Guide · Running a design practice

How to track design hours by stage in an MEP or architecture firm

By Indravadan Vala, MEP consultant (15+ years) and founder of AECVeda · 4 November 2026

Most design firms know their fee for a project. Very few know what each stage of that project actually cost them in hours. That gap is where margins quietly disappear, and it is the reason the next fee proposal is a guess again. Here is a simple way to close it, written from fifteen years of running MEP projects.

Why stage-wise hours matter

A typical fee is split by stage: concept, design development, tender or good-for-construction (GFC) drawings, and site support. If you only track total hours per project, you find out you are over budget when the project is nearly finished, too late to do anything about it. Tracked by stage, the same hours tell you three useful things:

• Where the overruns happen. In many firms it is not design at all. It is revisions after the client changes the architecture, or months of site queries after GFC.
• Whether a stage is ready to bill. If 90% of the GFC hours are spent and the drawings are not issued, you have a problem to discuss with the client now, not at the end.
• What to quote next time. Three hotels of similar size give you real hours per stage per square metre, which is far better than last year's rate card.

Step 1: Fix your stage list, and keep it short

Use the same stages as your fee schedule, so hours and fee line up. Five to seven stages is enough. A common list for MEP consultancies is:

1. Concept and design basis report (DBR)
2. Schematic design
3. Design development
4. Tender / good-for-construction (GFC) drawings
5. Shop drawing review and site support
6. As-built review and handover

Architecture and interior firms will use their own names, but the rule is the same: one list for the whole firm, matching the way you bill.

Step 2: Add disciplines and a few work categories

In a multi-discipline firm, stage alone is not enough. HVAC, electrical, plumbing and fire may each be on budget except one, and the total hides it. Record the discipline with every entry.

Then add a handful of work categories that explain why hours were spent: design, drawing, coordination, site visit, and, most importantly, client-requested revisions. That last category is the evidence you need when you ask for additional fees.

Step 3: Turn the fee into an hour budget per stage

Before work starts, convert each stage's fee into hours:

Budget hours for a stage = (stage fee × target cost share) ÷ average hourly cost

For example, if the GFC stage fee is ₹4,00,000, you aim to spend 60% of fee on staff cost, and your average cost is ₹800 per hour, the GFC budget is 4,00,000 × 0.6 ÷ 800 = 300 hours. Share that number with the project lead. A budget nobody sees is not a budget.

Step 4: Make the weekly timesheet painless

Stage-wise data is only as good as the timesheets behind it. Three habits make the difference:

• Weekly, not monthly. Nobody remembers on the 30th what they did on the 3rd. A weekly grid filled on Friday takes five minutes.
• Book against tasks, not just projects. When every task already carries its stage and discipline, people only type hours, and the stage is recorded correctly without them thinking about it.
• Approve before you analyse. A team lead checking each week's hours catches wrong projects and missing days before they spoil the report.

Step 5: Review hours against budget every month

Once a month, for every live project, compare hours spent with the budget for each stage, and note the percentage of drawings or deliverables complete. A simple traffic-light rule works well:

• Green: hours used are at or below the work completed.
• Amber: hours used run up to 15% ahead of the work completed. Talk to the project lead.
• Red: more than 15% ahead, or the stage budget is already exceeded. Decide now: re-plan, ask the client for additional fees, or accept the loss knowingly.

Step 6: Close the loop on the next proposal

When a project ends, record the actual hours per stage against its size (area, number of keys, beds or floors). After a handful of projects you will have your own benchmarks, such as hours per 1,000 m² for the GFC stage of a commercial building, and your fee proposals stop being guesses.

A quick checklist

• One stage list for the whole firm, matching your fee schedule
• Discipline and work category on every entry, including client revisions
• Hour budget per stage, worked out from the fee and shared with the lead
• Weekly timesheets, booked against tasks and approved by the lead
• Monthly review of hours against work completed, stage by stage
• Actual hours per stage recorded at the end of every project

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