Deltek Vision Support Changes: Options for UK Practices
What Deltek’s Vision support and cloud lifecycle changes mean, the realistic routes for a UK practice, and the questions to settle with your provider.
Deltek’s published lifecycle differs by product: Vision 7.6 entered sustaining support on 1 February 2026, while Deltek Cloud Vision instances are scheduled to wind down in Q1 2027. On-premises Vision is not switched off on a single universal date. This guide explains the options and checks to make with Deltek, including a practical plan for comparing routes.
Support and hosting changes require a plan. Confirm your own timeline before choosing a route.
What is changing
Deltek’s published lifecycle distinguishes Vision 7.6 from Deltek Cloud Vision. Version 7.6 entered sustaining support on 1 February 2026; Deltek says its Cloud Vision instances will wind down in Q1 2027. Confirm the applicable lifecycle and migration requirements with Deltek for your deployment.
For many architecture practices, Vision has run timesheets, project accounting, billing and resourcing for years. Sustaining support means the product remains available with a narrower support and update commitment; Deltek’s FAQ says it does not include new enhancements, hot fixes or regulatory updates. The exact impact depends on your Vision version and whether it is hosted by Deltek or on-premises.
Deltek's recommended path is Vantagepoint, its newer cloud product. It is built on foundations shared with later Vision releases, which is presented as continuity. Implementation partners are more cautious: a full move typically involves remapping data, rebuilding reports and retraining users, and can take a year or more for larger firms.
A forced migration is the one moment when switching to a different system costs about the same as staying with the same vendor, because the migration work has to happen either way.
Three realistic options
Every Vision practice will end up in one of three places. The right one depends on practice size, how much of Vision you actually use and what you want the next system to do that Vision never did.
- 01
Upgrade to Vantagepoint
Stay with Deltek and its partner network.
- Suits
- Large firms with complex project accounting and finance teams
- Watch
- Implementation cost, timeline and ongoing configuration effort
- 02
Practice management tool
Monograph, Total Synergy, Fresh Projects and similar.
- Suits
- Small and mid-sized practices that mainly used Vision for time, fees and billing
- Watch
- Depth of reporting, multi-entity needs, UK set-up
- 03
Connected platform
Avoice and similar AI-native workspaces.
- Suits
- Practices that also want specs, delivery and compliance records in the same system
- Watch
- Line-by-line check against the finance features you use today
Each option needs data cleaned, mapped and checked. The difference is what the practice has at the end of it.
Option 1: upgrade to Vantagepoint
This keeps the same vendor relationship and broadly the same concepts. It suits firms with several legal entities, complex project accounting, or a finance team that has built processes around Deltek. Ask your partner for a fixed-scope migration quote, a realistic go-live date and a list of the reports that will need rebuilding.
Option 2: move to an architecture practice management tool
Many small and mid-sized practices use only part of Vision: timesheets, fees by stage, resourcing and invoicing. Dedicated practice management tools cover that ground with less configuration and lower running costs. Check RIBA stage set-up, VAT handling and integration with your accounting package before you commit.
Option 3: move to a connected platform
Some practices use the moment to consolidate. A connected platform keeps project management, timesheets and fees alongside the specification, drawing QA, contract administration and compliance records for the same project. That removes the re-keying between delivery and finance systems, but it is a bigger change, so check the finance features you depend on line by line.
What the move really costs
Licence price is the smallest part of most migrations. The real cost sits in implementation, data clean-up and the weeks when people are learning a new system during live projects.
Deltek does not publish Vantagepoint pricing. Request a scoped licence and implementation estimate for your firm. Whichever option you choose, build the comparison on total cost over three years, not monthly licence alone.
- Licences
- Per user, per role or per practice. Ask what happens to price when you add people or modules.
- Implementation
- Configuration, data migration and report rebuilding. Ask for a fixed scope and who carries overruns.
- Internal time
- Finance and project leads cleaning data, testing and signing off. Usually underestimated by half.
- Training
- How quickly a project architect can log time and read a fee report without help.
- Running cost
- Who changes a report or adds a stage next year: your team, or a paid consultant.
A ten-week plan to evaluate your options
Use this illustrative ten-week plan to compare options and prepare your data. Agree a timetable with your provider that reflects your Vision version, deployment and support arrangements.
- 1
Audit
List the Vision modules, reports and invoices you actually use.
- 2
Shortlist
One option from each group in section 02. Same demo script for all.
- 3
Prove
Load one live project in the preferred option. Log a real week.
- 4
Decide
Compare three-year total cost and migration plans. Sign.
- 5
Clean
Close dead projects, fix rates, reconcile WIP and debtors.
- 6
Migrate
Move live projects, fees, rates, clients and open invoices.
- 7
Parallel run
Two weeks of timesheets in both systems. Compare totals.
- 8
Cut over
Switch at a month end. Archive Vision read-only.
For a small or mid-sized practice, moving the data takes weeks. Getting to a decision is what usually runs out the clock.
What to bring across, and what to leave
Migrating everything is slow and imports old mistakes. Bring what the practice needs to run and bill live work, and archive the rest in a form you can still read.
- Live projects with stages, fees and budgets agreed against the current appointments.
- Staff, roles, cost rates and charge-out rates, checked and current.
- Clients and contacts for live and recent work.
- Open invoices, unbilled WIP and retentions, reconciled to the accounts.
- Timesheet history for live projects, so fee burn starts from the right point.
- A read-only archive export of closed projects for reference and claims.
Leave behind duplicate clients, abandoned projects, out-of-date rate tables and report templates nobody has opened in a year. A switch is the cheapest moment the practice will ever have to tidy its data.
For a fuller version of this checklist, including cutover timing and the parallel run, see how to switch practice management software.
Questions practices ask
Short answers for practice managers and directors weighing the move.
What is changing for Deltek Vision?
Deltek says Vision 7.6 entered sustaining support on 1 February 2026, while Deltek Cloud Vision instances are scheduled to wind down in Q1 2027. Check your version and hosting arrangement with Deltek; there is no single end date that applies to every Vision deployment.
Do we have to move to Vantagepoint?
No. Vantagepoint is Deltek's suggested path, but because the move involves data remapping, reconfiguration and retraining, it takes a similar effort to moving elsewhere. UK practices can also move to architecture practice management software or to a connected platform such as Avoice.
How much does Vantagepoint cost?
Deltek does not publish a price list. Request a scoped licence and implementation estimate for your firm.
Can we keep running Vision?
That depends on your version, hosting arrangement and support agreement. Deltek’s sustaining support for Vision 7.6 does not include new enhancements, hot fixes or regulatory updates. Ask Deltek what applies to your installation before setting a migration date.
What about Deltek PIM?
PIM is Deltek's project information and document control product rather than a project accounting system. If your practice uses PIM as well as Vision, review both together: the replacement for one may cover some of what the other did.
Where Avoice fits
Avoice is a connected platform for architecture practices, and a natural landing place for practices that want to leave Vision without moving into another heavyweight ERP.
Projects in Avoice carry their stages and fees, timesheets roll up against each stage, financials and cash flow sync with Xero and QuickBooks, and people and staffing shows capacity across live projects. The same project also holds the specification, drawing QA, contract administration and compliance registers. Data is hosted in the UK.
Before committing, agree the migration scope, responsibilities, timescale and any costs with Avoice. Book a demo and bring one live project to discuss your requirements.