Fresh Projects is a UK-based software platform designed for architects, engineers, and other built-environment professionals to manage financial aspects of their projects. It helps teams track fees, timesheets, expenses, billing, and overall profitability to keep projects on budget and profitable. The platform also centralises project data, streamlines administrative tasks, and offers mobile app support for easy access and updates.
1a Colinette Road
London
SW15 6QG
© 2026 Fresh Projects
Product
Fresh Projects is a UK-based software platform designed for architects, engineers, and other built-environment professionals to manage financial aspects of their projects. It helps teams track fees, timesheets, expenses, billing, and overall profitability to keep projects on budget and profitable. The platform also centralises project data, streamlines administrative tasks, and offers mobile app support for easy access and updates.
1a Colinette Road
London
SW15 6QG
© 2026 Fresh Projects
Product
A-Team Approach to Profitability
A-Team Approach to Profitability
A-Team Approach to Profitability
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In every professional services firm, there are different types of roles performing very different kinds of work.
What many architecture and engineering practices overlook is that who does which work has a direct and measurable impact on profitability.
By reallocating work between roles, often without changing headcount, practices can significantly improve margins, utilisation and financial visibility.
To explain how, we are going to borrow from the classic 1980s TV show, The A Team.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire The A Team.
The four types of A Team players
For this analysis, we reviewed several million anonymised timesheets from architecture and engineering practices. Each employee was plotted based on two factors:
Their cost
The percentage of time spent on fee-earning project work
Each dot represents one employee. Higher cost moves the dot to the right. Higher utilisation moves it upwards.
From this, four clear role profiles consistently emerge.
Murdock
“If it’s got wings, I can fly it.”
Murdock was the A Team’s pilot. Without him, the team could not get to their jobs or escape trouble.
In an architecture or engineering practice, Murdocks sit in the bottom left quadrant. These are administrative and support roles such as:
Bookkeepers
Practice or office managers
Receptionists
Assistants
They typically:
Spend less than 50 percent of their time on project work
Sit in the lower third of the cost range
Around 15 percent of staff fall into this category.
These roles are often underestimated, but without them the business would quickly grind to a halt. They bring consistency, process discipline and operational stability.
B.A. Baracus
“I ain’t gettin’ on no airplane.”
B.A. was the muscle of the team. He did the heavy lifting.
In your practice, this cohort sits in the top left quadrant. These are the technical delivery team:
Junior and mid-level architects and engineers
Project managers
Cost consultants
They:
Spend more than 50 percent of their time on projects
Sit in the lower third of the cost range
Roughly 70 percent of staff fall into this category.
Like B.A., they want to focus on delivery. They are not yet interested in business administration or leadership responsibilities. They are the engine of project delivery.
Faceman
“Hello ladies.”
Faceman was the smooth operator. He sourced equipment, gathered intelligence and kept everyone aligned.
In architecture and engineering practices, Faces sit in the top right quadrant. These are:
Project leaders
Senior architects or engineers
Client-facing delivery leads
They:
Spend more than 50 percent of their time on projects
Sit in the top two-thirds of the cost range
Around 10 percent of staff fall into this group.
Faces are expensive, but rightly so. They deliver the services clients are paying for and play a critical role in client retention and winning new work.
Hannibal
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Hannibal was the strategist and leader.
In practices, Hannibals sit in the bottom right quadrant. These are:
Owners
Partners
Directors
Principals
They:
Sit in the top two-thirds of the cost range
Spend less than 50 percent of their time on project work
Typically only 5 percent of staff fall into this category.
They are often the reason clients choose the firm. Ironically, they are also the people most pulled away from fee-earning work by the burden of running the business.
Why this matters
This framework may feel light-hearted, but the implications are serious.
If people are doing the wrong type of work for their role, profitability suffers.
For example, if a highly paid project leader spends too much time on administrative tasks, their effective cost rate on projects increases sharply and margins disappear.
To illustrate this, let’s look at two common career paths for B.A.
Option 1: Promoting B.A. to Faceman
As technical staff gain experience, their salary increases. This is necessary to retain talent and reward expertise.
In this scenario:
Salary increases sixfold over time
Project utilisation remains at 80 percent
The effective project cost increases by 6x. This is sustainable because the individual continues delivering high-value project work.
Option 2: Promoting B.A. to Hannibal
In many firms, promotion is equated with management responsibility.
Here:
Salary increases by the same amount
Project utilisation drops from 80 percent to 20 percent
The result is not a 6x increase in effective project cost, but a 24x increase once reduced utilisation is factored in.
This is one of the most misunderstood drivers of declining profitability in growing A&E firms.
The solution: Improve profitability by offloading to Murdock
Firms do need Hannibals. Leadership is essential.
The issue arises when senior, expensive staff perform procedural, administrative work that could be handled elsewhere.
By identifying non-project tasks through time tracking and reallocating them to Murdocks, firms can dramatically reduce project cost rates.
For example:
If a director spends 20 percent of their time on invoicing, forecasting and chasing payments, reallocating that work could:
Increase their project time by one day per week
Reduce their effective project cost rate by up to 50 percent
This is not linear. Utilisation impacts cost exponentially.
In simple terms, it is far cheaper to pay a Murdock to do one hour of admin than a Hannibal. That same hour allows the Hannibal to deliver high-value project work instead.
Tracking utilisation is critical, and easier than most firms think
Projects generate income. All staff costs must ultimately be funded by project income.
That means:
Non-project time must be visible
Utilisation rates must be monitored
Cost rates must reflect reality
A small change, such as reallocating administrative tasks, can significantly improve overall profitability without increasing workload or headcount.
How Fresh Projects helps
Fresh Projects is built specifically for architecture and engineering practices.
