Sector challenges

Why professional services have a different management problem from all other sectors

Consulting firms, fiduciaries, agencies and professional services companies have a fundamentally different business model from manufacturing or commercial companies: the product they sell is people's time. And time — unlike a warehouse — is invisible if it is not systematically recorded.

In Switzerland, this problem is amplified by some market specificities: Ticino fiduciaries often manage dozens of client mandates simultaneously (accounting, VAT, tax returns, payroll with Swissdec), each with different deadlines, different rates and different contacts. Consulting firms and agencies work on fixed-price or hourly projects, where margin control depends on the precision with which hours are recorded and allocated.

The result for those managing all this with Excel, email and separate software is almost always the same: hours worked but not invoiced, invoices issued late, no margin visibility per client or project, and too much time spent on reporting instead of value-added work.

Where hours and margin are lost

• Unrecorded hours: without an integrated time tracking system, hours are estimated "from memory" at the weekend or month-end. The gap between hours worked and hours invoiced exceeds 15–20% of total turnover in many firms.
• Delayed invoicing: invoices are issued weeks after the work is completed, often awaiting the "project closure". Every day of delay worsens cash flow.
• No margin visibility per client: you know what has been invoiced, but not how much it cost internally to serve that client. Less profitable clients remain invisible until it is too late.
• Multi-channel client communication: project progress updates, document sharing, invoice approval. No structured history, dependent on individual memory.
• No CRM or separate CRM: commercial opportunities are managed on Excel spreadsheets or on paper. Open negotiations have no follow-up system. Quotes are prepared from scratch every time.
• For fiduciaries: tax deadlines managed manually — VAT, tax returns, Swissdec and LAINF deadlines tracked on diaries or shared calendars. A single absence of the key person is enough to create problems for clients.

Fiduciary specifics

The Swiss fiduciary — the Ticino one in particular — is a professional figure without precise equivalents in other European countries. It manages ordinary accounting, financial closings, VAT returns, LAINF matters, Swissdec payroll, tax consulting and often also legal and corporate aspects for SME clients. Each mandate has an annual cycle with precise regulatory deadlines, individually negotiated rates and an ever-growing quantity of documents to manage.

Fiduciaries still using legacy software (Sage, TreSk, AS/400 systems) or Excel spreadsheets face three specific problems:

1. Scalability: adding a new client mandate means more manual work, not more value generated.
2. People dependency: information about each client lives in the head of the responsible employee. If that person leaves, the mandate is at risk.
3. Competitiveness: fiduciaries offering a client portal with access to documents, account statements and the status of matters differentiate themselves concretely — not just on price.

Digitalisation journey

The digitalisation journey for professional firms and fiduciaries

Phase 1: CRM and opportunity management. Structured commercial pipeline, automated quotes, centralised client history. Result: less time spent preparing quotes, more systematic follow-up.

Phase 2: Project management and time tracking. Every project or mandate becomes an entity in the system with an hour budget, tasks, deadlines and responsible persons. Hours are recorded in real time. Result: immediate visibility on progress and margin, no "forgotten" hour.

Phase 3: Automatic invoicing and client portal. Invoices are generated automatically from approved timesheets or project milestones. Clients access the portal for documents, invoices and the status of works. Result: faster invoicing, fewer operational emails, more autonomous and satisfied clients.