We Run Our Business on Referrals
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
We Run Our Business on Referrals
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
Working Capital Risks in A&E Firms
Working Capital Risks in A&E Firms
Working Capital Risks in A&E Firms
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Earlier in my career, I worked in the finance team of a large architecture and engineering firm. We had more than twenty people running accounting and finance functions alone.
Despite that scale, the firms that performed best focused on just three fundamentals:
Winning the right jobs
Making sure project fees covered delivery costs
Invoicing early and collecting debt quickly
This article focuses on the third, because poor cash flow, not lack of work, is what quietly puts pressure on otherwise successful practices.
Why working capital matters more as practices grow
People who owe your practice money are your debtors.
People you owe money to are your creditors.
In reality, there is always a gap between when you issue an invoice and when it gets paid. The longer that gap, the more cash your firm needs in the bank just to keep operating - paying salaries, rent and overheads.
That spare cash is known as working capital.
As practices grow beyond 50 staff, this gap becomes harder to see and harder to manage - particularly because architecture and engineering firms carry a hidden working capital requirement that traditional reports often miss.
The hidden working capital problem in A&E practices
Most accountants can show you your debtor and creditor position easily. But that view alone is incomplete for professional services firms in the built environment.
Why?
Because architects and engineers almost always incur costs before they invoice clients - and sometimes before a fee is even agreed.
There are two main drivers of hidden working capital in larger A&E firms:
1. Bid, competition and risk work
Time and costs spent pursuing work still have to be paid for - regardless of whether the project is won.
2. Milestone-based billing
Most projects are delivered in stages. It can take months to complete a work stage before an invoice can be raised, even though salaries and expenses are incurred weekly.
Unlike businesses that sell physical goods, architecture and engineering firms can’t delay paying staff. People costs are the largest expense - and they must be paid on time.
This makes early invoicing and active debt collection essential, not optional.
How to manage hidden working capital effectively
The key to controlling hidden working capital is visibility.
Every leadership team should be able to answer one simple question:
How much have we spent on work that we haven’t yet been paid for?
Here’s a practical way to manage it.
Step 1: Track total spend on every project
This includes:
Live projects
Opportunities
Bids and competitions
If time or costs are being incurred, they should be visible.
Step 2: Track total invoiced value
For each project, record how much has been invoiced to date - even if that number is zero.
Step 3: Calculate uncompensated spend
Subtract invoiced value from total spend.
The result is your hidden working capital tied up in that project.
Leadership teams should agree:
What level of uncompensated spend is acceptable per project
What the acceptable total is across the firm
This figure represents the minimum cash buffer required to keep operating comfortably.
Where leadership attention should focus
On a monthly basis, identify:
The largest uncompensated projects
The fastest-growing uncompensated projects
These are the projects that should be invoiced as soon as possible.
And just as firms occasionally write off bad debt, it can also be sensible to periodically write off hidden working capital on bids or competitions that never materialised.
Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away - it simply hides the risk.
Why unpaid invoices must be taken seriously
Issuing an invoice improves cash flow.
Getting it paid protects the business.
A former colleague of mine worked at an invoice financing company. They would advance up to 95% of an invoice’s value immediately - except in one sector.
Construction.
The levels of non-payment were simply too high.
This makes active credit control especially important for architecture and engineering firms.
Practical ways to improve invoice collection
Empower the whole team
In larger practices, responsibility for unpaid invoices often sits with a single individual. Sharing visibility across project teams can be far more effective.
Use good cop / bad cop
If chasing payment risks damaging a client relationship, using a third party or central finance team can preserve goodwill while still applying pressure.
Stop work on unpaid projects
It may feel uncomfortable, but continuing to work without payment is equivalent to financing the project yourself - unsecured.
Stop taking on repeat work from poor payers
If a client consistently pays late, continuing to accept new projects is a commercial decision - and often a costly one.
Visibility creates focus (and profitability)
Running a 50–100 person architecture or engineering practice comes with no shortage of competing priorities.
The firms that perform best don’t try to manage everything perfectly. They focus relentlessly on the few things that matter most.
By improving visibility over:
Unpaid work
Invoicing delays
Hidden working capital
Leadership teams gain control, protect cash flow and make better decisions, without adding unnecessary complexity.
How Fresh Projects helps
Fresh Projects is designed specifically for architecture and engineering practices.
It connects:
So leadership teams can see where cash is tied up, what needs to be invoiced, and where action is required - without relying on spreadsheets or manual reporting.
