Sector solutions

PilotagePro for consulting firms

Consulting and expertise firms are organisations where the raw material is consultants' time, and where profitability plays out mission by mission. PilotagePro is the business performance management tool designed for the leaders of these firms: it makes visible every month the real average daily rate, profitability per mission, team utilisation rate, and order book projection.

The pilot challenges specific to consulting firms

  • Time is the raw material. An unsold day is a lost day. Tracking consultant utilisation rate is the most structuring indicator of the firm's profitability.
  • Fixed-price missions hide drifts. A mission quoted for 5 days that consumes 8 erodes margin by 60%. Without post-mission tracking, this type of variance repeats and accumulates.
  • The order book drives future cash flow. A 3-month visibility on signed and probable missions is essential to anticipate recruitment and quiet periods.
  • Commercial discounts and variation orders shave margin. A strict discipline of comparing initial quote against final actual is non-negotiable.

Key indicators every firm leader should track

Real average daily rate
Total revenue divided by effective billed days. To be compared with the portfolio's theoretical rate. The variance reveals the commercial discounts granted and their margin impact.
Utilisation rate per consultant
Billed days divided by available working days. Typical target: 70 to 80% for healthy profitability.
Profitability per mission
Mission revenue less direct costs (consultant days allocated plus subcontracting). For fixed-price missions, systematic comparison with the initial quote.
Order book in person-days
Signed days plus weighted days in negotiation, projected over the next 3 to 6 months. Drives recruitment decisions and commercial policy.
90-day projected cash flow
Particularly useful given the often-long payment terms of large accounts.
Overhead cost per billable day
Fixed costs divided by annual billable days. Indicator of the minimum daily rate threshold for profitability.

How PilotagePro addresses consulting firm challenges

PilotagePro is designed for independent consulting and expertise firms that want to move from intuition-based management to management grounded in real numbers per mission and per consultant. You price your missions, your fixed-price engagements, your billed days - PilotagePro turns these operational data into a living economic read: real daily rate, utilisation rate, profitability per mission, projected order book, cash flow. You are accompanied in the onboarding and reading of your numbers to arbitrate pricing, recruitment and commercial policy - by a Pérenne Réseau consultant, your chartered accountancy firm if it distributes PilotagePro, or an outsourced CFO.

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Frequently asked questions

Is PilotagePro suitable for a 3-to-5 consultant firm?+

Yes. PilotagePro serves firms of 3 to 75 collaborators. For a 3-to-5 consultant firm, the tool surfaces challenges that size makes invisible in Excel: mission profitability, individual utilisation rate, daily rate drift.

How does the tool distinguish fixed-price missions from day-rate missions?+

The initial configuration differentiates both models. Fixed-price missions are tracked rigorously with quoted-time vs. actual-time comparison and automatic variance calculation. Day-rate missions follow the actual daily rate obtained.

Can I track the profitability of an individual consultant?+

Yes. Each consultant is tracked in terms of billed days, average daily rate achieved, utilisation rate, and net contribution margin of their missions. A key indicator for HR policy and career development decisions.

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