What is the best PSA software for a consulting firm in 2026?
The one that ties sold hours, consultant schedules and invoices together. For 15 people, expect $3,600 to $10,260 a year depending on the tool and plan.
Consulting firms rarely lose money on one big mistake. They lose it on a senior consultant sitting on the bench for three weeks, a fixed-fee engagement that quietly burns 30 extra hours, and timesheets that arrive late and push invoices into next month. PSA software (Professional Services Automation) connects those pieces: resourcing, time tracking, billing and margin per engagement, in one place.
The short answer: Productive gives the clearest read on profitability and has rate cards for different billing rates. Teamwork.com is the easiest to roll out and starts free. Bonsai fits a boutique firm that wants proposals, contracts and invoices without a project. BigTime is built for firms that bill hourly and live in QuickBooks. Scoro goes furthest on financial control.
Every number on this page assumes a 15-person firm: 3 managers and 12 consultants, over twelve months. That's where per-seat minimums and the plan that hides resourcing start to cost real money.
Our ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link ever changes a score.
The best PSA software by need
5 PSA tools for consulting firms compared
The "cost at 15" column is what a firm with 3 managers and 12 consultants pays over twelve months, on the plan that actually covers resourcing and billing. Prices are in US dollars as shown on each vendor's page.
| Best for | Yearly cost at 15 seats | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Productive | Best for profitability | Quote only: official grid is contradictory | 4.1/5 | Essential from $10, Professional $25 to $29 per user/month | — | Firms of 10 to 100 people | Visit → |
| 2 | Teamwork.com | Best for an easy start | $4,498.20 on Accelerate (annual) | 4.0/5 | Free (5 users), Accelerate $24.99 per user/month | ✓ | Firms of 3 to 30 people | Visit → |
| 3 | Bonsai | Best for boutique firms | $5,220 on Premium (annual) | 3.9/5 | Basic $9, Premium $29 per user/month billed yearly | — | Solo consultants to 15-person boutiques | Visit → |
| 4 | BigTime | Best for hourly billing | $3,600 on Essentials, no resource module | 3.8/5 | Essentials from $20 per user/month; higher tiers on quote | — | US firms of 10 to 200 people on QuickBooks | Visit → |
| 5 | Scoro | Best financial control | $5,220 on Projects & Resources, $10,260 on End-to-end | 3.8/5 | From $17; End-to-end $57 per user/month (5 minimum) | — | Firms of 15 to 100 with a finance lead | Visit → |
Prices read on official vendor pages in 2026, per user per month. Scores match the ones on our other PSA rankings, so a tool keeps the same score everywhere.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
The top Google results for this search are mostly vendor blogs: Teamwork.com, Accelo and Rocketlane each publish a list that happens to rank their own product high. None of them works out what a 15-person firm pays, and most stop at "contact sales".
We read the official pricing pages, seat minimums and recent user reviews, especially the negative ones. Kantata, Certinia and Accelo come up in every roundup, but they only quote on request, so they are not ranked here: a ranking you can't budget from doesn't help you. Generic task tools such as monday.com or Asana are left out too, because they don't bill from time.
Each tool keeps the score it has on our other PSA rankings. Depth (resourcing, timesheet approvals, billing rates, margin) weighs most, then the real cost at 15 seats.
- Features and depthResourcing, bench visibility, time and approvals, hourly and fixed-fee billing, margin per engagement.30%
- Value for moneyYearly cost for 3 managers and 12 consultants, minimums included.25%
- Ease of useHow fast consultants log time without nagging, rollout time.20%
- IntegrationsAccounting (QuickBooks, Xero), payroll, API.15%
- Customer supportOnboarding help and responsiveness in reviews.10%
No affiliate link changes a score or a rank.
Productive
Productive is built around one question: is this engagement making money? Budgets, resource planning and time tracking come with Essential. Professional adds what consulting firms really need: rate cards (a billing rate per role or per client), billable-time approvals, recurring budgets for monthly retainers, and invoicing and HRIS integrations. Ultimate adds revenue forecasting, a scenario builder and overhead calculation.
Be careful with the price. The official page shows $10 or $12 for Essential and $25 or $29 for Professional depending on the toggle, and its totals don't match the unit prices. So we don't publish a 15-seat cost. Ask for a written quote, monthly and annual, for your exact headcount. The 14-day trial needs no card.
Users praise the support first, then how readable profitability is. Their complaints: onboarding takes longer than expected, and every person you schedule needs a license, contractors included. For a firm that leans on subcontractors, that adds up.
Its limit: rate cards and approvals sit in Professional. Essential won't bill hourly work cleanly.
Tip: during the trial, rebuild one finished engagement with its real hours and rate. If the margin Productive shows matches the one you know, the setup is right.
