Global
Two products share the name. FP&A software (Workday Adaptive Planning, Vena, Planful, Prophix, Jirav, Cube) plans the firm’s budget, headcount and P&L. PSA and resource forecasting software (Magnetic, Kantata, Productive, BigTime, Runn) forecasts projects, people and revenue from live delivery data.
Your revenue is billable headcount × available hours × utilisation × realised rate. A forecast that does not model those four drivers will miss most of what positively impacts your margin.
Under roughly 50 people, your accounting system plus a PSA tool usually covers it. Between 50 and 250, the PSA becomes the operational source of truth and feeds a lighter FP&A model. At 250+ or with several legal entities, you need both, connected.
Most FP&A vendors do not publish prices. One October 2026 pricing guide puts year one at $35,000 to $85,000 all-in. PSA tools mostly publish per-user prices, from about $7 to $30 per user per month.
Test any tool with your own projects, rate cards and a real overrun, not the vendor’s demo data.
A budget that is approved in November, may need revising well before March.Two fixed-priced projects have used more hours than expected and a retainer has started a month late. The spreadsheet you're working from still suggests you're on target because those changes haven't translated to the forecast.
"Budgeting and forecasting tools" cover two different categories of software. Financial planning and analysis (FP&A) plans the firm's budget and profit and loss (P&L). Project and resourcing software uses delivery data to estimate costs, capacity and revenue over the coming weeks. Comparing them in a single ranked list leaves a 40-person agency choosing between products built for very different needs.
Magnetic is a professional services automation (PSA) platform for agencies, consultancies and architecture and engineering firms. We connect pipeline, project delivery and invoicing, so our focus is project and resource forecasting. This guide explains where that type of software is enough, and where a separate FP&A tool becomes useful. It covers both categories with pricing recorded in October 2026.
A search for budgeting and forecasting tools returns products for both financial planning and project delivery. The distinction matters because each uses different data and serves different people
Firm-level FP&A software supports the annual budget, headcount planning, scenario modelling and board reporting. It usually draws data from the accounting system and is managed by finance. Workday Adaptive Planning, Vena, Planful, Prophix and Cube are examples.
Project and resource forecasting software estimates the cost of completing each project, schedules people against future work and includes potential revenue from pipeline deals. Project managers, resource managers and finance teams use it to assess the next few weeks or months and to plan ahead. This category includes PSA platforms such as Magnetic, Kantata, Productive and BigTime alongside resource planning tools such as Runn.
Accounting software provides the financial records used by both. Xero and QuickBooks online offer budgets and comparisons with actual results. NetSuite and Sage Intacct also offer more extensive budgeting and planning capabilities within their financial systems.
Both categories contribute to revenue forecasting. That overlap is why buyers sometimes expect one system can do the work of the other.
Services firms earn revenue from people's time, and those same people account for much of their cost. A forecast therefore needs to model four drivers:
Billable headcount x available hours x billable utilisation x realised rate
If the budget records revenue as a single monthly total, it cannot explain which of these assumptions has changes.
The billing arrangement also affects what you need to watch:
SPI Research's 2026 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark reported billable utilisation of 66.4% in 2025, the lowest level in the survey's history. EBITDA was 9.9%, compared with a five-year average of 13.8%. The same study reported an average project overrun of 10.7%, above SPI's target of less than 10%.
Resource planning presents a related problem. In Kantata's 2024 State of the Professional Services Industry study, 96% of the 202 firms surveyed said they struggled to forecast the roles and skills upcoming projects would require.
An annual budget on its own will not identify these problems as they develop. Current timesheets, project estimates ad resource booking give you information you can use in weekly reviews while there is still time to adjust the plan.
Identify the information or process that is missing before choosing a product category
Firm size provides a useful starting point, although the complexity of the business matters too.
Under 50 people. A PSA platform alongside your accounting system usually covers most requirements. You can keep the annual budget in a spreadsheet, provided it uses the same headcount and rate assumptions as the PSA. A full FP&A suite may add consolidation and scenario features that a small team has little reason or capacity to maintain.
50 to 250 people. The PSA holds the hours, rates, bookings, pipeline and project forecasts that finance needs. These can feed a spreadsheet model build around the firms revenue and cost drivers. A lighter FP&A tool such as Jirav or Cube becomes useful when finance needs to compare scenarios or prepare more detailed board reports. Check the project data first: an FPA&A model cannot identify overruns if it is never given the hours spent and the estimate to finish.
250+ people or several entities. Both types of system are usually needed. The PSA forecasts delivery, while the FP&A combines those figures with overheads, hiring plans and results from other entities or currencies. The connection between them is important. SPI's 2026 benchmark found that 64.6 % of high-performing firms integrated their PSA with their core financial system compared with 53.1% of other firms.
When a spreadsheet is still fine. If you manage fewer than ten projects at a time, mainly bill for time and materials, an one person can update the forecast in under an hour a week, a spreadsheet my be entirely adequate. Reconsider it when importing timesheets and reconciling different versions becomes a regular part of the job, particularly if the work delays the forecast.
