Business Central for professional services firms that bill for time and expertise

Every engagement set up as a project with a budget

A quote becomes a project with tasks, planning lines and a budget. The budget holds both hours and money. Fixed-fee, time and materials and capped work all run through the planning lines. So one firm can run all three.

Project managers see budget, actual and remaining effort on each task. Finance sees the same figures. Nobody has to ask for a spreadsheet at month end.

Rates by role, client and project for professional services

Each resource carries a cost and a price. Resource groups let you price by role, such as senior consultant or designer. Then price lists override rates for one client or project. So a negotiated rate applies by itself. It no longer depends on one person's memory.

Cost and price sit on the same entry. So margin per project, per client and per consultant comes from standard reports and from Power BI.

Time and expense capture for services staff in Business Central

Time sheets let staff log hours against project tasks each week. Project managers approve them before billing. Expenses such as travel and subcontractor costs post to the project from purchase invoices or journals.

Maybe your team already uses a separate time tool. If so, we can feed its entries into Business Central through the APIs. That way nobody is forced onto a new screen.

Project billing and work in progress

Billable time and expenses become draft invoices for each project. Fixed-fee work can bill by milestone. Finance checks the draft, adds a note and posts. Nobody types an invoice from a list of hours.

Work in progress sums put unbilled work and early billing on the balance sheet in the right period. They use the method your accountant prefers. So month-end revenue does not swing with the invoice calendar.

Resource planning across services projects in Business Central

Resource capacity and planning lines show who is booked on what. They also show where there is room for new work. So leaders can see, before they accept an engagement, whether the right people are free.

Utilization reports compare billable hours with available hours by person and team. For a professional services firm on Business Central, this is often the most useful number to watch.

Questions professional services firms ask about Business Central

Is Business Central for professional services a good fit for a consultancy?

Yes, for most firms. Business Central covers the core of professional services work as standard: projects, resources, time sheets, price lists and work in progress. That is what consultancies, agencies and engineering practices need most. Then we add reports and links to your other tools. So you get one clear view of the firm without building it from spreadsheets.

Can Business Central handle fixed-fee and time and materials work?

Yes. Planning lines on each project are set as billable or not. You can invoice them from actual use or as milestones. So both models, and mixes of them, work in one firm. For example, a project can bill a fixed fee for design and hourly rates for extra changes.

Does Business Central include time sheets?

Yes. Staff log time against project tasks, and managers approve it before it can be invoiced. Entries from other time tools can also come in through the APIs. So you can keep a tool your team likes and still bill from one system.

How does Business Central handle project work in progress?

The project work in progress function works out unbilled work or early billing. It uses the method set on the project. Then it posts the result to the general ledger for the period. So your accounts show the right revenue, even when invoices go out on a different date.

Should a professional services firm use Business Central alone or add a PSA tool?

Many firms run well on Business Central alone. Firms with heavy resource scheduling needs sometimes add a PSA app that connects to it. So we look at your team size and workflow first. Then we recommend one path or the other.

Related pages for services firms

Business Central for professional services often goes with project accounting, reporting and integrations. These pages explain each area. The contact page reaches our consultants, who can walk through your own engagement types. For the product detail, see Microsoft's guide to managing projects in Business Central.