Product overview

One workspace for the decisions behind the firm.

Norma connects the firm data you already produce to the decisions that shape margin, cash flow, workload, scope control, pricing discipline, and long-term firm value.

Use timesheets, AR, pipeline, project budgets, contracts, financials, and operational context to answer the questions principals face every week.

See how Norma works Request Early Access See sample outputs

Platform

One workspace. Multiple decision layers.

Norma connects firm data to the operating decisions that shape how studios price work, control scope, manage capacity, protect cash, evaluate risk, and build long-term value.

01

Operating decisions

Helps with

Hiring, staffing, overhead, collections, revenue gaps, concentration, compensation, growth.

Reads

Timesheets, AR, pipeline, budgets, forecasts, payroll, and financials.

Produces

Recommendations, priorities, and partner-ready summaries.

Explore decision intelligence
02

Pricing and fee judgment

Helps with

Fee floors, pursuits, margin risk, realization, underpricing signals, walk-away calls.

Reads

Historical fees, budgets, win/loss, utilization, scope, staffing, targets.

Produces

Floor guidance, pursuit calls, margin warnings, fee discipline.

Evaluate pricing decisions
03

Contract and scope intelligence

Helps with

Scope changes, additional services, clauses, deliverables, client-facing language.

Reads

Contracts, amendments, exclusions, deliverables, fee terms.

Produces

Clause extraction, scope classifications, risk flags, response language.

Analyze contracts
04

Forecasting and pipeline reasoning

Helps with

Revenue gaps, backlog, timing, conversion, cash timing, workload pressure.

Reads

Pipeline, backlog, forecasts, schedules, AR, probabilities, fees.

Produces

Gap analysis, pursuit order, timing flags, forecast confidence.

Review forecast risk
05

Firm valuation and value drivers

Helps with

Firm value, succession, buyouts, investors, owner dependency.

Reads

Revenue, margin, backlog, concentration, earnings, mix, dependency.

Produces

Indicative ranges, risk notes, methodology, valuation memos.

Generate a valuation memo
06

Exportable decision outputs

Helps with

Memos and deliverables for partners, PMs, clients, advisors.

Reads

Context, supporting data, contracts, assumptions, logic.

Produces

Memos, scope responses, valuation outputs, summaries, action plans.

See sample outputs

Decision intelligence

The decisions every architecture firm makes.

Most of them on instinct.

Norma structures those decisions with firm data, thresholds, and benchmarks so principals can move from debate to action.

01

Fee setting

Question

What is the floor below which this project should not be priced?

Output

Pricing-floor recommendation with margin and realization logic.
02

Pursuit evaluation

Question

Is this opportunity worth the senior time it will cost to chase?

Output

Go / no-go recommendation using win rate, sector fit, expected value, and pursuit cost.
03

Scope change response

Question

Bill it, absorb it, or re-scope the contract?

Output

Recommended response tied to contract logic and project economics.
04

Capacity and hiring

Question

Hire, contract, hold, or release?

Output

Headcount recommendation using backlog, utilization, payroll exposure, and forecast risk.
05

Revenue gap response

Question

How do we close a forecasted shortfall?

Output

Gap analysis, pursuit requirements, timing risk, and recommended business-development priority.
06

Client concentration

Question

Are we one client away from a payroll problem?

Output

Concentration risk, payroll exposure, and diversification priority.

Sample output

Should we cut our fees after losing a pursuit?

Recommendation: Do not reprice.
Confidence: Medium-high.

Reasoning

01 The firm's win rate over the last four quarters is 38%, which sits in the healthy band for competitive pursuits.
02 The lost project appears to have gone to a competitor pricing below its own floor.
03 The two upcoming pursuits have weak sector fit and negative expected value after pursuit cost.
04 Repeat-client conversations offer higher probability and better use of senior time.

Suggested next step

Decline the two low-probability RFPs and redirect senior time toward the repeat-client pipeline.

Workflow

How the workspace works.

Norma turns scattered firm data into inspectable recommendations and usable outputs.

Step 01

Connect or upload firm data

Start with CSV exports, spreadsheets, contracts, financial reports, project data, or connected systems as integrations roll out.
Step 02

Ask a business question

Examples include: “Can we hire?”, “Can we bill this?”, “Are we underpricing?”, “Where is the revenue gap?”, or “What is the firm worth?”
Step 03

Inspect the reasoning

Norma shows the inputs, assumptions, thresholds, benchmarks, and logic behind the recommendation.
Step 04

Act or export

Generate partner memos, scope-response language, valuation PDFs, decision summaries, or next-step action plans.

Positioning

The missing layer between accounting and operating judgment.

Bookkeepers record what happened. Accountants report what happened. Fractional CFOs advise periodically. Norma helps answer the decision sitting in front of the firm today.

Bookkeeper: Records invoices, payments, expenses, and reconciliations.
Accountant: Reports financial results, prepares taxes, supports compliance, and organizes the past.
Fractional CFO: Advises periodically on budgets, strategy, reporting, cash flow, or financing.
Norma: Connects the firm's operating data to the decision the principal needs to make now.

Fit

Built for firms that have outgrown instinct.

Norma is built for architecture and design firms that are too complex for gut-feel management, too specific for generic dashboards, and not yet large enough to justify a full internal strategy team.

Built for

Architecture and design firms with roughly 10–100 employees
Studios with project-based revenue and complex staffing decisions
Firms dealing with scope creep, inconsistent fee discipline, weak forecasting visibility, or margin leakage
Principals who want better operating judgment without hiring a full-time CFO
Finance leaders who need a decision layer above spreadsheets

Not built for

Solo freelancers who only need invoicing
Firms only looking for bookkeeping
Enterprises looking for generic BI dashboards
Teams unwilling to upload or connect basic financial, project, or contract data

Roadmap

The decision layer above the tools firms already use.

Norma is not being built to replace the systems design firms already rely on. Deltek, QuickBooks, Rippling, Airtable, spreadsheets, and project-management tools remain the systems of record. Norma sits above them, connects the data, and turns scattered firm information into operating judgment.

Founded recently, Norma is being built in phases around the real operating decisions architecture and design firms make every week. The items below are directional roadmap themes, not dated commitments or guaranteed feature lists.

Phase 01

Now
- Manual uploads and structured data intake
- Decision intelligence for operating questions
- Contract and additional services analysis
- Firm valuation memo generation
Phase 02

Next
- QuickBooks Online integration
- Deltek Ajera and Vantagepoint integrations
- Rippling integration
- Airtable integration and recurring data syncs
Phase 03

Expanding
- Support for more design-firm types
- More scenario modeling for hiring, pricing, pipeline, cash, and scope
- Continuous monitoring of revenue, AR, margin, utilization, and concentration risk
- More configurable decision layers by firm type
Phase 04

Longer term
- Broader domestic adoption
- International support
- Optional anonymized benchmarking
- Market intelligence layer as the connected data network grows

Start here

See how the workspace thinks.

Start with one decision, one contract, or one valuation memo.

Request Early Access Explore decision intelligence