Professional services

Project billing and revenue recognition are not the same date

Engineering, architecture and consulting firms that bill by milestone or project phase often record revenue on the invoice date, which can land weeks or months after the work that generated it was actually performed. That mismatch means a firm's monthly profit and loss can show a great month simply because an invoice happened to go out, with nothing about the underlying work having changed. Finbryn sets up revenue recognition to follow the work performed rather than the invoice date, using time or milestone data from the firm's project system.

Unbilled work in progress

At any given month end, a firm typically has work completed that has not yet been invoiced, sometimes because billing runs on a delay, sometimes because a milestone has not technically been reached yet even though the work is done. Firms that never estimate that unbilled work in progress consistently understate revenue and look less profitable than they actually are in the months leading up to a big invoice. We estimate work in progress at month end using time or milestone data where it is available, so the financials reflect work performed, not just work invoiced.

Partner draws and engagement-level profitability

Partner or owner draws are distributions of equity, not payroll or general expense, and mixing the two distorts both the firm's expense base and its equity position on the balance sheet. We track draws as equity movements, separate from payroll and operating cost.

Firms running several client engagements at once benefit from seeing which ones are actually profitable once staff time and direct costs are allocated, a question pooled bookkeeping cannot answer. We tag income and direct cost by engagement so that comparison is available every month, not just estimated after the fact when a client review comes up.

Working with Finbryn

You keep your QuickBooks Online or Xero file. A named pod manages your account, with a recorded handover memo if that pod changes, and books close by business day five. Firms catching up on unbilled work in progress or engagement-level tracking typically start with a catch-up project, priced separately from ongoing monthly bookkeeping. Pricing is published on our pricing page.