Can you build project billing software that gives us live project profitability visibility, not just a month-end spreadsheet?

Yes. Project billing and time tracking, where billable hours, expenses, and costs are captured as work happens and immediately reflected in a live profitability dashboard by project and client, is the core product we build for professional services firms. Month-end collation to find out a project was over budget is the problem the software solves.

Can you build a client portal where clients can see project status and access documents without flooding our team with emails?

Yes. A client portal with project milestone status, document sharing with version control, invoice access, and a secure messaging channel for client communications is a standard component of professional services platforms we build. Clients stop emailing for updates when they can see the current status themselves.

Can you build AI tools that help our team draft proposals or review contracts faster?

Yes. AI document tools, proposal drafting from a project brief and past proposal library, contract review that highlights non-standard clauses, and data extraction from client documents, are capabilities we build into professional services platforms. These are custom tools trained on your document types and your firm's standards, not generic AI writing tools.

How long does professional services software take to build, and what does it cost?

Most professional services products launch as a validated v1 in 10 to 14 weeks, then grow from there. A focused first module, time tracking and billing, a client portal, or proposal automation, typically starts at $25,000 to $60,000. A full practice management platform with CRM, resource management, and integrations grows to $70,000 to $150,000+ over time. AI document tools with custom model work are scoped separately. Fixed cost, agreed before development starts.

We bill clients in different ways, some hourly, some on retainer, some milestone-based. Can the billing system handle all of these?

Yes. Billing systems that handle multiple billing models, hourly time billing, fixed monthly retainer, milestone-based invoicing, and blended arrangements within a single client engagement, are specifically what we build for professional services firms whose billing complexity is the reason generic tools stop working.

Professional Services Software Development

Custom software for consulting firms, accounting and audit practices, law firms, engineering consultancies, and architecture firms that need systems built around how professional services actually work, not generic SaaS that almost fits.

Project billing and time tracking built around how your practice bills, milestone, retainer, hourly, or blended
Client portals where clients see project status, access documents, and communicate without flooding your team with emails
CRM for professional services, opportunity tracking, relationship management, and referral attribution
AI document tools that draft proposals, review contracts, and extract data from client documents

3+ years RetentionWeek 1 First milestoneFixed price Pricing

The problem

Sound familiar?

Tracking billable hours across multiple projects still happening in spreadsheets?
Client deliverables shared over email with no version control and no audit trail?
Partners needing manual collation to see project profitability by client or practice area?

Short answer

RaftLabs builds custom professional services software for consulting, accounting, audit, law, and engineering firms: project billing and time tracking, client portals, resource and utilisation management, CRM, and AI document tools. A focused first module launches as a validated v1 in 10 to 14 weeks, from around $25,000. Fixed cost, agreed before development starts.

01 Diagnosis

Problems we solve in professional services

01
Problem
Project and engagement tracking spread across email, shared drives, and spreadsheets nobody keeps current
Solution
Partners and engagement managers piece together project status from email threads, shared drives, and dashboard spreadsheets that nobody keeps fully up to date. Clients ask for status updates because they have no other way to get them. Each update request takes time from a fee earner, and that time isn't billable. We build engagement management platforms where project status, milestones, and deliverable progress are visible to the right people without manual reporting.
02
Problem
Utilisation rates invisible until month-end because timesheets are filled from memory on Friday afternoon
Solution
Timesheets completed on Friday afternoon from memory undercount billable hours by 10 to 20 percent in most professional services firms. The work was done but the time wasn't captured at the moment, so billing write-offs appear at month end when the numbers are reconciled. According to Service Performance Insight's 2024 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark (surveying 403 firms globally), average billable utilisation across professional services fell to 68.9% in 2024, the lowest in five years and below the 75% threshold firms need to reach target profitability. You can't manage utilisation rates you can't see. We build time capture tools that record billable time against the right project and client as work happens, not reconstructed after the fact.
03
Problem
Billing accuracy suffers when time data and invoice generation live in separate systems
Solution
Retainer clients expect accurate invoices on time. When time data sits in separate systems from billing, monthly reconciliation becomes a manual task: matching time entries to retainer budgets, checking whether fixed fees have been exceeded, calculating any overage billing. Errors slip through and clients notice. We connect time tracking to billing so retainer reconciliation runs automatically and invoice generation is triggered by the data rather than a manual calculation.
04
Problem
Proposal and SOW generation taking two to four hours of senior fee-earner time per opportunity
Solution
Senior fee earners spend two to four hours adapting a standard proposal template for each new opportunity: pulling in scope language from past deliverables, adjusting rate cards, and reformatting for the client. That time isn't billable. We build proposal and SOW generation tools that pull from your template library and past proposals to produce a first draft in minutes, with the customisation steps reduced to a structured input form.

