A Nine-Person Architecture Practice Sends Fee Proposals a Day After the Site Visit, Not Ten
Three AI agents built on an architecture practice's own project system now answer enquiries within the hour, draft fee proposals from the director's site notes for same-day sign-off, and raise each stage's invoice the day the stage is marked complete.
Who this is about: Architecture and surveying practice (9 staff, UK)
What it takes
- Cost
- Cost not statedA custom build; the project cost isn't given.
- Setup time
- A few weeksOur estimate from the source, for one business.
- Skill needed
- Developer skillsYou build or run your own code, even if AI writes it.
Explain it simply
Before, one of the directors wrote every price quote himself at the weekend, about ten days after visiting the site. Now one AI helper answers new enquiries and books the site visit, another turns the director's visit notes and the firm's price spreadsheet into a draft quote, and a third sends each invoice as soon as a stage of the project is marked done. A director still reads and signs every quote, so the AI does the typing and the people make the decisions.
What was done
The practice wanted enquiries answered the same day, proposals out within a day of the visit, and invoices sent the day a stage finished. Blott built three agents in 13 working days:
Intake agent: answers every enquiry within the hour, asks the questions a director would (site, brief, budget, planning history) and books the site visit into the right director's diary with the address and any drawings attached.
Proposal agent: after the visit, drafts the fee proposal from the director's notes and the practice's fee schedule, in its own template and stage structure, and queues it for a director's edit and signature the same day.
Billing agent: knows each project's stage plan. When a stage is marked complete in the project system, it raises that stage's invoice the same day in the practice's format and follows up until it's paid.
The fee schedule the directors had refined over years became the proposal agent's pricing logic.
How it went
For the first two weeks the directors read every draft and changed roughly a third of them, mostly adding a paragraph specific to the site. By the third week they were adding a sentence. The billing agent raised its first invoice on day nine, for a Stage 3 sign-off, and it was paid within the week.
- Blott reports proposals going out 1 day after the visit instead of 10, stage payments arriving 14 days sooner, and 2.4x more consultations booked. The practice is unnamed and these figures come from the builder's own case study, with no independent check. The project cost isn't given.
Prompt
Inputs: director's site-visit notes, the fee schedule spreadsheet,
the practice's proposal template and stage structure.
"Draft a fee proposal for [project] using our template.
Price each stage only from the fee schedule; don't invent rates.
Use the visit notes for scope and site constraints.
Mark anything the notes don't cover as [DIRECTOR TO CONFIRM].
Queue the draft for director review; never send it yourself."
Billing rule: when a stage is marked complete in the project system,
raise that stage's invoice the same day and follow up until paid.Our outline from the case study, not Blott's build.
Business fit
Who this helps, and how:
Architects, surveyors and engineers: draft proposals from your own fee schedule right after the visit, while it's fresh.
AgenciesAny project-based service firm: tie invoices to project stages so billing happens when work is signed off, not when someone remembers.
AgenciesSmall firms with busy owners: answer and book new enquiries within the hour so you're the first to reply.
Local & service
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Similar tools
Other tools for this job, and how they differ. Chosen by our editors, never paid for.
- Monograph
Practice management software built for architecture firms, covering fees, project phases and invoicing.
- BQE CORE
Project accounting and billing for architecture and engineering firms.
- Lindy
A no-code AI agent builder, for automating enquiry replies without a custom build.
“Vendor or secondhand” (grade C) means: A tool maker's case study, a promotional demo, or someone else's write-up. How we grade. Spotted a mistake? Suggest a correction.