What Software Do Service Companies Need?

The Core

Project → Time → Invoice. Sounds simple, but it rarely is, because these three things are usually in different tools and someone has to manually connect them every month.

What Gets Lost

• Times not recorded because the process was cumbersome
• Services outside the scope of the offer, which no one recorded as an add-on
• Budget overruns only noticed when invoicing

The third point is the most expensive: Whoever only realizes at the end of the month that a project is 40% over budget can no longer take corrective action.

What a Good System Achieves

• Time tracking completed in under ten seconds
• Budget status visible at any time, not only in retrospect
• Clear separation between billable and non-billable work
• Invoicing directly from recorded times
• Workload planning for the coming weeks

Why Time Tracking Often Fails

Because it is perceived as a control mechanism. It only works if it is effortless and if the results also benefit the team – for example to show that a project was underestimated.

Standard or Custom

There are good standard products. Custom solutions are needed for unusual billing models: profit shares, retainers with cost allocation, hybrid models of fixed price and cost-based billing, client-specific peculiarities.