Consulting & professional services
Know what it takes to deliver the work you sell.
Finance, people, systems, and contract support for consulting and professional services businesses where project economics depend on staffing, time, and billing discipline.
Review project economics with the delivery plan.
Connect revenue, labor cost, subcontractor spend, utilization, and realization at the project level. Separate time recorded from time billed and explain the differences before drawing conclusions about margin.
Use the same staffing assumptions in the cash forecast and delivery plan, with changes reviewed as engagements expand, slip, or end.
Finance & accountingKeep time and expense moving through approval.
Define the project and task codes, submission deadlines, reviewers, and exception handling that support accurate client invoices. A late timesheet or disputed expense can hold up billing for an entire engagement.
Unanet implementation and support is our deepest platform specialty. Configure the system around the delivery and approval process, test payroll and expense interfaces, and reconcile the result.
IT & business systemsClose the books with named preparers and reviewers.
Establish the close calendar, bank and balance sheet reconciliations, unbilled work review, and reporting deadlines. Make unresolved items part of the monthly discussion.
Fractional finance leadership can help owners review cash, collections, hiring assumptions, and the economics of the next client commitment.
Discuss the close and finance leadershipCoordinate employees and subcontractors with client needs.
Maintain onboarding, payroll and benefits administration, engagement assignments, and offboarding steps. Keep subcontractor agreements, approved work, invoices, and payment records aligned.
Track client billing cycles, milestones, scope changes, and renewal decisions with the people responsible for delivery.
Contracts & commercial operationsUnanet implementation and support
Founded in 2023, Ascent brings senior practitioner delivery to project accounting, implementation, migration, reporting, and ongoing support. Review the system scope alongside the recurring work.
Explore Unanet servicesQuestions before we start
Can you help us understand utilization and realization?
Yes. First agree the definitions and time, billing, and cost sources, then reconcile them at the project level. The review should show what changed and which action belongs to delivery or finance.
Can you support our current project accounting system?
We begin with the existing setup. Unanet is our deepest platform specialty, with other systems assessed against the actual delivery, billing, and reporting requirements.
Can finance leadership be part of recurring support?
Yes. Fractional CFO or controller support can sit alongside monthly accounting and reporting, with an agreed decision and review cadence.
Which engagements are carrying the business?
Start with project results, unbilled work, collections, and the staffing commitments behind them.