The Future of A/E Accounting

John Ramseur

Financial management and accounting are integral to the success of an architecture and engineering firm, yet the connection between financial processes and day-to-day project work is not always readily apparent. As James Cramer and Scott Simpson (2006) observe in The Next Architect: A New Twist on the Future of Design, “management is not an impediment to good design, it is an enabler of good design” (p. 123). For architects, engineers, and designers, understanding the financial principles that support the business can provide valuable context for how individual project decisions contribute to the health and performance of the firm. However, that connection can become difficult to recognize when project work is viewed separately from operational accounting processes such as time entry, vendor payments, and overhead allocation. In reality, project delivery and financial management are two views of the same underlying flow of work.

Of course, project workflow and company cashflow are inextricably linked. Our invoices are sent to the client based on progress of the work and hitting “Stop & Plot” milestones for Schematics, Design Development, or Construction Documents. And we spend each quarter-hour of time moving walls in a building model, locating devices on a floorplan, or revising lighting specifications with momentum towards those goal posts. Then we answer RFIs and make site visits as good design translates into building construction, which is the ultimate product of our work for the Client. Each of these activities advances the project, but it also represents an event in the financial life of the project: creating cost, fulfilling an obligation, earning revenue, or moving the firm closer to collection.

The challenge is that the project activities driving these financial outcomes are increasingly documented across a wide range of disconnected platforms. Autodesk Revit, Microsoft 365, RIB SpecLink, Chaos Enscape, and Adobe Creative Cloud each contribute files and data to the broader project record, while phone calls, Teams messages, emails, and text messages capture an additional layer of communication surrounding project delivery. Together, these systems produce a significant volume of valuable project information, yet much of it remains fragmented. Without a clear connection between these sources, important data can easily be overlooked, lost between systems, or simply fade into the background.

Preparing for the future of the architecture, engineering, and construction industry requires moving beyond application-centric workflows and disconnected data silos. At Apogee, we are investing in platforms such as Autodesk Forma to create stronger connections between the information generated throughout project delivery. The goal is to bring these disparate inputs together into a more unified and accessible source, allowing project data to provide greater value across the organization. That value extends beyond project delivery: connecting the data also creates an opportunity to more accurately connect the work being performed with the financial events it generates.

So, what do data siloes and software have to do with accounting? Everything, if accounting is intended to accurately reflect the flow of work through the business. According to Taiichi Ohno (1988), “all we are doing is looking at the timeline from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash” (p. vii). Any accounting system simulates the flow of this order to cash. Most accounting systems do not match the timeline and details accurately, because more and more applications are only integrated in very ad hoc ways or ignored entirely (McComb & Dunn, 2026, pp. 49, 58).

In The Future of Accounting, Dave McCombs and Cheryl Dunn (2026) propose a paradigm shift toward what they call a data-centric approach. They explain, “The data-centric approach changes the system boundaries. The boundary is at the edge of the enterprise. There is only one data model…Accounting will become a fully integrated function and a by-product of the activity of the enterprise” (p. 67).

Accurately simulating the financial flow of our processes requires that we determine what events need a financial transaction and then capture that data at its source. Each of these atomic events will need to be connected explicitly according to accounting policies and on a timeline. Commitments, obligations, and rights become the new terminology that define the transaction and simplify the event monitoring and processing. Decision-making and reporting will be supported with real-time data making it easier to predict and automate subsequent events (McComb & Dunn, 2026, pp. 109, 166).] In that sense, the financial model begins to function much like something already familiar to architects and engineers: a digital representation of a complex real-world system.

By now the term “digital twin” seems trite and passe’ in our industry. However, the highly skilled professionals at Apogee deal with building models and narratives that translate into the reality of a renovated clinic or new boiler plant serving thousands of patients inside of each healthcare facility. The accuracy of that simulation is critical to the mission of the resulting building that it creates.

Likewise, a data-centric accounting system is a digital twin of the obligations to deliver good design and to provide an excellent product to our clients. We can connect project events on the timeline to when we collect the cash then to the commitments to pay our employees and vendors. We must develop a model of that data to slice into details and spreadsheets, just like cutting views of a building model into sheets for the document set. The accuracy of that financial simulation is critical to our mission, vision, and purpose as a team at Apogee.

References

Cramer, J. P., & Simpson, S. (2006). The Next Architect: A New Twist on the Future of Design. Greenway Communications.

Ohno, T. (1988). Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. Crc Press.

McComb, D., & Dunn, C. (2026). The Future of Accounting. Leaders Press.