Consulting

A consultancy advises clients on projects with a budget, or on a monthly retainer. Kila treats it as a professional firm: the work is organised in projects, the team records its time against them, and the time, expenses and milestones are invoiced to the client’s account.

What is special

Kila gives a consultancy a Practice section in its menu with My day, Projects, Time, Client requests, Billing, New client and Practice reports. A project is billed by time and expenses, by a fixed fee in milestones, or by a monthly retainer:

• Open a project for a client and Set a project’s budget and rates.
• Record your time, then Invoice unbilled time and expenses.
• Set up a retainer with included hours.

There is no demo consultancy yet. Mizani Associates, an accounting firm, shows the same projects, time and billing screens, with engagement where a consultancy reads project.

How Kila sets it up

The main screen is Clients and projects.

Rules it follows:

None. Kila's standard rules apply.

Its words:

Most businesses	Consulting
customer	client
sale	invoice
receipt	invoice
staff	team member

Its set-up steps

1. Business details and KRA PIN
2. Services and rates
3. Team members and rates
4. Clients
5. First project or retainer

Its home page

Each card shows only where the firm uses what it counts, and to the people whose role may see it.

• My day
• Client requests outstanding
• Billing this month
• Lock-up and realisation
• Unbilled time and expenses
• Invoices due and overdue; cash received
• Withholding certificates to collect
• Over budget
• Fees billed by fee earner this month
• Team utilisation
• Retainers billing this month
• Payments waiting for confirmation
• Approvals and reviews waiting
• Licences, permits and returns due

Roles it starts with

• Billing and credit control: Issues the approved bills, sends statements, chases overdue clients and collects withholding tax certificates.
• Project lead: Runs projects and retainers: the team, the budget and scope, retainer hours, and the month’s bills.
• Consultant: Works on the projects on their team: tasks, client requests and their own time and expenses.

Where to go next

• Professional services: everything a professional firm needs.