Professional Services / Architecture & Engineering · Finance Strategy
Finance Transformation Behind a 33% Compounded Growth Rate for an Architecture Firm
Case study
Lifecycle stages covered
- Concept
- Build — included
- Raise
- Scale — included
- Operate
- Exit
The client
Apogee is an early-stage architecture firm founded by partners who left an established practice to launch their own. With strong demand and talented partners, the firm needed the accounting, reporting, banking communication, and operating processes to support its projected pace of growth.
Business context
As a newly formed professional services firm scaling quickly, Apogee needed financial structure built for growth — from clean books and repeatable processes to management reporting that could keep pace with rapid expansion.
Business challenge
Like many architecture and engineering businesses, Apogee's profitability depended on disciplined labor deployment, billing realization, overhead control, and timely project-level visibility, none of which existing processes were built to support. The partners needed clean books and repeatable accounting processes suited to an early-stage environment, along with reliable financial reporting showing performance by period, profitability by client and team, and weekly cash projections to support real-time decisions. Without this structure, rapid growth risked outpacing the firm's ability to manage cash, price work correctly, and communicate credibly with its bank.
ChurchillTerry approach
ChurchillTerry stabilized the financial foundation by organizing the chart of accounts, tightening monthly close routines, clarifying entity-level reporting, and building a process for translating operating activity into bank-ready financial information. CT established the books, reporting cadence, and documentation discipline needed for a fast-growing professional services firm, then focused on profitability improvement: revenue capture, project economics, overhead discipline, and management reporting. This shift moved the partners from basic bookkeeping to management-focused financial reporting, giving them visibility into which work was profitable, where overhead was rising, and how growth was affecting cash, while supporting stronger lender communication along the way.
Outcomes
168% Net Income Growth
Net income grew 168% as revenue more than doubled between 2023 and 2025.
33% Compounded Annual Growth
Revenue is on track for a 4-year record of over 33% compounded annual growth since engagement.
Bank-Ready Reporting Quality
Reporting quality was praised by the firm's bank as among the best in its portfolio, supporting lending to fund growth.
Profitability-Led Decision-Making
Gave the partners a clearer financial operating model, evaluating growth decisions through a profitability lens rather than revenue alone.
ChurchillTerry capabilities
- Finance Strategy
- Finance & Bookkeeping
- Org Design
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Located in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
5068 W Plano Pkwy Ste 202
Plano, TX 75068