ERP For Professional Services

We will define your needs and wants as well as how you would ideally use new automated solutions across your Professional Services company, whether you are an engineering, consulting, inspecting, architecture, accounting, financial advising, or other time and expense-based services provider.

We will guide you through selecting the best fit, most cost-effective business applications, and implementation partners.

After finalizing your Professional Services ERP software and services contracts, EAG stays with you to oversee your implementation until you successfully go live.  We will oversee integrations, data migration, change management, budgets, design and configuration, walkthroughs, training, testing, and go-live cutover and will provide executive and project sponsor support throughout the duration of your project.

• Unable to report on KPIs and other management requests without significant manual research and work.
• System currently doesn't allow for tracking of non-billable hours.
• No clear view of enterprise-wide customer data and touchpoints.
• No systematic way of quickly, efficiently, or automatically creating quality financial reports in the software.
• Manual intervention makes it very time-consuming, difficult, or completely impossible to provide timely responses to client information requests.

Our rapidly-growing professional services clients are already very busy with their day jobs and do not have time to become ERP experts. Though your key people still have to devote some time to an ERP initiative, hiring an ERP consultant frees them up to make the important ERP decisions while staying focused on their day job.

The more complex your business, the more likely for difficulty when selecting and implementing software. ERP Advisors Group will help you uncover your true needs and will only vet the most viable options for your size, requirements, resources, and strategy.

We will create your requirements document and demonstration script with professional services industry best practices in mind while retaining what is unique to your company, leaving out the manual workarounds.

Many clients hire us to help when they suspect they need a business case for new software. ERP Advisors Group helps stakeholders buy into what is best for the company by getting their input at multiple stages throughout the Needs Analysis, Selection, and Implementation.

A frequent complaint we hear from prospects who tried to select software on their own is feeling confused about the software's capabilities. We get vendors to show your requirements during their product demonstrations. This ensures you feel confident about selecting the best products that can meet your needs.

We negotiate tens of millions of dollars of deals every year for our clients. We provide contract review on all terms and conditions, including software and services, and every agreement embedded throughout the contract. Our clients receive price protection for many years to come on their purchases. While we don't guarantee it in writing, we normally save our fees on this step alone.

First and foremost, Professional Services firms need to automate time and expenses alongside tracking budget to actuals for projects. So much of their operations revolve around this aspect of working with their clients. By automating the process of generating invoices, distributing them directly from the ERP, and managing the conversion from budget to actuals directly within the ERP, you ensure all data is stored in a single place, resulting in more accurate accounting and variance analysis. Additionally, the automation ensures more effective financial reporting and overall performance evaluation, paving the way for future growth.

Professional Services firms also need to manage their most important assets: their people! Beyond the basic accounting automation they will receive from a new ERP, they should have access to robust project management solutions, as well as options for resource management, especially when it comes to Architecture and Engineering firms. While the ERP won’t have those capabilities out-of-the-box, many professional service-oriented ERPs have project and resource management modules or partners who can further configure the system for the client’s unique needs. At a minimum, most professional service firms need project management in regard to setting up a project, attaching resources, then connecting the billing and invoicing aspects. The data supplied by the systems connectivity and interoperability will then further enable leaders to analyze and assign the right resources to the right projects. These are the most important, foundational aspects of project management for professional services firms.

Because of the variety of companies in the professional services space, from Architecture and Engineering to Consulting and Marketing Agencies, the platform selected is vital. Your application must be able to scale with your business and grow as you do, especially when it comes time to add specialized applications, such as design tools, Enterprise Content Management, Customer Relationship Management, or Computer-Aided Design (CAD) software.

Most growing professional services companies need to address their manual financial processes, first and foremost. Some are migrating off legacy applications while others have outgrown their accounting solution. Either way, they now need a more robust solution to automate financials and maintain growth. This starts with basic accounting to “get the house in order” so to speak. A modern ERP will provide core accounting, including a General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Receivable, the Chart of Accounts, and more. It will also allow firms to configure the system for more complex functionality like revenue recognition and bank reconciliation as needs arise. This sets the foundation for Professional Services firms to build their businesses for the future. 

Professional Service firms often track expenses across numerous projects while also managing the tasks associated with billable hours and tracking materials used. By automating things like invoice management, payroll, and billing, firms can reduce manual errors and streamline processes. When these actions are centralized within the ERP, accounting becomes much simpler. Instead of pulling data across Word Documents or Excel Spreadsheets, businesses are able to access invoices and budgets directly within the ERP and cross-reference it automatically with their financials. 

A modern solution also opens the door for an FP&A tool for more in-depth budgeting and financial analysis as the business evolves and need more complex capabilities. Within a robust ecosystem, customers will have access to third-party solutions or modules for FP&A that can flex to meet their needs. It can range from very basic planning capabilities to a full-scale FP&A solution. Either way, once a strong ERP is in place, professional service companies simply have more options. Additionally, Professional Service firms benefit greatly from the improved financial reporting that comes from a centralized system of record. Disjointed systems and data siloes present in legacy systems or small-scale accounting solutions limits insight into the business. Connectivity across all departments with a modern ERP delivers deeper insights and improved decision-making not previously attainable. 

Every ERP ecosystem offers various native and partner solutions with pre-built integrations. If you select an ERP already within your technology ecosystem, integrating the systems will be much simpler. In other unique cases, the vendor or implementation partner will need to develop the integration. However, this can complicate the project by extending deadlines or increasing costs and risks. This is the case regardless of the type of solution, from CRM to FP&A to HCM.