Specialist Accountants for Architects
and Design Professionals in Ireland

Design without distraction.

We’ll keep you compliant.

From fee proposals to final certificates, your work is project-led and milestone-driven. Your accounting should match that reality. We help architects and design studios stay on top of tax, reporting, and cash flow, with clear numbers you can actually use to run the practice.
Talk to an Architect Accountant

The Financial Challenges of
a Design Business

Tracking project profitability can get messy fast. A job that looks busy on paper can quietly lose money once time, rework, and consultant costs are added in.

Cash flow often arrives in lumps through stage payments, then goes quiet between milestones. That gap can put real pressure on payroll, VAT, and supplier bills.

Consultant and subcontractor payments come with admin and compliance risk. If invoices are not mapped correctly, you lose visibility and your accounts become harder to defend.

Get A Project Profit & Cash-Flow Check

Our Accounting Services for Architects

Architects need more than basic bookkeeping. Our accounting services are built around projects, stages, and consultant costs, giving you clear visibility from daily tracking through to long-term tax planning.
Core Accounting Services

Project-Based Bookkeeping & Reporting

We structure your bookkeeping around individual projects, not just overall totals. Each job is tracked separately so income, costs, and margins remain clear throughout the life of the project.

VAT Returns & Compliance Support

We manage VAT reporting with a clear understanding of how architectural services are billed and delivered, helping you stay compliant while avoiding unnecessary cash-flow strain.

Payroll for Staff & Directors

From salaried staff to directors’ remuneration, we run payroll accurately and on time, ensuring PAYE, PRSI, and USC obligations are handled properly.

Year-End Accounts & CRO Filings

We prepare compliant year-end accounts and manage all required filings, removing the annual scramble and keeping your practice in good standing.

Ask us to review your claimable expenses

Specialist Support for Architectural Practices

As practices grow, financial complexity increases beyond basic compliance. This specialist support gives architects clearer insight, stronger control, and better planning as projects and income evolve.

Project profitability

Clear insight into which projects deliver strong margins, which clients absorb excessive time, and where scope creep is eroding profitability.

Consultant & subcontractor costs

Engineer fees, surveyors, planning specialists, and freelancers are allocated correctly to each project, improving visibility and protecting margins.

Tax planning for professionals

Claimable professional expenses are captured and supported correctly, with forward planning as income and practice size grow.

Sole trader to limited company planning

Guidance on when incorporation makes financial and risk-management sense, with support through the transition as your practice evolves.

Why Architects Need Specialist Accountants in Ireland

Architectural practices operate differently to most Irish SMEs. You sell outcomes over time, not simple one-off products. That difference matters when it comes to quoting, cash flow, VAT treatment, and knowing which jobs are genuinely profitable.
At Forti, we structure your accounts around how design studios work in real life
Get Started

Project-based revenue tracking so income is mapped to stages and milestones, helping you plan cash flow with more confidence.

Consultant and subcontractor cost allocation so engineer fees, surveyors, planning specialists, and freelancers are properly mapped to each job.

Real profitability insights so you can spot which projects earn strong margins, which clients drain time, and where scope creep keeps happening.

Architect-specific tax support so claimable professional costs are captured and supported correctly.

Practice-Based Pricing for Architects

Architectural practices vary widely in structure and complexity. The packages below show starting points — final pricing is aligned to your project volume, staff mix, and reporting needs.

Why Businesses Choose Forti

Clarity, reliability, expertise, and service without complexity. Everything is clearly priced, professionally handled, and fully supported.

Feature Forti Others
Transparent pricing ⚠️
Software included ⚠️
CRO compliance ⚠️
Dedicated accountant ⚠️

Accounting That Fits the Way
Your Studio Works

You need more than basic bookkeeping. You need accounting that speaks the language of projects, fees, stages, and margins. Our approach is designed to give you clarity without adding admin to your week.

Profit By Project, Not
Just In Total

We set up your accounts so every job has a clear view of income, time, and cost. You can see which projects truly pay, not just which ones feel busy.

