Growing and scaling a consulting business requires lots of effort and resources. If you want to land and manage a bigger client or project, you need an automated system to reduce manual processes and improve productivity and efficiency.
This article will discuss business consulting software and how it can help your business grow and scale.
What is Business Consulting Software
Business consulting software is used by small to large-scale companies, agencies, freelancers, or self-employed professionals to get things done and stay on top of all their business needs; this software helps them improve overall efficiency and productivity and predict risks.
How does it work?
Business consulting software handles the development, execution, and deployment of business processes like proposals, billing & invoices, reporting, time-tracking, client management, and project management.
It works closely with your business at every step and helps you achieve your goals. It allows integration, communication, and teamwork in your organization.
A good consulting software should understand and have solutions for your business needs and problems. It should align with your business model and goals. Your business will need various tools and features to automate processes, set up internal and external communication, and save user data and client records.
Here consulting software will help you provide all these features and tools in one platform, saving you time, effort, and resources.
Benefits of a Business Consulting Software
Following are some of the benefits that business consulting software offers:
- It allows businesses to improve processes and track performance.
- Automating business processes like invoicing, time tracking, etc., reduces costs, saves time, and allows businesses to focus on core business functions.
- An ideal business consulting software will make employees’ jobs easier and improve productivity.
- Business consulting software is the most efficient and cost-effective way to use technology to increase your business revenue, scaling and improving efficiency and client satisfaction.
- It helps you gain a competitive edge by allowing collaboration, communication, and teamwork within your business.
Key Features of a Business Consulting Software
The following are features that you should look for while selecting your business consulting software:
CRM
An ideal business consulting software should keep track of clients’ information and interactions, allow sharing of files, and track lead progress. A good CRM tool will help build client relationships by saving accurate data and client records.
Proposal
Consultants have to send proposals regularly to their clients. The software should provide built-in templates to create and send proposals to clients, saving time quickly. It should allow adding business branding and style to templates to make them professional.
Project Management
Most consulting businesses or self-employe professionals must manage multiple clients and their projects simultaneously. The software should provide a feature to add multiple projects for each client and offer other project management tools to support the business.
Time Tracking
The software should have a time-tracking tool to track your client’s billable hours. The feature will also allow you to keep track of your employee’s work hours. It should enable tracking time per client and project.
Workflow Automation
A business consulting software should have workflow automation tools to streamline all business operations and increase productivity. It should provide a centralized productivity hub for all stakeholders.
Manage Team
If your business requires managing your team, you should use business consulting software that allows adding multiple team accounts. It will enable you to keep track of every team member’s tasks from one centralized location. It helps to ensure everyone on the team is on the same page and focuses on delivering exceptional client service.
Customer Service
The ideal software should provide excellent customer support. The platform should provide 24/7 customer support for critical issues and quick guides or FAQs available for some common queries.
Here are some types of business consulting software that firms are using for growth and increasing efficiency:
- Presentation Software
- Proposal Tools
- CRM Software
- Business Intelligence Tools
- Resource Management Software
But fortunately, there is some software available in the market that offers a one-stop solution to your every business needs; let’s discuss some of the best business consulting software available in the market:
Avaza
Avaza is a business management software providing solutions for resource scheduling, project management, online timesheets, invoicing, and more. It is a cloud-based platform that is best for small, mid-size, or large enterprises and freelancers, with Avaza, businesses, or professionals to run projects efficiently.
Key Features:
- The software provides Gantt charts or Kanban boards to manage your projects.
- It allows seamless third-party integration with apps like Slack, Xero, Dropbox, Jira, Google Apps for Work, QuickBooks, Evernote, and Google Drive.
- The time tracking feature allows keeping track of every minute of your employee’s work.
- It allows tracking expenses by clients and projects, adding unbilled costs, setting up expense approval, and running reports to understand where you are spending.
- The platform offers valuable reports that help you understand project margin, staff utilization, and customer profitability.
- It allows setting up user roles and task-based permissions, sharing project files, and converting emails into tasks.
Benefits:
- It helps businesses to make better and more informed decisions with visual financial reports.
