#Invoice template professional services manual#
#Invoice template professional services software#
#Invoice template professional services download#

Invoices are, after all, how you get paid, and financial management software is where you track who has (and who has not) paid. Financial Accounting Softwareįinancial accounting solutions are a natural place to start when thinking about generating invoices for professional services. The biggest mistake a firm can make when deciding which type of solution to use when it comes to professional services invoicing is to pick one that is unable to accurately model their business.

It is part of a financial management solution, time and expense tracking tool, or services automation suite. For professional services firms, consultant billing software isn’t usually offered as a standalone solution. Of course, the answer isn’t really that simple. The simple answer to what to use in place of Excel is professional services consultant billing software.

A simple mistake could cost thousands of dollars in revenue! Is that any way to run a services business? If Not Excel, Then What? This took hours and it was very easy to make mistakes due to copy and paste errors.

#Invoice template professional services download#

When I would prepare invoices for professional services on about 10 projects on a monthly basis, I would have to download time and expenses from one system, key them into Excel invoice templates manually, and then send each invoice to the group’s VP for approval. Using Excel for invoicing is labor intensive and error prone. When it comes to professional services billing and consultant invoicing, however, that is where the benefits of using Excel end. Talk to anyone who has spent time managing a consulting firm and they will tell you that they spend most of their time “putting out fires.” As a result, Excel becomes a manager’s go-to fire extinguisher–it’s easy to understand, it can get the job done quickly, and its flexibility allows you to make things look the way you want. Stop Using Excel Templates for Professional Services InvoicesĪ key trait of any growing services business is the ability for top management to solve problems quickly and efficiently. The first step in improving the professional services billing process- fire Excel. Bottom line: processes to invoice for professional services should be simple and transparent. While these experiences took place some time ago, I still hear stories from professional services firms every day struggling with the same problems. Unfortunately for that client, those expenses had to be written off. We found more than $400K in client-reimbursable expenses that were never billed due to a lack of structure and control in their professional services invoice process. One particularly notable example exposed itself during the implementation process of our consultant billing software at a prominent technology company.

#Invoice template professional services manual#

More importantly, the manual processes reduced the visibility senior management had into the performance of the firm.įast forward a few years to my work at BigTime, and I realized how common my story actually was. Every step of the process-creating, proofing, approving, adjusting, and sending invoices for professional services-introduced inefficiency. It didn’t take long, however, for me to find that this job consumed nearly 80% of my time. Even one small mistake could cost the firm tens of thousands of dollars, often without anyone even knowing. I knew how crucial it was to the group’s success. After working with the group for a while, I gained responsibility for overseeing the processes to invoice for professional services. One of my first professional jobs was in an operational role at a professional services firm. So why don’t firms dedicate the time to getting the process right when it comes to generating an invoice for professional services? Processes to Invoice for Professional Services Should Be Simple and Transparent Invoicing is one of the few actions in a consulting firm that has the most impact on keeping the lights on (i.e., cash flow). But quite often, even the professional service organizations (PSOs) with thousands of team members still approach this vital task incorrectly. The first step is consultant billing software. Of course, as professional service teams grow past 25 consultants, firms begin to focus on streamlining this process. For professional services organizations with just a few consultants, this is often the approach. Download an Excel invoice template for consultants, punch in your hours and rate, generate an invoice for professional services rendered, and send it to the client. Professional Services Invoicing: Tips From the TrenchesĪ process to invoice for professional servicesmight seem simple on the surface.