WIP & Project Accounting

For professional services firms: unbilled work, project profit, billable hours and utilisation you can see during the month, not after it

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  • 20+ years connecting business systems
  • Works with Xero, MYOB and the systems you already use
  • Fixed quote after a free chat
Project profitability and utilisation report on a laptop

Know Which Projects Make Money While They're Running

WIP accounting and project accounting tell a professional services firm how much work is done but not yet billed, and whether each project is making money. We connect your timesheets, project tools and Xero or MYOB so WIP, project profitability, billable hours and utilisation are reported from the same data every time, instead of being rebuilt in a spreadsheet at month-end.

In many firms, time is recorded in one tool, projects are planned in another, invoices are raised in Xero or MYOB, and subconsultant costs only exist in the accounts. Each system holds part of the story, so the full picture arrives late, if at all. If your practice software already brings it all together, use it. We help when it doesn't.

Built and supported by Kenomont: founder-led, with 20+ years building business systems, including executive reporting dashboards and real-time integrations we have run for clients since 2015.

Sound Like Your Firm?

These are the signs that time, projects and the accounts aren't connected.

  • WIP is worked out in a spreadsheet at month-end, and the number changes depending on who builds it
  • Timesheets are chased before invoices can go out, so billing runs late
  • You find out a project lost money after it has finished
  • Utilisation is a feeling, not a report, and every manager calculates it differently
  • Subconsultant and other project costs sit in Xero or MYOB but never make it into project reports
  • Partners or directors ask for billable hours by person and it takes a day to answer
  • You moved off WorkflowMax or another tool and the reporting never came back

Who This Is For

Firms that sell their people's time and expertise, and need to see where that time turns into fees.

Engineering firms

Projects with stages, variations and subconsultants, where fees and hours need tracking against the budget as work goes.

Architecture and design practices

Fixed fees by stage, long projects, and a need to know when time spent is running ahead of the fee.

Consulting firms

Time-and-materials and fixed-price work side by side, with utilisation and realisation that matter to the partners.

IT services and other project firms

Firms that sell project time to clients and need the same view of hours, WIP and margin. (We don’t provide IT support.)

Your Practice Software First

We won't build what your software already does. The problem is usually between systems.

What your practice software may already do

Practice and project management products often cover time, projects, billing and WIP in one place. If yours does, and the team uses it fully, that may be all you need. We will say so.

Where the gaps usually are

Time in one tool and projects in another, costs that only live in Xero or MYOB, several entities, and reports that someone rebuilds every month by hand.

What we do

We connect the systems you already have to the accounts, then build WIP, project profitability, billable hours and utilisation reports that refresh themselves.

How It Works

We start with the numbers the partners ask for, then connect what it takes to produce them.

1

Follow a project from proposal to payment

We map where fees, budgets, timesheets, costs and invoices live today, and which spreadsheets fill the gaps.

2

Agree the definitions

WIP, available hours, utilisation and project margin are defined once, with finance and the partners, so everyone reads the same number.

3

Connect timesheets, projects and the accounts

Time and expenses flow from your timesheet or project tool to invoices in Xero or MYOB, coded to the right client and project, and supplier costs flow back to the project.

4

Report WIP, profit and utilisation

Unbilled work, project margin against budget, billable hours and utilisation by person and team, refreshed automatically rather than built at month-end.

5

Check it and keep it running

We compare the new reports with your current figures until they match, then support it as the firm grows or changes systems.

The reports themselves are built the way we build Xero and MYOB reporting dashboards: from live data, with definitions everyone has agreed.

WIP & Project Accounting FAQs

Work in progress (WIP) is work your people have done that hasn’t been invoiced yet: time and costs recorded against a project but not yet billed. Watching WIP tells you how much money is sitting in unbilled work, which projects are running ahead of their billing, and where fees may need to be written off or renegotiated.

Usually as billable hours divided by available hours for a person or team over a period. Firms define available hours differently (with or without leave, admin time or business development), so the first step is agreeing the definition. Once it is agreed, the report can apply it the same way every month.

You might not. If one system holds your time, projects, billing and costs, and its reports answer your questions, use them. We help when the data is split: time in one tool, projects in another, invoices and supplier costs in Xero or MYOB, and subconsultant costs or disbursements somewhere else. Then no single report has the whole picture.

Yes. Subconsultant invoices, expenses and other supplier costs coded to a project or tracking category in Xero or MYOB can be combined with time from your timesheet system, so the project margin includes everything, not just hours.

That depends on how your firm recognises revenue, for example by stage or by percentage complete, and is a question for your accountant. Once the method is agreed, we build the reporting to apply it consistently, so project managers and finance see the same number.

It depends on which systems are involved and which reports you need. We look at your setup first and give you a fixed quote after a free initial chat. For a broader look at your processes and systems, there is also our $5,000 Process & Systems Audit.

Related: professional services systems, Xero and MYOB reporting dashboards, multi-entity reporting and the Process & Systems Audit.

Where Does Your WIP Number Come From Today?

Tell us which systems the firm uses and which numbers take too long to get. We'll tell you honestly whether your current software can already do it, and what connecting the rest would take.

Free initial chat. No sales pressure - if we're not the right fit, we'll say so.

Prefer to talk? Call 1300 470 091

Got a spec or files? Email [email protected]

Name, email and message are required. We'll respond within 24 hours.

See also