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Engineering firms manage complex projects, resource-intensive operations, and stringent deadlines. However, what often gets overlooked is the operational layer, including billing, scheduling, utilization, and forecasting, the backbone of any successful services organization. That‘s where Professional Services Automation (PSA) software comes in.
In this article, we‘ll explore how engineering companies can boost productivity, profitability, and project delivery through PSA software, with real-life examples of how Birdview PSA supports this transformation.
Why engineering firms need more than just project management
Traditional project management tools can help engineers track tasks, but they don‘t give the full business picture. Engineering projects require:
- Long-term resource planning across multiple teams
- Cost and time tracking for both billable and non-billable work
- Forecasting future workloads based on project pipelines
- Invoicing and budgeting are connected directly to work execution
This is where PSA software fills the gap, turning operational blind spots into actionable insights.
What is PSA software?
Professional Services Automation (PSA) software is a solution designed to help service-based companies, such as engineering firms, manage their projects, resources, time tracking, billing, and reporting in a centralized and integrated platform.
Unlike traditional project management tools, PSA software covers the entire project lifecycle, from pipeline planning to final invoice. It combines operational features (scheduling, time tracking) with financial oversight (budgeting, cost tracking, billing), giving service organizations full control over delivery and profitability.
Birdview PSA is a leading PSA platform tailored for engineering and professional services teams, offering tools that align daily project execution with strategic goals.
📚 Read more: What is PSA software?
6 benefits of using PSA software for engineering firms
Engineering firms operate in fast-paced environments where precision, deadlines, and resource coordination are critical. PSA software offers a unified platform to manage these complexities, helping teams move from reactive to proactive operations. Below are six key benefits engineering companies can expect when adopting a PSA solution like Birdview.
1. Unified visibility across all engineering projects
Challenge: Engineers often work across multiple concurrent projects, and leaders struggle to get a clear picture of progress or performance.
Solution: Birdview‘s Portfolio Views and Project Dashboards offer a centralized view of all ongoing work. You can see status, budget burn, time logged, and forecasted capacity – all from one interface.
👉 Example: An engineering consulting firm using Birdview configured their portfolio view by client and region, helping regional managers track utilization and billable performance in real time.
2. Accurate resource planning for technical teams
Challenge: Engineering teams often deal with specialized roles (e.g., CAD designers, structural engineers, QA testers). Overbooking or misallocating resources can derail projects fast.
Solution: Birdview‘s Resource Planning lets you match people by job roles, skills, and availability, helping you assign the right expert to each task.
👉 Example: A midsize mechanical engineering company used Resource Matching and Job Role Management to ensure that only certified structural engineers were scheduled on bridge inspection projects, avoiding rework and compliance issues.
3. Tracking time and cost in real time
Challenge: Without accurate time logs, cost tracking is guesswork, and guesswork kills margins.
Solution: Birdview‘s Time Tracking and Project Cost Management features allow engineers to log time directly against tasks, phases, or deliverables. Managers can then monitor actual vs. estimated costs.
👉 Example: A civil engineering firm integrated Birdview‘s time tracking with Rate Cards to automatically calculate billable hours per resource type and client contract, improving invoicing accuracy by 27%.
4. Automated billing and invoicing
Challenge: Engineering companies often operate under fixed-fee, milestone-based, or time-and-materials contracts. Manual invoicing processes don‘t scale.
Solution: Birdview‘s Invoicing module (available in PSA Team and Enterprise plans) supports milestone billing, time-based billing, and expense pass-through, with options to preview, print, or email invoices directly.
👉 Example: A transportation infrastructure firm used Birdview‘s invoicing feature to generate monthly T&M invoices based on logged hours and reimbursable expenses, cutting down invoicing time from 3 days to a few clicks.
5. Forecast capacity and prevent burnout
Challenge: Overutilization and employee churn are common in engineering teams during peak workloads.
Solution: Birdview‘s Resource Capacity Planning and Utilization Reports help you forecast team load weeks or months in advance, letting you rebalance resources before issues arise.
