Technology in Architectural Practice

I am interested in hearing opinions of all-in-one Office/Project Management software.  We currently use a variety of applications to take care of billing, scheduling, and database functions, and I am interested in hearing other Architects' experiences with other software such as Newforma, ArchAdministrator, ArchiOffice, etc. that tie all of the together.

The ideal application would have support for most of the following:

Time and Expense Tracking

Past Project Performance Tracking

Contact database

Document Management

Scheduling

Outlook Integration

Submittal Management

Billing Coordination

Report Creation

Employee Information Management

Thanks for your input.

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Tyson McElvain AIA
Architect
Julie Snow Architects, Inc.
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There's no one size fits all suite out there; we're an all Mac office and have been for over 20 years; before that we wrestled with Harper and Shuman, a bloated PC-only suite that was overkill for our modest sized practice. After that we lived without specific project controls and billing software; for a while we used MYOB on the Mac and then shifted to QuickBooks Pro for the Mac, finally succumbing to QuickBooks Pro for the PC, after Intuit killed the Mac app. We have one PC in the office, for that purpose only. About 5 years ago we purchased BillQuick from BQE software; we've struggled with it, but it's a very good suite. It syncs with QuickBooks Pro (for all AR/AP and invoice transactions), it also has a web-based time entry system, so it allows us to run only the one PC (acting as a web suite server) with users able to log in their time and expenses via their web browser, inside, outside and even from their iPhones. Web suite also allows admin level users to access and print reports with a tremendous amount of detail. It's a little buggy, but BQE is very responsive and the software handles situations unique to the architecture profession (like crediting retainers along the way). I understand that BQE recently purchased Archi-Office, which we demo'd several years ago (it is, I believe Mac-centric), but we're pretty well set with BillQuick at this point. I don't envy anyone in transition for this stuff, it's immeasurably valuable in tracking profit and efficiency.

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Jack Suben AIA
Partner
Suben/Dougherty Partnership
New York NY
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