How to write an architecture fee proposal that wins work and protects your fee

A fee proposal does two jobs at once. It has to convince a client to hire you, and it has to protect the fee once they do. Most proposals from small firms are good at the first job and weak at the second. They describe the design beautifully, then put one number at the bottom and hope the project behaves.

This guide explains how to write an architecture fee proposal that does both. It is written for owners of architecture and interior design firms with 2 to 50 people, and it works whether you follow RIBA stages, AIA phases or your own sequence.

What an architecture fee proposal is for

Think of the proposal as the first version of the project, not a sales letter. Everything you write in it will come back later: when the client asks for a fourth layout option, when a phase runs long, when an invoice is questioned. A clear proposal answers those moments in advance. A vague one leaves you negotiating each of them from a weak position.

So the test of a good proposal is simple. Six months into the project, can someone in your office open it and say exactly what is included, what is not, what has been earned and what is due?

The sections every proposal needs

1. The client's brief, in your words

Start with a short summary of what the client wants: the site, the building type, the size, the budget they mentioned and the timeline. Writing it back in your own words shows you listened, and it fixes the starting point. If the brief changes later, you can point to this paragraph.

2. Scope per phase

This is the heart of the document. List each phase you will deliver and, under it, what the client receives: drawings, models, reports, meetings, applications. Be specific about quantities where it matters. "Concept design with up to two layout options and one round of revisions" is a scope. "Concept design" is a wish.

3. Fee per phase

Put a fee against every phase, not just a total. A fee table makes the value of each stage visible, lets the client see where their money goes, and gives you a clean basis for invoicing and for stopping work if a phase is not approved. It also tells you, later, which phases you priced well and which you did not.

4. Payment schedule

State when each part of the fee is invoiced. Common patterns are an advance on signing, then an invoice at the end of each phase, or monthly invoices against the phase fee. Add your payment term in days. Whatever you choose, write it down so the first invoice is not a surprise.

5. Assumptions

Every fee rests on assumptions: the site survey is provided by the client, the planning route is standard, the number of meetings, the number of revision rounds. List them. Assumptions are what let you say, politely and without argument, that a new request is outside the agreed fee.

6. Exclusions

Say clearly what you are not doing. Structural and services engineering, surveys, specialist consultants, planning fees, visualisations beyond a set number, site supervision if you are not offering it. A client who reads "not included" before signing is far easier to work with than one who discovers it at an invoice.

7. Additional services and rates

Explain how extra work is charged: an hourly rate per role, or a fixed fee agreed in writing before the work starts. This turns scope creep into a normal business conversation rather than a favour.

8. Validity and next step

Give the proposal a validity period and tell the client exactly how to accept it. One clear next step is better than a paragraph of options.

Choosing how to calculate the fee

There are three common ways to set the number, and most firms use a mix:

• Percentage of construction cost. Familiar to clients and scales with project size, but your fee moves when the budget moves, and the budget usually moves.
• Fixed fee per phase. Clear for the client and the easiest to invoice. It only works if your scope and assumptions are tight.
• Hourly. Fair when scope is genuinely unknown, such as early feasibility, but clients find it hard to budget for.

Whichever method you use, build it from hours. Estimate the hours per phase by role, multiply by your rates, and compare the result with what the market or the percentage method suggests. If the gap is large, change the scope, not just the number.

A simple fee table you can copy

For a small residential project the fee table might look like this. The figures are placeholders, not recommendations.

Phase	Main deliverables	Fee	Invoiced
Concept	Two layout options, one revision round, massing model	X	On approval
Design development	Plans, sections, elevations, outline specification	X	Monthly
Permit / planning	Application drawings and documents	X	On submission
Construction documents	Construction drawings, schedules, specification	X	Monthly
Construction	Site visits as listed, queries, handover	X	Monthly

Add an advance line at the top if you take one, and a total at the bottom. Keep VAT or sales tax as a separate line so there is no confusion about what the fee includes.

Mistakes that cost small firms money

• One total, no phases. Without a fee per phase you cannot invoice cleanly or tell where a project went over.
• Unlimited revisions by omission. If you do not state the number of revision rounds, the client will reasonably assume there is no limit.
• No exclusions. Silence about engineering, surveys or visualisations reads as "included".
• Payment only at the end. Long gaps between invoices put the risk on you. Tie payments to phases or months.
• A proposal that lives apart from the project. When the agreed scope sits in a PDF and the real work sits somewhere else, the two drift apart and nobody notices until the final invoice.
• Writing it from scratch every time. Start from a template built on your own phases and past projects, then adjust. You will be faster and more consistent.

After the client signs

The proposal becomes the agreement, and the agreement should drive the project. Use the same phases to plan the work, record time against each phase, and close each phase with a client sign-off before the next one starts. That sign-off is what turns your scope on paper into scope in practice. If you are still choosing tools for this, our guide to architecture practice management software covers what to look for.

Where Smartnatic fits

Smartnatic generates fee proposals and agreements from the project itself: the scope per phase comes from your phase template and its deliverables, the fee table and payment schedule follow your payment plan settings, and the same phases then carry time tracking, invoices and the sign-off gates. So the document you send and the project you run never drift apart. You can try it on a real proposal with a 14-day free trial, and pricing is per person.

Frequently asked questions

What should an architecture fee proposal include?

A summary of the brief, the scope per phase, a fee per phase, a payment schedule, assumptions, exclusions, how additional services are charged, a validity period and a clear way to accept.

Should I quote a percentage or a fixed fee?

Either can work. Fixed fees per phase are easier for clients to budget and for you to invoice, but they need a tight scope. Whatever you quote, check it against an estimate of hours per phase.

How detailed should the scope be?

Detailed enough that someone outside the project can tell whether a request is included. Name the deliverables, the number of options and the number of revision rounds for each phase.

How do I handle extra work the client asks for later?

Point to the assumptions and exclusions in the proposal, then price the extra work as an additional service, either at hourly rates or as a fixed fee agreed in writing before you start.