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Monograph
What Is Monograph?
Turn time into revenue with ease.
Monograph is a performance management platform for small to mid-size architecture and landscape architecture firms.
WIth Monograph, you can track and visualize the value of your time across phases, project budgets, team members, and clients in real-time.
Generate insights from the time you invest in projects.
Enable your teams to lead with a solution that enables them to make decisions from time every week.
Who Uses Monograph?
Cloud-based solution designed to assist small to midsize architecture firms with project planning, time tracking, invoicing & forecasting in one easy to use performance management platform.
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Reviews of Monograph
Changed the game
Pros:
The software has given us a great tool to communicate where our projects are both internally as well as externally with our clients.
Cons:
Nothing really stands out about "liking least", I'm just happy to be able to give feedback about features and then see the Monograph team deploy those requests.
Alternatives Considered:
Great tool for Architects
Comments: We really like Monograph and have full confidence that the monograph team will continue to build this software and refine to become and indispensable tool for us.
Pros:
Consolidating multiple software to a single one. Purpose built for the A&E industry with work flow to match. The team is responsive and reachable. The team continues to build the software.
Cons:
Not fully built out for multiple service companies. Software is still a little clunky and feels somewhat startup. They have check all the features boxes but not implemented in the best way possible yet. We have seen improvements along the way but are missing a development schedule for feature requests.
Monograph Review
Comments: We paid through the year and hope you all continue to make improvements. If major improvements are not made by the end of the year, we will do anything we can to ditch the software.
Pros:
The time tracking for projects and overall cost evaluation is fantastic.
Cons:
The cumbersome use is terrible. Lack of being able to create and share tasks easily is also not good. Not being able to collaborate with other Monograph users for tasks is very frustrating. Invoicing is constantly glitching and the partnership with Stripe is Hell and has personally cost us close to $10,000 in lost revenue.
Senior Manager
Comments: Monograph is the most comprehensive a cost effective project management tool that we've found. It's infancies are tolerable unlike most of the more well known PM tools we've tried.
Pros:
Monograph does a good job managing project scheduling and how it relates for deliverables and billing.
Cons:
Monograph falls short in the day to day tasks, actual invoicing and real life management of a project. Sharing timelines with a client is basic and more information could be provide.
Alternatives Considered:
Monograph has improved our staffing/planning tremendously
Comments: Customer service has been top notch. Value of the product has been exceptional. It has helped our firm be better at multiple aspects of business and architecture.
Pros:
Staffing and planning features and how integrated they are with projects.
Cons:
The newness of the product means that a lot of needed features have not yet been built out...especially when it comes to reports.
Alternatives Considered:
Best Software for Architecture and Design firms out there!
Pros:
The reports of profitability, time management, and utilization rate are game-changing in the software.
Cons:
They are always improving the software. I wish we could do some purchase orders for products and materials we sell for projects.
A solid software with responsive dev team
Pros:
Intuitive and easy to use, very responsive development team that incorporates requests quickly.
Cons:
Rapid updates to the software make it hard to keep projects tidy, as protocols for invoices can change mid-project. You can't customize the look of your invoice almost at all.
Alternatives Considered:
Excellent Tool for Small Architecture Businesses!
Pros:
Monograph has been an excellent tool for our small architecture firm as we have gown over the past few years. It helps us track time spent across projects, forecast future fees and workloads, and monitor productivity to make sure everything is on track. I appreciate the clear graphic quality, easy of customizing tasks and project phases, and quick report production. It is also instrumental in our Monday morning all hands meetings, making it easy to go through all the projects and track progress.
Cons:
The time sheets themselves work great, but I wish the time tracking function would get updated - it's not nearly as robust or easy to edit after the fact as other similar programs. Specifically, being able to view individual entries after the fact in calendar/time log format would be very helpful. If you miss tracking or forget to stop the timer, it's impossible to edit except in the overall total.
close but not yet
Pros:
partitioning of hours in a project based on fee and who is working on the project.
Cons:
I would like the option to request a revision to vacation time taken because sometimes you take vacation and end up working some of that time. Also would like to include a planned pause in a future phase where it won't populate hours in staff's schedule. For instance if we are in design development and know we will need to pause for contractor pricing, we know that people won't be working on it, but it will still be in the design development phase.
Great product
Pros:
We love that Monograph is specifically made for Architecture. The projects are divided into larger phases corresponding to the payment structure. This is an essential piece that is missing in many other products. Since Architecture is a service-based industry, we also love that Monograph has specific pay rates for different employees and projects.
Cons:
Task management is harder to implement in Monograph. For instance, it would be nice to have a dashboard on the list of items needed for the day. It also takes a lot of clicks to create a task and no specific way to create a list of sub-tasks. Click-up and Asana in that sense are better task management software.
