ERP for professional services. Time captured, work accepted, invoice raised: realisation you can see.
A firm sells hours it has not worked yet. Kinnow follows each engagement from proposal to cash, so time captured, work accepted and the bill raised sit on one record and realisation is a number you can read.
From early 2027How does Kinnow help a professional services firm? Each engagement carries its own timesheets, deliverables, milestones, invoices and support cost. Approved time and completed milestones become invoices without double billing, and you can see work in progress (WIP, work done but not yet billed) and realisation (what you bill against what you quote) for each engagement. Nothing is billed, filed or paid without a person. The UK edition opens in early 2027; what follows is the first release.
Your firm, in one paragraph.
You sell expertise by the hour, the milestone or the retainer: advisory, legal, architecture, consulting, design. Your income comes from partners and consultants, so margin depends on who is billable and who is on the bench. Timesheets arrive late, work in progress is a guess, and the bill goes out a month after the work. Engagement letters and renewals live in email, and a client's support calls after go-live are rarely charged to the engagement they came from.
Three things keep the managing partner awake: unbilled work that never becomes a bill, an engagement that lost money and nobody saw it until the final invoice, and a talented consultant sitting idle while another is stretched past 100%.
How your month runs on Kinnow
The ready-made routine is Engagement to realisation: opportunity, scope, proposal, terms, staffing, delivery, time and expense, deliverable accepted, bill against WIP, collected, closed.
| Step | Who | What Kinnow does | Where a person approves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Opportunity to proposal | Partner | The sales pipeline in Sell carries the opportunity from first scope discussion to proposal; a drafting agent can draft the proposal text. | A partner approves winning the engagement. |
| 2. Open and staff | Engagement lead | You open the engagement in Build with its rate card by role, and give it people. | A contract above a value you set goes to the practice head. |
| 3. Master agreement | Partner | The agreement is drafted, signed by the client and followed through to renewal in Pact. | Signing and early termination need sign-off. |
| 4. Capture time and expense | Consultant | People record their time against the engagement. A chaser lists missing and out-of-date timesheets and approvals that have waited too long. | The engagement lead approves or sends back a timesheet, with the reason. |
| 5. Accept deliverables | Engagement lead | A deliverable goes to the client for acceptance and can be sent back. Accepted work is what you bill from. | Client acceptance is recorded. |
| 6. Bill from approved work | Accounts | Approved, unbilled hours are invoiced at the rate fixed on each timesheet, one line per timesheet; a completed milestone is invoiced once at its value. A write-down needs a reason. The same time can never be invoiced twice. | A large invoice, above a value you set, needs approval. |
| 7. Check the VAT invoice | Accounts | Kinnow checks the invoice for the supplier VAT number, date, running number, customer name, VAT shown in sterling and tax point (the date the VAT is due). A wrong invoice is put right with a credit note, not re-issued. | A large VAT invoice is read by a person before it is raised. |
| 8. Collect | Accounts | The client sees the invoice in the customer portal and can raise a query on it. Collections drafts reminders by days overdue. | A write-off is reviewed, with the VAT bad-debt relief deadline shown. |
| 9. Review WIP and realisation | Managing partner | For each engagement: unbilled approved time, completed milestones not yet billed, the amount invoiced and realisation (invoiced against your standard rates). | The partner decides on write-offs and re-pricing. |
| 10. Close the month | Accounts head, tax executive | Twelve month-end checks run, and seven of them must pass. The groundwork to draft the nine-box VAT return for review is completed before launch. | People close the books and sign off the return; a person files it. |
See one of your live engagements on Kinnow, from timesheet to invoice.
Utilisation, bench and the true margin
Rate card by role
Charge-out rate, cost rate and standard week for each role. The cost rate is fixed on each timesheet, so changing the rate card never alters a margin you have already reported.
Utilisation over capacity
Billable hours over the week's capacity, never over hours worked. Each person lands in a band: bench, under-utilised, healthy, stretched or over. Where nobody has recorded a person's capacity, the view says so instead of showing 0%.
Capacity forecast
Who is booked on what, week by week, shows who is free next month, so the answer to "can we take another engagement this quarter" comes from the plan.
Margin after support
The engagement's profit and loss includes the support tickets the client raised after delivery. If any figure is missing, the margin reads unknown, never healthy.
What the Professional Services setup includes
Nine reports and twelve Ask Kinnow starter questions come with the ready-made setup for your industry (we call it an industry pack), among them the engagement list, milestone status, support-ticket status against the service promise you gave the client (SLA), headcount and project cost. The UK country setup adds a VAT sales register, a VAT purchase register and a VAT rate summary.
| Safeguard | Starting limit | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement (contract) value | Above a value you set | Practice head approves |
| Client request outside a service-promise (SLA) plan | Always | Blocked, since it would not show in reports on how quickly you respond |
| Retainer or milestone invoice | Above a value you set | Approval |
| VAT return | Every return | Sign-off before it is sent |
| Manual journal | Above a value you set | Second person |
| Write-off | Every write-off | Review, with the VAT bad-debt relief deadline shown |
| Timesheet overtime | Beyond the working-time average | Warning, with the opt-out on record |
| Office or equipment lease, base rent | Above a value you set | Warning |
| Client credit limit | Above a value you set | Warning |
These are starting settings; change them to what your firm would want reviewed.
