Project‑based headcount
Teams expand and shrink with each site. Interns, draughtsmen, site engineers and consultants join for 2–6 months on average.
Project‑based HR that moves at the speed of your studio
Onboard interns and consultants, issue project contracts, track attendance across sites and generate payslips — without hiring a full HR team. Use pay‑per‑use documents when headcount is fluid, or pick ₹50/employee/month when you scale.
Why HR is hard for architecture firms
Frequent documents
Offer letters, internship agreements, consultant contracts, NDAs and extensions are issued repeatedly — usually over email and Word files.
Variable payouts
Stage‑wise billing from clients leads to irregular salary cycles and one‑time payslips for project staff.
Multi‑location attendance
Office, site and vendor locations make simple attendance hard without hardware.
Compliance uncertainty
PF, ESI and professional tax applicability varies by contract type and duration; files get scattered.
No full‑time HR
Founders or admins juggle HR work alongside design and client coordination.
The staffing rhythm in an Indian architecture studio
Most studios run on a rhythm that larger HR platforms struggle with. Permanent staff stays small. A core team of principals, senior architects, and a draughtsman or two sits year round. Around them rotates a group of interns, junior architects on six month contracts, structural and MEP consultants on per project retainers, and site supervisors who join when construction begins and leave when the site closes. Each role joins on different paper, leaves on different paper, and needs separate records on the way through.
Annual patterns layer on top of project patterns. Architecture school batches finish in May and June, which is when intern inquiries peak. Competition and award deadlines pull people in during specific months. Government tendering creates short bursts of hiring. A studio with twelve permanent people often issues many more letters than that across a year. Word templates and shared drives almost cover it, until an audit, a client empanelment review, or a Council of Architecture enquiry asks for clean records.
HR software built around a permanent monthly headcount does not flex well here. The right tool charges only when documents are actually issued, keeps records together, and stays out of the way when projects are between phases.
Where Offrd fits — built for project & contract staffing
Offer & contract automation
Create offer letters, intern letters and consultant agreements in minutes. Consistent clauses used widely in India.
Pay‑per‑use friendly
Issue only what you need with credit‑based usage — perfect when headcount changes by project. See pricing plans.
Payslips on demand
Generate clean, compliant payslips when clients need proof of payout. Try the payslip generator.
Attendance without hardware
Use QR or location check‑ins for office and site. Simple approvals and exports.
Central document vault
All letters and payslips stay organized for audits and client reviews. Easy to search and download.
Grows with your studio
Start with documents; add attendance and payslips later. No complex setup or long onboarding.
Typical architecture workflows on Offrd
Hiring for a new project
- Create intern and consultant letters from templates.
- Collect IDs digitally and store them in the vault.
- Enable QR/location check‑ins at office and site.
- Generate monthly or milestone payslips when required.
Extending or closing a project
- Issue contract extensions in a click.
- Generate closing letters for consultants and interns.
- Export attendance and payslip records for the client file.
What goes in an intern or consultant agreement
The paperwork small studios get wrong most often is the contract itself. A short list of items worth including in every agreement.
For interns
- Title, college, expected duration and project assignment.
- Stipend amount, payment cycle, and whether it includes any reimbursements.
- A clear statement that the engagement is an internship rather than employment, where that is the legal intent.
- Confidentiality around client work, drawings, and unpublished design material.
- Ownership of work product. Studios usually retain rights to deliverables made during the internship.
- Conditions for issue of an internship certificate at completion.
For consultants
- Scope by project stage, often schematic, design development, construction documents, and construction administration.
- Fee structure tied to stage completion or to a retainer schedule.
- Notice and termination clauses separate from the main employment terms.
- GST treatment, invoicing format and TDS handling.
- Statutory position on PF and ESI, since these generally do not apply to genuine consultant arrangements.
- Confidentiality and intellectual property language, often stricter than for interns.
Templates that already contain these clauses save a real amount of partner time during onboarding, and avoid the disputes that surface later when scope and ownership were never written down.
Why studios pick Offrd
Faster than Word templates
Letters in minutes with less manual editing and fewer errors.
Clean, consistent documents
Professional output for client‑facing audits and vendor empanelment.
Lower total cost
Pay only when you issue documents, or use ₹50/employee/month when you grow.
FAQ for architecture & interior design firms
Can I use Offrd only for documents?
Yes. Many firms start with offer letters and consultant agreements, then add attendance and payslips later.
Do you support interns?
Yes. Generate internship offer letters with standard clauses used across India.
Do you handle UPI‑native payroll?
No. Offrd does not claim UPI‑native payroll. You can still generate payslips easily when needed.
How do I start?
Register, try the Offer Letter Generator, or book a demo.
Are interns covered by PF and ESI?
The answer depends on how the engagement is structured and the stipend amount. Where the relationship reads like employment, statutory obligations can attach. Document the engagement as an internship clearly to keep the position defensible, and confirm with your CA for borderline cases.
What about Professional Tax?
Professional Tax is state level and applies based on the state of the studio and the engagement type. Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, among others, have their own brackets. Check your state slabs before issuing the first payslip.
How do studios handle site supervisors who join mid project?
Issue a short term appointment letter with the site name, project window, daily reporting time, and salary. When the site closes, issue a closure letter and run the final settlement. Both documents come from the same template family on Offrd.
Helpful links
Pricing
See pricing plans — pay‑per‑use credits or monthly subscription.
HR documents
Supported HR documents commonly used in India.
Payslip generator
Try the free payslip generator to create slips quickly.
Ready to simplify HR?
Start with documents today and scale when you need more. No lock‑in.
Information on this page is intended for general guidance for Indian architecture and interior design firms. Verify regulatory applicability (PF, ESI, PT) for each engagement.