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10 Best Professional Services Automation Software For 2023

Software Shortlist

  1. Wrike

    Best professional services software with built-in client collaboration automations

  2. Parallax

    Best for resource management and financial tracking in one place

  3. Kantata

    Best for powerful resource management and team collaboration

  4. BigTime

    Best PSA with time tracking and expense reporting features

  5. Polaris PPM by Replicon

    Best for managing practice profitability

  6. FinancialForce

    Best for full lifecycle services forecasting

  7. Birdview PSA

    Best for automating and optimizing the entire service delivery cycle

  8. Workday

    A PSA solution for fast-moving businesses

  9. ConnectWise

    Intelligent automation for small businesses ready to scale

  10. PSOhub

    Replaces stand-alone tools with an all-in-one solution

In any professional services firm, day-to-day work involves keeping a lot of plates spinning. From managing projects to tracking billable hours, there’s a whole host of priorities to juggle. Businesses often end up with a patchwork of software tools to help them stay ahead. But this can result in confusion, plus problems with important matters slipping through the cracks. 

Professional services automation software provides an elegant solution to this problem. These tools provide a single solution for a specific profession, offering an easy way to manage entire projects from start to completion.

In this buyer’s guide, I’ll be highlighting the best professional services automation software. I’ll show you what’s great about each one and help you select the tool that’s right for your firm.

Comparison Criteria

What do I look for when I select the best professional services automation platforms? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria: 

  1. User Interface (UI): I look for a tool that makes it easy to navigate to the information you need
  2. Usability: I expect everyone from clerical staff to senior partners to find the software easy to use and understand
  3. Integrations: I look for pre-built integrations with other software used by professional services businesses
  4. Value for $: I’m seeking tools that make economic sense for both small and large firms

Professional Services Automation Software: Key Features

These are the core features I look for in the best PSA tools:

  1. Project management: an approach to executing projects that’s a good fit with the firm’s operating methods
  2. Time & expense tracking: keeping careful track of costs, revenue, and billable hours
  3. Contract management: integrating with CRM systems to ensure that quotes and contracts are on point
  4. Resource management: effective systems for managing costs and making the best use of available resources
  5. Financial management: taking good care of budgeting and overall financial health
  6. Revenue management: streamlining the order-to-cash cycle and ensuring that income streams produce optimal revenue
  7. Delivery management: an easy-to-use workflow engine that keeps deliverables on track
  8. Analytics: customizable dashboards giving executives the insights they need to make better decisions
  9. Opportunity management: assigning the right resources to make the most of new leads and inquiries
  10. Security & compliance: rigorous procedures for ensuring the integrity of data and PSA systems
professional services automation software logos list

Overviews Of The 10 Best Professional Services Automation Software Solutions

Here’s a brief description of each professional services automation solution to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.

1

Wrike

Best professional services software with built-in client collaboration automations

Wrike is a comprehensive project management platform for agencies, marketing teams, and professional services providers. It provides a versatile professional services management and automation solution to optimize the service delivery process.

The professional services management software provides users with a 360-degree view of all active projects, allowing them to effectively manage their resources, keep track of billable hours, and make data-driven decisions with relative ease. 

Project managers can significantly improve client collaboration by simply inviting their clients into Wrike and making them a part of the work process. This allows clients to provide direct feedback and approvals on critical project decisions. And project managers can reduce the tedious back-and-forth process of getting requirements from clients on project requests or scope changes by using customizable request forms. This will enable agencies and teams to quickly collect all the necessary information from clients in one location and trigger fully planned projects with predefined actions, task assignees, and timelines.

Utilizing a user-friendly WHEN-THEN structure, the Automation Engine can also help optimize team workload. This allows the teams to offload otherwise repetitive tasks from their daily queues. In addition, admins can efficiently allocate client work to the most qualified team member based on their role and expertise on the assigned task. This ensures teams and individual members are given the right amount of work they can manage without burnout.

Pricing begins at $9.80 per user per month. A 14-day free trial and free plan are available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 2544

Freemium version available

From $9.80/user/month

2

Parallax

Best for resource management and financial tracking in one place

Parallax is a service operations software that offers resource planning and management, sales pricing and forecasting, project financials, and business intelligence functions. It helps digital service companies consolidate their data and operations, reducing disconnects and app-switching.