Better visibility leads to faster invoicing, stronger cash flow and a more resilient practice.
Earlier in my career, I worked in the finance team of a large architecture and engineering firm. We had more than twenty people running accounting and finance functions alone.
Despite that scale, the firms that performed best focused on just three fundamentals:
Winning the right jobs
Making sure project fees covered delivery costs
Invoicing early and collecting debt quickly
This article focuses on the third, because poor cash flow, not lack of work, is what quietly puts pressure on otherwise successful practices.
Why working capital matters more as practices grow
People who owe your practice money are your debtors.
People you owe money to are your creditors.
In reality, there is always a gap between when you issue an invoice and when it gets paid. The longer that gap, the more cash your firm needs in the bank just to keep operating - paying salaries, rent and overheads.
That spare cash is known as working capital.
As practices grow beyond 50 staff, this gap becomes harder to see and harder to manage - particularly because architecture and engineering firms carry a hidden working capital requirement that traditional reports often miss.
The hidden working capital problem in A&E practices
Most accountants can show you your debtor and creditor position easily. But that view alone is incomplete for professional services firms in the built environment.
Why?
Because architects and engineers almost always incur costs before they invoice clients - and sometimes before a fee is even agreed.
There are two main drivers of hidden working capital in larger A&E firms:
1. Bid, competition and risk work
Time and costs spent pursuing work still have to be paid for - regardless of whether the project is won.
2. Milestone-based billing
Most projects are delivered in stages. It can take months to complete a work stage before an invoice can be raised, even though salaries and expenses are incurred weekly.
Unlike businesses that sell physical goods, architecture and engineering firms can’t delay paying staff. People costs are the largest expense - and they must be paid on time.
This makes early invoicing and active debt collection essential, not optional.
How to manage hidden working capital effectively
The key to controlling hidden working capital is visibility.
Every leadership team should be able to answer one simple question:
How much have we spent on work that we haven’t yet been paid for?
Here’s a practical way to manage it.
Step 1: Track total spend on every project
This includes:
Live projects
Opportunities
Bids and competitions
If time or costs are being incurred, they should be visible.
Step 2: Track total invoiced value
For each project, record how much has been invoiced to date - even if that number is zero.
Step 3: Calculate uncompensated spend
Subtract invoiced value from total spend.
The result is your hidden working capital tied up in that project.
Leadership teams should agree:
What level of uncompensated spend is acceptable per project
What the acceptable total is across the firm
This figure represents the minimum cash buffer required to keep operating comfortably.
Where leadership attention should focus
On a monthly basis, identify:
The largest uncompensated projects
The fastest-growing uncompensated projects
These are the projects that should be invoiced as soon as possible.
And just as firms occasionally write off bad debt, it can also be sensible to periodically write off hidden working capital on bids or competitions that never materialised.
Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away - it simply hides the risk.
Why unpaid invoices must be taken seriously
Issuing an invoice improves cash flow.
Getting it paid protects the business.
A former colleague of mine worked at an invoice financing company. They would advance up to 95% of an invoice’s value immediately - except in one sector.
Construction.
The levels of non-payment were simply too high.
This makes active credit control especially important for architecture and engineering firms.
Practical ways to improve invoice collection
Empower the whole team
In larger practices, responsibility for unpaid invoices often sits with a single individual. Sharing visibility across project teams can be far more effective.
Use good cop / bad cop
If chasing payment risks damaging a client relationship, using a third party or central finance team can preserve goodwill while still applying pressure.
Stop work on unpaid projects
It may feel uncomfortable, but continuing to work without payment is equivalent to financing the project yourself - unsecured.
Stop taking on repeat work from poor payers
If a client consistently pays late, continuing to accept new projects is a commercial decision - and often a costly one.
Visibility creates focus (and profitability)
Running a 50–100 person architecture or engineering practice comes with no shortage of competing priorities.
The firms that perform best don’t try to manage everything perfectly. They focus relentlessly on the few things that matter most.
By improving visibility over:
Unpaid work
Invoicing delays
Hidden working capital
Leadership teams gain control, protect cash flow and make better decisions, without adding unnecessary complexity.
How Fresh Projects helps
Fresh Projects is designed specifically for architecture and engineering practices.
It connects:
So leadership teams can see where cash is tied up, what needs to be invoiced, and where action is required - without relying on spreadsheets or manual reporting.
Better visibility leads to faster invoicing, stronger cash flow and a more resilient practice.
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We Run Our Business on Referrals
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
