ERP guide by industry

Which ERP should a professional services business choose?

The right ERP depends mainly on the revenue model, project management, resources, billing and multi-entity complexity. Test those end-to-end flows before comparing platforms.

Structure my ERP selection
Demonstration

The scenarios the ERP must prove

  1. Create a project from a contract or sale.
  2. Assign resources and check capacity.
  3. Capture time and expenses.
  4. Bill time and materials, fixed fee or milestones.
  5. Recognize revenue under the selected model.
  6. Track cost, revenue and margin by project.
  7. Consolidate multiple entities or currencies when required.
Decision criteria

What matters most in the selection

  • Project and contract management
  • Resource planning
  • Time and expenses
  • Billing models
  • Revenue recognition
  • Project margin and forecasting
  • Multi-entity and multi-currency
Operating risks

What the ERP must avoid making worse

  • Time, expenses and billing split across multiple systems.
  • Project margin becomes visible too late to correct issues.
  • Resource planning is disconnected from commercial commitments.
  • Customizations are required because billing or revenue models were poorly scoped.
Integrations

The flows to validate before choosing

  • CRM and sales
  • Payroll
  • Banking and expenses
  • Project management or PSA tools
  • Analytics and planning
Selection questions

Questions to answer before the shortlist

  1. Which billing models must we support?
  2. How is resource capacity planned?
  3. How do time and expenses flow into projects and finance?
  4. How is margin calculated before project completion?
  5. Which functions require a specialized tool in addition to the ERP?
PlanAxion perspective
PlanAxion recommends demonstrating one complete flow from contract through project margin using the same scenarios for every solution, rather than comparing feature lists.
Client-side decision

Compare ERP systems using real scenarios

PlanAxion structures criteria, demos and evidence so solutions and implementation partners can be compared on the same decision baseline.

Structure my ERP selection