Architecture & Design Firm Accounting in San Diego
Fee tracking by phase, clean handling of reimbursables and retainers, and utilization reporting that shows which projects actually earn their keep.
Design and permitting firms sell time and expertise, and the books have to reflect that. A single project can move through schematic design, design development, construction documents and construction administration, each with its own fee and its own budget of hours. Reimbursable expenses, consultant invoices and permit fees paid on a client's behalf flow through the firm without being income. When those pieces live in one undifferentiated ledger, it becomes hard to tell whether a project is profitable until long after it closes.
Skyward acts as the accounting department for architecture, interior design and permit expediting firms across San Diego County, from our office in Escondido. We set up QuickBooks Online with projects, classes and items that mirror how you bill, reconcile every account during a disciplined monthly close, and deliver statements and project reports you can act on. Documents and requests move through a secure Karbon portal, so your principals spend their time on design reviews rather than chasing receipts and reconciling expense reports.
Your people are the product, so HR deserves the same care as the books. Design firms juggle salaried staff, hourly drafters, interns and freelance renderers, and California's rules on overtime and contractor classification under AB5 apply to all of them. Our HR team helps you classify roles correctly, document exempt status where it applies, and keep onboarding and personnel records in order. Everything runs on a fixed monthly fee, so overhead stays as predictable as your fee proposals should be.
Services we typically run
- Outsourced Accounting
- Bookkeeping
- Financial Reporting & Dashboards
- Fractional CFO
- Outsourced HR
What we handle
The realitiesof your sector.
01
Billing and recognizing fees by design phase
Fixed fees split across phases, hourly additional services and percent-complete invoicing all need to land in the right place. We structure your QuickBooks Online items and projects around your phase breakdown, so each invoice ties back to the contract and you can see fee earned against fee billed. That makes it obvious when a phase is running over its budget of hours before the overrun becomes a write-off.
02
Reimbursables and consultant pass-throughs
Printing, travel, structural and MEP consultant invoices, and any markup you apply all have to be captured and rebilled accurately. We code these costs to the project as they arrive, track what has been rebilled and what has not, and flag reimbursables that are sitting unbilled. Your income statement then separates true fee revenue from pass-through activity, which gives a cleaner view of firm performance.
03
Permit fees advanced on behalf of clients
Permit expediters often pay city and county plan check and permit fees directly, then recover them from the client. Those payments are client advances, not overhead, and treating them as expenses distorts margins and cash. We record them against the client, reconcile them to the invoices that recover them, and report outstanding advances so nothing paid to an agency quietly goes uncollected.
04
Retainers held and applied
A retainer collected at signing is a liability until it is earned or applied to a final invoice. We track each client's retainer balance separately from operating cash, apply it according to your engagement terms, and reconcile the balance every month. When a project pauses or a client walks away, you know exactly what is held and what has been earned, which keeps those conversations straightforward.
05
Utilization and project profitability
A busy studio is not always a profitable one. We combine time data from your project management system with payroll costs to report utilization by person and margin by project, built in Excel or Power BI depending on what your team prefers. Principals can then see which project types, clients and fee structures earn the most, and price the next proposal with real history behind it.
FAQ
Questions,answered plainly.
How should an architecture firm track project profitability in QuickBooks Online?
We usually set each contract up as a project, with service items for each design phase and separate items for reimbursables and additional services. Labor cost comes in from payroll and time data, so each project shows fee billed against the true cost of the hours spent. The exact setup depends on how your contracts are written and how granular you want reporting to be.
Are permit fees we pay for clients an expense or income?
In most cases, fees you pay to an agency on a client's behalf and then rebill are treated as client advances or reimbursable costs, not as part of your fee income or overhead. We keep them separate in the books so your margins are not inflated or distorted. Your CPA has the final word on how they are reported on your tax return, and we hand them clean detail.
Can you invoice using AIA-style billing by phase?
We can prepare phase-based invoices that show contract fee, percent complete, amount previously billed and current amount due, in the format your clients expect. We work from the progress estimates your project leads provide, so the billing reflects the real status of the work. Invoices are built from QuickBooks Online data so billing and the books always agree.
Do you help with HR for drafters, interns and freelance designers?
Yes. Our outsourced HR service helps you decide which roles are exempt or non-exempt, which workers can legitimately be independent contractors under California's AB5 rules, and how to document those decisions. We also handle onboarding paperwork, handbooks and personnel records. For questions that need a legal opinion, we coordinate with your employment attorney.
How much does outsourced accounting cost for a design firm?
Skyward works on a fixed monthly fee based on the scope of work, such as the number of active projects, billing complexity and whether HR is included. There is a six-month initial commitment, then the engagement continues month-to-month. Contact us for a quote based on your firm's size and how you bill.
Services
Built forarchitecture, interior design & permitting.
- Finance
Outsourced Accounting
A full accounting department without the overhead: classifications, reconciliations, AP and AR support, month-end close and reporting, delivered by one steady team for a fixed monthly fee.
- Finance
Bookkeeping
Up-to-date, reconciled, tax-ready books every month. We clean up what is there, set up processes and automations, and deliver accurate monthly statements for a fixed fee.
- Finance
Financial Reporting & Dashboards
Monthly statements, budget versus actual by department, AR and AP aging, weekly cash reporting and KPI dashboards in Power BI, Excel or Google Sheets.
- Strategy
Fractional CFO
Strategic finance without a full-time salary: cash-flow forecasting, budgets, KPIs, board and lender reporting, pricing analysis and a finance function built to scale.
- People
Outsourced HR
Comprehensive oversight of HR practices, policies and procedures: onboarding, compliant terminations, contractor classification under AB5, payroll support and audit-ready records.
Ready to take yourbusiness Skyward?
Tell us where your finance and HR operations stand today. We'll map out what fixed-fee support would look like — usually live within about a week.