Factor Blog for Architecture & Engineering Firms

Every A/E firm understands that the risk of financial loss and client departures begins on the day you sign a contract. Fortunately, we’ve found that there are ways to minimize risk beyond the terms that are in a contract. Here’s how.

To get an accurate valuation, we’ve learned that an A/E firm must have an appreciation for, and willingness to do, effective financial management. Here’s why.

Here’s how Factor A/E can help you determine if your marketing expense is delivering value.

Here’s why industry trends mean A/E firms should manage sub-consultants like employees, and how Factor AE’s features can help.

When you give people access to large volumes of data, you have to offer guidance on what to do with it. Here’s how to handle all the data at your disposal.

When difficult economic conditions arise, our observation is that firms that put together the best teams for each project—regardless of what department a person is pulled from—get through the tough times in the best shape.

Our position on how much accounting detail should be added to Factor AE is that less is more. It’s been our experience that the high degree of complexity in many accounting systems starts to counteract the benefit of doing the accounting to begin with. Architecture and engineering (A/E) firms get drawn into situations where they start to experience “junk in, junk out” in regard to their data, and there are no understandable metrics being reviewed. Plus, even if there are metrics that can be understood, there’s no reliability in how they’re being calculated. However, the argument can be (and has been) made that there’s a functional side to accounting detail aside from metrics and performance tracking. One important area is the separating of labor and subconsultants (subs).

With an increasing number of architecture and engineering (A/E) firms having some or all of their employees working from home in the wake of COVID-19, there’s never been a more challenging or more important time to conduct accurate employee performance reviews—especially assessments that address the financial aspect of a person’s performance.

When the coronavirus pandemic forced architecture and engineering (A/E) firms to shift to remote working, it shed light on some critical failings in how companies view the technology they rely on. And while COVID-19 brought pain and suffering to businesses and families alike, there will be some lasting benefits from the lessons that A/E firms learned.

Historically, architecture and engineering (A/E) firms have been led to believe that in order to be successful, they have to choose between being practice-focused or business-focused. However, we now know that it is perfectly okay and often times, better, for firms to fall into the gray area