Outgrow the spreadsheet.

We get it. Spreadsheets are comfortable. Every architecture practice starts there — a project tracker in Excel, a fee schedule in Google Sheets, a time log that someone updates most of the time. They’re flexible, familiar, and free (or already paid for).

And honestly? For a solo practitioner or a two-person studio with a handful of projects, spreadsheets work. You know where everything is because you built it yourself. The formulas make sense because you wrote them. The system works because you are the system. There’s no learning curve, no subscription, and no features you don’t need.

That’s a genuine advantage. Spreadsheets have zero overhead and infinite flexibility. If you need a column, add one. If you need a formula, write one. No vendor will ever deprecate your favourite feature or change the interface on you.

But practices grow. You hire your second architect, then your third. Suddenly there are two versions of the project tracker. The time log hasn’t been updated since Tuesday. The fee spreadsheet has a broken formula that nobody noticed for three months. And when a client asks for a project update, someone spends an hour pulling numbers together from four different files.

This is the spreadsheet trap. Each sheet is a custom tool that only its creator fully understands. There’s no audit trail, no automated calculations, no client visibility, and no way to see across projects without building yet another spreadsheet.

Setout is the structured upgrade. Every project lives in one system with stages, deliverables, decisions, and documents. Time tracking is built in. Fee structures calculate automatically. Reports generate with a click instead of an hour. And when your team grows, new people see the same system, not a folder of someone else’s spreadsheets.

The client experience is the biggest leap. Spreadsheets give your clients nothing — they’re stuck with email updates and PDF attachments. Setout gives them a dedicated portal with a visual timeline, a calendar, and showcase mode for sharing renders with family and friends.

If you’re a solo practitioner running a few projects, spreadsheets are fine — don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But when you start feeling the pain of manual processes, version confusion, or growing your team, Setout is the natural next step.