Alternatives Considered:
It's ok for basic uses
Comments: I am not solving any business problems through Monograph. I just use it daily to track time, create invoices, maybe track projects.
Pros:
I can track my time per project and create invoices from it which is my primary use. The format of the software is simple and easy to read and mostly navigate.
Cons:
You cannot customize the invoice - the default invoice format is also quite large; I'm surprised that this was designed by architects and not customizable. It doesn't quite make sense about how to track budgets and time in the project setup so I have not used it as much. It's not as flexible either if your project is very flexible and not as rigid (hourly, open ended, etc). Customer service is kind of hit or miss; it takes a few days for a response and then at one point, I had to schedule a zoom call appt just to answer a question that could have taken a few minutes to properly answer (they could not clearly answer my question in a chatbox). They say they are a project management software company and not an accounting company which I understand, but time is always tied to money in an architectural software tracking projects. So the fact that I cannot really look back and report on invoice tracking (YTD, MTD, etc.) and estimates and whatnot, seems counterproductive to me. I was told to use another software program to do all my accounting. I was initially looking for a one stop shop to provide all my needs as a working designer/architect. The other programs I've looked into also fall short so it is what it is.
A much-needed tailored PM software for our Architecture studio!
Comments: Monograph has been a great experience although migrating our projects over was a longer, less streamlined process than anticipated.
Pros:
Love that this software is structured around architectural projects. We can manipulate project plans, our fees and staffing accurately thanks to this!
Cons:
Task management and detailed project schedules could be further developed.
Alternatives Considered:
Day in a life of small practice
Comments: A very positive experience
Pros:
Very accessible and easy to use. The minimal learning curve meant we could have staff up to speed in a week of implementation.
Cons:
The cost and the payment options are perhaps the most limiting aspects. As a software geared towards smaller firms, I would have expected a variety of payment options - especially annual subscriptions. Otherwise the price is on the higher side of similar on the market
Monograph Response
3 years ago
Thank you for your feedback! We're so glad to hear that you enjoy using Monograph.
A super user-friendly, functional, time and project management option for Architects
Comments: We're honestly just getting started, but the company seems very approachable and open to building in features as required. I like the flexibility and nimbleness that they're offering. It's an EASY to understand interface as well.. and that's just the BEST.
Pros:
I was really looking for a time tracking and project management tool for our Architects and PM's to be able to actively see how their hours are tracking against contract budgets. Every month, we were using exported xls spreadsheets to review time already spent - and every month, I'd notice that we'd be coming up short on projects. Their "money gantt" feature allows all employees to see how they're tracking on project's profitability in real-time. It's a great tool for both employees and employers to keep everyone on track.
Cons:
It's young... meaning that some of the features are still being implemented and developed. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing. New features are coming fast. Integration of customer feedback seems to happen quickly.
Monograph Response
4 years ago
Thank you for the kind feedback! We're so glad to hear that you enjoy using Monograph.
Alternatives Considered:
First impressions....
Comments: The benefits are wonderful and I'm really really excited about the program. All of our employees can immediately see the benefit of integrating time management/hours spent on a project with general project management, milestones, and tasks.
Pros:
The most impactful part of Monograph has been the project schedule and forecasting. Seeing what we have under contract and seeing the duration of those projects is going to greatly help manage our team and properly set expectations for our clients. I also really love the milestones and task application where we can assign things for people to do and then have a dialog about those things within each project and make sure they have been completed.
Cons:
The biggest thing we would like to see change is how project fees are structured. At the moment, it is best set up for fixed fee projects, but all of our contracts are set up with three different fee types: hourly- not to exceed, hourly with no cap, and fixed. It would be helpful to have some customization to the fee structure that can then get assigned to the different phases. For the projects themselves, I would like to see the tasks and milestones be more present on the project overview page and when you navigate to the individual phase of a project, I would like to see the milestones and tasks that are in that phase and be able to add more within that page rather than have to navigate to a separate page that does not show me the gantt chart/schedule. I'm not sure how the expenses tracking feature would really work for us and currently don't see using it. None of our employees generate expenses. Any expenses for a project mostly come in the form of reimbursables (consultants, printing, permitting fees, etc.). A dream down the road would be some integration with Slack that sends a notification to individuals or channels dedicated to that project to notify them of assigned tasks, deadline reminders, etc.
A Young Architect's Appreciation for Monograph
Pros:
It's clearly a product made by and for Architects. When well-used, it helps young designers like myself better understand fees and project timelines in relation to fees.
Cons:
Not much. I honestly couldn't think of many ways to improve it from a user experience but I think administrators at the firm have had more challenges with the interface.
