Month-end
The numbers, rebuilt in Excel
Backlog, WIP, receivables and utilization are all in Deltek. Getting them out still means an export, a spreadsheet and a day of someone's time, so leadership sees last month's numbers next month.
Portfolio Consulting | Operations systems for architecture and engineering firms
Give your team back the hours the paperwork takes
For A&E firms of 25 to 250 people on Deltek. I build the systems that put your numbers on one screen without an export, find any project email in a second, and record who downloaded every drawing you send. They run on what you already have. Your team keeps the work that needs them; the systems do the digging.
- 27 years building software and running a technology business
- Built, and still runs, the operations systems of a 40-person structural engineering firm
Where the hours go
Four jobs your people do by hand that a system should do for them.
The inbox
The email that settles it
The message that answers the question is in someone's inbox, or in the inbox of someone who has left. Finding it takes an hour, when it can be found at all.
Transmittals
Did they get the revised set?
A set goes out by email or a shared link. When the question comes back weeks later, nobody can say who downloaded which revision, or when.
Pursuits
Hearing about the project at the RFP
By the time the RFP arrives, the architect has chosen the team. The signal was public months earlier, in the city's rezoning and permit filings.
What is running
Systems in daily use at a structural engineering firm.
Deltek Clarity: the firm's numbers on one screen
Backlog, work not yet invoiced, receivables and utilization, current every day, without the month-end spreadsheet.
Project email: filed once, found in a second
Every project email the firm files, searchable by any word, person or attachment, in under a second.
Transmittals: every download recorded against a name
Know who has the revised set, and when they got it.
Pursuit research: the project before the RFP
Who owns the land, who is designing it and which seats are open, read from public filings every week.
Standard details: placed from a palette inside Revit
The current version of every standard detail, one pick away for the drafter.
How it works
Short, fixed-price work. You see it running every week.
1
A 30-minute call
You tell me the question your firm cannot answer, or the job that eats your team's week.
2
Read-only access
I connect to what you already run. Nothing in Deltek or Microsoft 365 changes.
3
Built week by week
A check-in every week, so you see what was built and what it shows.
4
Handed over
Documented for your own people to run. You own what is built for you.
The first two weeks
What you have before the halfway point.
In writing
What will be built, and what done means
The questions the system must answer, agreed with you before any of it is built. No surprises at handover.
Your hours
Where the time goes today
The jobs your people do by hand, who does them and how often, from talking to the people who do them.
Your data
The first working piece
Something running on your own data, not a mock-up, so you can judge the rest by it.
Dates
A plan with names on it
Weekly check-ins, a handover date, and what is needed from your side, and when.
How I work
The job your team does by hand decides what gets built, not the other way round.
What you can count on
- You talk to the person doing the work, from the first call to the handover.
- A fixed price, agreed in writing before anything starts. Half to start, half when it runs. No per-seat fees.
- Read-only access, the least that does the job, recorded from day one and removed when we finish.
- A check-in every week: the agenda the day before, a note the same day.
- Every figure reconciles to your own ledger, and any difference is explained in writing.
- Your people trained, an operating guide and a recorded walkthrough left with them.
- You own what is built for you.
Built with
- .NET 10 (LTS) and ASP.NET Core
- Razor Pages and MVC web application delivery
- EF Core and Dapper data access patterns
- SQL Server with full-text and workflow data models
- Relational schema design, query tuning, and indexing
- Data migration, normalization, and reporting model design
- Background worker services and ingestion pipelines
- Microsoft Graph and SharePoint integrations
- REST APIs and enterprise system connectivity
- Identity, role-based authorization, and audit controls
- Azure App Service deployment and operations
- Power BI and executive KPI reporting layers
- WPF operational interfaces for internal delivery teams
FAQ
What people ask on the first call.
Your team
Will this replace anyone on my team?
No. It takes the digging, retyping and chasing off their plate, so they spend their hours on the work only they can do. Every system is handed to your own people to run.
Your systems
Will it disrupt how we work?
No. I connect read-only to what you already run, and nothing in Deltek or Microsoft 365 changes. You see each piece working before the next one is built.
Your IT
Do you work with our IT people?
Yes, alongside them. Everything is documented so they can support it after I hand it over.
Timing
How soon can we start?
Usually within two weeks of the first call.
What is the one question your firm cannot answer today?
Tell me on a 30-minute call. If it is not something I can help with, you will hear that on the call.
Book the 30-minute call