I'm an Architect running a small firm, myself and 3 junior architects and an office assistant, working on new single family homes and new 10-20 unit apartment buildings ... and I find that we are either super busy or very light waiting for clients to make decisions or hear back from the city.
I think this is so because we don't have a formal project to do list. I want to put together a checklist of things that need to get done for each project as they are mostly the same. How do other firms deal with this? Evernote? Google Keep? Anyone care to share how they keep their office running lean? or share a sample project todo list.
Thanks in advance for sharing!
thatsthat
Nov 12, 18 10:53 am
We do google docs. Everyone on the team get the link and ideally puts it on their desktop as a shortcut. Then if the person leading the team is away from their desk, they can remotely add/assign items. So if a team member finishes their task, they check the google doc for their next task. We mostly use spreadsheets because it’s easy to assign things and keep it formatted.
mightyaa
Nov 12, 18 2:08 pm
Last place I was at used Smartsheet. Nice that it is cloud based, permissions can be setup, and it can email reminders. So, we'd do a gant sheet master with sub-task to track out a whole project. Consultants were also on it, so they could also check off or add items. And if you are like me and in the middle of the night think about a task, you can just log in and add it from home.
Jacob Carlile
Nov 13, 18 10:15 am
My office is a huge advocate of BQE's ArchiOffice software. We implemented it in a small firm about 3 years ago. Our biggest challenge was tracking time and billings related to our municipal projects, as these are seldom stipulated sum agreements and more often T&M to a not-to-exceed value.
Tracking these projects and providing accurate billings was extremely difficult utilizing spreadsheets or in house solutions.
We implemented ArchiOffice across all projects, establish project phases and budgets, log time and expenses, as well as utilize some of the Project Management features which include scheduling, task management, RFI/Phone Logs, staff assignments, etc.
There is a bit of a learning curve to get it rolling. We didn't try to load previous projects, and implemented in a "moving forward" fashion.
I highly recommend the software as it is developed specifically for Architects.
I'm an Architect running a small firm, myself and 3 junior architects and an office assistant, working on new single family homes and new 10-20 unit apartment buildings ... and I find that we are either super busy or very light waiting for clients to make decisions or hear back from the city.
I think this is so because we don't have a formal project to do list. I want to put together a checklist of things that need to get done for each project as they are mostly the same. How do other firms deal with this? Evernote? Google Keep? Anyone care to share how they keep their office running lean? or share a sample project todo list.
Thanks in advance for sharing!
We do google docs. Everyone on the team get the link and ideally puts it on their desktop as a shortcut. Then if the person leading the team is away from their desk, they can remotely add/assign items. So if a team member finishes their task, they check the google doc for their next task. We mostly use spreadsheets because it’s easy to assign things and keep it formatted.
Last place I was at used Smartsheet. Nice that it is cloud based, permissions can be setup, and it can email reminders. So, we'd do a gant sheet master with sub-task to track out a whole project. Consultants were also on it, so they could also check off or add items. And if you are like me and in the middle of the night think about a task, you can just log in and add it from home.
My office is a huge advocate of BQE's ArchiOffice software. We implemented it in a small firm about 3 years ago. Our biggest challenge was tracking time and billings related to our municipal projects, as these are seldom stipulated sum agreements and more often T&M to a not-to-exceed value.
Tracking these projects and providing accurate billings was extremely difficult utilizing spreadsheets or in house solutions.
We implemented ArchiOffice across all projects, establish project phases and budgets, log time and expenses, as well as utilize some of the Project Management features which include scheduling, task management, RFI/Phone Logs, staff assignments, etc.
There is a bit of a learning curve to get it rolling. We didn't try to load previous projects, and implemented in a "moving forward" fashion.
I highly recommend the software as it is developed specifically for Architects.