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Firm profile
AMBL Studios is an Athens, Alabama-based architecture and design studio, centered around a culture promoting creativity and fostering ideas. Founded in 2019, the firm’s primary focus is providing creative solutions for clients’ needs as well as their own concepts. The firm’s experience in adaptive-reuse architecture is a driving service along with master planning and residential services. In addition to providing standard architecture services, AMBL Studios immerses in development, product design, music, and other forms of creative expression earning the tagline, “An architecture firm with a twist.”
For most of 2020, AMBL Studios worked on one major project so it was easy to manage time with a robust Google spreadsheet.
But by the year’s end, the firm received multiple jobs and added 2 more team members.
As their workload increased, the studio’s need to invest in project management and time-tracking software became apparent.
When Brad Mallette, Founder of AMBL Studios, first started the company, he browsed EntreArchitect, a website to inspire and educate small firm architects to build a better business.
Intuitive User Interface Designed for Architects
EntreArchitect Founder Mark LePage introduced Mallette to Monograph - the cloud-based system that is intuitively designed for design professionals to:
- Oversee projects
- Track timesheets
- Visualize forecasts
In one simple and integrated interface to inform decisions about their business and projects in real-time.
LePage had offered solid product and software recommendations in the past, so Mallette decided to try Monograph.
“Right away, I noticed the user interface (UI) was significantly more intuitive than previous software I had used and much more visually pleasing.”
- Brad Mallette, Founder of AMBL Studios
The interface was so straightforward that Mallette was able to get the system running in just a few days.
In fact, it only took them 1-2 weeks to get fully onboarded.
It was clear from the start that Monograph was going to be a major asset for their company.
Learn Best Practices from the Monograph Community
“At the time, I was exploring other time-keeping software, from Quickbooks to the very simplistic Gusto. None of them really worked or were overcomplicated, and none of them were specifically tailored to design professionals.”
- Brad Mallette, Founder of AMBL Studios
For AMBL Studios, the Monograph team successfully included users in the development of their software and created an online community with their Fireside Chats and the Practice Operations Blog.
The Fireside Chats bring a lot of value to small architecture firms, because it presents the opportunity to connect or “peek behind the curtain” to learn best practices from more established and renowned firms/architects.
Managing Time and Budget with Monograph
Monograph has become a staple of AMBL Studios to use the software for everything from writing proposals to invoicing and everything in between.
For Mallette, the most helpful tools inside Monograph are:
- Time Tracking
- Invoices
- Project Planner
“The project builder, in particular, helps me budget the costs for proposals and determines how much time can be allocated towards each employee for each phase.”
- Brad Mallette, Founder of AMBL Studios
Every week, the team also uses the MoneyGantt to look at how much is owed to them, and how much time they have billed per project per phase to make sure they’re not going over budget.
With all the tools provided in Monograph designed specifically for architects and design professionals, AMBL Studios is able to grow and expand their small team while being profitable.
If you want to explore our “visually pleasing” and “intuitive user interface”, get started with Monograph today!