Cash Flow Management Built Around Milestone Payments

We map what is coming in against what is going out, so you can plan around VAT, payroll, and tax without nasty surprises.

Consultants And spend
Under Control

From consultant invoices to software subscriptions, everything is categorised properly so reporting stays clean and decisions get easier.

Tax Planning For Professionals

We help you claim what is genuinely allowable and keep your structure tax-efficient as your practice grows.

How Project Accounting Works for Architectural Firms

Project accounting is what turns your books from a yearly compliance exercise into a management tool. Here is how we set it up for architecture and design practices.

Set up each project as a cost centre

Every job gets its own tracking so income and costs stay tied to the right project.

Map billing to project stages

We align your reporting to how you invoice and deliver, helping you forecast cash flow more accurately.

Allocate direct costs properly

Consultants, planning fees, printing, travel, software, and subcontractors are recorded in a way that supports true margin visibility.

Separate overheads from job costs

You get a clearer view of what each project costs versus what it takes to run the practice overall.

Get regular, readable reporting

Instead of one big annual number, you get insights you can act on, like margin trends and cost overruns.

When should an architect move from sole trader to limited company

Many architects start as sole practitioners, then hit a point where the structure no longer suits the level of income, risk, or growth. Incorporation can become more attractive once profits rise and you want to retain earnings in the business.
  • You are consistently earning more than you need to take personally each year.
  • You are hiring staff or using freelancers regularly.
  • You want clearer separation between personal and business risk.
  • You want to build retained profits for equipment, expansion, or working capital.
Ask us to run the numbers for your situation

Why choose Forti for architect accounting

You do not need an accountant who treats your practice like a generic business. You need someone who understands project delivery, stage billing, consultant cost flows, and the reality of design work.
Ask us to review your claimable expenses

Project-based mindset so your reporting matches how you actually deliver work.

Modern, cloud-first processes that reduce paper chasing and tidy up approvals.

Clear, fixed-fee direction so you know what you are paying for and why.

Support as you grow from sole practitioner to studio, without rebuilding your finances from scratch.

What Our Clients Say

What Other Consultants
are Saying

As a sole practitioner, my biggest challenge was juggling design work with admin and tax. Forti simplified everything and freed me up to take on more client work. A fantastic service.

M. O’Connell

The Sole Practitioner
The project profitability reports from Forti have been a revelation. We can finally see what’s working and what isn’t, and it’s changed how we quote for new work. I couldn’t recommend them highly enough.

L. Byrne

Director The Small Practice Director
We switched to Forti because our old accountant didn’t really understand how we manage projects and consultant fees. It feels like they’re part of our team.

C. Hayes

Partner Galway

What you can claim as an architect

Architects often miss valuable tax deductions simply because expenses are not captured consistently or are filed without proper support. We help you record costs in a way that stands up to scrutiny and reflects how you run your practice.

CAD and BIM software and subscriptions

Professional memberships and subscriptions

CPD and training related to
your work

Site mileage and travel for project work

Professional indemnity
insurance

Printing and plotter
costs

Hardware used for professional work such as laptops, monitors, and peripherals

Home office costs where applicable and properly supported

Ask us to review your claimable expenses

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQs for architecture and design practices

In many cases, yes. We can work with exports and reporting from common tools and align your financial data to project milestones and billing stages.
We record consultant invoices against the correct projects, track what is due, and keep your accounts payable organised so key partners are paid on time.
Beyond the usual business expenses, we can help you capture profession-specific costs such as software subscriptions, specialist printing and plotter costs, CPD, and mileage for site visits, with proper support and categorisation.
A common rule of thumb is when profits consistently exceed what you need personally, or when you want to retain profits in the business. We can run a simple comparison and recommend a structure that fits your goals.

Get In Touch

If you want accounting that fits the way your studio works, talk to our team. We’ll look at your current structure, your project flow, and what you want next, then recommend a clear path.