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Software package

Architecture practice package

A practice website and client portal with projects by sector and stage, people and publications, fee proposal enquiries that ask for the site, careers applications with portfolio upload, and a portal where each stage holds its documents, its issue register and a recorded client approval.

Custom build Concept demo
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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Architecture practices, landscape architects and planning consultants from two directors to around thirty people, running a dozen or more live projects at once. It suits the director who wants to see which projects are waiting on a client, the project architect who issues drawings and needs a record of it, the office manager who handles enquiries and job applications, and the private or small commercial client who wants to find the current drawings without searching email.

Also worth knowing

It is less suited to large multi-office practices that need contract administration, resourcing and fee accounting inside the same system, and to developers or contractors who need a sales showcase rather than a practice portfolio. Practices that want consultants inside the portal with their own view of the issue register should start with the custom service.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

The project architect opens the project list on Tuesday morning.

  1. Fourteen live projects are shown by stage; three are amber because a client approval has been outstanding for more than the number of days the practice set.

  2. One of them is a house extension where the concept pack was issued ten days ago.

  3. The architect opens it: the issue register shows the pack as issue three, with the four drawings and their revisions, sent to the two clients for comment.

  4. One client has left two comments on the ground floor plan.

  5. The architect replies in the portal, uploads revision B of that drawing as issue four, and the clients are notified.

That evening one of the clients opens the stage on a tablet, reads the reply, sees the revised plan beside the earlier one, and records the approval of the concept stage.

  1. The portal stores who approved, at what time and which four revisions were on screen.

  2. On Wednesday the project moves to the next stage and the amber marker clears.

  3. Meanwhile the office manager handles a fee enquiry that arrived with the site address, a note that the house is in a conservation area and a budget band, and a Part 2 application whose portfolio arrived as an upload rather than a bounced email.

  4. The director publishes the case study for a completed school building because the permission record was set when the client signed off the photography.

Features

What the package does

The package is arranged as modules that follow how a practice presents itself and runs a project: portfolio and people, enquiries and careers, and the client portal with stages, issue register and approvals. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Listings and search

  • Projects by sector and stagePresent built and proposed projects grouped by sector and stage, with drawings and photography as media.

Content and editorial

  • Case studies with permission recordsDescribe the brief, approach and outcome of each project, backed by a record of what the client permits you to publish.
  • Practice people with registrationsEach person has a profile with their role, registrations and biography.
  • Publications and talks listKeep a list of the articles and talks you have published or given.
  • News and journal publishingPublish practice news and longer journal articles from the admin area.

Forms and requests

  • Fee proposal enquiryProspective clients give the site address, context, scope and budget band, so you can respond with a considered fee proposal.
  • Careers with portfolio-upload applicationsList vacancies and take applications with a portfolio upload.

Portal and access

  • Client portal by stageEach project has a portal where clients see the stages, the issued documents and comment on them.

Documents and cases

  • Drawing issue registerLog each issue of a drawing with its revision, purpose, date and recipients, so nobody is working from the wrong sheet.
  • Large-file delivery with expiring linksSend drawing sets as large files through links that expire.
  • E-signature on stage approvalsClients can sign off a stage electronically.

Workflow and tasks

  • Recorded stage approvalsThe client approves each stage on the record, and approvals that are overdue are flagged.

Package variants compared

  • Website
  • Business Software
Feature Website Business Software
Projects by sector and stage Included Included
Case studies with permission records Included Included
Practice people with registrations Included Included
Publications and talks list Included Included
News and journal publishing Optional Optional
Fee proposal enquiry Included Included
Careers with portfolio-upload applications Optional Optional
Client portal by stage Not in this variant Included
Drawing issue register Not in this variant Included
Large-file delivery with expiring links Not in this variant Optional
E-signature on stage approvals Not in this variant Optional
Recorded stage approvals Not in this variant Included

Roles and permissions

Who does what

  • Director

    • See all projects by stage and which are waiting on a client
    • Publish case studies once the permission record is set
    • Manage people, publications and talks
    • Set stage names, approval reminders and enquiry questions

  • Project architect

    • Set up a project with its stages and invite the client
    • Issue documents and record each issue in the register
    • Reply to client comments and request stage approval
    • Move a project to the next stage

  • Office manager

    • Handle fee enquiries and record their outcome
    • Manage careers vacancies and view applications
    • Edit news, publications and practice pages
    • Export project and enquiry lists

  • Client

    • See their project, its current stage and all issued documents
    • Comment on drawings and documents
    • Record a stage approval tied to the revisions on screen
    • Download the documents issued to them

  • Applicant

    • Apply for a vacancy with a portfolio upload
    • See the status of their application

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of the architecture client portal showing a stage with issued drawings, a comment thread and the stage approval control.

A project stage as the client sees it: the four issued drawings with their revisions, a comment thread on the ground floor plan with the architect reply, and the approve-this-stage control at the foot of the page.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

  • Projects by sector and stage with drawings and photography as media
  • Case studies with brief, approach, outcome and a permission record
  • Practice people with roles, registrations and biographies
  • Process explainer pages for each stage
  • Fee proposal enquiry with site address, context, scope and budget band
  • Publications and talks list
  • Client portal with stages, issued documents and comments
  • Drawing issue register with revision, purpose, date and recipients
  • Recorded stage approvals and overdue-approval markers
  • Old-URL migration with redirect import

Common add-ons

  • Careers vacancies with portfolio-upload applications
  • E-signature on stage approvals
  • Large-file delivery of drawing sets with expiring links
  • News and journal publishing

Needs custom work

  • Consultant accounts with their own view of the issue register
  • Sector-specific case study templates
  • Integration with practice management or time recording software
See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your hosting or on hosting we manage, as recorded in the proposal and changeable later. You own the code, your project records and your documents in either case. Projects, issue registers, approvals, enquiries and media can be exported in standard formats at any time, and the platform can be moved to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates to the platform and its dependencies, monitoring of approval reminders and document delivery, backups of documents and project records, and a monthly window for small configuration changes such as a renamed stage, a new sector or a changed enquiry question. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

The package is sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate lines. The setup figure depends on the number of projects to run in the portal, the sectors and case studies to load, the add-ons chosen, document storage needs and whether you host it yourself. Recurring lines are stated separately in the proposal.

Prefer a fully custom build?

Architecture practice website development

Custom practice websites and client portals for architects, landscape architects and planning consultants whose project stages, drawing issues and approvals have outgrown email and a shared drive.

View the service

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can we use our own stage names?

Yes. Stage names are set by the practice in settings and most practices use the names from the plan of work they already follow. Each project can skip stages that do not apply.

What does the issue register record?

For each issue: the documents and their revisions, the date, the purpose such as comment or approval, and who received it. Superseded revisions remain visible as history so there is never doubt about what was current on a given date.

Can a client approve part of a stage?

Approval is recorded per stage against the revisions on screen. Where a client is happy with some drawings and not others, they comment on the ones that need changes and approve once the revised issue is up, which keeps the record unambiguous.

Do clients need to install anything?

No. The portal runs in a browser on a phone, tablet or desktop. Clients are invited by email and sign in with a password they set, and drawings are viewed as images with a download of the issued file.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our portfolio, documents and forms modules for each practice, and the example on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live practice portal.

Can our structural engineer see the register too?

Not as standard. Consultant accounts with their own view of the issue register and upload rights are custom work, covered by the custom architecture practice service.

Get a quote for Architecture practice package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.

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Get a quote for this package

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