Easy to use, but lacking some features
Comments: Great, the customer service is awesome and I know this is a new tool that they are continuing to improve and develop. They listen to their users.
Pros:
It looks nice, is well organized, simple enough with the complexity needed to wrap your head around.
Cons:
It needs better reporting and time tracking (like Harvest has a widget/app to track time outside of having to log into the browser).
suulin architects review
Comments: As said above, we haven't taken full advantage of it...and this has been expensive for us. But we can't really afford to change to another platform at this point.
Pros:
I like the idea of Monograph, but so far we haven't been able to take full advantage of it. So it's a very expensive timesheet app. I don't know why it's been so hard for us to take off on it.
Cons:
Really need a phone app. I would like more customization options. Colours, graphics, etc. Especially to differentiate projects. I often don't get around to plugging my numbers in...an app to do this would be really helpful.
Monograph Review
Pros:
Clean/Modern User Interface and easy to understand website tutorials.
Cons:
Was challenging to understand the software at first. Took a decent amount if training on how to use
Easy to Use Project Overview tool
Pros:
The time tracking feature billed against the project at a billable rate. This makes the time/money connection and helps plan efforts.
Cons:
The task creation. I just prefer something more flexible
Great project management tool
Pros:
Monograph is very handy when it comes to project progress, time tracking, and invoicing our clients.
Cons:
The setup is not a bit difficult for beginners. Also, the pricing is a bit on a higher side.
Equal Pros/Cons
Pros:
I like the approachable user interface, the project timelines visuals, and the catering to the architecture business. I like the invoicing now because it shows percent complete and is way better. The cost is ok for me a sole practitioner, but not ideal for growing.
Cons:
I hate that is an online app, and not a desktop app. The online app seems to have trouble syncing quickly, and signing out and signing in is annoying, and constantly reconnecting to quickbooks is annoying. I also don't like that there is no mobile app. This would be helpful for just checking on things remotely, as well as time tracking while on the job site (like Geofency app which helps you track time and associated gps locationg). Lastly, it seems like the Resources area resets everytime you are there, so if you customize a schedule for the week, and then get out of the resources page it resets, so you have no record of your plan again throughout the week. My work around right now is to screen shot it, but that is inconvenient / absurd at best. It would be ideal to be able to keep it current always, update your customized plan as the week goes on, and even print the plan as necessary.
Monograph Response
3 years ago
Thank you for your feedback! We've added these items to our request board for the team to review for future enhancements. We'd be happy to set up a call with our customer experience team to learn more about your needs!
Built for Architecture
Comments: The people at Monograph have been exceptional to work with. [SENSITIVE CONTENT] in sales was incredibly patient and spent so much time helping us determine if this software would truly work for us without pressuring or upselling. They're incredibly receptive to suggestions for changes and I've already seen them roll out improvements - the software keeps getting better!
Pros:
Full disclaimer: I am an administrator who was not trained in architecture, so learning what my firm needed to streamline its project management and personnel operations was a challenge. The fact that Monograph is custom built for the quirks of the architecture industry is really invaluable. This, plus it is intuitive enough for a non-industry professional like me to learn the ropes quickly. As we roll out Monograph, we will be able to consolidate so many extraneous processes and tracking spreadsheets - I anticipate it will make our workflow much more efficient.
Cons:
There are some reports we're accustomed to creating that are not yet features in Monograph, so we'll still need to do some legwork outside of the software to track certain data. Until consultant fees are tracked against the overall percent-complete progress of each project, we won't be able to use Monograph invoices or reports to share with clients as part of our monthly billing package.
A great tool for Architects and Building Designers
Comments: I have now used Deltek PIM (previously Union Square) and Workflow MAX in my career, Monograph hands down beats these both these software packages for ease of use and aesthetics.
Pros:
The ease of use, and powerful functionality is fantastic in Monograph. Having software that allows quick assessment and understanding of project status is what its all about!
Cons:
I would like more control over projects through a contact database and the ability to assign Clients and Consultants to specific projects so we can quickly access their contact details and assign tasks to individuals outside our firm.
Monograph Response
3 years ago
We're so glad to hear that you enjoy using Monograph! Thank you for the feedback - we've added a client directory and a consultant directory to our request board for the team to review for future enhancements.
Gets the job done!
Comments: Overall, it's been a positive experience. Customer service is great and very responsive. They take our suggestions seriously and often times incorporate the changes into the software.
Pros:
Building reports and ease of invoicing.
Cons:
Glitchy. Resources needs away to prioritize tasks.
Monograph Response
3 years ago
Thank you for your feedback! We've added this to our request board for the team to review for future enhancements.