- Rate cards on Professional
- Revenue forecasting on Ultimate
- Recurring budgets for retainers
- ✓Clearest view of margin
- ✓Highly rated support
- ✓No-card trial
- ✗Contradictory pricing page
- ✗License for every scheduled person
- ✗Clean hourly billing only on Professional
The best tool to run profitability engagement by engagement. Get a written quote for your team before you compare.
Teamwork.com
Teamwork.com starts from client project management and adds PSA pieces plan by plan. Free covers 5 users and 5 projects. Basics, at $9.99 per user per month with a 3-seat minimum, adds billable time. Accelerate, at $24.99 with a 5-seat minimum, adds invoicing from logged time, time budgets, retainers and live capacity planning.
At 15 seats, Accelerate costs $374.85 a month, or $4,498.20 a year. Only annual prices are shown. Here's the catch: profitability insights and real resource planning (tentative and confirmed bookings) only come with Optimize, which is quote-only. Accelerate tells you whether consultants are loaded; it doesn't tell you what the engagement earns.
Its strength is adoption. Consultants used to a task tool get comfortable within days, and missed timesheets are the first reason a PSA fails.
Its limit: there is no bench view or utilization target the way a dedicated consulting PSA has one.
Tip: start free with your five busiest people, then move to Accelerate the day you invoice from time.
- Free for up to 5 users
- Invoicing from time on Accelerate
- Retainers and time budgets
- ✓Easiest to roll out
- ✓Readable pricing
- ✓No-card trial
- ✗Profitability only on Optimize
- ✗Annual prices only
- ✗No bench view
A solid first step for a firm leaving spreadsheets. For margin per engagement, Productive goes further.
Bonsai
Bonsai grew from freelancers to small firms. It handles proposals, contracts, time tracking, invoices and online payments. It's the simplest tool here: a five-person boutique can run on it within a week, without onboarding help.
Plans run from $9 to $49 per user per month on annual billing. For a firm, Premium is the right plan, at $29 per user per month billed yearly or $39 billed monthly, because it adds workload management and profit and productivity reports. At 15 seats that's $5,220 a year on annual billing, or $7,020 monthly.
Reviews are many and mostly positive: a clear all-in-one at a fair price. The complaints are about billing, such as an unused account charged for months. The page also says "no minimums" while Elite requires three users.
Its limit: resourcing stays light. You see each person's load, not a multi-week plan by role.
Tip: at the end of the 7-day trial, check in account settings that you only pay for active seats.
- Proposals and contracts built in
- Online payments
- Workload and profit reports on Premium
- ✓Fastest to set up
- ✓Monthly or annual pricing
- ✓Made for small firms
- ✗Light resourcing
- ✗Profit reports only on Premium
- ✗Billing complaints on inactive seats
The right pick for a boutique under ten people. Past that, you'll miss Productive's planning.
BigTime
BigTime targets consulting, accounting and engineering firms. Essentials covers time and expenses, a project portfolio, billing and invoicing, automatic reconciliation and a QuickBooks integration. Premier adds project budgeting, custom cost and rate management and multi-level approvals.
Only Essentials has a public price: from $20 per user per month. At 15 seats that's $3,600 a year, the lowest entry cost here. But resource management is a separate module with no public price, and budgets and approvals sit in Premier, also quote-only. A firm that wants staffing and margin will pay well above $20.
Users like the QuickBooks link and the way time flows into invoices. They complain about a long setup and an interface that feels heavy, and about weak links to task tools such as Asana.
Its limit: the public price covers time and billing only.
Tip: ask for a quote that lists Premier and Resource Management line by line, for your exact headcount.
- QuickBooks integration
- Multi-level approvals on Premier
- Expense and time in one place
- ✓Built for hourly firms
- ✓Lowest public entry price
- ✓Strong accounting link
- ✗Resourcing sold separately
- ✗Only one tier priced
- ✗Long setup
A strong pick for an hourly-billing firm on QuickBooks. For transparent pricing with resourcing, look at Productive or Teamwork.com.
Scoro
Scoro is the most finance-heavy tool here. End-to-end combines quotes, resource planning, time, invoices, expenses and a WIP report (work done but not billed yet). For firms with long, milestone-billed engagements, that's the number most often missing.
The plan split is the trap. Projects & Resources, at $29, plans capacity and tracks utilization, but can't invoice. Quote to Cash, at the same price, quotes and invoices, but has no resource planner. To get both you need End-to-end at $57. At 15 seats: $5,220 a year on Projects & Resources, $10,260 on End-to-end. Annual billing saves 13 to 17%.
Reviews mention a real learning curve, rigid quotes and invoices, and value for money as the weakest score. It's the priciest tool here for the same job.
Its limit: a 15-person firm without a controller won't use half of End-to-end.
Tip: run one full billing month during the trial. If you don't need quotes in the tool, Projects & Resources plus your current invoicing app costs about half.
