Services firms sell expertise under commercial terms that rarely fit a simple product invoice. We build systems that connect scope, staffing, delivery evidence, time, expenses and billing so operational and financial views use the same engagement facts.
A person may be available on paper but unsuitable because of skill, grade, location, clearance, conflict or working pattern. Tentative opportunities also compete with contracted work, requiring probability-aware demand without double-booking people.
Time and materials, fixed fee, retainer, milestone, capped and outcome-based terms can coexist within one engagement. Billing rules must connect approved delivery evidence to rates, caps, discounts, tax and client-specific invoice formats.
Late or miscoded time affects utilisation, client billing, project forecast and payroll or contractor cost. Corrections after invoice or period close need controlled adjustments rather than edits that make earlier reports impossible to reproduce.
Effort performed, amount billable, amount invoiced and revenue recognised are different measures. Finance needs engagement-level schedules and reconciliations based on the organisation’s accounting policies, including write-offs and scope changes.
Conflicts, confidentiality, information barriers and contractual access restrictions may govern who can see or join work. The client, engagement and document permissions need to reflect approved teams instead of inheriting broad departmental access.
Delivery tools know tasks but usually not rate versions, contractual caps, invoice groups or WIP. Finance packages know postings but not why a milestone is accepted or which future resource demand threatens margin. Spreadsheets bridge the gap and create competing versions of engagement forecast.
We establish the engagement as the shared commercial object, with work packages, staffing, terms, time, expense, milestones and billing schedules beneath it. Forecast changes retain versions and assumptions. Operational measures reconcile to billing and accounting events without requiring delivery managers to manipulate ledger structures.
Professional services firms often retain specialist CRM, collaboration, identity, payroll and accounting platforms. A won opportunity must become an engagement without re-keying client, scope and commercial terms, but pipeline estimates should not create live projects prematurely. Worker and organisational changes also require effective dates.
We define lifecycle hand-offs and ownership for client, person, engagement, time, invoice and posting data. APIs or controlled files carry validated records with source keys. Reconciliation queues expose rejected time, missing cost rates, invoice discrepancies and accounting failures before they distort margin reporting.
A pilot follows a representative set of engagements from acceptance and staffing through time, invoice review, posting and collection. Fixed-fee, time-based and credit or rebill scenarios are included. Opening data covers active teams, unbilled time, expenses, advances, WIP, billing schedules and outstanding invoices.
Further phases add pipeline capacity planning, skills, contractors and more complex revenue operations. Period-end parallel runs reconcile hours, charge, WIP, invoices, tax and general-ledger controls. Accounting and professional obligations differ by firm and jurisdiction; the client’s advisers define policy, and configuration implements their approved treatment.
It is an operational and financial system organised around clients, engagements, resources, time, expense, billing and project economics. It connects delivery activity to invoicing and accounting without treating people’s work as physical inventory.
Yes, commercial terms can be assigned by work package, phase or deliverable within the same engagement. Invoice grouping, caps and approval rules determine how those components appear to the client.
Probable demand is shown separately from committed assignments and weighted according to an agreed planning policy. Scenarios reveal contention without reserving the same person as firmly booked on several opportunities.
Yes, but the correction should create an adjustment with approval and a defined billing and accounting consequence. The original timesheet and invoice remain reproducible rather than being silently changed.
Yes, the ERP can send approved invoices, expenses, WIP or journal events and receive payment or ledger status. The boundary is designed around the accounting platform’s capabilities and agreed source of truth.
Share the workflows, records, exceptions and integration boundaries the system needs to support. We will help define the technical scope.