Instructor: Paul Spite

Board: ARE Prep

Credit Hours: 1.00

Approval Number: PACE-0634


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Course Description

Many architectural firms will, for various reasons, be established in the near future. Their success will hinge on having some general idea of where their firm is headed, and how the firm is doing in reaching those goals. 
 
Financial management is a key ingredient of both objectives. Even without an accountant, firms need a straightforward and accurate way to measure financial health. They need to know if the firm is making a profit with current fee structures, whether there will be enough cash coming in to meet expenses, if they need to set aside funds for new equipment and growth strategies, and how to price services, so they can provide them at their highest professional capabilities. 
 
All that begins with an understanding of basic financial operations and principles, useful to architectural firms.


Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to:

  • Evaluate planning steps and financial considerations of beginning an architectural business.
  • Identify the general terms used to describe and discuss business finances.
  • Determine financial information categories needing tracked to monitor progress toward goals.
  • Summarize basic accounting systems used by architectural firms.
  • Describe the preparation and use of various financial reports.
  • Explain means and methods of assessing a firm’s financial health.


Instructor Bio

Paul SpitePaul Spite, BS, BA
AFD Consulting, Founder and Principal

Paul is a Registered Architect with over forty years of experience, a course developer and has been a teacher in multiple venues in the past. He is also a writer in many venues, having developed many studies, a few published articles, numerous short stories, multiple screenplays, two non-fiction manuals for church design and one novel. More to the focus of this endeavor, Paul has also created presentations for twenty-six lunch and learn presentations for building material manufacturers, webinars covering the subjects of Aging-in-Place and Architectural Acoustics and eleven distance learning courses for architects, engineers and contractors. As he nears retirement from managing his small architectural practice, Paul hopes to focus even more of his energy on teaching and on course development.



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