- WIP report on End-to-end
- Utilization tracking on Projects & Resources
- Euro and dollar pricing
- ✓Deepest finance features
- ✓Clear grid
- ✓No-card trial
- ✗5-user minimum
- ✗Resourcing and billing only together on End-to-end
- ✗Priciest at 15 seats
The best tool for a firm run on its numbers. Without a finance lead, Productive covers the essentials for less.
What your PSA really costs, and where the traps are
For a consulting firm, the big per-user number on the pricing page says very little. Three things set the real bill: who counts as a user, which plan holds resourcing and billing together, and who pays for setup.
The cost at 15 seats
Resourcing and billing in the same plan
Contractors and seats
- List who logs time and who only approves it.
- Work out the 12-month cost for that exact headcount, minimums included.
- Check the plan supports a billing rate per consultant or per client.
- Confirm timesheet approval before invoices go out.
- Get setup and training fees in writing.
- Test the link with QuickBooks or Xero before signing.
Six steps so your PSA tells the truth about every engagement
A badly set-up PSA shows flattering utilization and wrong margins. The order you set it up in matters more than the tool you pick.
Set a loaded cost rate per level
FirstEngagement margin is the billed rate minus each consultant's loaded cost per hour (salary, benefits and a share of overhead). Without that cost per level, the tool shows revenue, not margin. Build a table: analyst, consultant, senior, manager.
- Prepare
- One cost rate per level
Tag every engagement: hourly, fixed fee or retainer
SetupHourly work bills approved time at the contract rate. Fixed fee bills by milestone while you watch hours used against hours sold. Retainers bill a flat monthly amount with an hours cap. Every engagement gets a type before it's created.
- Types
- Hourly, fixed fee, retainer
Set a timesheet deadline
AdoptionAn hourly invoice goes out once time is approved. Pick a deadline, such as Friday at noon, and one approver per client. Productive (Professional) and BigTime (Premier) have approval flows: use them, or invoices wait.
- Rule
- Weekly approval, monthly invoice
Plan the bench eight weeks out
PlanningA firm's real cost is a consultant paid with no engagement. Every Monday, list who rolls off in the next eight weeks and match it to the deals in your pipeline.
- Horizon
- 8 rolling weeks
Track utilization monthly
SteeringUtilization is billed hours divided by available hours (time off excluded). Track it by level: an under-booked senior costs more than an idle analyst. Set your own target with your accountant rather than borrowing a blog number.
- Formula
- Billed hours / available hours
Export your data every month
SafetyTime, invoices, engagements: run a full export monthly. If you switch tools or the price jumps at renewal, you keep every client's and consultant's history.
- Export
- Monthly
Your PSA is picked, what's next
These pages go deeper on one piece of the topic.
Engagement and task tools.
You run an agency, not a firmAgency PSA softwareSame math, for a 10-person agency.
You want to plan people firstResource planning softwareScheduling and capacity only.
You only need timesheetsTimesheet softwareLogging and approving time.
You're an independent consultantInvoicing software for consultantsQuotes and invoices, solo.
You already use ClickUpOur ClickUp reviewWhat the project tool covers.
PSA software for consulting firms · FAQ
What is PSA software for consulting firms?
It's one tool that ties resourcing, time tracking, billing and margin per engagement together. A consulting firm sells time, so the PSA tells you who is booked, who is on the bench, and whether each engagement makes money, without exporting to a spreadsheet.How much does PSA software cost for a 15-person firm?
Roughly $3,600 to $10,260 a year for 15 seats on publicly priced plans. BigTime Essentials is the cheapest entry but has no resource module; Scoro End-to-end is the priciest. Productive, Kantata and Accelo quote on request.Why aren't Kantata, Certinia or Accelo ranked?
They only quote on request, so we can't compare their real cost. Kantata and Certinia target larger firms, and Certinia runs on Salesforce. If you have more than 100 consultants or already live in Salesforce, ask them for a quote alongside this shortlist.What's the difference between PSA and project management software?
Project management organizes tasks. PSA adds the money: billing rates, timesheet approval, invoices and margin. monday.com or Asana stop at tasks; Productive or Scoro go all the way to profitability.How do you calculate consultant utilization?
Divide billed hours by available hours for the period, after time off and training. A consultant billing 120 of 160 available hours is at 75%. Track it by level and month: the firm average often hides a senior on the bench.Can I bill different rates per client?
Yes, but not on every plan. Productive does it with rate cards on Professional, BigTime with custom rate management on Premier. Check in the trial that one consultant can carry two rates on two engagements and that margin uses their real cost.Should contractors go into the PSA?
Yes if you want true margin, since their cost hits the engagement. It adds licenses: Productive charges for every scheduled person, contractors included. Factor them into your seat count before comparing quotes.How long does a PSA rollout take?
One to three months for most firms. Bonsai and Teamwork.com can run within days; BigTime and Scoro need more setup. The real pace depends on how reliably consultants log time.