- Their native mobile application, available for both iOS and Android, allows accessing essential data on the go.
Pricing:
The platform offers a FREE plan. The paid plan starts with Startup for $11.95 per month, Basic for $23.95 per month, and Business for $47.95 per month.
Bonsai
Bonsai is a cloud-based one-stop platform you will need to run your business, from managing your client to delivering projects and tracking your finances. It is best for small to large companies, agencies, and self-employed professionals.
Key Features:
- The platform automates invoicing process from creating it to sending it.
- It streamlines proposals efficiently and helps get more clients, retain them, and get approvals fast.
- It provides contract templates, electronic signatures, and auto reminders.
- It allows expense tracking, profit/loss reporting, and tax estimates to keep track of your business expenses.
- Its cross-platform time tracking feature keeps a tab on every minute you work.
- Its task tracking feature allows adding tasks, integrating them with timers, and adding collaborators.
- It allows the creation of reusable custom client intake forms and project-ending surveys.
Benefits:
- It helps integrate and automate every business process, from proposals and contracts to billing, accounting, and tax preparation.
- It provides a user-friendly platform.
Pricing:
Bonsai comes with three paid plans: Starter for $24 per month, Professional; for $39 per month, and Business for $79 per month.
Profi
Profi is a platform used by professionals such as consultants, coaches, trainers, therapists, etc., to maximize their influence and growth. It provides a one-stop solution to streamline business operations and grow faster.
Key Features:
- It allows creating and selling of courses or programs from one platform.
- You can track your client’s progress and engage with them through forms.
- The platform integrates seamlessly with video conferencing tools like Zoom. It allows scheduling one on one or group coaching sessions with clients.
- It provides a unified billing system to get payments for sessions and other services.
Benefits:
- The platform provides top-notch service in features, support, ease of use, etc.
- With Profi, users can save up to 140 hours annually by automating work.
Pricing:
Profi offers four plans: Solo for $99 per month, Team for $119, Corporate for custom pricing, and Network for custom pricing.
Accelo
Accelo is an end-to-end cloud-based software business used to streamline client work and thus increase business profitability. It manages all kinds of client work delivery like sales, projects, invoices, resources, timesheets, etc.
Key Features:
- The software enhances project management through custom workflows, automates rules, and adaptive scheduling.
- It provides an in-built timesheet and timers.
- It has a library of project templates to save time and increase productivity.
- It allows for tracking expenses and generating invoices.
- Users can access reports to get essential business insights.
- Users can set up and easily track project milestones.
- It allows seamless integration with third-party apps like G-Suite, Microsoft, QuickBooks, Slack, Jira, etc.
Benefits:
- It is fully client-centric software allowing profitable client work.
- It helps in increasing productivity and efficiency.
Pricing:
Accelo offers two paid plans: Plus for $30 per product per user per month and Premium for $49 per user per month.
LivePlan
LivePlan is among entrepreneurs’ and small businesses’ most preferred business planning and management tools. It helps users to create dynamic business plans and easily track performance.
Key Features:
- LivePlan allows seamless integration with accurate accounting data through Quickbooks or Xero syncing.
- With LivePlan, your teams or anyone can collaborate easily to pitch ideas, give feedback, etc.
- It saves and secures all your account and plan data.
- It provides automated financials with built-in formulas to make your financials and projections precise and accurate.
- LivePlan performance dashboard simplifies performance and automatically creates charts and graphs.
Benefits:
- It makes business owners more confident and make more informed business decisions.
- It is a one-stop solution to manage your business from day one strategically.
Pricing:
LivePlan offers two paid plans: Standard for $20 per month and Premium for $40 per month. Both subscriptions come with a 35-day money-back guarantee, which is a free trial.
Final Words
Choosing the right tools for your business efficiency and growth might seem daunting. You can refer to this detailed guide with a list of some of the best business consulting software in the market.
They are some of the top-rated and will accelerate your business growth by automating redundant tasks. You can review all the software and its features and determine which fits your business needs and requirements best.
You can also check project management software for small businesses.
