The best Professional services automation (PSA) software for UK businesses

Professional services automation (PSA) is software designed to assist professional firms with project management and resource management. PSA software is likely to be useful for any service-based business that charges for their time.

Many professional services automation (PSA) systems include features to manage the entire client lifecycle from lead management early on in the relationship, through to client projects, to billing, invoicing and collection. An important element of PSA is managing staff time—especially for billable staff. Professional services automation software should include time-tracking, utilisation or workload analysis, and scheduling.

Similar categories

Many systems call themselves "Project management tools" or "Professional services automation" software, often using the terms interchangeably. We categorise "Project management" and PSA in different ways, depending on their features (although some systems will be listed in both categories):

• Task management—organising internal work, like marketing campaigns or software development. Imagine To Do lists and Kanban boards.
• Job management—like task management, but for organising jobs for customers—so must include billing
• Project management—organising (internal or customer) projects, including tracking project time and cost. So picture Gantt charts and scheduling.
• Professional services automation (PSA)—like project management, but for client engagements—so must include client billing