Delivering complex, high-value projects with a lean team, Graceland Architects needed to move beyond year-end gut feel. By adopting Fresh Projects, they gained clear project-level profitability, more accountable resourcing, and the confidence to make better decisions week by week.
How Graceland Architects transformed project oversight and decision-making
At a glance
Core outcomes
“For the first time, we can see which projects are profitable and which ones aren’t.”- Trevor Lovell, Managing Director, Graceland Architects
Profitability without visibility
When Trevor Lovell stepped into the role of Managing Director at Graceland Architects, one issue became immediately clear: the practice lacked meaningful financial visibility at a project level.
Under previous ownership, financial performance was assessed almost entirely at year end.
“Money came in, went into the same pot, and as long as income exceeded expenses at the end of the year, then the business was considered profitable.”
With a growing portfolio of complex, high-value projects, this approach made it impossible to understand which work was genuinely profitable and where resources were being stretched.
Without clear project-level insight, decision-making relied heavily on experience and instinct rather than data.
The requirement: A system the whole practice could rely on
Trevor knew the firm needed a more structured, systematic approach to managing projects, fees and resources, but without introducing unnecessary complexity.
Several priorities guided the search:
As Trevor explained:
“We needed something that was easy to use, and something that could integrate with our accounting software and our leave system.”
Fresh Projects stood out because it aligned with how the practice already worked, rather than forcing the business into rigid, generic structures.
“It wasn’t over-engineered and didn’t come with a whole lot of features that you have to pay for and never use.”
Building usable data, not just installing software
Introducing Fresh Projects was not treated as a quick technical rollout, but as a longer-term investment in better decision-making.
Because the firm had no historical data to work from, the early focus was on capturing time, budgets and resources consistently.
“I would say it took us a good two years before we started using the data properly for budgeting and resource allocation, because we had to start from scratch in terms of data collection.”
Rather than viewing this as a limitation, Trevor saw it as laying the foundations for more reliable forecasting and planning over time.
Accountability, visibility and shared understanding
As data quality improved, Fresh Projects began to change how the team worked together.
Financial visibility was no longer limited to senior leadership.
“It has increased visibility of the finances for the rest of the staff. It’s made people more aware of the relationship between time and money.”
That understanding fed directly into behaviour and accountability.
“People now understand how their time translates into money and how that translates into potential bonuses.”
To support this, the practice introduced a weekly, office-wide planning meeting.
“We started having an office-wide meeting on a Monday morning to look at all of the projects in progress and to plan the week ahead, how the available resources are going to be allocated, and to hold people accountable against budgets.”
This regular cadence helped align resourcing decisions with real project data, rather than assumptions.
The result: Clearer profitability and more confident decisions
Today, Graceland Architects has a far clearer understanding of how individual projects perform.
“The system has allowed us to more accurately assess the time and the cost of doing certain tasks.”
This has enabled more informed decisions about who should work on what, and when.
“That allows us to allocate resources better, who should be doing what, depending on their level of skill and experience.”
Crucially, Trevor now has visibility that simply didn’t exist before.
“For the first time, we can see which projects are profitable and which ones aren’t.”
Smarter invoicing and operational confidence
Fresh Projects now plays a central role in month-end processes and financial planning.
“As the MD, I mainly use the invoicing side at the end of the month and the project proposal section, which is used for budgeting, fee forecasting, and timeline management.”
Integration with Sage has helped streamline workflows and reduce duplication.
“We use Sage for our payroll and accounting, and there’s a fair amount of integration with that.”
While there were some early adjustments, support from the Fresh Projects team helped resolve them.
“There were some natural teething issues… but those issues have been resolved.”
Return on investment: A more systematic business
Rather than focusing on immediate revenue uplift, Trevor measures value in operational clarity and control.
“Even though I can’t say that the system has been responsible for a direct increase in revenue, I do think that the cost of the system is justifiable in terms of the more systematic management of the business.”
The firm is now on a clear path toward reducing waste and improving efficiency.
“We’re on the path to reducing admin and scope creep and waste of resources.”
Advice to other practices
For firms considering Fresh Projects, Trevor emphasises commitment and consistency.
“You need to commit to it over a period of time in order to start to gather the data that allows you to make better decisions.”
And for teams delivering complex, high-value work:
“If you’re doing a high value of work, then I think the system does add a lot of value.”
For architecture and engineering practices managing complex projects with lean teams, Fresh Projects helps leadership, operations and project teams work from the same live data, without adding unnecessary complexity.
