As a consultant, managing tasks, activities, and timelines across multiple platforms can quickly become disorganized and chaotic, especially in a rapidly growing firm. Consultants must handle multiple client requests, project portfolios, budgets, and schedules simultaneously to stay ahead of the project.

Project management software is crucial for the consultancy industry, as it facilitates the successful and timely delivery of projects to clients. With the right tools, consultants can stay on track, schedule team meetings, and work with their clients seamlessly.

Key Takeaways

Here's the list of 7 best project management software for consultants, their standout features and pricing:

  • Wrike Software — Best for customizable workflows
  • ClickUp Software — Best for built-in consulting project templates
  • Nifty Software — Best for its time-tracking capabilities
  • CMap — Best for its integration with powerful accounting software
  • Accelo — Best for its automated retainer management
  • Teamwork.com Software — Best for project portfolio management
  • Avaza — Best for its built-in invoicing feature

1. Wrike — Best For Customizable Workflows

Consultants often prefer Wrike for its customizable workflows and robust reporting and analytics features. Its portfolio and client management capabilities make it ideal for consultancy teams of all sizes. Wrike provides a comprehensive, 360-degree view of all projects, integrating your resource, probable risk, and task management into a single platform

Standout Features

  • Gantt Charts enable consultants to create project dependencies and milestones that give a better understanding of each project’s progress
  • Customizable Dashboards allow the creation of personalized analytics reports to spot potential roadblocks and provide a clear visual summary
  • Kanban Boards give a bird’s-eye view of the entire project portfolio and seamlessly track progress while optimizing resource allocation

Pricing

The software offers five pricing plans along with a free 14-day trial:

  • Free: $0/user/month
  • Team: $9.80/user/month
  • Business: $24.80/user/month
  • Enterprise: Custom Pricing
  • Pinnacle: Custom Pricing

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Wy Choose Wrike

Wrike’s workflow management system keeps the team informed about every aspect of the projects and helps maintain schedules. Project managers can easily obtain a comprehensive overview of all tasks, enabling them to drive impactful results.

2. ClickUp — Best For Built-In Consulting Project Templates

ClickUp is one of the best project management software for consultants working on complex projects. It includes task management, workflow automation, team collaboration, and time tracking features that streamline consulting workflows.

Standout Features

  • ClickUp AI assists with generating sale pitches, automating project summaries, and updating real-time progress within seconds
  • The software offers ‘Multiple Views’ for managing projects, such as calendar, lists, and boards, making it easy to visualize the workflow
  • Collaborative Whiteboards are the highlight in all ClickUp plans allowing minimum three whiteboards. This enables team members to brainstorm and visually map their ideas using arrow connections, roadmaps, and workflows

Pricing

The software comes with four pricing plans:

  • Free Forever: $0
  • Unlimited: $10/user/month
  • Business: $19/user/month
  • Enterprise: Customized pricing

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Choose ClickUp

The software’s pre-built ‘Consulting Agreement Templates’ allows consultants to set clear expectations, define roles and responsibilities, and outline all the legal terms and conditions. This template provides clarity on project objectives and defines terms of payment.

3. Nifty — Best For Its Time-Tracking Capabilities

Consultants can benefit from this software’s budgeting and time-tracking features that can help them take control of their firm’s operations. This feature allows them to effortlessly create tasks and milestones and monitor their progress.

Standout Features

  • The software seamlessly integrates with Zoom, Gmail, and Slack, allowing for more streamlined and real-time communication with clients and teams
  • Nifty's ‘Task Management’ lets you create, assign, and track tasks efficiently, set deadlines, and monitor progress to stay on time and within budget
  • The software allows to manage different projects from a ‘Single Dashboard’ to keep every piece of information accessible and organized

Pricing

Nifty offers five pricing plans:

  • Free: $0 (unlimited members)
  • Starter: $49/month (include 10 members)
  • Pro: $99/month (include 20 members)
  • Business: $149/month (include 50 members)
  • Unlimited: $449/month (include unlimited members)

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Choose Nifty

This time tracking software for consultants allows them to easily monitor the time spent on each task and project while ensuring their team receives fair compensation.

4. CMap — Best For Its Integration With Powerful Accounting Software

CMap is user-friendly software designed for consulting and professional service firms. It gathers all data into a centralized platform, enabling project managers to forecast costs and demand, invoice clients for completed projects, and efficiently manage timesheets.

