Professional services firms — agencies, consultancies, law and accounting practices, and other expertise businesses — live or die by two numbers most bookkeepers never surface: project margin and utilization. Revenue can look healthy while individual clients or engagements quietly lose money. We keep your books clean and turn them into the view you actually need: which clients and services make money, how utilization is trending, and whether that next hire pays for itself.
The numbers that matter in professional services
- Project and client-level profitability, not just total revenue
- Utilization and realization rates by team member
- Revenue recognition on retainers and multi-month engagements
- Cash flow timing against project billing cycles
- Whether a new hire is adding margin or absorbing it
Two ways we help professional services:
Bookkeeping gets your books clean and reliable. Controller services turn those numbers into the decisions above.
Talk about your professional service businessCommon questions
Do you understand agency and consultancy accounting?
Yes. Project-based and retainer revenue, utilization, and realization are exactly the numbers we build reporting around — they're what separate a profitable firm from a busy one.
We use project management software already. Does that matter?
It helps. We reconcile the financial picture with what your PM or time-tracking tools show, so your margins reflect reality, not just recorded hours.
When do we need a controller versus just a bookkeeper?
Once you're asking why a busy quarter didn't produce profit, or which clients are worth keeping, you've outgrown bookkeeping. Our Finance Leader Diagnostic can tell you where you stand.