll into the block around them. 3. **Tag extras while you still remember they were extras.** Next month they will look like ordinary CA. 4. **Once a week, filter.** Site visits on this job. Extra across every job. The project total against the fee. ![TimeRetain](/favicon.svg) Track project hours on your own device. Start, stop, tag, export a CSV when you need a list of visits. [Start tracking →](/) If you forget a timer, rebuild from proof: the field report, sent PDFs, email timestamps, the photos on your phone. Guessing from the feel of the day is how 40 minutes of follow-up becomes “about an hour.” ## You do not need a firm stack A one-person studio needs a timer you will start in the driveway, a few labels, edits when the day got messy, and a [timesheet export](/blog/what-is-a-timesheet) when the owner or your accountant wants a list. Software sold to architects is built for staff timesheets, phase codes, and a billing person. [Automatic tracking](/blog/why-automatic-time-tracking-apps-fail-you) that watches apps and tabs cannot tell a site visit from a contractor call, and it will not run in a basement with no signal. Client names, addresses, and fees belong on your device. They should not live by default on a vendor’s server. ## Where TimeRetain fits [TimeRetain](https://timeretain.com) is a [manual timer](/blog/manual-time-tracking) that keeps the log on your device. Turn on Sync and an encrypted copy is stored on TimeRetain’s servers so the hours follow you between phone and studio. Leave Sync off and the hours never leave the machine. It runs in the browser and as an installed app, including [offline](/blog/what-is-offline-time-tracking). Put each job on its own timeline, nested under a client when you want both totals (`Chen › Addition`). Log time on the project, not on the parent. Tags are the kind of work: site visit, extra, travel, modeling, admin. Filter the feed by tag, search descriptions, and open hours for the week or the month. Earnings are optional and hourly. Put your target rate on the project if you want to see what those hours would have billed. On a percentage or fixed-fee job, compare that figure to the fee you already agreed. ![TimeRetain](/favicon.svg) Track architecture hours on your own device. No account required to start. [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 was not in the fee. Start site visits when you leave. Then read it back. Count the visits. Add up Extra. Divide the fee by the hours. If Extra is larger than you expected, or the visits already passed the number in the agreement, decide while the job is still open: bill the extras, raise the next fee, or keep absorbing them on purpose. ## Questions and Answers ### How do architects track time? Start a timer when work on a project begins, stop it when you switch, and add a short note that names the event, such as a framing walk or a drawing set. Label the project, and add a tag for the kind of work when you will want to filter it later: site visit, extra, modeling, or admin. ### Should architects track time on fixed-fee or percentage projects? Yes. Those hours may never appear on the invoice, but the total against the fee shows what you earned per hour and whether construction administration or extra visits ate the price. The tracker supplies the hours; you already know the fee. ### How do I track site visits as a solo architect? If the agreement lets travel sit inside the visit, start the timer when you leave, stop it when you are back, and name what you walked. If it asks for travel as its own kind of time, give the drive its own entry and tag. Put the visit on the project either way, and filter later if you need a count. ### Do solo architects need firm time tracking software? Usually no. Firm tools are built for staff timesheets, phase codes, and shared billing. A solo studio needs a timer that will start on a jobsite, a few labels, and an export when a note to the owner needs a list. ### How do I know if an architecture fee paid a fair hourly rate? Divide the agreed fee by the hours you spent on that project. If the result is below the rate your practice needs, the next similar job should cost more, or the extras should be billed as extras.