Eliminating Spreadsheets and Double Entry: How AMC Architecture Took Control of Operations with Total Synergy

Lost in Spreadsheets

AMC Architecture is a 30-person architecture and interiors firm based in Canberra, Australia. Known for their commitment to design excellence and business efficiency, they found themselves bogged down by outdated systems, inefficient workflows, and endless spreadsheets.

“Time is money, and you don’t want someone wasting their time on exporting data to put it back into a spreadsheet and having to update it every single week.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

For years, AMC Architecture relied on ArchiOffice from BQE, alongside MYOB for financial management. While ArchiOffice initially helped organize projects, it became a bottleneck to efficiency and visibility as the firm grew.

Outdated Systems Were Slowing AMC Architecture Down

• Lack of MYOB compatibility meant ongoing double data entry, leading to inefficiencies and errors.
• Heavy reliance on spreadsheets— AMC Architecture frequently had to export data into Excel and manually filter information, making business planning a tedious and manual process.
• Customer support was outsourced, often creating a language barrier that made troubleshooting difficult.
• Not a cloud-based solution, requiring reliance on a VPN for remote access.
• Limited project visibility, particularly for integrated projects combining architecture and interiors—there was no clear way to separate or analyze these elements efficiently.
• Needed support for custom reports—generating the right reports required help from customer support, adding costs, delays, and extra steps to their workflow.

Central Village (formerly Finlay Crisp Centre)

“With ArchiOffice, we still had to export everything into an Excel spreadsheet and manually filter and format the data because the system didn’t give us the visibility we needed. It was incredibly time-consuming, especially for annual business planning when we needed that fine-grain detail about projects.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

The decision to change project management software ultimately came down to one thing: spreadsheets. Every week, an admin team member had to manually update time, expense, and fee data just to keep business operations running smoothly. Without real-time insights, decisions about new projects, staffing needs, and resource planning were made using outdated information.

“We didn’t have that information at our fingertips unless we put the work in to have it loaded in. That limitation was a wake-up call for us—we needed the ability to run reports ourselves and see a live view of how we were tracking revenue and resources.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

The Red Shed

Choosing the Right Tool

When AMC Architecture explored software options, they needed a solution built for firms like theirs, not a one-size-fits-all tool. Total Synergy stood out as a platform designed only for A&E professionals, with features tailored to their workflows. For 25 years, we’ve been built with one customer in mind—the A&E industry—ensuring that every capability supports the way architects and engineers work.

Unlike other vendors, the sales team from Total Synergy took the time to understand AMC Architecture’s needs and demonstrated how the platform could fit their workflows.

“The sales team really listened to what we needed. They created templates that mirrored our workflows and walked us through step-by-step how Total Synergy could work for us. It wasn’t just a standard spiel.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

Beyond solving their spreadsheet issues, AMC Architecture was also looking for a way to delegate more responsibility to middle management. Directors were too deep in project-level work, and without real-time visibility into finances and resourcing, it was difficult to push decision-making to the next level.

“Total Synergy gave us the ability to delegate more responsibility to middle management by providing real-time visibility into projects. Our directors were too involved in day-to-day project management, and we needed to shift some of that responsibility down. But to do that effectively, our team needed the right information to make informed decisions—and Total Synergy offered that.”— Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

Total Synergy offered a solution to AMC Architecture’s biggest challenges from the start:

• MYOB integration eliminated double entry, saving hours of admin time each week.
• A cloud-based platform to make project data accessible anywhere, without relying on a VPN.
• Our award-winning customer success team—including onboarding, dedicated customer success managers, and support experts—backed by a 98% customer satisfaction score, back-to-back G2 Best Support Team badge, and the best response rate in the industry (15-minutes).
• Standardized project templates and reusable documents help AMC Architecture set up projects quickly, cutting down admin time and keeping everything consistent.
• Revenue forecasting gives the team a clear picture of cash flow, making it easier to plan and make confident financial decisions.
• User-friendly timesheets and built-in timers make it easy for the team to track their time accurately, leading to smoother billing and better project profitability.
• Simple invoicing removes the manual work from the team’s plate, making billing faster and cash flow more predictable.
• Powerful resource planning improves team utilization, preventing burnout and overallocation.
• Real-time dashboards give the team a clear view of project progress, finances, and overall business health.

The Transition: A Team Effort

Implementing a new system is never easy, and for AMC Architecture, the transition to Total Synergy was quite an undertaking. With over 5,000 projects spanning 25 years, ensuring a smooth migration was critical.

To navigate the transition, AMC Architecture worked closely with our Onboarding Consultant who has a deep architecture background.

“Our onboarding consultant had an architectural background, so he understood how we work. He explained every step in a way that made sense. I really enjoyed the implementation process with him. He held our hands throughout the process and was always there to answer our questions.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

From a day-to-day perspective, most staff notice only two real changes—timesheets and access to data. The difference? Everything is much easier for Hannah-Jean and the team.

“I think the timesheet interface is much easier to use in Total Synergy than what we were using with ArchiOffice. Also, the ability to copy timesheets over is a big time saver… It’s just convenient.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

The other key improvement is having critical information readily available on a dashboard. Directors no longer need to ask Hannah or an admin team member to generate reports—whether for job progress or tracking project debtors. Instead, they can access everything instantly, without waiting for a report to be printed or numbers to be manually pulled.

With Total Synergy, key insights are finally at their fingertips.

“[Total Synergy] shows that we’re organized, informed, and able to make strong, decisive choices about how the business is run. Information is power, and having it available in a clear, digestible form is priceless.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture
Customs House Foyer & End of Trip Refurbishment

Customs House Foyer & End of Trip Refurbishment

What’s Next for AMC

AMC Architecture is excited to keep growing its pipeline of projects and strengthening relationships with long-term clients. They’re also focused on helping their team grow by creating more opportunities to work on exciting new projects.

As they look to expand into other sectors, Hannah shared that they plan to use Total Synergy’s resource forecasting tool to help guide their growth.

“The tool gives us the information we need to make key decisions about taking on new projects—can we go for this based on our pipeline and available resources? Do we have the capacity to take it on? It gives us that insight.” — Hannah-Jean Cadan, Director of Operations at AMC Architecture

AMC Architecture’s transition to Total Synergy has been amazing to see. What started as a need to eliminate inefficiencies has grown into a firm-wide shift toward smarter, data-driven decision-making.