Concept to GFC, billed by
the stage you signed off.
Run the practice the way the COA stages it — every drawing revision, consultant share, site snag, RFI, and reimbursable tied to the project, and the fee invoice raised the moment a stage signs off. No more reconciling which stage was billed against which drawing is current, or chasing the structural consultant’s bill through a separate spreadsheet.
Built for sole proprietors, LLPs, and mid-size studios doing residential, commercial, institutional, and interior work — and the COA-registered architects who run them.
A practice doesn’t sell stock — it sells stages of design, billed as a percentage of a fee pegged to a moving construction cost. Revenue is earned drawing by drawing and approval by approval, while structural, MEP, and landscape consultants take their cut of the same project. If you gate billing to a stage sign-off, track drawing revisions that must stand up to a transmittal dispute, log site visits and snags, answer RFIs, recover reimbursables, and still file GSTR-1 on professional fees — this is the system that holds all of it together. One project, one fee, one set of numbers everyone trusts.
The modules an Indian studio
actually runs on.
The project record
One file per commission carries everything — client and billing party, site address and plot details, project cost basis, the appointment letter and fee terms, the assigned project lead, and the live stage. Every drawing, consultant, timesheet, site visit, RFI, reimbursable, and invoice on this page links back to this one record, so “what’s the status of the Anna Nagar villa?” is one screen, not a hunt through five spreadsheets and a WhatsApp group.
Design stages — concept to GFC
Set each commission against the COA work stages — concept, schematic design, design development, statutory approvals, tender/GFC drawings, construction supervision, and handover — or your own custom stage map. Track target sign-offs against actuals per stage, gate each stage to a defined milestone (client presentation, drawing approval, municipal submission, contractor mobilisation), and see at a glance which stage every project sits in — with a full trail of who approved what, when.
Drawing & document control
A versioned register for every sheet — drawing number, title, discipline, scale, revision, and issued-for status (IFA, IFC, GFC, as-built) — tied to the stage it belongs to. Each issue generates a transmittal with date, recipient, and copies, so you always know the current revision, who holds it, and which drawings are still pending against a stage before you bill for it. Superseded revisions stay archived, never overwritten, for the day a site dispute turns on which sheet was current.
Stage-wise & percentage-of-cost billing
Set the total professional fee — lump sum, percentage of project cost, or per-sq-ft — then split it across stages on the classic 15/20/20/20/25 schedule or your own. As each stage signs off, Garuda raises the proportionate tax invoice automatically, adjusts retainers and advances received, and revises the fee when the construction cost estimate moves. Every project dashboard shows fee earned versus billed versus collected, so no stage finishes quietly three weeks ago and never gets invoiced.
Consultant & MEP coordination
Bring structural, MEP, plumbing, landscape, and PMC consultants onto the project as vendors with their own fee share — fixed, or a percentage of your fee on that project. Their drawings feed the same register for coordination and clash checks, their bills route through purchase approval into vendor payouts, and TDS on professional fees under Section 194J plus GST input credit are captured on every bill — so back-to-back fees never leak margin or miss a statutory deduction.
Site visits & snag tracking
Log every site visit from the phone — date, who attended, photos, and observations tagged to the project and stage. Raise snags and defects against the contractor with location, photo, severity, and a target date, then track each one open-to-closed through construction supervision and the defect-liability period. Visit reports export to a clean PDF for the client and the file, so supervision actually leaves a record instead of living in someone’s camera roll.
RFIs & submittals
Run a proper RFI log — contractor query in, architect response out, with a reference number, raised and due dates, the drawing or spec it relates to, and the days outstanding. Track material and shop-drawing submittals through review with an approved / approved-as-noted / revise-and-resubmit status, so an unanswered RFI or a stalled submittal that’s holding up site is visible on the dashboard, not buried in an inbox.
Timesheets & effort
Architects and draughtsmen log hours against project and stage from web or mobile. See effort burned against fee earned, spot the project quietly running at a loss before it does real damage, and carry real cost-to-serve into the next proposal. Time feeds straight off the shared Garuda HR attendance and employee directory — no separate roster to maintain, and leave or loss-of-pay reconciles back into the same books.
Reimbursable expenses
Track printing and plotting, travel, model-making, survey, soil testing, and statutory/sanction fees as billable reimbursables against the project — marked up or at cost per your appointment letter. They flow onto the next fee invoice with the correct GST treatment, and pure pass-through statutory payments collected as a pure agent are kept off your taxable value, so out-of-pocket spend is recovered instead of absorbed.
Client communication & approvals
Share drawings, presentations, and minutes through a client portal that records the approval — who signed off which revision, on what date — alongside email and SMS notification with delivery status. Meeting minutes, decisions, and revision requests log against the project, so a stage sign-off carries the client’s actual approval behind it and “we never approved that change” stops being an argument on billing day.
GST on professional fees
Architectural services are taxed at 18% GST under SAC 9983. Garuda raises compliant tax invoices with the right SAC, place of supply (CGST+SGST or IGST by the client’s state), and reverse-charge handling for bills from unregistered consultants, pushes B2B invoices to the IRP for e-invoicing once your turnover crosses the threshold, and posts everything into GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B from the same entries — with input credit on consultant and office bills already matched, so there’s no re-keying at return time.
Accounts, payroll & collections on one ledger
Every fee invoice, consultant payout, reimbursable, and expense posts to the same general ledger — so a project’s profitability, the firm’s receivables ageing, and the trial balance are one click apart, not a month-end reconciliation against Tally. Collect fees online by Razorpay, PayU, or UPI with the receipt issued instantly and matched against the right invoice. Run staff payroll on the same books with EPF, ESI, Professional Tax, and TDS under Section 192 computed to current slabs — payslips, Form 16, and the EPF ECR and ESI return files come out ready to upload. Projects, consultants, fees, payroll, and GST all reconcile to one set of accounts, so the money always matches the work that actually got done.
A short tour through
a practice on Garuda.
Product tour · placeholder footage
A stage isn’t done when the drawings ship. It’s done when the fee for it is billed, collected, and reconciled against the work — on one ledger, with no spreadsheet in the middle.
GST on architectural fees, raised with SAC 9983 & place of supply
Work stages per project, each gated to its milestone before it bills
Project file linking drawings, consultants, time & fees
Re-keying between project, consultants & accounts
See your projects billing
by stage.
The live demo is a real practice tenant, pre-loaded with sample projects, a COA stage map, a fee schedule, a drawing register, and consultants. Click in, sign off a stage, raise the fee invoice, log a site snag — no sign-up. Then write to us about a guided setup with your own stage map and fee structure.