Sixteen processes come switched on, with four lists of who signs off, in order: engagement approval, journal, return and invoice. Your words are used from day one: engagement, client, WIP, realisation.
Ask us to load your rate card and show utilisation on last month's timesheets.
Agents for a professional services firm
Engagement Margin Watch
Compares revenue, delivery cost and support cost as work goes on, and warns you when an engagement is slipping, before the final bill. Shows unknown, not healthy, when it cannot price one.
Timesheet chaser
Lists missing, unfiled and out-of-date timesheets and approvals that have waited too long. It only flags them; it sends no reminder.
Scope drift watch
Compares hours logged with the agreed effort and drafts a change order when the effort is exceeded. Sends and creates nothing.
Project Risk
Warns you when a project is running late, spending ahead of the work done, or billing ahead of it, measured against the baselined bill of quantities (BoQ).
Sell + AccountCollections
Drafts overdue reminders and steps them up according to how many days a payment is actually late. A person approves each reminder before it goes out.
Account / KnowCash-flow Forecaster
Builds a rolling cash forecast for the next 30, 60 and 90 days from post-dated cheques, bills due and how customers have paid in the past, with a range around each figure to show how sure it is.
Know + BuyContract Intelligence Planned
Compares contract terms with actual performance.
VaultAsk Kinnow
Answers questions from your documents and from the records of the applications you use, and only shows what the person asking is allowed to see.
Every agent is validated with each client before it works on their books, and every output waits for a person.
Dates and duties for a services firm
Alerts go out 15, 7 and 1 day before each date. Kinnow tracks the date; your adviser confirms it.
| Obligation | When it falls | What Kinnow does |
|---|---|---|
| VAT return | One calendar month and seven days after the period end. You set the HMRC stagger group (the quarter pattern HMRC gave the company); monthly filers are supported | Groundwork to build the nine-box return and a file for a person to file, completed before launch. Kinnow does not send anything to HMRC; your adviser confirms each box before first use |
| Confirmation statement and annual accounts | Annual; accounts nine months after the accounting reference date for a private company | Tracks the dates and reminds you. Kinnow does not file with Companies House |
| Corporation tax return | Twelve months after the period end; tax payable nine months and one day after it | Tracks both dates and reminds. Kinnow does not compute the tax or prepare the return |
| ICO data protection fee | Annual | Tracks the renewal and reminds |
| Payroll | Monthly | PAYE income tax (tax taken from pay each month), employee and employer National Insurance, pension contributions and student loans are worked out in a payroll run that a second person signs off |
What the owner can ask
| Ask Kinnow | The answer comes from |
|---|---|
| Which engagements have slipped? | Project milestone status |
| Show me every live engagement | The engagement list |
| Which client queries are running past the service promise? | Support-ticket status against the service promise |
| Show me headcount by practice | Headcount report |
| Who is on the bench next month? | Capacity plan and allocations |
| When is my next VAT return due? | The deadline calendar and the stagger group you set |
Each answer shows its source and cost before it runs. Veil, our privacy layer, holds back bank, tax and ID numbers and swaps names for placeholders before an AI call. It covers Ask Kinnow and most agents today; the rest are being added. The sample figures on the screen at right are an illustration only.
Ask us to run these questions on your numbers.
Questions
Do you bill on time and materials or fixed fee?
Both. Time and materials come from approved timesheets at the rate fixed on each one. Fixed fee follows completed milestones, each invoiced once. Both sit in the same books.
Who can see a client's documents?
Files a person uploads start private to them and are shared by choice: with named people, a company in the group or the whole organisation. Viewing and downloading are separate permissions, and agents look up only what the person asking may open.
Will Kinnow tell me which engagements lose money?
Yes, when it can price them. It compares billed revenue with the delivery cost from timesheets and the support cost from tickets, and shows how it got there. If one of those cannot be read, the engagement shows unknown rather than healthy.
Can we bill for approved time only?
Yes. Only approved, unbilled hours are invoiced, and a timesheet that is sent back with a reason is corrected and sent in again before it counts.
How long does set-up take?
About two weeks to first results for one firm: your client and account lists (Masters), rate cards and opening balances in the first week, agents and a first close in the second.
Can the client see and dispute an invoice?
Yes. In the customer portal they sign in with a code, see their invoices and what is outstanding, and raise a query on one.
Does it work on a phone?
It works in the phone browser. There is no separate mobile app.
Show me Kinnow for professional services.
Answer three questions. Get the applications, the agents and a two-week plan for your business.