You're Giving Away $15K per Consultant in Unbilled Hours
Average utilization has fallen to 68.9% and revenue per consultant has dropped to $199K. With 5-10% of billable time never captured and only 20% of firms hitting their margin targets, the hours your team works but never bills add up fast.
What's Really Costing You
Client management
Utilization at 68.9%
Average utilization across professional services has fallen to 68.9%, meaning nearly a third of your team's capacity generates zero revenue.
Project profitability
Only top 20% excel
Only the top 20% of professional services firms consistently achieve above-benchmark margins, while the rest leave significant profit on the table.
Resource allocation
$199K revenue/consultant
Revenue per consultant has dropped to $199K on average, driven by poor utilization tracking and scope creep on fixed-fee work.
Utilization rates
5-10% time never billed
Between 5% and 10% of legitimately billable time is never captured, costing the average firm tens of thousands per consultant annually.
From Guesswork to Precision
Before Analytics
Consultants track time at the end of the week from memory, project managers guess at resource availability, and you do not know a project has gone over scope until the client disputes the invoice.
After Analytics
Time capture is streamlined and accurate. Resource planning dashboards show who is available, overbooked, or underutilized. Project margin tracking alerts you the moment a project trends toward unprofitability so you can course-correct.
// BILLABLE UTILIZATION
+$34K recoveredUnbilled
31.1%
was 38%
Revenue
+$34K
/quarter
Per Staff
+6.1
hrs/week
Numbers That Matter
average utilization rate across professional services
Source: SPI Research Benchmark Report
of billable time is never captured or invoiced
Source: SPI Research / Industry Data
of firms consistently achieve above-benchmark margins
Source: SPI Research Benchmark Report
A Typical Engagement
The Scenario
A consulting firm with utilization below 70%, end-of-week time reporting from memory, and suspicion that billable hours are being left on the table.
Our Approach
Integrate time tracking, project management, and billing data. Real-time utilization dashboards and automated alerts flag unbilled hours before invoicing.
What the Industry Data Shows
- Industry average utilization has fallen to 68.9% — well below the 75% target
- Firms typically lose 5-10% of billable time because it's never captured
- At $150/hr, recovering just 5% of lost time = $15,600/consultant/year
Sources: SPI Research, Deltek Clarity Report
Calculate Your Unbilled Revenue Loss
Utilization Benchmarker
Compare your billable utilization to the 75% industry target.
Revenue Per Consultant
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Learn more →Frequently Asked Questions
We work with law firms, accounting practices, marketing agencies, IT consultancies, engineering firms, and other project-based service businesses.
We optimize allocation so the right people work on the right projects. The goal is not more hours per person, but fewer wasted hours and less bench time through better planning.
Yes. We work with ConnectWise, Autotask, Mavenlink, Harvest, and other professional services automation platforms to pull in time, project, and financial data.
We analyze historical project data to show which engagement types, client sizes, and scopes are most profitable, so you can price new work more strategically.
Stop Guessing. Start Growing.
Every day without data is another day of preventable losses. Let's find out what your data can do for you.