Browsing for new PSA software is similar to finding the right meat in a butcher shop. There are too many choices, and you want to ensure you pick the program that best suits your company – whether it be for a small law firm or a large managed service provider (MSP). Have you ever considered choosing cloud PSA software? The cloud is the way of the future and is already part of other industries such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing and product lifecycle management (PLM). We’ll discuss what cloud PSA is, its standard modules and its advantages.

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Overview

Professional services automation software caters to various tasks within a service. It enables you to delegate the right amount of resources, track time and expenses, schedule appointments, bill customers for different projects or services and more.

Deployment Pros & Cons

It’s easy to mistake cloud and on-premise PSA, but both have pros and cons. They’re as similar as night and day.

Cloud-based PSA enables you to access the solution through a vendor via the internet instead of physically on a computer server. It offers various perks such as:

• Mobility: You can verify and monitor real-time information on any mobile device with a strong internet connection.
• Security: Vendors offer various security tactics to keep your information protected, including data encryption, user access permissions, two-step or multi-factor authentication and more.
• Affordability: Unlike on-premise, cloud solutions are more affordable because you can pick and choose from several subscription plans that fit best with your budget.

If you’re always on the go and manage various businesses locally or globally, a cloud solution could be the right fit for you.

Conversely, on-premise PSA platforms work on one company computer and server unless you want to pay more licensing fees. If you’re a small company and you’re looking to stay small, on-premise may be your suitable route.

Standard Features

Like different pizza toppings, each PSA program is unique. However, there are a handful of modules that most solutions share. For more features and requirements, check out our in-depth requirements template.

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Resource Management

Resources include employees, equipment, machinery and more. Ensuring that you maintain these resources is vital in keeping your business operating like a well-oiled machine. You need a method that’ll properly delegate the appropriate resources at a given time for a particular assignment. Successful resource management ensures you delegate tasks to qualified employees in real time, thus increasing product management.

Project Management

Supervising projects is a job in itself. You have to verify that you have the right amount of staff members, resources, finances and more. If you don’t have the proper system to keep track of these aspects, you’ll fall behind and lose revenue. A project management component enables you to focus on every facet of a project so no stones are left unturned.

Time and Expense Management

Measuring employee productivity is also crucial for any company. Good productivity keeps operations and revenue running at a smooth pace. Look for a time and expense management tool that’s easy for workers to record their time accurately. This feature gives a real-time snapshot of production and aids you in pinpointing bottlenecks. You may also oversee expenses and know how much materials, overall projects and more cost so you can effectively create and manage a substantial budget.

Invoicing and Billing

Billing and receiving payments in invoices can be a pain in the neck because you don’t want to keep reminding clients to pay you for a particular project or service constantly. After all, you don’t want to seem demanding, but you also need your profits in a timely fashion. An invoicing and billing module enables you to manage every customers’ billing information in one centralized location. You can also set automatic payment reminders sent directly to clients’ inboxes. This module can also offer you a complete catalog of customers that pay you on time and those that don’t so you can decide which clients are worth collaborating with in the future.

Project Accounting

Projects can drain your company’s money dry if you’re not attentive enough. The proper project accounting accessory can manage profit and loss, accounts payable and receivable, the total amount of expenses specific materials and goods accrue over time and how much of your budget is being spent on projects to determine which ones are lucrative.

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Benefits

In addition to handy tools, this software comes with several benefits to streamline your PSA operations.

Strengthened Resource Allocation

Knowing how much of your resources to implement on particular projects and assignments is critical to running a smooth ship. Like Goldilocks, you want to allocate employees, machinery and more just right so you don’t use up everything on one project. You also guarantee you’re implementing the right resources for specific tasks. For example, it would be pretty embarrassing to ask someone to create and manage your project budget when they have zero accounting experience.

Transparent Project Management

As aforementioned, knowing every aspect of your project is vital with the proper project management tool. You can gauge everything from budgets to deadlines and more in real time. You can also evaluate if you need to pull out of a task before investing too much time and money into it.

Enhance Team Collaboration

Collaborating with staff, stakeholders, partners and more locally and remotely has never been more imperative with the COVID-19 pandemic. A proper PSA solution enables you to work and communicate with team members worldwide and ensure everyone has a say on critical topics from project budgets to deadlines, hiring, team management, business expansion and more.

Deplete Costs

When you invest in this software type, you’re reducing admin and overhead costs. Before PSA programs became popular, staff had to manually input information, conduct billing and invoicing, perform reconciliations and more via electronic spreadsheets or pen and paper. This solution enables you to input data once, and it automatically syncs across all departments. You also save more time so you can return to handling more pressing tasks, thus increasing productivity.

Overall Better Visibility

Lastly, you gain a clear snapshot of productions and other KPIs such as profitability, utilization, project margins, sales pipelines, project overruns and more. Real-time data ensures you know exactly which projects are worth your time and which are weighing you down. You can also gauge remarkable clients and partners to keep a sound contact directory and network.

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Next Steps

Searching for the best cloud PSA software can be as scary as trying to navigate your way out of a corn maze if you don’t know what you’re looking for. The important thing is to find software that best aligns with your company’s requirements. Are you interested in more PSA software options? Check out our in-depth PSA comparison report.

How has cloud PSA helped your business? Let us know in the comments!