Professional services
Basic services, additional services, and the line between them.
Almost every fee dispute in an architecture practice traces back to a client who believed a revision was basic services and an architect who priced it as additional. Drawing that line clearly, phase by phase, is the entire job of the proposal. The Proposal Maker drafts it from the agreements your practice has already issued, so the line sits where you have always drawn it.
Where this fits
You already run Deltek Vantagepoint, Monograph or Word templates. This is not that.
The gap
Monograph and Deltek handle the fee planning, the phase budgeting and the time tracking that practices historically did badly. Neither writes the proposal. That still happens in Word, usually by a principal working from the last similar agreement, which is how a superseded fee schedule occasionally makes it into a new submission.
What this does not do
This does not plan fees, track time, manage phases or run project accounting. Monograph and Deltek keep doing that. It drafts the proposal document from the agreements your practice has already issued.
Scope
What a architecture practice's proposal actually has to itemise
- Basic services by phase: schematic design, design development, construction documents, bidding, construction administration
- Deliverables per phase, described as drawing sets, models and specifications at a stated level of development
- Number of design iterations included before revisions become additional services
- Consultant coordination, and which consultants are held under your agreement versus contracted directly by the owner
- Construction administration: site visit frequency, submittal review turnaround, and punch list involvement
- Permitting support: what you prepare, what you attend, and what the owner or contractor files
- Additional services listed in advance — renderings, feasibility studies, measured surveys, value engineering rounds, as-builts
Pricing
How architecture practices price the work
Percentage of construction cost
The traditional basis, with the construction budget it is calculated against and the point at which the percentage is fixed rather than floating.
Stipulated sum by phase
A fixed fee allocated across phases, so an owner pausing after design development knows exactly what is owed and what is not.
Hourly against a rate schedule
Rates by grade for feasibility and early work where scope cannot be defined, usually with a not-to-exceed for the phase.
Additional services at published rates
A rate schedule attached to the agreement so additional work is priced by a rate the client already accepted, not negotiated in the moment.
The document
What comes out the other end
- 01Project understanding and the design opportunity as you read it
- 02Scope of basic services, phase by phase, with the deliverables each phase produces
- 03Additional services listed explicitly, with how they are authorised and billed
- 04Consultants: who is included, who is excluded, and who carries the coordination risk
- 05Fee, basis of compensation, and the invoicing cycle
- 06Reimbursable expenses and the multiplier, if any
- 07Owner responsibilities: programme, budget, survey, geotechnical, timely decisions
- 08Schedule by phase, expressed from authorisation rather than in fixed calendar dates
- 09Ownership of instruments of service and the terms of any licence to use them
Compliance
The details that belong on the document, not in a follow-up email
- Architect registration numbers and states of licensure, with the firm registration where the state requires one
- Contract form the proposal anticipates, commonly AIA B101, since the standard terms differ materially from a letter agreement
- Standard of care worded as the professional skill ordinarily exercised by architects, never as a warranty or guarantee of results
- Instruments of service ownership retained by the architect, with a defined licence to the owner, which is the AIA default and frequently negotiated
- Limitation of liability consistent with what the practice's professional liability policy underwrote
- Code and accessibility compliance framed as design intent reviewed by the authority having jurisdiction, not as certification
General guidance, not legal advice. Requirements vary by state and jurisdiction — confirm yours with counsel or your licensing board.
Straight answers
The three things you are probably thinking
“We use the AIA forms. Why would we need this?”
The AIA form is the contract. The proposal is what precedes it — project understanding, scope narrative, fee rationale — and that is written from scratch each time.
“Our proposals are part of how we present the practice.”
They should be, which is why this drafts from your own past proposals rather than a house style. If your voice is a differentiator, it is the voice it learns.
“Small projects do not justify a long proposal.”
Then keep them short. It drafts to the length your comparable past proposals ran, so a residential addition does not come out reading like a civic commission.
FAQ
Architecture proposals: common questions
Does it use AIA contract language?
It uses whatever your past proposals used. If your practice works from B101, the drafts reflect that. It does not supply AIA documents, which are licensed separately.
Can it calculate a percentage-based fee?
No. You set the percentage and the construction budget. It writes the basis of compensation section around them.
How does it handle the basic versus additional services split?
That split is the most valuable thing it learns from your library, because every practice draws it slightly differently. Yours is carried into every draft.
We work across residential and institutional. Will one bleed into the other?
No. It matches each new inquiry against the closest past proposals, so an institutional response drafts from your institutional work.
Can I export to Word to finish it?
Yes. Word, PDF, or a tracked share link, all carrying your letterhead.
Related
Other trades we have written this up for
See what it writes from your last architecture proposal.
Upload three or four you were happy to send. The next one drafts in the same voice.