Industries
Professional services
Finbryn keeps project profitability, client billing and VAT straight for EU consultancies, law firms and agencies working across borders, reconciled weekly in Xero or QuickBooks Online. We track work in progress by client and matter, apply the right VAT treatment on cross-border B2B services, and handle client data under GDPR safeguards rather than a generic policy line.
Management report
Illustrative client · August 2026
EUR
| Line | Aug | Jul | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 142,380 | 131,904 | +10,476 |
| Cost of sales | (51,260) | (48,115) | (3,145) |
| Gross profit | 91,120 | 83,789 | +7,331 |
| Payroll | (46,300) | (45,900) | (400) |
| SoftwareNoted | (6,480) | (5,490) | (990) |
| Rent | (8,000) | (8,000) | 0 |
| Other operating | (9,215) | (9,870) | +655 |
| Net income | 21,125 | 14,529 | +6,596 |
Reviewer's note
Software is up on last month after two seats were added mid-month. Revenue includes one milestone invoice that will not repeat next month.
Illustrative. An example of the document, not a client's figures.
Exceptions report
Where the books usually hurt
Project-based billing means revenue recognition needs to follow the work performed, not just the invoice date
Unbilled work in progress at month end never gets estimated, so profitability numbers run behind reality
Partner or owner draws get mixed into payroll or general expense instead of tracked as equity distributions
Multiple client engagements running at once make it hard to see which ones are actually profitable
Billable work that never quite matches the invoice
Professional services firms serving clients in several EU member states often lose track of what was actually delivered against what gets billed. Time is logged in one tool, expenses in another, and retainer balances drift as work gets done ahead of, or behind, the billing cycle. By the time a partner asks for margin by client, the numbers have to be rebuilt from three sources.
Finbryn reconciles time and expense data against invoicing and retainer balances weekly, so work in progress is visible client by client and matter by matter, not discovered at quarter end. Xero or QuickBooks Online stays the single source of truth, with practice-management or time-tracking tools feeding into it rather than running as a parallel ledger.
Cross-border B2B VAT and the reverse charge
Most professional services sold business-to-business across EU member states fall under the reverse charge mechanism, where the customer accounts for VAT rather than the supplier charging it on the invoice. Getting that wrong, either charging VAT that should have been reverse-charged or vice versa, creates a filing error that compounds every quarter it goes uncorrected. We flag the correct treatment per client and per member state before an invoice goes out, then prepare the underlying data for whichever credentialed local partner files the VAT return.
France and Germany both reserve certain accounting and tax activities (expert-comptable work in France, tax advisory under the Steuerberatungsgesetz in Germany) to locally credentialed professionals; Finbryn's role stops at preparation and reconciliation, with a credentialed local partner handling anything that touches those reserved activities.
Data handling and continuity
Client files, contracts and billing data are personal data under GDPR the moment they identify an individual, and that data moves under signed Standard Contractual Clauses with a documented transfer impact assessment. A named pod owns the account with a recorded handover memo on any change, books close by business day five, and the accounting file stays owned by the client throughout. Pricing is published on the pricing page, and terms are set out in your engagement letter.
Questions
Frequently asked questions: Professional services
Do you handle the reverse charge on cross-border B2B invoices?
We flag the correct VAT treatment, reverse charge or standard rate, per client and member state before the invoice is issued, then prepare the filing data for your VAT filer.
Can you track work in progress by client and matter?
Yes, time and expense data is reconciled against billing and retainer balances weekly, so unbilled work is visible before it is forgotten.
Does French or German data reach a credentialed local partner for filing?
Yes. France's expert-comptable rules and Germany's Steuerberatungsgesetz reserve certain filing and advisory work to locally credentialed professionals; we prepare the data and hand it to that partner.
How is client data protected?
Under signed Standard Contractual Clauses with a documented transfer impact assessment.
What happens when a matter runs across a member state and a non-EU client?
We flag the VAT treatment separately for the EU leg and the non-EU leg of the same matter, since the reverse charge and place-of-supply rules differ, then hand the split to your credentialed local partner before the invoice goes out.
Can you estimate work in progress at month end?
Yes, unbilled work in progress can be estimated and reflected in the monthly financials where time or milestone data is available.
Do you track profitability by client engagement?
Yes, income and direct costs can be tagged by engagement so margin is visible each month.
What are the common bookkeeping challenges for a professional services business?
Beyond the basics, partner or owner draws get mixed into payroll or general expense instead of tracked as equity distributions and multiple client engagements running at once make it hard to see which ones are actually profitable come up often in this industry. We build the chart of accounts and reconciliation process around those specific patterns rather than a generic template that ignores how the business actually operates.
What software do you support for professional services?
We work inside QuickBooks Online and Xero, along with the other tools listed on this page that are common in the professional services industry. If you have no file yet, we set one up in your name so you own it from day one.
Related services
- BookkeepingMonthly bookkeepingOngoing monthly bookkeeping: transactions sorted into categories, accounts reconciled and month-end reports delivered in the software you already use.
- BookkeepingCatch-up and cleanup bookkeepingMonths or years of books brought up to date and reconciled, with a written record of every adjustment, so monthly bookkeeping can start from a clean base.
Next step
Talk to the team that would run your books
A short call covers your setup, your software and what a first month would look like. You get a written scope and price after it.