How Mataee Helps Architecture Firms Save 2 Hours Per Week on Time Tracking

This article is a step-by-step scenario. We take a fictional but realistic architecture firm, walk it through the transition from a shared Excel spreadsheet to Mataee, and measure what changes -- in hours, euros, and work comfort. No abstract promises: figures, concrete steps.

The Starting Point: A 6-Person Architecture Firm and Its Excel File

Martin-Faure Architecture is a project management firm based in Lyon. Six people: Claire (DPLG architect, managing partner), Thomas (DE-HMONP architect, senior project manager), Lea (project manager), Maxime (drafter), Ines (HMONP intern), and Nathalie (administrative and accounting assistant). The firm manages 8 to 12 active projects, mainly social housing and public facilities. Fees are mostly fixed-price, negotiated per MOP phase.

The Current Process

Hour tracking relies on a shared Excel file. Each team member has their own tab. In practice, entries are made on Friday afternoon, from memory. Every Monday, Nathalie consolidates the data into a summary tab -- a task that takes her between 2.5 and 3 hours per week. At the end of each month, she produces a per-project table for Claire, who uses it to monitor profitability and prepare invoicing.

The Concrete Pain Points

• 3 hours per week of compilation for Nathalie (150 hours per year).
• Inaccurate data: the 5-day delayed entry generates an estimated error rate of 20-25%.
• No real-time visibility: Claire discovers overruns 2 to 4 weeks late.
• Approximate invoicing: some hours are never logged (calls, short meetings with engineering consultants).
• File conflicts: when two people open the file simultaneously, data gets overwritten.

If this portrait rings true, our article on the limitations of Excel for time tracking in architecture firms details these problems. Here, we'll go straight to the solution.

Day 1 -- Create Your Workspace and Configure Projects (5 minutes)

Claire decides to try Mataee. She goes to the signup page and creates an account with her professional email. The process takes less than a minute.

Step 1 -- Create the workspace. On first login, Mataee asks for the organization name. Claire enters "Martin-Faure Architecture." Done.

Step 2 -- Invite the team. From the management screen, Claire invites the 5 other members by email. She assigns roles: administrator for herself, project managers for Thomas and Lea (access to profitability dashboards), team members for Maxime and Ines (entry only), manager for Nathalie (access to exports). Total time: 2 minutes.

Step 3 -- Create clients and projects. Claire creates her main clients and, for each, the active projects. A project is defined in a few fields: name, client, dates.

Step 4 -- Configure phases and budgets. This is the key step -- the one that differentiates Mataee from a generic tool. For each project, Claire defines the engagement phases: standard MOP phases (ESQ, APS, APD, PRO, EXE, DET, AOR) or any other naming convention.

For a 42-unit social housing project (VEFA), Claire configures:

Each phase has a defined hour budget from the start, adjustable at any time. Total configuration time: about 20 minutes for 8 active projects. Subsequent projects will take 2 to 3 minutes each.

Week 1 -- Daily Entry in 30 Seconds

On Monday morning, Claire sends a message to the team: "We're switching to Mataee for time tracking. Here's the link. Log your hours every evening before leaving, it takes 30 seconds."

The Pill System

Entry in Mataee is based on a visual principle: 15-minute pills. The screen displays the day as time slots. For each 15-minute block worked, the team member clicks a pill, selects the project and phase, and it's recorded. One click = 15 minutes allocated.

Concretely, Thomas worked from 9am to noon on the APD phase of the housing project, then from 2pm to 4:30pm on the DET phase of a public facility. He opens Mataee, clicks on the corresponding pills, assigns the projects and phases, and it's done. Entry time: under 30 seconds.

The main barrier to adopting a time tracking tool is entry friction. If it takes more than a minute, the team will drop off in two weeks. Mataee was built around this single gesture: clicking a pill. Ines, the intern, understood how it works in under 3 minutes. No training, no tutorial needed.

Week 1 Results

By Friday: Nathalie didn't have to consolidate the Excel file. Data is centralized, structured by project and phase, accessible in real time. The usual 2.5 hours of compilation are eliminated.

Week 2 -- The Profitability Dashboard Comes to Life

After 10 days of entry by the entire team, the dashboards start producing actionable information.

What Claire Sees on the Dashboard

Claire accesses a consolidated view of all active projects: budget consumption rate by phase (percentage and hours), color coding (green/orange/red), breakdown by team member.

The First Useful Alert

On the housing project, the APD phase shows an orange indicator: 75% of the hour budget consumed while progress is estimated at 50%. The cause: the project owner (MOA) requested two additional iterations on the R+3 floor types, not included in the original brief.

With Excel, this drift wouldn't have been visible until month-end. With Mataee, Claire detects it in real time and can act: redefine the scope or build a fee amendment case backed by factual data. Our guide on justifying fee amendments describes the method.

Measured Time Savings

• Nathalie: 0 hours of compilation (vs. 2.5 hours before).
• Claire: 15 minutes consulting the dashboard (vs. 45 minutes on Excel).
• Each team member: 30 seconds of entry per day (vs. 5-10 minutes of Friday Excel entry).

Net savings for the firm: approximately 2 hours 15 minutes per week of administrative time saved.