The software's resource management platform enables billable capacity tracking, resource forecasting, project health tracking, and cross-team visibility. Real-time capacity insights and service offering templates help users forecast their sales and price their offers more consistently. Users can also use the platform for their project accounting needs, and reporting and analytics offer an overview of resource allocation, budgeting, and business performance.

Integrations like Asana, Harvest, Hubspot, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Oracle NetSuite, Salesforce, and Tempo help bring the platform into users' flow of work.

Pricing is available upon request, and a free demo is available via the website.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 2

Free demo

Pricing upon request

3

Kantata

Best for powerful resource management and team collaboration

Mavenlink aims to be the industry cloud for professional services organizations. This is achieved through a resource-centric approach focused on better decision-making. Using Dynamic Resource Optimization, teams can be deployed quickly to respond to changing business conditions.

The software features powerful resource allocation management, plus project management and team collaboration features. Business intelligence and actionable insights inform management decisions. Timelines, budgets, and clients can be managed to produce the best outcomes for the company and for clients.

Through the Mavenlink M-Bridge, the software integrates with business applications such as Oracle, Netsuite, SAP Concur, and Salesforce.

Mavenlink offers customized pricing on request.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.1 715

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

4

BigTime

Best PSA with time tracking and expense reporting features

BigTime’s professional services automation (PSA) software is designed to help companies and their teams design and develop better processes for different projects at scale, from start to finish. The PSA software scales with an organization's needs, from the individual time tracking process to the final invoicing on completed projects.

The PSA system allows users to track time and expenses smarter. Project managers and staff members can efficiently log their time and expenses with customized data entry options that apply to their team or department’s timesheets. The billing and invoicing process is also much faster and more user-friendly. Users can easily pull together detailed and professional-looking invoices that can be customized to meet the unique requirements of each project. They can send these invoices directly to their clients as quickly as possible.

BigTime facilitates the staff and resource allocation process to ensure project managers don’t over- or under-schedule the available resources. In addition, the platform provides comprehensive dashboards to deliver all the necessary information in one place, so users will always have an idea of their resource status and availability; i.e., they can determine in real-time who is working on what. This will not only help streamline workflows but optimize the resource management process as well.

BigTime’s integration capabilities will also help organizations seamlessly sync up all their current software solutions and other available tools in their technology stack.

Plans start at $10 per user/month. All plans are billed annually and require a minimum of five users.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.5 1094

Each plan offers a 14-day free trial.

From $10/user/month for a minimum of 5 users

5

Polaris PPM by Replicon

Best for managing practice profitability

Polaris Professional Services Automation software analyzes real-time data to provide recommendations for keeping projects, resources, and finances on track. You also get real-time visibility into key metrics, plus the ability to leverage historical and current information.

You can also improve practice profitability through a better understanding of business dynamics. Group projects in a way that makes sense, then set any attributes and metrics required. Service delivery, costs, and billing can be managed transparently, maximizing profits and performance.

Polaris integrates with major business suites such as SAP Concur, Quickbooks, Atlassian, Sage, and Salesforce.

Polaris costs from $29/user/month, and a free trial is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 642

Free trial is available

From $29/user/month

6

FinancialForce

Best for full lifecycle services forecasting

FinancialForce PSA software helps you allocate the right people to projects and optimizes professional development. Sales and services teams get a shared view of the opportunity pipeline. Managers get deep visibility into projects, including project status, customer interactions, timesheets, and resource demand.

The software provides for flexible revenue and billing forecasts for both projects and opportunities. It keeps projects on point and ensures that budgets are respected. Project accounting covers revenue, bookings, backlog, expense management, and revenue recognition.

FinancialForce integrates with platforms such as Docusign, Expensify, AccessPay, and SAP Concur.

This tool offers customizable pricing on request.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 935

From $10/user/month for general sales staff (only some data accessible).

7

Birdview PSA

Best for automating and optimizing the entire service delivery cycle

Birdview PSA is a SaaS solution designed to make it easier to manage projects and resources in the professional services industry. Birdview unifies teams into a single platform for projects, resources, and financials.

This software provides service organizations with comprehensive tools for managing and executing projects, optimizing resources, and accounting projects.

Birdview also features a built-in Business Intelligence (BI) engine that comes with dozens of ready-to-use dashboards and reports that allow teams to make insight-driven decisions and optimize processes for increased productivity and profitability.

