Professional Services ERP, Australia

Service entities, trusts and partner reporting

Australian professional firms often look simple from outside and complex in the books. A common arrangement is a partnership whose partners hold their interests through family trusts or companies, alongside a service entity that employs staff, leases premises and charges the partnership for its services. Some firms have since added an incorporated practice or a separate advisory company.

Each arrangement has tax and legal reasons that your accountant and lawyers own. My concern is that the systems reflect them accurately. I document which entity invoices clients, which pays salaries, how and how often the service entity charges the practice, and how partners want results shown before and after those charges.

That matters for partner reporting. If the service fee is posted as one monthly lump, practice group profitability is distorted. If staff costs live in the service entity but time is recorded in the practice system, cost per hour has to be calculated deliberately. I agree these mechanics early, then write them into requirements and process maps so every vendor demonstrates against the same structure.

From first contact to cash in an Australian firm

The flow I map runs: first inquiry, a conflict or independence review, any required client identification, cost disclosure or engagement letter, matter or job opened, work allocated, time and disbursements recorded, draft invoice reviewed by the responsible partner, tax invoice issued, debtor follow-up and a review of how the final fee compared with time spent.

Several local practices affect the design:

• Law firms in many states give clients cost disclosures and estimates, which should be stored on the matter and compared with actual time as work progresses.
• Engineering and architecture firms often bill by project stage, with variations agreed during the job that must reach the invoice.
• Accounting practices bill a mix of recurring compliance work and one-off advisory projects, often with fixed fees for the former.
• Agencies run retainers and pass through media or production costs.

Each of these is a rule the system must apply consistently. The general professional services ERP page covers the module set, and ERP for project costing explains job margin in more depth.

GST on fees, overseas clients and BAS

GST applies to most professional fees supplied to Australian clients. Services to overseas clients may be GST-free in some circumstances, depending on where the client is and how the service is used, and recharged costs need their own treatment. These are questions for your tax advisor; my part is making sure the system applies the agreed answers from the client and service records rather than from a fee earner's choice of tax code.

The requirements I write cover how each client is classified, how service types map to tax codes, how disbursements differ from recharged expenses, and which reports support the Business Activity Statement. Where the firm runs several entities, each with its own registration, the system must also issue invoices from the correct entity.

BAS preparation is a useful test. If the person preparing it spends days correcting codes, the setup is wrong upstream. I include a full BAS period in UAT so problems show up before go-live rather than after. My Australia ERP consultant page covers GST and reporting for other sectors as well.

Trust money, payroll and the ledger you already use

Law firms and some other practices hold client money in trust accounts governed by state rules, with specific requirements for records, reconciliations and audits. I keep that ledger in specialist legal software designed for it. The design work is the boundary: how a bill paid from trust is marked as settled, who authorizes transfers, and how trust and office records reconcile each month. Your regulator's guidance and accountant set the rules.

Payroll is another early decision. Australian payroll involves Single Touch Payroll reporting, superannuation and awards for some roles, and most professional firms keep it in a dedicated payroll tool. Only the figures needed for cost rates should leave payroll; the rest stays with HR.

Many firms are attached to Xero or MYOB and want to keep their accountant's workflow. That is often reasonable. A practice or project system can handle intake, time and billing while the existing ledger stays the financial record. I define the integration, the detail level of postings and the monthly reconciliation, then compare that option honestly against moving to a single ERP.

Choosing independently and working remotely

Software sellers in Australia often specialize in one profession, and implementers usually prefer one platform. I stay independent of both: I write requirements first, test options against your real jobs and matters, and review implementation proposals so scope, assumptions and integration effort are clear before you sign.

Sometimes the honest recommendation is to keep the current tools and fix the rules: consistent tax codes, a real pre-bill review and a shared definition of WIP. A short diagnostic tells you whether replacement is worth it now or after the next structural change.

Consultancies and agencies often fit one platform covering CRM, projects, time and billing. Consulting practices will find staffing and retainer topics on the consulting ERP page, while my Zoho Projects Australia and Odoo Projects Australia pages go into tool-level detail.

The work is delivered remotely. Workshops are scheduled for your main office's time zone, which matters when partners sit in states with different daylight saving rules, and recorded walkthroughs let fee earners review designs between client work. For more on remote engagements with Australian clients, see the Australia overview.