Standout Features

  • Dashboards provide complete visibility into your consultancy business by transforming raw data into dynamic visuals, allowing you to easily convert that data into actionable insights
  • Consultants can predict revenue, cash flow, and staffing demand easily using the software’s ‘Project Accounting’ feature
  • The project deliverables budgeted by project managers are automatically converted into a Gantt chart, providing a clear overview of the project

Pricing

The software offers three pricing plans, each with custom pricing options:

  • Starter
  • Growth
  • Pro
  • Enterprise

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Choose CMap

CMap integrates with several accounting software such as Sage, MS Dynamics GP, Xero, Business Central, QuickBooks, and Accounts IQ. This helps consulting firms manage their budgets, track expenses, and generate invoices easily.

5. Accelo — Best For Its Automated Retainer Management

Accelo is a comprehensive consulting and service management platform offering multiple modules including project, client, and contact management, sales and quoting, retainers, billing, timesheets, tasks, reporting, and division management. This allows professionals to streamline their services all from a unified platform.

Standout Features

  • Real-Time Reporting allows consultants to make more data-driven decisions and get insights into how the firm is working
  • Gantt Charts assist with visualizing project schedules effortlessly, planning project milestones, and adjusting them to ensure the team stays on track
  • A Built-In Billing System allows users to generate bulk or individual invoices, automate client statements and reminders

Pricing

The software has three pricing plans available, all of them offering custom pricing:

  • Professional
  • Business
  • Advanced

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Chose Accelo

The platform features a comprehensive 'Retainer Module' for managing retainers and tasks, facilitating communication, and allowing for custom configurations and lists. It also tracks retainer expenses and provides reporting and forecasting for profitability.

6. Teamwork.com — Best For Project Portfolio Management

Teamwork.com software is ideal for handling client communication, project portfolios, and task management capabilities. It provides consultants with a centralized overview of project objectives, timelines, and deliverables.

Standout Features

  • The software’s Built-In Messaging feature allows for seamless collaboration between teams and clients on one platform
  • Teamwork.com’s Time-Tracking feature allows project managers to easily log hours spent on tasks and projects. This helps in monitoring billable hours efficiently, ensuring maximum productivity and profitability
  • The software's wide range of Integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks and Harvest along with communication software like Outlook and MS Teams makes it ideal for consultants

Pricing

There are four pricing plans available:

  • Deliver: $13.99/user/month (minimum 3 users)
  • Grow: $25.99/user/month (minimum 5 users)
  • Scale: $69.99/user/month (minimum 5 users)
  • Enterprise: Custom Pricing

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Chose Teamwork.com

Teamwork.com is a user-friendly platform offering time tracking, billable minutes, and strong project portfolio management capabilities. Its standout feature, ‘Time Budgets’, lets consultants compare the team’s progress against estimated time and billable hours.

7. Avaza – Best For Its Built-In Invoicing Feature

Avaza offers an all-in-one solution that integrates project management features with invoicing and expense tracking capabilities. The software is highly scalable, making it suitable for teams of any size. Consultants can start with a free plan and upgrade as the team grows, ensuring flexibility.

Standout Features

  • Task Management Dashboards allow consultants to switch from Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and list views based on their preferences
  • The software offers a variety of Integrations for consultants, like Slack for seamless team and client communication, QuickBooks and Xero for accounting, and many more
  • Built-In Invoicing feature assists with generating and sending invoices within one platform, making the billing process smooth

Pricing

The software has four pricing plans:

  • Free: $0
  • Startup: $11.95/user/month
  • Basic: $23.95/user/month
  • Business: $47.95/user/month

Disclaimer: Pricing is subject to change.

Why Chose Avaza

Avaza is ideal project management software for consultants who need to manage projects and finances. It helps consulting businesses seamlessly track expenses, manage invoices, facilitate team collaboration, and efficiently handle projects.

Finding The Right Consultancy Project Management Software For Your Team

Selecting the best project management consulting software streamlines tasks enhances team and client communication and gives consultants a greater visibility into their firm’s operations, ultimately saving time and improving efficiency. Research from PwC discovered that 77% of companies with high-performing projects have implemented project management software.

If you want software with pre-built consulting templates, ClickUp and Wrike are the best choices. For invoicing and time-tracking features, Avaza and Nifty are ideal consulting software. If integrating with powerful accounting software is your priority, CMap is the best choice. For dashboards and project portfolio management, go with Teamwork.com, and if managing retainers is important, consider Accelo.