👉 Example: An engineering design agency used Birdview to set capacity thresholds and receive alerts when specific roles were forecasted to be overbooked, preventing burnout and improving retention.
6. Manage the entire project lifecycle in one platform
From sales handoff to final delivery, Birdview PSA supports engineering teams across the full lifecycle. You can:
- Import projects from CRM
- Use Work Breakdown Structures and Gantt Charts to plan
- Allocate teams with resource scheduling tools
- Track deliverables, time, and costs
- Invoice based on logged work
- Report on KPIs across clients and departments
This end-to-end visibility helps firms make better decisions faster.
📚 Read more: 9 best engineering project management software in 2025
What Birdview offers engineering teams
Birdview PSA is purpose-built to meet the complex demands of engineering firms. Here‘s what it brings to the table:
🔧 Project Templates
Create reusable templates for recurring project types, such as site surveys, equipment installation, or client onboarding. Engineering project templates include predefined task structures, timelines, roles, and dependencies, making it easier to standardize your delivery process and reduce planning time.
🗂 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Charts
Break down engineering projects into manageable components with WBS. Visualize timelines, dependencies, and critical paths using Gantt Charts. This helps technical leads and PMs coordinate long-term construction, infrastructure, or product development projects without losing sight of milestones.
🔍 Real-time Dashboards
Get a live overview of project performance with configurable dashboards. Track key metrics like hours logged, completion percentage, burn rate, and forecasted revenue within a single platform. Dashboards can be tailored for engineers, project managers, or executives.
📅 Resource Scheduling with job role filters
Assign work based on job roles, certifications, and availability. Birdview allows you to visualize workloads across the entire team, balance allocations, and avoid overbooking key technical personnel like civil engineers or CAD technicians.
🧮 Invoicing and Billing with custom rate cards
Automate invoice creation by pulling data directly from logged time, approved expenses, or completed milestones. Custom rate cards let you apply different rates by project, client, or role, ensuring billing accuracy for T&M and fixed-price contracts.
📊 Business Intelligence (BI) Reports for advanced insights
Analyze project health, financial performance, and team utilization through customizable BI dashboards. Engineering firms use this to spot inefficiencies, monitor KPIs, and back up business decisions with data, from high-level overviews to granular reports.
🔄 CRM, QuickBooks, and SharePoint integrations
Seamlessly connect Birdview with your existing tech stack. Push and pull data from CRMs (like Salesforce), sync invoices with QuickBooks, or attach design files and client documents from SharePoint and OneDrive, keeping all project data connected and accessible.
💼 Project Accounting to connect execution with finance
Tie every hour, resource, and dollar spent to the actual project plan. Birdview helps engineering firms track budgets vs. actuals, forecast profitability, and manage cash flow without relying on disconnected spreadsheets or multiple systems.
Whether you‘re designing buildings, managing infrastructure, or delivering client-facing systems, Birdview keeps your engineering projects aligned, on budget, and on time.
Final thoughts
Engineering is already complex. Your project operations don‘t have to be.
With PSA software like Birdview, engineering firms can streamline delivery, control costs, and plan smarter. From portfolio visibility and resource forecasting to accurate invoicing and reporting, PSA creates a system that supports both execution and strategy.
In short, better operations lead to better outcomes. And with Birdview PSA, engineering teams are equipped to deliver both.
FAQ: PSA software for engineering companies
1. Can Birdview PSA support both fixed-fee and T&M contracts?
Yes, Birdview PSA supports multiple billing models, including fixed-fee, milestone-based, and time-and-materials, with built-in flexibility for rate cards and custom invoicing.
2. Is it possible to manage subcontractors in Birdview?
Absolutely. Subcontractors can be assigned limited access roles using the Client portal while still contributing to task execution and time tracking.
3. How does Birdview support engineering teams working in multiple locations?
Birdview offers remote-friendly collaboration, centralized dashboards, and real-time updates, making it easy for distributed engineering teams to work as one unit.
4. Can I connect Birdview to our internal tools?
Birdview integrates with different platforms, like SharePoint, OneDrive, and others, allowing you to attach files, plans, and specs directly to your projects.
