QUANTICAL.ERP The ERP for Consulting Firms
The all-in-one platform for your consulting firm: time entries, timesheets, billing & live dashboard. Built by the consulting firm rwQUANTICAL.
QUANTICAL.ERP features for consulting firms
What an ERP for consulting firms has to deliver
A consulting firm sells time at an hourly rate. That sounds simple - and in bookkeeping it often is. It gets complex in between: the partner works at a different rate than the consultant, the engagement has a budget cap, the client wants a signed timesheet before the invoice, and management wants to know at any time how revenue and margins are developing.
Pure time tracking covers only part of that: it records hours. Whether those hours carry the client project economically, how well the team is utilised or what revenue to expect in December if things continue this way cannot be read from it. That takes a profit and loss view linked directly to the time entries.
QUANTICAL.ERP was built for exactly this gap. The founders of the software, Lucas Rachner and Benedikt Willwerth, run a consulting firm themselves with rwQUANTICAL GmbH and know the business processes of a consultancy from daily practice.
QUANTICAL.ERP was developed specifically for project-based service providers and contains only the functions that are actually needed in everyday consulting. The solution is in use at rwQUANTICAL itself and is therefore continuously tested, developed further and adapted to the requirements of practice.
How consulting firms work with QUANTICAL.ERP
One hourly rate per consultant and engagement
Every assignment of a consultant to a client project gets its own hourly rate with a defined validity period. Partner, senior and junior rates can be mapped just as easily as special terms for individual engagements or adjustments at the turn of the year. Hours already booked automatically keep the rate that applied at booking time.
Activity descriptions the client understands too
The description of a time entry later appears on the timesheet and in the invoice supporting document. Two functions make entry easier: earlier bookings on the engagement serve as wording help, and the built-in text improvement turns keywords into readable sentences. The result is activity descriptions that are clear and traceable for the client as well.
Timesheet and month-end close before the invoice
For every client you define whether a timesheet is required, whether it is sent directly from QUANTICAL.ERP or uploaded to a client portal, and whether invoice and activity report are created in one file. The month-end close shows every consultant which documents are still missing. Only when all required documents are in can the invoice run start.
A profit and loss view updated with every booking
From booked hours and the stored hourly rate, QUANTICAL.ERP calculates revenue. Based on the stored personnel costs, this yields costs and margin per client, project and consultant. The forecast extends the business so far to the year end, day by day. With one switch you move between actual values and forecast at any time.
Bonus calculation based on utilisation and revenue
Bonus profiles calculate variable compensation based on a consultant's utilisation or revenue. The calculation can run monthly, quarterly or at the end of the financial year and can use fixed thresholds as well as tiers. You can also record which employee acquired an engagement. The finished bonus statement is then created automatically as a PDF.
Link planning directly to time tracking
Project budgets are allocated to individual employees. Every employee sees how many hours are planned for them on a project and how many hours they should book to stay on plan. Planning is integrated directly into time tracking: hours can be taken over automatically "to plan". The employee then only adds the description of their work.
Where Excel and point solutions fail in consulting firms
Many small and mid-sized consulting firms start with Excel. Times are recorded in a table, invoices created from a template and evaluations compiled by hand when needed.
With a few employees that works well at first. As the team grows, so does the effort: hourly rates change, consultants book time retroactively, clients need timesheets, and bookings already invoiced have to be cleanly separated from new work.
The real problem is often not the individual Excel table but the spread of data across several systems. Times live in one place, project budgets in another, and the invoice is created separately again. Changes have to be maintained several times over and figures reconciled regularly.
Then there is the time lag. If an engagement runs out of budget in May, that should be visible in May and not weeks later at the next manual evaluation. In project business especially, current time entries therefore have to be linked directly to budgets, revenue and project controlling.
Time tracking for consulting firms therefore has to do more than collect working hours. QUANTICAL.ERP links time entries to project budgets, hourly rates, timesheets and invoicing. Bookings already invoiced are separated from new work and are not available for billing again.
Retroactive bookings remain traceable too. If times or timesheets are still missing at month-end close, this is visible immediately, before the invoice is created.
Frequently asked questions from consulting firms
Can different partner, senior and junior hourly rates be stored?
Yes. Hourly rates are stored per employee and engagement and can be given a validity period. The same consultant can therefore work on different engagements at different hourly rates. If a rate changes, earlier bookings keep the rate that applied at the time.
Can timesheets be signed off by the client?
Yes. For every engagement you can define whether a signed timesheet is required. The consultant creates the timesheet as a PDF, has the client approve it and then files it in the month-end close. In invoice preparation you see for which engagements the required documents are already in and where documents are still missing. You can also check whether the hours on the timesheet match the bookings to be invoiced.
Can consultants book their time retroactively?
Yes. Retroactive bookings are assigned to the respective service period and so remain traceable. Before the invoice run you see whether bookings or required documents are still missing for a period. Bookings already invoiced are separated from new work still to be billed, which prevents the same booking from being included in an invoice twice by mistake.
Can consultants see the revenue and margins of other employees?
No. Employees see their own bookings, timesheets and leave days. Evaluations of revenue, costs and margins at engagement or employee level are visible only to users with the corresponding permission.
Can existing data be taken over from Excel?
Yes. Existing data can be imported from Excel via the import assistant. This includes employees, clients, engagements, hourly rates, salaries and historical time entries. The import file is checked before the data is taken over. That means data from previous years can be imported as well and is then available for historical evaluations and comparisons.
What does QUANTICAL.ERP cost for a consulting firm?
QUANTICAL.ERP costs 12.90 euros per user per month and can be cancelled monthly. All functions are included in the price. Before taking out a subscription you can test QUANTICAL.ERP free of charge for 90 days with the full range of functions. No payment details are required for the trial period. Former employees can remain in the system for historical evaluations and are not charged as paying users.