ERP for consulting firms built around the project, not the invoice.
Custom ERP for consulting and advisory firms — project accounting, mixed-rate billing, and utilization by practice area. Usually $75k–$275k, 3–6 months.
Deltek, NetSuite, and Productive assume one billing model. You run three.
Packaged project ERPs are built around a single billing shape — time-and-materials, or fixed-fee, or retainer. Real consulting firms run all three inside the same engagement: a fixed-fee discovery phase, T&M for the build, a retainer for ongoing advisory. Forcing that into one billing template means manual adjustments in a spreadsheet every invoice cycle, and a partner who no longer trusts the WIP number on the dashboard.
Utilization is the other place packaged tools fall apart. A generic PSA tool tracks hours logged against a target. It doesn't know that a principal billed at $450/hr sitting on the bench costs the firm differently than an associate at $175/hr, or that a consultant's 'utilization' this month is actually unbillable ramp time on a strategic account you're investing in. Multi-practice firms need utilization and bench reporting that rolls up by practice area and partner, not one blended number.
Once you're running global engagements, it gets worse: multi-currency billing, entity-level revenue recognition under ASC 606 percentage-of-completion for long engagements, and subcontractor or partner-network costs that need to hit project margin in real time, not at month-end close.
One system that bills the way your engagements actually run.
We build project accounting as the core: every time entry, expense, and invoice ties to a general ledger account, a practice area, and a project — so a mixed-billing engagement (fixed-fee phase, T&M phase, retainer tail) reports one accurate WIP and revenue-recognition number instead of three spreadsheets reconciled by hand.
Utilization and bench reporting roll up by consultant, practice, and partner, tied to real bill rates and real cost rates — so 'utilization' means margin, not just hours logged. Multi-currency and multi-entity consolidation are built in from day one if you run global engagements, and subcontractor costs post to project margin as they're incurred.
Honest tradeoff: if your firm runs one billing model, one currency, and under ~15 consultants, a packaged PSA tool — Productive, Kantata, BigTime, or Deltek if you're project-heavy enough to justify it — already does the job well. Buy it. Custom starts earning its cost once you're reconciling mixed billing models by hand, tracking utilization across multiple practice areas with different rate cards, or running revenue recognition a generic tool doesn't model correctly for engagements that span quarters.
We ship the modules you need first, then add the rest. Most clients don't need every module on day one.
Project accounting
Every transaction ties to a GL account, practice area, and project. Revenue recognition (percentage-of-completion, milestone, or point-in-time) set per engagement, not forced into one method firm-wide.
Mixed-model billing
Time-and-materials, fixed-fee, retainer, and milestone billing inside the same engagement, with WIP and revenue reporting that reconciles automatically instead of by spreadsheet.
Time & expense tracking
Multi-rate time entry (consultant × project × task × client agreement), multi-currency expense capture, and pre-billing review before anything hits an invoice.
Resource & utilization management
Bench visibility and skills-based staffing across practice areas, with utilization tied to real bill and cost rates — not a blended hours-logged number.
Profitability by project & practice
Margin reporting that rolls up by consultant, project, practice area, and partner, so a loss-leader engagement doesn't hide inside a healthy practice-area average.
Multi-entity / multi-currency consolidation
Entity-level books for global engagements with consolidated reporting by firm, region, or practice — built in from day one, not bolted on when the first foreign-currency client signs.
Proposal-to-project handoff
SOW terms (billing model, rate card, milestones) flow directly into project setup instead of being re-keyed by an ops person after the deal closes.
Subcontractor & partner-network costs
Subcontractor and referral-partner costs post against project margin as they're incurred, not reconciled after the fact at month-end close.
WIP & revenue leakage tracking
Unbilled WIP aging and write-down tracking by project and partner, surfacing revenue leakage before it's buried in a quarterly review.
How a custom consulting ERP gets built.
Same structure every time. We ship the first module to your team in 4–8 weeks, then build the rest while they're already using it.
- 01
Discover
1–2 weeks. We sit with your team, map workflows, and pick the first module to ship.
- 02
Architect
1–2 weeks. Data model, integrations, deployment topology. Documented before any code.
- 03
Build slice 1
3–5 weeks. First production module — usually the highest-pain part of your current workflow.
- 04
Build slices 2–N
1–3 months. Additional modules deployed continuously. Each integrates with the existing data model.
- 05
Run
Ongoing. We stay on after launch — bug fixes, new features, integrations as your business changes.
Built to integrate with the systems you already use.
The integrations below come up most often for consulting operators. Anything with an API is fair game — these are just the common ones.
- QuickBooks Online / Xero / Sage Intacct
- Salesforce / HubSpot (proposal-to-project handoff)
- Concur / Expensify (expense capture)
- ADP / Gusto / Rippling (payroll for cost-rate accuracy)
- DocuSign (SOW / engagement letter execution)
- Harvest / Toggl (legacy time-tracking migration)
- Slack / Microsoft Teams
- Stripe / ACH for client billing
- Banking & multi-currency FX providers
- BI / reporting (Metabase, Looker, Power BI)
Custom ERP for other industries.
Modern, boring, hireable.
We build on standard tools your future team will be able to hire for. No proprietary platforms.
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- React
- Tailwind
- Postgres
- Prisma
- Drizzle
- Redis
- Vercel
- Railway
- Fly.io
- Docker
- Clerk
- WorkOS
- Auth0
- Stripe
- Plaid
- QuickBooks API
- Postgres views
- Metabase
- Recharts
The proof we ship ERPs.
Clear answers
for complex builds.
Clear answers on timelines, pricing, ownership, and what shipping actually looks like with a senior engineering team.
If your firm runs one billing model, one currency, and a headcount under ~15, a packaged PSA tool already does the job — buy it, don't rebuild it. Custom starts winning once you're reconciling mixed billing models by hand, tracking utilization across multiple practice areas with different rate cards, or running multi-entity revenue recognition a generic tool doesn't model correctly.
Yes — that's the core problem we build for. Each phase of an engagement can run its own billing model, and WIP and revenue recognition report as one accurate number instead of three spreadsheets stitched together at invoice time.
Utilization rolls up by consultant, practice area, and partner, tied to real bill and cost rates rather than a blended hours-logged number. A principal on the bench and an associate ramping on a strategic account read differently in the margin report, not as the same 'unbillable hours' line.
Yes — entity-level books per region or subsidiary, consolidated reporting by firm or practice, and multi-currency billing built in from day one. This is usually the point where packaged PSA tools stop being enough, since most weren't built firm-first for multi-entity consolidation.
The legal page is built for law firm practice management — matter management, trust accounting, conflict checks, bar compliance. This page is built for consulting and advisory firms — project accounting, mixed-model billing, and utilization across practice areas. Both are project-based professional services, but the regulatory and billing structures don't overlap enough to share one build.
Yes — Salesforce and HubSpot are standard integrations. SOW terms (billing model, rate card, milestones) flow into project setup automatically instead of being re-keyed by an ops person after the deal closes.
Usually $75k–$275k and 3–6 months for project accounting, mixed-model billing, and utilization reporting, plus your core integrations (accounting, CRM, expense). Multi-entity consolidation and subcontractor cost tracking are common phase-one additions for firms already running global engagements, not phase-two.
Tell us your current systems, what's breaking, and what you'd want a fitted ERP to do — we'll come back with a written scope and a fixed quote.