02 What we ship

Professional services software we ship

Project billing and time tracking
Time capture tools that record billable and non-billable hours against the right project and client as work happens, not reconstructed at month end. Milestone billing workflows that trigger invoices automatically when deliverables are signed off. Blended rate calculation for projects with mixed seniority levels. Profitability dashboards that show revenue, cost, and margin by project, client, and practice area without manual reporting. Partners see current utilisation rates, not last month's numbers.
Client portal applications
Secure portals where clients track project status, access deliverables, review and approve documents, and communicate with their engagement team without calling or emailing for every update. Version-controlled document sharing replaces email attachments. Approval workflows replace informal sign-offs. Clients with visibility are easier to manage than clients kept in the dark, and your team stops fielding status calls.
CRM for professional services
Relationship and opportunity management built for professional services, not repurposed from a product sales CRM. Tracks contacts across client organisations, manages opportunities through qualification and proposal stages, records referral sources and introducer relationships, and surfaces which client relationships need attention. Integrated with your billing data so every client record shows revenue history alongside relationship health.
Knowledge management and document automation
Searchable knowledge bases that capture methodology, templates, past deliverables, and institutional knowledge so expertise doesn't walk out the door with a departing partner. Document assembly tools generate proposals, engagement letters, and reports from structured inputs, taking a two-hour drafting task down to minutes. Template libraries maintained centrally so every document produced by the firm meets the same quality and branding standards.
Resource management and utilisation reporting
Staff allocation tools that show who is available, who is overloaded, and what skills each engagement needs. Utilisation reporting tracks billable versus non-billable time at team and individual level. Forward planning views show capacity against confirmed and probable work, so resourcing decisions are made on real data rather than gut feel and phone calls.
AI document tools
AI document analysis that reads client contracts and extracts key terms, obligations, and deadlines. Proposal drafting tools that pull from your template library and past proposals to generate a first draft. Contract review assistance that flags non-standard clauses against your standard positions. Time narrative generation that takes brief time entries and produces detailed billing descriptions. Each tool is scoped around a specific manual task that takes too long.

03 How we work

How we build professional services software

01
Discovery
We map your billing model, hourly, milestone, retainer, fixed fee, or blended, and document the manual steps that happen between time entry and invoice generation. We identify which client relationships, project types, and practice areas are in scope, and which existing systems (accounting, CRM, document storage) need to integrate with the new platform.
02
Architecture
We design the data model around how your firm actually bills and manages engagements. This includes defining how projects, clients, matters, and billing rates relate to each other, and where data flows between the new platform and your existing accounting or ERP system. You see the architecture before development starts.
03
Build
Development runs in two-week sprints with working software reviewed at each sprint end. Billing logic, access controls, and integration points are built and tested as each module is completed, not assembled at the end. You can see the platform in a staging environment from week four onwards.
04
Launch and support
We go live with your team trained and a support arrangement in place for the first 90 days. Issues that emerge from real usage are fixed on a defined SLA. After the initial period, you can maintain the platform in-house, retain us for ongoing development, or both.

Trusted by

04 Track record

What shapes a professional services build

Average billable utilisation across professional services firms in 2024, a five-year low (Service Performance Insight, 2024 PS Maturity Benchmark): 68.9%

Weeks to launch a validated v1, then grow it: 10-14

RaftLabs rating on Clutch: 4.9/5

Cost, agreed before development starts: Fixed

05 Case studies

Proof from the professional services neighbourhood

A conference and events app for a Paris legal publisher

2+ years: In production on iOS and Android with no rebuild
16 weeks: From first commit to production on both platforms

Read case study

06 Why us

Why choose us?

