Management software for architects: projects, drawing versions and client approvals

Archicad and Revit draw, and nothing will replace them. Surrounding tracking, fees by phase, site-visit reports and client-approved drawing versions, lives in spreadsheets or per-seat subscriptions. That is the layer custom software takes on.

Archicad Studio costs €349 plus VAT per seat monthly, or €203 monthly with an annual commitment paid upfront, €2,440 plus taxes per seat annually (Graphisoft rates, September 2, 2026). More than 29,500 registered architects practise in France according to the Culture Ministry's Key Figures published in 2024 using 2023 data.

What design tools do that no homebuilt tool will

Modelling engines, libraries and IFC exchange formats represent decades of engineering. Custom software does not draw a project or replace Archicad or Revit. Autodesk publishes no public Revit price, and we say so rather than cite a second-hand figure. These tools serve the entire profession, giving a three-person practice the same engine as a hundred-person one. User criticism concerns accumulation: ‘instead of cleaning up the extreme amount of clutter, they simply keep adding new features’, writes an architect in a 1-out-of-5 Capterra France review, September 6, 2023; another on November 18, 2021 says it ‘is complex and requires regular use to use with any effectiveness’.

The expensive per-seat layer

Site tracking is paid per person. Archipad lists Premium at €59.99 excluding VAT monthly without commitment or €49.99 per seat monthly billed annually, and €69–€85 for Promoteur; enterprise requires a quote, price not public. For three colleagues visiting sites, the annual line exceeds €1,800 excluding VAT before analytical accounting. French practice-management tools OOTI and Bimoffice exposed no retrievable pricing page on September 2, 2026. Every independent practice knows the result: a project-tracking spreadsheet, site-photo folders per project and reports written in a word processor at night.

Five functions closing the gap

First, fees tracked by commission phase: concept, outline design, detailed design, project, tender documents, execution supervision and handover assistance, with alerts when delivered phases remain unbilled. Next, the visit log: photo, plan location, defect, recipient and follow-up, producing reports when leaving the site rather than at 10 p.m. Practice workload: who works on which project, sold hours remaining and drifting projects. A reusable written-document library with automatic project-data substitution. And the compliance journal: permit filing, acknowledgement, review periods, insurance deadlines and documents to retain.

The drawing version the client approved

The most expensive dispute point fits in one sentence: which version did the client approve, and when? In proposed requirements for a practice, agent Victor wrote that the latest sent version counts as approved. The architect refused ‘Looks good to me’ and returned their site-derived rule: only a dated client response counts as approval; no response leaves a version pending; comments attach to the version the client saw. The document returned corrected, and human approval holds the chain together. A practice losing two days yearly finding agreement in email knows this register's value.

Obligations remaining outside the tool

When a public contracting authority is the client, invoices pass through Chorus Pro. Otherwise electronic invoicing follows all businesses: receipt mandatory since September 1, 2026, issuing from September 1, 2027 for SMEs and microbusinesses via an approved platform (Service Public Entreprendre, August 14, 2026). Professional registration and title protection fall under the January 3, 1977 law, not software. Professional insurance obligations deserve checking with your adviser rather than repeating an article. GDPR applies to client and site data, with a register and retention periods.

Where to start

List the last three projects and each phase's delivery and invoicing dates. The average gap decides: beyond three weeks, phase tracking pays back in cash flow before saving time. Describe that table to an AI agent team, read proposed requirements and keep your design tool intact. Other regulated professions face the same limit: detailed rules generic software flattens, and a five-year calculation changing as the team grows.