Your projects deserve precision billing.
Architectural work is invoiced by phase, by hour, and by milestone. Heftli understands that structure. Track time across project phases, bill each milestone cleanly, and deliver professional Swiss QR-Bill invoices your clients trust.
Active project
Residential Villa · Phase 2
Bauprojekt, 84 hrs logged
Time logged
84.0 hrs
Since Phase 1 invoice · Phase 2 only
Milestone invoice
CHF 16,800
QR-Bill attached · Sent to client
Team
3 members
Partner + 2 architects logged hours
01You're billing Phase 2 but can't remember what you invoiced in Phase 1
Architectural projects span months or years. Keeping track of what was billed at each phase milestone, across multiple ongoing projects, becomes a full-time job in itself. A mistake means an awkward conversation with a client, or worse, leaving money on the table.
02Your time logs don't match your invoices
You tracked hours in one tool, invoiced in another, and somewhere between the two, the numbers don't match. When a client questions a line item, you're searching through files to reconstruct what you actually did and when.
03Exporting data for your fiduciary takes hours
At year-end, you're manually compiling invoices, payments, and project summaries into a format your accountant can work with. It takes a full day. It happens every year. It doesn't have to.
From the first client meeting to the final invoice, Heftli tracks every hour and every milestone.
Project kick-off: client and project set up in 2 minutes
When a commission is signed, you create the client in Heftli's customer database and open a new project. The project becomes the central record for all time entries and invoices. Every team member involved, from the project architect to the site engineer, logs their time against this project.
Time tracked by phase throughout the project
Whether you're in the Vorprojekt, the Bauprojekt, or the Ausführungsplanung, your hours are logged in Heftli with a description and tagged to the project. You can see at a glance how many hours have been logged against each phase, and how many you've already billed.
Phase milestone: invoice generated from logged time
At each billing milestone, you pull up the project, review the logged hours, and generate an invoice. The client details, your IBAN, and your firm's branding are already there. The Swiss QR-Bill payment slip is generated automatically. A professional PDF is ready to send in under two minutes.
Year-end: one CSV export, fiduciary handled
When your accountant asks for the year's data, you export all invoices and time entries to CSV in one click. No manual compilation, no re-entering numbers into spreadsheets. The data is clean, complete, and immediately usable.
Architecture involves long timelines, multiple phases, and rigorous documentation. Here is where Heftli earns its place.
Project-Based Time Tracking
Every hour logged to the right project and the right phase.
Heftli's time tracking is built around projects. Every time entry is linked to a specific project and client, with a description of the work done. You can see the full time history for any project at a glance, total hours, hours billed, hours outstanding. This gives you the complete picture you need to invoice accurately at every milestone, without reconstructing work from memory.
A Bern-based architecture firm is running three concurrent commissions. Each project has its own time log in Heftli. At the end of Phase 2 for one project, the partner pulls up the project's time history, confirms 84 hours were logged since the Phase 1 invoice, and generates the milestone invoice in under three minutes.
Swiss QR-Bill Invoicing
Every invoice is compliant, professional, and immediately payable.
Heftli generates a standards-compliant Swiss QR-Bill on every PDF invoice. Your IBAN and payment details are stored once in settings and applied automatically to every invoice you produce. The QR code is scannable by every major Swiss banking app. Your clients can pay in seconds, no manual IBAN entry, no errors, no delays. This is what a modern Swiss professional invoice looks like.
A Zurich structural engineer sends milestone invoices to cantonal authorities and private developers alike. Both expect a QR-Bill. With Heftli, every invoice, regardless of client, arrives with a compliant, scannable payment slip. Payment confirmation times dropped from weeks to days.
CSV Export for Your Fiduciary
Hand your accountant exactly what they need, in the format they want.
With one click, Heftli exports your full invoice history and time tracking data to CSV. The export includes invoice dates, client names, amounts, VAT, payment status, and project references. This is the format Swiss fiduciaries and accountants work with. No reformatting, no manual data entry, just a clean file that goes straight into their accounting software.
An architectural studio with five partners runs quarterly VAT filings. Previously, someone spent two days compiling the data. With Heftli's CSV export, the same task takes 10 minutes. The export goes directly to their fiduciary in Winterthur.
01SIA Honorarordnung: billing by phase
The SIA (Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects) defines a structured fee framework for architectural and engineering services, organised by project phase. Heftli's project and time tracking structure maps directly to this: log hours per phase, invoice at each milestone, maintain a complete audit trail for every commission.
02Swiss QR-Bill: mandatory since October 2022
The legacy orange payment slip has been phased out. Every professional invoice in Switzerland must now include a Swiss QR-Bill with a structured payment reference. Heftli generates this automatically, no additional software, no manual QR code creation, no compliance risk.
03Average architectural project: 12–36 months
Long project timelines mean billing happens repeatedly over years. Without a system that maintains project history, it is nearly impossible to know what has been billed, what is outstanding, and what the next milestone should be. Heftli keeps every project's complete billing history, indefinitely.
Can I track time per project phase in Heftli?
Yes. Every time entry in Heftli is linked to a specific project and includes a description. You can describe the work by phase (e.g., 'Vorprojekt, structural analysis') and filter the project's time log by description when billing each phase. This gives you a clean, auditable record of hours per phase.
Can my team members log their hours to the same project?
Yes, on the Team plan. You can invite team members to your organisation, assign them to projects, and they can log their own time entries. All entries appear in the project's central time log, giving you full visibility across the whole team.
Does Heftli generate Swiss QR-Bill invoices automatically?
Yes. You enter your Swiss IBAN once in the settings. Every PDF invoice generated by Heftli includes a standards-compliant Swiss QR-Bill payment slip with your IBAN and a unique payment reference. Your clients can pay instantly with any Swiss banking app.
Can I send invoices directly to clients by email from Heftli?
Yes, on the Solo plan and above. You can send invoices as professional PDF emails directly from Heftli without leaving the app. The email includes a customisable message and the PDF attachment with the QR-Bill.
How do I export data for my fiduciary or accountant?
On the Solo plan and above, you can export all invoice and time tracking data to CSV at any time. The export includes all fields your accountant needs: dates, client names, amounts, VAT, payment status, and project references.
Can I add my firm's logo and branding to invoices?
Yes, on the Solo plan and above. You can upload your firm's logo and it will appear on every invoice PDF. This ensures your invoices look consistent and professional, exactly as clients expect from a reputable architectural practice.
Is Heftli suitable for a small architecture firm with multiple partners?
Yes. The Team plan supports up to 5 users, and the Agency plan up to 15. Each team member has their own login with role-based access. Partners can have full access; junior architects or interns can be restricted to time logging only.
"We used to invoice on spreadsheets. Now every phase milestone is handled in Heftli, the QR-Bill is there, the hours are verified, and the invoice is out in minutes."
Placeholder, Architectural Partner
Zurich, Switzerland