Maturing Professional Services: Services Billing

Professional Services is broken down into 6 key components: Time Management, Project Management, Selling Services, Resource Management, Skills Management and Services Billing. In this blog, we address the maturity curve of Services Billing. The maturity curve consists of: Initial, Repeatable, Controlled, Optimized, and Continuous Improvement. Services Billing is a critical component of Professional Services, and unfortunately, where inefficiencies and process errors are identified. We provide both process and Certinia PSA product focus areas for identification and improvement. Let’s dive right in!

Maturity Level 1: Initial

1. Characteristics: Billing is managed externally from PSA. Time Card and Milestone data are exported to excel or external systems. No reconciliation or visibility of what has been billed or invoiced

2. Primary Output: Approved Time Card, Milestone, Expense and Misc Adjustment Data from Salesforce Reports

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Timecard Entry 

   • Accurate Milestone Information 

   • Approval of Timecards and Milestones

   • Accurate Billing Reports from Salesforce Reports

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Projects 

   • Timecards 

   • Milestones

   • Approvals 

   • Reporting

Maturity Level 2: Repeatable

1. Characteristics: Billing Events are used in the billing process. Manual checks for eligible billing items. Billing Schedules are not defined. No reconciliation process included.

2. Primary Output: Billing Events are used to feed downstream ERP for invoicing

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Creation of Billing Events from Eligible Billing Items such as Timecards, Milestones, Misc Adjustments, ETC. 

   • Approval of Billing Items in a Timely Manner 

   • PSA is beginning to be the source of truth

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Billing Events 

   • Approvals 

   • Integrations 

   • Billing Cap Alert

Maturity Level 3: Controlled

1. Characteristics: Billing Events are being Released. Comparing Booking, Billings, and Billed. Using Services Billing App including Billing Workspace. Defined process for managing errors and disputes.

2. Primary Output: Billing Values are updated on Project Actuals

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Creation and Release of Billing Events

   • Using Revert Billing functionality for managing disputes and errors 

   • Project Financials can be trusted to determine Billed Amounts 

   • Comparing Forecasted revenue to Billed revenue

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Workspaces 

   • Analytics Reports (Billing) 

   • Billing Terms

   • Forecasted Billing vs. Actual Billings

   • Manual Credit Process 

   • Billing Caps - Prevent Release 

   • Project Actuals

Maturity Level 4: Optimized

1. Characteristics: Automated Scheduling of Billing Event creation. Billing Events are marked as Invoiced Using analytics dashboards to monitor the Billing Cycle. Certinia based reconciliation tracking Bookings, Billings, Billed and Invoiced

2. Primary Output: Reduced user time in creation of Billing Events

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Billing Event creation scheduler is used to create Billing Events based on the billing schedule. 

   • Project Financials are accurate 

   • Project managers can easily determine what has been Billed and Invoiced

   • Reconciliation is performed on platform with Analytics and Salesforce Reports 

   • Feeding downstream ERP with timely and accurate data

   • Project Manager review the Billing events to approve for billing

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Billing Event Scheduler

   • PM Review Approval 

   • Report Builder

Maturity Level 5: Continuous Improvement

1. Characteristics: Billing Events are synchronized with downstream ERP system. Automated creation of Sales Invoices reducing invoicing time and personnel effort. Data is mapped from PSA to downstream ERP, reducing data entry errors. Certinia/Salesforce is the single truth in the Sales to Cash Cycle.

2. Primary Output: Sales Invoices that can be directly sent to customers for cash collection

3. Process Focus Areas:

   • Sales Invoices are automatically generated from Released Billing Events

   • Invoiced Amount on the project will be auto updated once the Invoice is created 

   • Defined process for error handling and credits

   • Sales to Cash cycle all done on one single platform

4. Product Focus Areas:

   • Bi-directional sync between PSA and ERP

   • Automated Sales Invoice creation 

   • Cash Entry

We all strive for continuous improvement. However, identifying current and ideal maturity is critical to achieving continuous improvement. Enjoy this blog, check out the other 5 professional services maturity blogs. Ready to dive into your professional services maturity journey? Take the next right step and reach out to our team!