ArchitectOS: Operating system for an architecture studio
The problem
The studio was juggling project details, handover deliverables, and leadership reporting across disconnected tools, and a dozen of spreadsheet. Every department had their own idea of what a good system for them is and ended up using different softwares for themselves. This resulted in a lack of insight into real project progress for the managers, issued with project updates requested by clients, miscommunication, time lost on searching for information, and money lost on the projects that vanished in some tool somewhere in the middle of the process due to a lack of clean handover.
- Project info lived in too many places (drives, spreadsheets, docs, local files, inboxes, slack, whatsapp, teams, trello, asana, todoist, zoho, monday and clickup)
- Handovers were inconsistent from project to project
- Leadership reporting took manual work and was out of date and incomplete
- Team members couldn’t self-serve answers without asking around
The Solution
1 Single source of truth
for studio operations across every department, while still tailored to each team, so everyone can work in the way that best fits their workflow.
ArchitectOS was designed as a studio operating system: navigation first leading to connected databases and then departmental dashboards that make reporting and documentation automatic.
Database architecture
The system is built on a small set of core databases that power everything else: projects, tasks, clients, opportunities, finance, time tracking, and documentation. This avoids duplicate trackers per department and keeps reporting accurate.
Navigation that matches how the studio works
A lightweight home page with an embedded Navigation database so the team can jump straight to projects, docs, and dashboards.
Reporting Dashboards for studio leadership
A dedicated dashboard with a Business Analytics view so leadership can review workload, pipeline signals, and project activity without rebuilding reports each week.
Team dashboards
Each department gets a dashboard adjusted to their needs (without breaking the shared data model). A typical team dashboard includes:
- Assigned tasks (filtered by person + status) with quick actions
- Workload rollups by week / project
- Running clocks / time tracking for active tasks
- Deliverables & docs linked to the current project
In practice, the studio has one dashboard per team + personal dashboard, all powered by the same master databases.
Client portals: share everything in one click (securely)
Client portals are structured so a client only sees content related to their own projects:
- Project overview + timeline
- Tasks and deliverables relevant for client visibility
- Meeting notes
Because everything is connected (client → projects → tasks), we can grant access at the right level so the client instantly gets the full portal experience without manually sharing every single page or database item.
The coolest features we’re proud of
Projects and tasks created, delegated and scheduled in one click.
Every closed opportunity can be turned into a project with tasks that are automatically delegated to the right team members and scheduled based on the project due date.
Native time-tracking feature
If you know Notion even a little, you know it doesn’t come with a native time-tracking feature. Well… we built one. Just hit Start and Stop on any task to track how long it took. Formulas and charts roll everything up by month, project, client, and person (and yes, multiple people can track time on the same task at once).
Secure client portals using Notion’s most recent page-level permissions
Most client portals are built by people who aren’t aware of Notion’s permissions architecture, which can expose client data and even lead to lawsuits. Couldn’t be us. Our portals are fully secure, and each client only sees content related to them: projects, tasks, meeting notes, and documents.
Conditional coloring used for warnings
Every overdue tasks or project displayed in yellow. Any low-stock inventory item that needs to be reordered is highlighted in gray. Every missing field value crucial for a well-functioning system highlighted in gray.
Two-step client onboarding for portals
No manual sharing of every single item tied to that client. That’s what most people would do. We wouldn’t. Instead, we’ve set up a series of background automations so everything gets shared automatically the moment you invite a client to the portal and add them to one property.
Conclusion
ArchitectOS gives the studio a home base for project execution and leadership visibility.
Faster Reporting
Weekly reporting for every department with no manual compiling.
Real-time Client Updates
Secure client portals update in real time and require no extra effort from the team.
Self-serve
Anyone can find what they need to complete the project in one central system, without having to ask around.
Automated Processes
Project tasks created, delegated and scheduled automatically for every project.