01
We've seen your problem before
Across dozens of industries and 100+ products, we recognise your situation fast, then frame the fix around your margin and your operations, not a generic template.
02
We own the number, not the ticket
We measure success the way you do: hours saved, revenue earned, margin recovered. We stay through launch and growth, so the result is ours to own.
03
Serious businesses trust us
Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cisco, Energia, Aldi, Nike. Building since 2015, 100+ products in production. Serious businesses keep coming back because we stay accountable long after launch.

07 What it costs

What a professional services build costs

We scope every engagement before pricing it, then fix the cost before development starts. Most firms start with one module and expand once it earns its place.

First module, v1

$25,000 to $60,000

One workflow, live and validated in 10 to 14 weeks. Time tracking and billing, a client portal, or a proposal and SOW automation tool, whichever costs your team the most time first.

10 to 14 weeks to a working v1
One practice group or workflow
Accounting integration scoped in

Practice management platform

$70,000 to $150,000+

The full picture as it grows: CRM, multi-model billing, resource and utilisation management, and the client portal connected to one project record. Built module by module, not in one big bang.

Firm-wide rollout
CRM, billing, and resourcing
ERP or accounting sync

AI document tools

Scoped separately

Proposal drafting, contract review, and data extraction trained on your document types and house standards. Priced against the document set and training data, then added to either tier above.

Your templates and clauses
Custom model work
Added to a platform build

Fixed cost, agreed before development starts. The v1 is the first shippable slice, not the whole platform, so you validate the workflow with your teams before you expand it.

Where professional services software is heading

Two shifts are changing what firms expect from their systems. First, revenue recognition is moving out of spreadsheets. ASC 606 and IFRS 15 push firms toward percentage-of-completion recognition calculated from live project data, not reconstructed at quarter-end, so software that tracks delivery against budget produces WIP and recognition schedules as a by-product. Second, AI is moving from drafting to doing. The proposal generators and contract reviewers of the last two years are becoming agents that draft time narratives from calendar and document activity, flag scope creep before it hits margin, and prepare billing runs for a human to approve.

The pressure behind both is utilisation. With average billable utilisation at a five-year low (Service Performance Insight, 2024), firms cannot grow margin by billing more hours, so they grow it by capturing the hours they already work and cutting the non-billable admin around them. We build for that: capture time as work happens, connect it straight to billing, and let AI absorb the drafting and reconciliation that fee earners should not be doing.

08 Questions

Frequently asked questions

: Professional services firms bill time and deliverables, not products. The software needs to handle multiple billing models, hourly, milestone, retainer, fixed fee, and blended, and connect time tracking directly to invoice generation and project profitability. Generic project management tools track tasks. Professional services software tracks revenue, utilisation, margin, and client relationship health alongside tasks. It also handles the compliance requirements specific to legal, audit, and engineering firms: conflict checks, engagement letter management, regulatory reporting, and client confidentiality controls.
: Yes. Most professional services software projects include an integration with the firm's accounting system: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, or an ERP like SAP or NetSuite. The integration typically handles invoice export, payment reconciliation, and nominal coding. For firms with time-tracking data in legacy systems, we build import pipelines that pull historical data into the new platform without requiring manual re-entry. We scope the integration during discovery because the complexity varies significantly depending on what your existing system supports.
: Client documents and communications are sensitive by default in professional services. We design platforms with role-based access controls so users only see the clients and projects they're assigned to. Documents are stored with encryption at rest and in transit. Access logs record every view, download, and change. For legal and audit firms with specific data protection requirements, we build information barriers that enforce confidentiality rules in the software. We document the architecture for your risk and compliance team to review before the platform goes live.
: A focused first product, for example a client portal for a consulting firm, a time tracking and billing system for an accounting practice, or a proposal automation tool, launches as a validated v1 in 10 to 14 weeks and typically runs $25,000 to $60,000. A full practice management platform with CRM, billing, resource management, and client portal integration is more complex and typically runs $70,000 to $150,000+ as it grows. The cost depends on scope, number of users, integrations required, and whether you're building for one practice group or the whole firm. We scope every project before pricing it. Fixed cost, agreed before development starts.

Professional services software by product

01
Project management software
Project planning, resource allocation, time tracking, and profitability reporting

Related services

Talk to us about your professional services software project.

Tell us which process costs your team the most time. We'll tell you what we'd build to fix it.

Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
All conversations are NDA-protected.

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