Month 1 -- The First Data-Driven Invoice

End of the first month, Claire prepares invoicing. First full-scale test.

The PDF Export for the Project Owner

Claire generates a PDF export from Mataee: hours consumed per phase, initial budget and consumption percentage, team members involved, progress curve. She attaches this document to her fee statement. Instead of invoicing "at flat rate" without supporting documents, she accompanies her invoice with a tracking report that demonstrates the work done. The project owner appreciates the transparency.

The APD Phase Amendment

The Week 2 alert was confirmed. The APD phase ultimately consumed 162 hours out of the 180 budgeted, and there are still two deliverables to produce. Claire estimates the final total at approximately 210 hours, an overrun of 30 hours (+17%).

Thanks to the Mataee history, she can precisely document:

• The dates of additional iterations requested by the project owner
• The volume of hours corresponding to these iterations (identified in daily entries)
• The causal link between the request and the overrun

She initiates the amendment discussion with the project owner, presenting this data. Faced with a factual -- not emotional -- argument, the project owner agrees to an amendment of EUR 4,800 covering the additional work. Without Mataee, those 30 extra hours would have been silently absorbed by the firm's margin.

Corrected Invoicing

Another finding from the first month: by logging their hours daily (rather than from memory on Fridays), team members captured hours that previously flew under the radar. The 15-minute phone calls with the engineering consultant, the 30-minute coordination video meetings, the exchanges with the quantity surveyor. Over one month, Mataee helped capture approximately 12 hours that wouldn't have been logged in the old system. On staffing contracts or to justify amendments, these hours have direct value.

After 6 Months -- The Detailed Results

Martin-Faure Architecture has been using Mataee for six months. Here is the detailed assessment, item by item.

ROI Table Over 6 Months

What the Numbers Tell Us

The direct time savings (90 hours) valued at the average loaded hourly cost (EUR 47/h) represent EUR 4,230 reinvested into projects. Nathalie spends this time on tender management instead of copy-pasting Excel cells.

The invoicing gain is less visible but more impactful. The 60 recovered hours and the EUR 11,200 in amendments represent a direct revenue contribution. On revenue of EUR 450,000, that's 2 to 3 points of net margin.

Operational peace of mind can't be quantified, but it matters. Claire knows in real time where each project stands. Thomas and Lea no longer have the anxiety of an "end-of-phase surprise."

The Complete ROI Calculation

Mataee's cost is available on our pricing page. Against the gains:

• Valued time savings: ~EUR 4,230
• Amendments obtained: EUR 11,200
• Recovered hours: ~EUR 2,800
• Total identifiable gains: ~EUR 18,230 over 6 months

The tool's cost is recouped in the first month through compilation time savings alone. Everything else -- amendments, recovered hours, visibility -- is net profit.

Key takeaway: Mataee's ROI doesn't come from a magic feature. It comes from the systematic elimination of daily frictions that, when accumulated, cost tens of thousands of euros per year for a firm.

What Firms That Made the Switch Say

After several months of use by firms of various sizes, certain feedback comes up consistently.

On Ease of Entry

"We tested three tools before Mataee. Each time, the team dropped off after two weeks. With the pills, entry became a reflex. Even our intern never forgot."

The time tracking battle is won through daily adoption, not through feature richness.

On Real-Time Visibility

"Before, I discovered overruns at invoicing time. Now I see them coming 3 weeks ahead. That changes everything."

You shift from reactive to proactive management -- a paradigm change with concrete effects on margin.

On the Relationship with the Project Owner

"The first time I attached a Mataee export to my amendment request, the project owner told me: 'This is the first time an architect has presented such clear data.' The amendment was signed in two weeks."

Let's Be Honest: Current Limitations

Mataee is a young product. It doesn't do everything, and it doesn't claim to. Here's what users mention as limitations:

• No native mobile app: entry is done through the web browser. The site is responsive and works on mobile, but there's no dedicated iOS or Android app. For an architect returning from a site visit who wants to log time on the subway, it's less comfortable than a native app. It's on the roadmap, but not yet available.
• No accounting integrations: Mataee doesn't (yet) connect to your accounting software or invoicing tool. The PDF export is there for the project owner, but the link to accounting remains manual.
• Ecosystem under construction: less community documentation, fewer video tutorials than tools established for 15 years like Toggl or Harvest. Support is responsive, but the public knowledge base is still modest.
• No integrated project management: Mataee handles time tracking and profitability per phase. It doesn't handle scheduling, deliverable progress tracking, or document management. If you're looking for an all-in-one tool, that's not (and won't be) Mataee.

These limitations are deliberate. Mataee chooses specialization: do one thing -- structured time tracking by phase -- and do it better than anyone.

Key takeaway: No tool is perfect. Mataee excels at structured time tracking and real-time visibility. It won't replace your project management tool or accounting software.

Martin-Faure Architecture doesn't exist, but its story is built from real situations experienced by firms of 4 to 15 people. The 2-hour-per-week savings is conservative -- some firms report higher gains.

If you recognize yourself in this starting point, the simplest thing is to try. Mataee offers a free 5-day trial, with no commitment and no credit card required. Create your workspace, configure one or two active projects, and ask your team to log their hours. You'll quickly know if the tool delivers on its promises.

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