Questions quote dashboards and scenario planning give you only a broad view of a product. Ask how it handles the calculations and records your firm actually uses.
We've grouped the tools by later, rather than ranking them in one list, because a ranking across layers isn't meaningful. We chose them because they're the names that come up most often when services firms evaluate this category, they all have a clear fit for agencies, consultancies or A&E firms, and each one either publishes pricing or makes it clear that pricing is quoted based.
Best for: Agencies, consultancies, and architecture and engineering firms that want CRM, project management, timesheets, resourcing, and finance in one system.
What it forecasts: Magnetic forecasts revenue using pipeline opportunities, resource availability, and estimated billings. It compares project budgets with actuals as time is recorded and reports on retainer over-servicing, WIP, and unbilled revenue.
What it doesn't do: Multi-entity consolidation or board-level FP&A modelling. Firms that need these can use a separate FP&A tool or spreadsheet model alongside Magnetic.
Pricing: The Pro plan starts at £17 per user per month with annual billing, or £22 with monthly billing, with a minimum of five users. Pro and Enterprise include profitability, revenue forecast, and over-servicing dashboards. A 14-day free trial is available.
Integrations: Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, and Pastel for accounting, plus HubSpot.
What it forecasts: Resource demand and capacity, project financials, and margin.
What to plan for: A broad platform with substantial configuration options. Allow for the setup and training your firm will need when comparing it with smaller PSA products.
Pricing: Quote-based; no public price list.
Best for: Creative and digital agencies.
What it forecasts: Budget forecasting is available on Professional. Revenue forecasting is available on Ultimate.
Pricing: Essential costs $10 per user per month with annual billing, and Professional costs $25. Ultimate is priced on request. A three-seat minimum applies.
Best for: IT consultancies and firms working in or alongside accounting that bill mainly by time.
What it forecasts: Project budgets on Premier. Its resource management module also provides financial projections based on resource allocations.
Pricing: Essentials starts at $20 per user per month. Higher tiers are quoted on request.
Best for: Firms whose main requirement is planning future resource availability.
What it forecasts: Capacity, utilisation and project budgets based on planned work, using rate cards and comparisons between planned and actual results.
What it doesn't do: CRM, invoicing or full project management. You will usually need other software for those functions.
Pricing: Lite costs $7, and Standard costs $11 per resource seat per month. Advanced is priced on request. A 30-day trial is available.
Best for: Larger firms, particularly those already using Workday HCM or Financials.
What it forecasts: Budgets, workforce plans, and business scenarios. An Excel connector supports finance teams that use spreadsheets.
Pricing: Quote-based. Workday describes pricing as “varies”.
Best for: Finance teams using Microsoft 365 that want to continue working in Excel.
What it forecasts: Budgets, forecasts, and reports built with Excel templates, supported by centrally managed data and version control.
Pricing: Quote-based.
Best for: Upper-mid-market finance teams that need planning and financial consolidation in the same suite.
Pricing: Planful provides individual quotes. Procurement platform Vendr reports a median annual contract value of $40,352.
Best for: Mid-market finance teams that need budgeting, reporting, financial close, and consolidation on one platform.
Pricing: No public price list.
Best for: Smaller firms, including those whose accountant handles FP&A. Jirav's guide to FP&A for professional services uses the same four revenue drivers described earlier in this article.
Pricing: Published plans start at $50 a month for Controller Essentials and $150 a month for CFO Enterprise, which adds driver-based workforce planning. These prices are aimed at accounting firms; confirm the applicable plan when requesting a quote for your own firm.
Sage Intacct and NetSuite both build budgeting and planning into the accounting system itself. Netsuite describes collaborative budgeting and what-if modelling as part of its offer for consulting firms. They suit firms that want one financial system of record and are prepared for an ERP-style rollout. Sage prices Intacct by quote and NetSuite doesnt publish a price list either.
Consider a 45-person agency with 36 billable staff. This is an illustrative model, not customer data.
Each billable employee has about 450 hours available in the quarter after holidays are accounted for. At 70% utilisation and a realised rate of £95 an hours, the agency expects 11,340 billable hours an £1,077,300 in revenue. Quarterly costs are £833,400. The FP&A model prepared in January therefore forecasts a margin of 18%.
Five weeks into the quarter, project data shows that the original assumptions need revising:
The extra 877 hours on the fixed-prices projects bring no additional revenue. In this example, those hours would otherwise have been available for other billable work. At £95 an hour, that reduces revenue capacity by about £83,300. The retained delay moves another £25,000 from the quarter.
With costs unchanged, forecast revenue is now at about £969,000 and margin is 8.8%, down from 18%. The extra hours accounted for 7.7% of planned billable time, below the 10.7% average project overrun reported by SPI. The example shows how even an overrun below that benchmark, can materially affect a quarters result.
