ArchFlow vs separate tools

A sales pipeline from first lead to won work, with the value of each stage. Each client has a timeline of calls, meetings, emails and notes, with their contracts and invoices. A contractor directory keeps each contractor's projects and payments.

Not included: Emails you receive are not logged for you, because ArchFlow never reads your inbox. Emails you send to a client from ArchFlow go on that client's timeline.

Fee proposals priced by phase, as a percentage of construction cost or by the hour, with a deposit, scope, exclusions, a revision limit and a valid-until date, in your own template or ours. The client accepts and e-signs in the portal, and an accepted proposal sets up the project and its fee schedule.

Clients sign proposals and stage completion certificates in the client portal: they type their name and draw a signature, and the signed copy is filed in the project.

Not included: Contracts are stored, not e-signed: you upload them to the client's Contracts tab. A signature is a typed name and a drawn signature with the time, not a certified signing service, so keep an e-signature service for documents that need one.

Projects run by phase, from concept to completion. Tasks have assignees, due dates, comments and attachments. Drawings keep their revisions with their issue status, and each project logs RFIs, variations, site snags with photos, and submissions to the building authority with the days waited.

Not included: No Gantt charts or resource planning.

Log time in shorthand (2h, 90m) by project, phase and task, billable or not, on the web or on WhatsApp. It feeds utilisation and the profit on each phase.

Not included: No running timer or timesheet approval, and invoices are not made from logged hours: ArchFlow invoices fees by phase.

Invoices from the fee schedule, a completed phase or an approved variation, in the firm's own currency, with payment terms, a due date, your bank details and, once you tick that you are registered for tax, tax lines. They go from your own email address with the PDF attached. Reports show fees agreed, collected and overdue.

Not included: Clients can't pay by card or through a pay link: invoices carry your bank details and you mark them paid. No automatic payment reminders (Archie can draft one when you ask) and no recurring invoices.

A private link for each project, with no client account needed, an optional password and an expiry date. You choose what the client sees: progress, fees, invoices, chosen drawings and files, permit status and renders. Clients sign there and comment on files.

Client approvals of a stage or a drawing set, with a code sent by email, are off until a firm switches them on in Settings, and then on each project that uses them.

Render Studio turns a model view or a sketch into a photoreal render, edits part of an image, enhances it for print and animates a still into a short film. Renders can go to the client portal.

Not included: Films run up to 15 seconds, at up to 720p.

Technical Drafts turns a sketch, a photo, a render or a written brief into a concept plan with a 3D model, an A3 drawing set, a specification and schedules, and exports it as DXF for AutoCAD and Revit, IFC for Revit and ArchiCAD, OBJ for SketchUp, and GLB for visualisation tools.

Not included: These are concepts for the architect to develop, not construction drawings: the drawings are still made in your CAD.

The AI Compliance Checker reads the drawing set (up to 40 pages) and lists what does not comply, what to check and what evidence is missing, sheet by sheet, with an estimate of how the submission is likely to go. Researched rule packs cover dwellings in England, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Elsewhere it runs general drawing checks and looks up official sources while it checks, with links.

Not included: It is an estimate before you submit, never the building authority's decision. It is not a code library either: keep your code references for looking rules up.

Archie on WhatsApp, on every plan: send a site photo to log a snag, log time, raise an invoice, send the latest drawings or ask how a project stands. Send a voice note and Archie writes it down and reads back a numbered list, and nothing is saved until you type YES or tap Save.

Voice notes are on for every firm and use no credits, with a fair-use limit. The firm owner can switch them off in Settings.

Not included: There is no iOS or Android app: ArchFlow runs in the browser on a computer, tablet or phone, and on WhatsApp.