Professional Services Intelligence Brief
How to Improve Visibility Across Multiple Client Engagements
When a firm runs dozens of engagements at once, problems hide in the gaps between people and spreadsheets. A small set of shared measures, reviewed on a rhythm, gives leaders an early warning.
Short answer
To see across multiple client engagements, define a small set of measures for every engagement (scope and budget, hours and fees against budget, schedule status, who is working on it, unbilled work and unpaid invoices), keep them in one shared place and review them weekly. SPI Research’s most successful firms, as Deltek summarizes, monitor key metrics in real time rather than waiting for problems to show in financial statements,[1] and the Lean Enterprise Institute defines visual management as placing performance indicators in plain view so everyone can understand status at a glance.[2] Start with five or six measures, not thirty.
Why do leaders lose sight of engagements?
In small firms, the partners know every engagement. As a firm grows, information spreads across timesheets, project folders, email, spreadsheets and the heads of project managers. Leaders learn about problems late: when a client complains, when the invoice is disputed or when the quarter’s profit is lower than expected. By then the cost is sunk. SPI Research’s approach, as summarized by Deltek, is that the most successful firms do not wait for problems to appear in financial statements but monitor their metrics in real time, benchmark against peers and use them to guide decisions every quarter, every project and every hire.[1]
Visibility has a second benefit: it makes capacity decisions better. If you can see who is committed to what over the next eight weeks, you can plan hiring, decline or delay work sensibly and move people from idle to busy projects.
What should you track for every engagement?
Keep the list short and consistent so that every engagement can be compared. The table suggests a core set, each with a question it answers and where the data usually comes from.
| Measure | Question it answers | Typical source |
|---|---|---|
| Scope and budget | What did we agree to deliver, for what fee or hours? | Engagement letter, project plan |
| Hours and fees versus budget | Are we on budget? What percentage of budget is used and what share of the work is done? | Timesheets, billing system |
| Schedule status | Are milestones on time? What is waiting for the client or for internal review? | Project plan, task tracker |
| Staffing | Who is working on it and how many hours are committed next month? | Resource plan |
| Unbilled work | How much work done has not been invoiced? | Work in progress report |
| Unpaid invoices | How much has been invoiced but not collected, and for how long? | Receivables ledger |
| Margin | Is the engagement profitable after labor cost? | Finance and timesheets |
Clio’s lockup measure is a good summary of the last two lines. It converts the value of unbilled work and unpaid invoices into days of annual revenue: realization lockup is unbilled work divided by annual revenue times 365, collection lockup is unpaid invoices divided by annual revenue times 365, and total lockup is their sum. Clio reported median lockup of 44 days for realization, 27 days for collection and 88 days in total for law firms in 2026.[3]
How do you build a view that people will use?
Start with the questions leaders ask each week and build the simplest view that answers them. A one-page report with one row per engagement, colored status flags and a short list of exceptions is usually enough. Put it in a shared place and make one person responsible for keeping it current. The Lean Enterprise Institute’s definition of visual management captures the goal: indicators in plain view so the status of the system can be understood at a glance by everyone involved.[2]
Standardize the inputs. If different teams record time differently, the view will mislead. Agree on what counts as billable, how to code non-billable time, how often timesheets are completed and how project status is defined. Automate what you can, but do not wait for a perfect system: a shared spreadsheet reviewed weekly beats an elaborate tool that nobody trusts.
What rhythm of review works?
Use three cadences. Weekly, a 30-minute operations review of exceptions: engagements over budget or behind schedule, unbilled work older than a set number of days and overdue invoices. Monthly, a deeper review of utilization, realization, lockup, pipeline and staffing for the next quarter. Quarterly, a strategy review of margin by client and service, pricing and capacity plans. Each meeting should end with named owners and dates for actions.
Write down thresholds so the system tells you where to look: for example, flag any engagement that has used 80 percent of budget with less than 70 percent of the work complete, any unbilled item older than 30 days and any invoice more than 45 days overdue. SPI finds overruns above 10 percent harm margins and client satisfaction, and that top firms hold them to single digits,[1] so early flags give time to adjust scope or staffing before the damage is done.
What pitfalls should you avoid?
Too many measures is the main one: a dashboard of thirty numbers produces no action. Second is delay: if data is two weeks old the view cannot change decisions. Third is treating the view as surveillance; staff will game the numbers if it is used to blame. Use it to find system problems and fix them together. Fourth is ignoring cash: a profitable engagement with long lockup still strains the firm. Finally, review the view itself twice a year: remove measures nobody uses and add one that answers a recurring question.
Frequently asked questions
What should a services firm dashboard include?
Scope and budget, hours and fees against budget, schedule status, staffing commitments, unbilled work, unpaid invoices and margin for each engagement.
How often should leaders review engagements?
A short weekly review of exceptions, a monthly review of utilization, realization and lockup, and a quarterly review of margin, pricing and capacity.
What is lockup?
The days of annual revenue tied up in unbilled work and unpaid invoices; Clio calculates realization lockup and collection lockup as the value of each divided by annual revenue, times 365 days.[3]
Do I need special software?
Not to start. A shared, regularly updated spreadsheet with consistent definitions can work, and the discipline matters more than the tool. Real-time monitoring is what SPI’s best firms do, per Deltek.[1]
What is visual management?
The placement in plain view of indicators of system performance so that the status can be understood at a glance by everyone involved, according to the Lean Enterprise Institute.[2]
What to do next
- List the five or six measures leaders need to see for every engagement.
- Agree definitions for billable time, status and budget used.
- Build a one-page weekly view and name an owner.
- Set thresholds that trigger a review.
Optional · interactive example
See it in an interactive example.
Firm Economics Dashboard: a service-line dashboard with utilization and realization, a scenario simulator for hours, rate and cost, evidence-linked answers from APIS, and a sample brief, all on synthetic data.
The experience below is built on a synthetic firm, “Demo Advisory Partners,” analyzed by service line. It has no client-level or engagement-level records, so service lines are used to show the method. Nothing in it is real.
- In the service-line table, read the Contribution Δ column and the margins. Which line looks weakest on several measures?
- Click the Realization card and read the quarterly trend.
- Ask APIS which service lines warrant a closer review.
Understand Your Firm’s Economics and Growth Opportunities
Two Pillars helps professional services firms investigate profitability, capacity, pricing and growth using the firm’s own data and a structured assessment process. A good first step is a delivery workflow review that maps how work moves through your firm, measures waiting time and capacity at each step and finds the one constraint that limits output.
Sources
- Deltek, 5 KPIs from the SPI Professional Services Maturity Benchmark Report Every PSO Must Track for Sustainable Growth (July 15, 2026). Accessed October 2026.
- Lean Enterprise Institute, Visual Management. Accessed October 2026.
- Clio, Law Firm Key Performance Indicators (Legal Trends Report benchmarks, 2026). Accessed October 2026.
Sources checked October 2026. This guide is general information for the leaders of professional services firms and is not legal, accounting, tax or financial advice. Figures and rules are cited to the sources below and may have changed since they were accessed, so confirm anything you rely on against the current source. Two Pillars & Co is independent of the organizations cited. See our editorial policy.