Professional Services
You bill by the project but your books don't show project-level profitability. We track every hour and expense so you know which work actually pays.
The Industry
Professional services firms run on time. Architects, engineers, and surveyors sell their expertise by the hour or against a fixed-fee contract tied to deliverables. The challenge is that you’re usually running five, ten, or twenty projects simultaneously, each at a different stage of completion, each with a different fee structure, and each with a different client who pays on a different schedule.
The people running these firms didn’t get into business to manage books. They got into it because they’re good at the technical work. But the business side demands attention. Tracking billable hours against project budgets. Managing work in progress. Following up on invoices that are 60 days past due. It adds up fast, and it’s the kind of work that gets pushed to nights and weekends or just doesn’t get done.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Architecture firms, civil and structural engineering firms, land surveyors, and similar project-based professional practices across Chandler, the East Valley, and Greater Phoenix. Firms where the work gets billed by the hour or against a fixed-fee contract tied to milestones and deliverables.
The Friction
The Friction
You know your hourly rate. You know the project fee. But the gap between those numbers and actual profitability is filled with unbilled hours, scope creep, subconsultant costs, and overhead that never gets properly allocated. Most firms don’t find out if a project was profitable until long after it’s finished, if they ever find out at all.
What We Handle
Every expense and hour of labor gets assigned to a project. We track work in progress so you can see earned revenue that hasn’t been billed yet. We manage your receivables so aging invoices don’t fall through the cracks, especially with government agencies and large developers who take their time paying.
We also handle the back-office work that keeps the firm running. Monthly reconciliations, expense categorization, subconsultant 1099 tracking, and clean financial statements your tax accountant can work with directly. If you need to go deeper, we offer budgeting, cash flow forecasting, and financial analysis to support pricing decisions and capacity planning.
Project-Level Tracking
Project-Level Tracking
Revenue, labor, subconsultant fees, reimbursable expenses, and overhead all tied to individual projects in QuickBooks Online. You see the full picture of what each project actually cost to deliver, not just the top-line fee you charged. That data feeds directly into how you price the next one.
Receivables Management
Receivables Management
We track who owes you, how long the invoice has been outstanding, and provide aging reports so you can follow up before small balances become big problems. Government and institutional clients often pay on 60 or 90 day cycles. Knowing exactly where every dollar stands prevents cash surprises.
Common Problems
Scope creep is the silent killer. The client asks for one more revision. Your project manager agrees because they want to maintain the relationship. Nobody adjusts the budget or sends a change order. Multiply that across a dozen active projects and you have hundreds of unbilled hours eroding your margins without ever showing up on a report.
The other issue is overhead blindness. Rent, software licenses for AutoCAD or Revit, professional liability insurance, administrative staff. These costs are real and they need to be covered by the fees you charge. If your proposals only account for direct labor and subconsultant costs, you’re subsidizing every project out of your own pocket without realizing it.
Underbidding Work
Underbidding Work
Without historical data on what past projects actually cost, proposals become guesswork. You base fees on how long you think the work should take rather than how long it actually took last time. The result is consistently underpriced work that feels busy but isn’t profitable.
Cash Flow Gaps
Cash Flow Gaps
You complete a milestone, submit the invoice, and wait. Sixty days. Ninety days sometimes. Meanwhile payroll hits every two weeks and your software subscriptions don’t pause. The disconnect between when you earn the money and when you receive it creates constant pressure that is hard to manage without a forecast.
What Changes
You start pricing proposals based on actual project data instead of gut feel. You look at the last five similar projects and know exactly what they cost in labor, subs, and overhead. Your hit rate on profitable projects goes up because your estimates are grounded in reality, not optimism.
Cash flow becomes something you can plan around instead of react to. You know when invoices are going out, what’s aging, and when to expect payment. You can make hiring decisions, equipment purchases, and growth plans with a clear financial picture. Your tax accountant receives books that are organized and accurate, which means fewer questions at year-end and more deductions captured throughout the year.
Confident Pricing
Confident Pricing
Historical project data gives you the numbers to back up your fees. You stop leaving money on the table and stop accidentally underbidding complex projects. Proposals reflect the actual cost of doing the work, including overhead, so every project contributes to the health of the firm.
Operational Clarity
Operational Clarity
Project budgets versus actuals, overhead percentages, receivables aging. You get the financial indicators that matter for running a professional services firm. Decisions about hiring, capacity, and growth are driven by data rather than by how busy everyone feels on any given week.
Bookkeeping for East Valley Small Businesses
The Next Step:
Tell Us About Your Business
Let us know where things stand with your books and what kind of help you're looking for. We'll give you an honest assessment and a clear price.
