Accounting, consulting, legal, and staffing firms lose 30–40% of their billable capacity to admin work that software could handle automatically. Billing, AR chasing, client reporting, month-end close — none of it requires a human for most steps.
10 questions · Personalized to your firm type · No subscription
Professional services automation (PSA) is the use of software to handle the operational and administrative processes that surround client delivery — billing, time tracking, AR collections, reporting, scheduling, and compliance — so that your team's capacity goes toward client work, not internal overhead.
For a 10-person accounting firm, automation might mean invoices that generate automatically from time entries, overdue AR that triggers a collection sequence without anyone picking up the phone, and month-end close checklists that assign tasks and track completion automatically.
For a solo consultant, it might mean a proposal that converts to a signed contract to an invoice to a payment reminder — all without manually touching each step. The engagement runs itself administratively while you focus on the work.
"We were spending 15 hours a week chasing AR and building client reports manually. Now both run automatically. We used that time to take on two more clients — without adding staff."
// CPA Firm Owner · 8 Staff · Illinois
The six processes that consume the most non-billable hours per week across accounting, consulting, legal, and staffing firms.
Manual invoice creation from time entries, approval routing, delivery, and follow-up. Every step done by hand for every engagement.
5–8h / weekManually identifying overdue accounts, drafting collection emails, tracking responses. 87% of professional services firms are paid late — most because no one follows up consistently.
4–6h / weekJournal entries, bank reconciliations, intercompany transactions done manually every period. Close cycles stretching 10–30 days that should take 3–5.
4–6h / weekManually compiling data from multiple sources to build weekly or monthly client reports. Hours of aggregation for what should be a one-click export.
3–5h / weekInconsistent time entry, missing hours never captured, and no visibility into project profitability until after the engagement closes over budget.
2–4h / weekManual proposal drafting, contract creation, e-signature chasing, and new client setup across multiple disconnected systems.
2–4h / weekTime entries automatically compile into invoices at the end of each billing cycle. Invoices route for one-click approval, then send automatically via email with an online payment link. No manual invoice building, no chasing signatures, no forgotten billable time.
Every unpaid invoice automatically enters a collection sequence: a payment reminder at day 7, a firm follow-up at day 14, an escalation at day 30. Collections happen consistently for every client, every time — without your team manually identifying overdue accounts or drafting individual emails.
Bank reconciliations trigger automatically as transactions import. Close checklists assign tasks to the right team member and track completion status in real time. Journal entry templates pre-populate recurring entries. Close cycles that took 15–20 days drop to 5–7.
Client dashboards and reports generate automatically from live data on a set schedule — weekly, monthly, or quarterly. Data pulls from your accounting, project management, and CRM systems automatically. Reports deliver to client inboxes without anyone manually building a spreadsheet or slide deck.
Proposals generate from templates with client-specific data pre-filled. Accepted proposals convert to contracts automatically. Signed contracts trigger new client onboarding — folder creation, task assignment, welcome sequences — without anyone manually initiating each step.
| Platform | Best For | Starting Price | Key Strength |
|---|---|---|---|
| Karbon | Accounting firms, CAS practices | $59/user/mo | Best-in-class workflow automation for accounting — client work, billing, and team tasks unified |
| Ignition | Proposals + billing automation | $39/mo | Proposal-to-payment in one flow — highest ROI for firms losing time on billing setup |
| Clio | Legal firms, law practices | $49/user/mo | Purpose-built for legal — matter management, trust accounting, billing automation |
| HoneyBook | Solo consultants, agencies | $19/mo | Best for solo operators — proposals, contracts, invoices, and scheduling in one tool |
| Fathom | Financial reporting automation | $39/mo | Automated client reporting dashboards — pulls from QuickBooks/Xero and delivers on schedule |
Find out exactly which admin processes are stealing your billable hours — and get a ranked automation roadmap to fix them.
START FREE AUDIT →$67 to unlock · One-time payment · No subscription · 3 minutes