Birdview integrates with CRM, accounting systems, ERP, and many other popular tools.

Birdview costs from $37.75/user/month and offers a free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 323

14 days free trial

From $37.75/user /month (billed annually)

8

Workday

A PSA solution for fast-moving businesses

Workday PSA helps you support every part of client-facing projects. Everything from staffing to billing and project financials can be handled within a single system. The software also matches the best talent to projects and suggests learning for continued improvement.

The software is designed to be agile and flexible, so you can create new project delivery models or meet changing customer demands as required. You can analyze profitability accurately, automate project forecasting and accurately track time from anywhere.

Workday includes over 600 pre-built integrations with popular business tools.

Workday PSA offers customized pricing available on request.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4 1171

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

9

ConnectWise

Intelligent automation for small businesses ready to scale

Connectwise is an integrated platform for IT services providers. It offers intelligent automation, cybersecurity features, and improved scalability.

The system encompasses a full range of business management functionality. These include quote and proposal automation, KPI dashboards, and centralized documentation. Managers can also benchmark performance and compare profit to industry peers.

This tool integrates with a wide range of applications, including HubSpot, Slack, Freshdesk, and QuoteWerks

Connectwise costs from $24/user/month, and a free trial is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4 551

Free trial is available

From $24/user/month

10

PSOhub

Replaces stand-alone tools with an all-in-one solution

PSOHub aims to save you time and money by providing one tool encompassing project management, time tracking, and invoicing. The system automates everything from creating the first lead to tracking payments.

After closing a deal, you can create a project from the account. Then you can manage contracts, assign tasks, and plan visually using Gantt charts. Team members book their time and expenses directly into the project, or it can be pulled from their calendar.

PSOHub integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) and business management platforms such as HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

The software costs from $8.50/user/month, and a 30-day free trial is available.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 19

30 days free trial (no credit card)

From $8.50/user/month

Need expert help selecting the right Professional Services Automation (PSA) Software?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

The 10 Best Professional Services Automation Software Solutions Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
Wrike

Best professional services software with built-in client collaboration automations

Freemium version available

From $9.80/user/month Visit Website
2
Parallax

Best for resource management and financial tracking in one place

Free demo

Pricing upon request Visit Website
3
Kantata

Best for powerful resource management and team collaboration

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
4
BigTime

Best PSA with time tracking and expense reporting features

Each plan offers a 14-day free trial.

From $10/user/month for a minimum of 5 users Visit Website
5
Polaris PPM by Replicon

Best for managing practice profitability

Free trial is available

From $29/user/month Visit Website
6
FinancialForce

Best for full lifecycle services forecasting

Not available

From $10/user/month for general sales staff (only some data accessible). Visit Website
7
Birdview PSA

Best for automating and optimizing the entire service delivery cycle

14 days free trial

From $37.75/user /month (billed annually) Visit Website
8
Workday

A PSA solution for fast-moving businesses

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
9
ConnectWise

Intelligent automation for small businesses ready to scale

Free trial is available

From $24/user/month Visit Website
10
PSOhub

Replaces stand-alone tools with an all-in-one solution

30 days free trial (no credit card)

From $8.50/user/month Visit Website

Other Options

Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.

  1. BigTime - for real-time insights that power long-term success
  2. Kimble PSA - helps eliminates bottlenecks to improve scalability
  3. Autotask PSA - improved business visibility for professional services firms
  4. Accelo - systematizes the sales and quoting process
  5. Projectos PSA - enhances resource utilization and project profitability
  6. OpenAir PSA - cloud-based project management for professional services firms

What is professional services automation software?

Professional services automation software helps service-oriented firms manage their businesses more efficiently. These tools provide the technology needed to deal with all aspects of operations, as well as improving customer satisfaction.

A good PSA platform will assist with everything from project management and time tracking, to budgets and billing. It will also give managers a clear overview of the business, leading to valuable insights that improve productivity and profitability. 

What do you think about this list?

Do you agree with my concussions, or do you have different ideas? Let us know in the comments section below. Remember to sign up for our newsletter, too, so we can keep you up to date on the latest developments.  

You might also like to check out our review of the 10 best professional service software of 2023 or check out our thoughts on the future of professional services. And be sure to check back regularly…there’s always something interesting to read at the Digital Project Manager!

By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 15 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony.

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