Professional services automation (PSA)
Professional services automation, usually shortened to PSA, is software that runs the commercial side of project work in one system: quoting a project, staffing it, recording the hours, invoicing the result and reporting on the margin. It exists because those five steps otherwise sit in five tools that have to be reconciled.
What does PSA software actually do?
It holds the project as one record from quote to invoice. The quote sets the planned effort, tasks carry that effort, recorded hours book against it, costs attach to it, and the invoice and the margin come out of the same data. Nothing is retyped between the steps.
How is PSA different from project management software?
Project management software answers whether the work is on track. PSA answers whether it is worth doing. A board tells you a task is finished; PSA tells you what it cost, what it was quoted at and what it leaves behind. Most firms need both, and PSA is the layer that connects delivery to money.
How is PSA different from ERP?
ERP is built around goods, stock and financial processes. PSA is built around billable time. In a project business the unit sold is an hour or a day, and the central question is whether it was planned, recorded, billable and billed. Some systems cover both.
Who uses PSA software?
Companies that sell project work: consultancies, agencies, software and engineering firms, planning offices, production companies and technical service providers. The common factor is not the sector but the model, work quoted in advance, delivered by people over time, and settled against what it cost.
What does PSA typically include?
Quoting and estimation, task and project planning, resource and capacity planning, time tracking, expense and receipt capture, invoicing, and reporting on utilization and margin. Connections to accounting and to the tools delivery teams already use are part of it. All of it works on one set of records, so nothing is retyped between the steps.
What is a PSA system?
A PSA system, short for professional services automation system, is specialized business software for project-based service companies. It supports the planning, management and financial optimization of projects, resources and utilization. Its focus is not on goods or production processes but on employee time, project margins and capacity planning.
troi is a PSA system. See all features.