Studio KPIs for small architecture practices (and how to track them in Notion)

Which KPIs matter for a small architecture practice?

A KPI is a measure you review regularly and act on. For a small practice, useful KPIs answer four questions: Is there enough work coming? Are we earning what we agreed? Are we being paid? Are we spending more effort than the fee supports? I do not give target values here, because healthy figures depend on practice type, fee basis and market, and I have no verified benchmark to cite. Set your own targets from your history.

What are the six KPIs and how are they calculated?

Internal cost rate is your own number; work it out with your accountant.

How do you track pipeline in Notion?

Use the Projects database's Status (Enquiry, Proposal sent, Active, On site, On hold, Completed, Cancelled) and add an Expected fee number. A board grouped by status with a sum of expected fee shows pipeline. For proposal success, count Proposal sent against Active over a period you define; your own win rate is more useful than a general figure.

How do you track fee against effort?

1. 1

   Decide whether you record time

   If not, skip this KPI. Estimated effort is rarely reliable.

2. 2

   Add a Time entries database

   Date, person, project, stage, hours.

3. 3

   Roll up

   Total hours per project and per stage.

4. 4

   Compare

   Fee billed per hour logged. Compare projects to each other and by stage, not to an outside number.

Look at the stage where overruns start. The pattern across projects (for example, construction documents consistently exceeding plan) tells you what to change in future proposals.

How do you track approval lag?

In an Approvals database, record Requested date and Approved date; a formula gives days waited. Group by client or stage. Clients who consistently take weeks to approve may need an earlier decision timetable in the appointment, or a note in the programme. See our approvals guide.

• Client approvals in Notion

How often should you review them?

Weekly: overdue invoices and pipeline. Monthly: fee billed versus agreed, hours versus fee, projects per person. Quarterly: approval turnaround and which KPIs you still use. Delete any KPI no one has acted on in two quarters.

What does a worked example look like?

With invented numbers: a practice has four active projects with agreed fees of 30,000, 50,000, 20,000 and 40,000, total 140,000. Invoiced so far is 84,000, so billed versus agreed is 60 percent. Two invoices totalling 12,000 are overdue. Pipeline shows 60,000 of expected fee in Proposal sent.

Reading these together: billing is on track only if the work is also about 60 percent complete; overdue invoices are the immediate action; pipeline of 60,000 against 56,000 left to bill suggests work is lined up, but only if your own past win rate supports it. None of this needs an outside benchmark, just consistent entry.

The point of a KPI is the question it raises. If billed is far ahead of work done, you may be over-billing early; if far behind, you may be forgetting to invoice.

Where ArchitectOS fits

ArchitectOS (we make it, $79) provides the Projects database with status and fee type, charts by status, DRAW phase and fee type, and a Fees & Invoices section, which are the inputs for pipeline and billing KPIs. It does not include a time-tracking database or computed KPIs; you add those.

• See what's inside ArchitectOS
• ArchitectOS pricing

Frequently asked questions

What KPIs should an architecture firm track?

Common ones are pipeline value, fee billed versus agreed, overdue invoices, hours versus fee, and utilisation. Pick a handful you will act on, and compare to your own history.

What is utilisation in an architecture practice?

The share of paid working time spent on billable project work. It needs time records, and the appropriate target varies by role, so set it for your own practice.

Are there industry benchmarks I should use?

Published benchmarks exist from industry surveys, but they depend on firm size, region and service. I would treat them as context and verify the source and year before using one.

Can Notion calculate these automatically?

Mostly yes, through relations, rollups and formulas, provided the underlying data is entered consistently. Time-based KPIs need time entries.

How many KPIs are too many?

More than about eight usually means some are ignored. Review quarterly and retire the ones that never change a decision.