Projectworks Blog: Professional Services 101

The shape of consulting demand has changed. More projects, smaller budgets, same BD team. AI can help at every stage of the cycle. But not every stage equally, and not in the ways most people think.

Learn how EBITDA multiples work for consulting firms, what the realistic benchmarks are, and the six factors that move your multiple up or down.

In the early stages of your consulting firm’s practice, tracking billable hours with spreadsheets was good enough. Your focus was on delivering high-quality work, and your relationship with your clients operated on implicit trust.

We doubled billable rates at consulting firm Nexient during my tenure as CEO - but it took us 7 years. In hindsight we could have lifted prices so much faster with a Professional Services Automation tool. Instead we had our field team.

When competitors compare, accuracy matters. Recently, our friends over at ROLL published a page inviting people to “switch from Projectworks” and implying that Projectworks is little more than a timesheet tracker. We love a bit of competition between professional services tools - but not when fiction replaces fact! So, let’s clear the air and have a little fun while we’re at it 😉👇

For consulting firms, the invoice is more than a receipt, it is the moment revenue becomes cash. The last mile often slips: wrong entity, inconsistent branding, unclear breakdowns, or formatting that stalls in AP. Invoice templates fix this at the root: design once, apply everywhere, and generate professional invoices your clients approve on the first pass.

When a new project lands, the brief is clear, but your team capacity isn’t. Do you staff from a stretched bench, hire contractors, or push the start date? Smart firms use resource management software to model demand up-front with placeholder resources – so you can commit with confidence, protect margin, and avoid last-minute scrambles.

When it comes to time tracking, no-one needs another “where to click” tutorial. The real challenge is creating a daily habit that gives you clean, connected data – so you staff smarter, bill faster, and catch risk early. Here’s a practical approach to consulting time tracking used by high-performing firms, with examples of how teams run it in Projectworks.

Net margin is the percentage of revenue that remains as profit after accounting for all costs. For professional services firms drowning in spreadsheets and financial guesswork, this metric reveals the truth about your business that surface-level numbers often hide.

Your firm might be bringing in millions in revenue - but without a clear view of your operating margin, you could still be losing ground. Operating margin reveals how efficiently your entire business runs after covering the real costs of winning and delivering work - not just direct project expenses, but sales, marketing, and overhead. Ignore it, and you risk overvaluing revenue while undervaluing operational discipline. Firms that track and understand operating margin can protect profits even in volatile markets.

Most professional services leaders make a critical mistake: treating gross margin as a backward-looking accounting metric rather than the forward-looking decision engine it should be.

Let's be honest: in today's hyper-competitive market, your firm can't afford to fly blind on account margins while your competitors use them to fuel rapid growth.