The January FP&A model will continue to show the original result until it received updated project assumptions. Reviewing the project forecast in week five gives the agency time to discuss additional scope with both clients, review wether a senior person is still needed on Project A, and bring forward other work to replace the delayed retainer. Our guide to corrective action in project management explains how to respond when a project needs intervention.
See budget overrun in week five, not at the end of the quarter
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Most FP&A vendors do not publish prices. An October 2026 pricing guide from Aleph, which also sells FP&A software suggests allowing $35,000 to $85,000 for the first year when 10 to 25 people use the system. That estimate includes implementation. Use it as an initial allowance, then request quotes based on your unique requirements.
PSA tools generally charge per user and are more likely to publish prices. For a 45-person agency in the example, Magnetic Pro with annual billing costs £9,180 per year before any onboarding support.
Include these items when comparing the full costs:
To assess payment use your own time and project records. Two calculations are particularly useful:
Compare those figures with the annual cost of the software and implementation. If the expected benefit is too small, investigate what is preventing the improvement before committing to a tool. Our profitability calculator can help establish the current position.
Accurate rates and consistent time records are essential to a useful forecast. Deal with these before introducing more detailed reporting.
Fix rate cards and cost rates first. Agree on the rate card for each client type and a cost rate for each role. Check these before importing project budgets, because an incorrect rate affects every calculation that follows.
Get timesheets in on time. A forecast based on timesheets submitted two weeks late is already two weeks behind. Decide between daily or weekly submission and an approval process that keeps the records current. Our guide to spreadsheet versus automated time tracking explains the impact on reporting.
Establish your triggers. Set thresholds that require a project review. For example, a fixed-fee project that has used 80% of its budget with less than 70% of the work complete should prompt a discussion. Make clear who receives the alert and who is responsible for taking action.
Phase it. Begin with one service line or office. Run it for a month, resolve problems with the data and process, then expand.
Set a cadence. Project leads should review forecasts weekly, with finance updating the firm forecast monthly using the revised project estimates, overheads, and hiring plans. Use the same information for the cash flow forecast, so expected receipts and payments are reviewed along side revenue.
Magnetic connects the information used to forecast project delivery and revenue. Opportunities in the CRM include estimated value and probability. Won work becomes a project with a budget based on your rate cards. As people record time in timesheets, the budget-versus-actual figures update automatically. Resource management shows future bookings and availability and revenue forecasting brings together pipeline opportunities, booked work and available capacity.
The profitability dashboard reports margin by client, project and service, while over-dashboards compare the effort spend on retainers and fixed-fee work against the agreed amount. Approved time and milestones support invoicing, while WIP and unbilled revenue remain visible until billed. Reporting and the accounting integrations with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, support the transfer of financial records into your accounting system.
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Magnetic covers project and resource forecasting. For group consolidation or board scenarios across several currencies, you will also need an FP&A tool or a suitable financial model. The delivery data from Magnetic can provide the operational figures that model needs.
Good utilisation means nothing if you're not billing on time. Unbilled WIP might look like progress on a report, but all it really shows is effort that isn't turning into earnings. When teams are managed well, you see it in the numbers, work progresses, invoices go out, and time actually becomes revenue. - Byron Riddle, CFO, Silversoft
To try this with your own figures, start a 14-day free trial. You can also book a demo and bring a project that exceeded its budget so we can work through it with you.
Yes. If one person an maintain a reliable forecast in under and hour a week, Excel may be sufficient. Review the process when importing timesheets and CRM exports takes significant time, or when people maintain competing versions. The issue is whether the spreadsheet still gives you a current forecast you can trust.
Review project forecasts weekly and the firm forecast monthly as a starting point. Project estimates change as hours are recorded and the remaining work becomes clearer. Finance can then incorporate those changes alongside overheads and hiring plans. A quarterly update may leave too much time between identifying a problem and adjusting the plan.
Many firms with fewer than 250 people and a single legal entity can use a PSA, accounting and spreadsheet model built around their revenue and cost drivers. A separate FP&A tool becomes more useful when you need to consolidate entities or currencies or prepare scenarios that the PSA does not support.
Use the project's milestones or percentage of completion to plan revenue, in line with your accounting policy. Forecast costs separately using the hours remaining and the cost rates of the people scheduled to complete the work. With the agreed project price unchanged. additional effort increases cost and reduces margin, so keep the estimate at completion current.
As a working target, aim for the monthly revenue forecast to be within about 5% of the actual results. A difference of 10% or more warrants a review of the assumptions, including headcount, available hours, utilisation and realised rate. Record the reason for each significant difference so you can improve the next forecast.
Published PSA and resource planning prices generally range from about $7 to $30 per user or resource seat per month. For 50 seats, that is roughly $4,000 to $18,000 a year before onboarding. Mid-market FP&A suites usually require a custom quote and can cost tens of thousands a year.
René Praestholm
Chief Executive Officer
at Magnetic
25+ years in professional services software. Former COO of Workbook Software (15 years) and VP of Global Agency Solutions at Deltek. One of the most experienced leaders in the PSA Software category
Magnetic is an all-in-one workflow management platform designed and built for professional services firms.
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