It makes it easy to:
Track staff utilisation accurately
See how work is distributed across roles
Identify where expensive time is being spent on non-project activity
This visibility allows leadership teams to rebalance work, improve utilisation and protect margins without adding complexity.
In every professional services firm, there are different types of roles performing very different kinds of work.
What many architecture and engineering practices overlook is that who does which work has a direct and measurable impact on profitability.
By reallocating work between roles, often without changing headcount, practices can significantly improve margins, utilisation and financial visibility.
To explain how, we are going to borrow from the classic 1980s TV show, The A Team.
If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire The A Team.
The four types of A Team players
For this analysis, we reviewed several million anonymised timesheets from architecture and engineering practices. Each employee was plotted based on two factors:
Their cost
The percentage of time spent on fee-earning project work
Each dot represents one employee. Higher cost moves the dot to the right. Higher utilisation moves it upwards.
From this, four clear role profiles consistently emerge.
Murdock
“If it’s got wings, I can fly it.”
Murdock was the A Team’s pilot. Without him, the team could not get to their jobs or escape trouble.
In an architecture or engineering practice, Murdocks sit in the bottom left quadrant. These are administrative and support roles such as:
Bookkeepers
Practice or office managers
Receptionists
Assistants
They typically:
Spend less than 50 percent of their time on project work
Sit in the lower third of the cost range
Around 15 percent of staff fall into this category.
These roles are often underestimated, but without them the business would quickly grind to a halt. They bring consistency, process discipline and operational stability.
B.A. Baracus
“I ain’t gettin’ on no airplane.”
B.A. was the muscle of the team. He did the heavy lifting.
In your practice, this cohort sits in the top left quadrant. These are the technical delivery team:
Junior and mid-level architects and engineers
Project managers
Cost consultants
They:
Spend more than 50 percent of their time on projects
Sit in the lower third of the cost range
Roughly 70 percent of staff fall into this category.
Like B.A., they want to focus on delivery. They are not yet interested in business administration or leadership responsibilities. They are the engine of project delivery.
Faceman
“Hello ladies.”
Faceman was the smooth operator. He sourced equipment, gathered intelligence and kept everyone aligned.
In architecture and engineering practices, Faces sit in the top right quadrant. These are:
Project leaders
Senior architects or engineers
Client-facing delivery leads
They:
Spend more than 50 percent of their time on projects
Sit in the top two-thirds of the cost range
Around 10 percent of staff fall into this group.
Faces are expensive, but rightly so. They deliver the services clients are paying for and play a critical role in client retention and winning new work.
Hannibal
“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Hannibal was the strategist and leader.
In practices, Hannibals sit in the bottom right quadrant. These are:
Owners
Partners
Directors
Principals
They:
Sit in the top two-thirds of the cost range
Spend less than 50 percent of their time on project work
Typically only 5 percent of staff fall into this category.
They are often the reason clients choose the firm. Ironically, they are also the people most pulled away from fee-earning work by the burden of running the business.
Why this matters
This framework may feel light-hearted, but the implications are serious.
If people are doing the wrong type of work for their role, profitability suffers.
For example, if a highly paid project leader spends too much time on administrative tasks, their effective cost rate on projects increases sharply and margins disappear.
To illustrate this, let’s look at two common career paths for B.A.
Option 1: Promoting B.A. to Faceman
As technical staff gain experience, their salary increases. This is necessary to retain talent and reward expertise.
In this scenario:
Salary increases sixfold over time
Project utilisation remains at 80 percent
The effective project cost increases by 6x. This is sustainable because the individual continues delivering high-value project work.
Option 2: Promoting B.A. to Hannibal
In many firms, promotion is equated with management responsibility.
Here:
Salary increases by the same amount
Project utilisation drops from 80 percent to 20 percent
The result is not a 6x increase in effective project cost, but a 24x increase once reduced utilisation is factored in.
This is one of the most misunderstood drivers of declining profitability in growing A&E firms.
The solution: Improve profitability by offloading to Murdock
Firms do need Hannibals. Leadership is essential.
The issue arises when senior, expensive staff perform procedural, administrative work that could be handled elsewhere.
By identifying non-project tasks through time tracking and reallocating them to Murdocks, firms can dramatically reduce project cost rates.
For example:
If a director spends 20 percent of their time on invoicing, forecasting and chasing payments, reallocating that work could:
Increase their project time by one day per week
Reduce their effective project cost rate by up to 50 percent
This is not linear. Utilisation impacts cost exponentially.
In simple terms, it is far cheaper to pay a Murdock to do one hour of admin than a Hannibal. That same hour allows the Hannibal to deliver high-value project work instead.
Tracking utilisation is critical, and easier than most firms think
Projects generate income. All staff costs must ultimately be funded by project income.
That means:
Non-project time must be visible
Utilisation rates must be monitored
Cost rates must reflect reality
A small change, such as reallocating administrative tasks, can significantly improve overall profitability without increasing workload or headcount.
How Fresh Projects helps
Fresh Projects is built specifically for architecture and engineering practices.
It makes it easy to:
Track staff utilisation accurately
See how work is distributed across roles
Identify where expensive time is being spent on non-project activity
This visibility allows leadership teams to rebalance work, improve utilisation and protect margins without adding complexity.
Published:
Published:
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Fresh Projects is a UK-based software platform designed for architects, engineers, and other built-environment professionals to manage financial aspects of their projects. It helps teams track fees, timesheets, expenses, billing, and overall profitability to keep projects on budget and profitable. The platform also centralises project data, streamlines administrative tasks, and offers mobile app support for easy access and updates.
1a Colinette Road
London
SW15 6QG
© 2026 Fresh Projects
Product
