From Bench Time to Billable Time
Spreadsheets and disconnected tools make it hard to know who's billable, what's coming next, and whether a project is actually profitable. TrellisPoint helps accounting, consulting, and advisory firms run on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations, Power BI, and AI to forecast with confidence and staff smarter.
The Problems We're Actually Solving
Professional services firms run on people and billable hours, not inventory. Most are still managing that with spreadsheets, tribal knowledge, and tools that don't talk to each other. Here's what we hear most.
Utilization Blind Spots
Firms can't see who's billable, who's benched, and who's overloaded until it shows up in a bad month. By the time it's visible in the numbers, the margin is already gone. Dynamics 365 Project Operations tracks utilization as it happens.
Forecasting Guesswork
Revenue and staffing forecasts get built in spreadsheets, updated manually, and are usually wrong by the time anyone reads them. Power BI replaces the spreadsheet with a forecast that updates itself.
Resource Planning Friction
Staffing the right person on the right engagement is a manual, tribal-knowledge process, not a system. The people who know who's available are usually too busy to check. That's resource scheduling built into one system, not a side project for whoever has time.
Disconnected Client & Engagement Data
Sales, delivery, and billing live in separate tools, so nobody has one complete view of a client relationship until something goes wrong. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights gives your team that view.
Sound familiar? Let's talk through it.
Schedule a Free AssessmentYour Trusted Microsoft Partner for Professional Services
Microsoft Solutions Partner
Recognized expertise as a Microsoft Solutions Partner across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and Microsoft Copilot.
Built for People-Powered Businesses
We configure Dynamics 365 around billable hours, utilization, and client engagements, not inventory or production lines, so it fits how a services firm actually runs.
Outcome-Focused Delivery
Every engagement ties to a measurable result, whether that's utilization, forecast accuracy, or margin. If we can't show you the value, we won't propose it.
Meet You Where You Are
Already running parts of Microsoft? Great. Still on spreadsheets and a patchwork of tools? We can work with that too. No forced rip-and-replace to get started.
Our Track Record
Proven Results That Speak for Themselves
Across manufacturing, professional services, financial services, healthcare, technology, and business services.
A few of the organizations behind those numbers
Solution Areas
Where We Focus for Professional Services Firms
Firms that get resourcing, forecasting, and client data into one system consistently improve utilization, protect margin, and grow without adding headcount just to keep track of everything. Here's where we help.
See Who's Billable, Who's Benched, Before It Costs You
Dynamics 365 Project Operations gives you one system for resourcing, project delivery, and profitability, so you always know who's working on what, who's available, and whether a project is actually making money.
- Real-time utilization tracking across every engagement
- Resource scheduling based on skills, availability, and cost
- Project profitability visible while the project is still running
- Time and expense entry that feeds billing automatically
Replace the Forecasting Spreadsheet With a Living Dashboard
Power BI turns utilization, pipeline, and financial data into forecasts that update as your business changes, not once a month when someone rebuilds a spreadsheet.
- Real-time utilization and capacity forecasting
- Revenue and staffing forecasts tied to actual pipeline data
- Project margin and profitability dashboards by client or practice area
- One version of the truth instead of five spreadsheets with different numbers
Give Every Partner and Manager One View of the Client
When sales, delivery, and billing live in separate tools, nobody has the full picture of a client relationship. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights unifies that data so your team always knows where a client relationship stands.
- Unified client profiles across business development, delivery, and finance
- Engagement history visible to everyone who touches the account
- Early visibility into at-risk clients or expiring engagements
- Cross-sell and expansion opportunities surfaced automatically
Track Proposals to Close Without Losing the Thread
Dynamics 365 Sales gives your business development team a structured pipeline from first conversation to signed engagement, so nothing slips through the cracks between proposal and kickoff.
- Pipeline visibility from proposal through signed statement of work
- Automated handoff from sales to delivery, no re-entering client data
- Utilization-aware capacity planning before you pitch new work
- Built-in follow-up and renewal reminders
Automate the Admin Work Eating Into Billable Time
Onboarding, time entry reminders, and approval routing shouldn't take time away from client work. Power Automate handles the repetitive steps, and Copilot can draft the first pass of a client status report so your team edits instead of starting from a blank page.
- Automated client and engagement onboarding workflows
- Time entry reminders and approval routing
- AI-drafted client status reports and meeting summaries via Copilot
- Fewer manual handoffs between practice areas
What Our Clients Say
We hired a firm and got a partnership! TrellisPoint helped transform my business model from a consulting service to a SaaS-based managed service company.
TrellisPoint has become an integral business partner to our firm. Their support and maintenance services have paid dividends through the expert help we receive from the team.
Resources for Professional Services Leaders
Guides and insights on how services firms are modernizing resourcing, forecasting, and client management with Microsoft technologies.
Latest on Professional Services and Microsoft Technologies
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Get a Clear Picture of Your Firm's Utilization
Tell us how your firm tracks utilization, forecasting, and resourcing today. We'll help you figure out what's worth fixing first.
- ✓ No sales pressure or canned demos
- ✓ We'll come with questions about how your firm runs, not a script
- ✓ You'll leave with a clear picture of your options
- ✓ Works whether you're on Microsoft today or evaluating it for the first time
Prefer to talk? Call (888) 719-0248.
Common Questions About Microsoft and Professional Services
If you don't see your question here, contact us and we'll walk through your specific environment.
How is Dynamics 365 different from accounting-specific or professional-services-specific software?
Purpose-built professional services tools usually handle one piece well, like time and billing, but stay disconnected from your CRM and reporting. Dynamics 365 Project Operations combines resourcing, project delivery, time and expense, and profitability in one system, and connects natively to Power BI and Microsoft 365, so you are not stitching together data from three or four different tools.
Can Dynamics 365 actually track utilization in real time?
Yes. Dynamics 365 Project Operations tracks resource assignments, logged time, and availability as they happen, so utilization and bench time are visible on a dashboard instead of showing up as a surprise at month end.
How does TrellisPoint help with revenue and staffing forecasting?
We connect Power BI to your project, pipeline, and resourcing data to build forecasting dashboards that update automatically. Instead of a spreadsheet someone rebuilds monthly, leadership sees current utilization, staffing needs, and revenue projections in one place.
We are a consulting or advisory firm, not a manufacturer. Is Dynamics 365 still a fit?
Yes. TrellisPoint configures Dynamics 365 around how services firms actually operate: billable hours, resource allocation, and client engagements, not inventory or production lines. Dynamics 365 Project Operations is built specifically for organizations that sell people's time and expertise.
How does Dynamics 365 improve resource planning for consulting and accounting firms?
Instead of relying on one or two people who know availability from memory, Dynamics 365 Project Operations shows who is available, what skills they bring, and what they cost, so staffing decisions are based on real data rather than tribal knowledge.
Can Dynamics 365 give us one view of a client across sales, delivery, and billing?
Yes. Dynamics 365 Customer Insights unifies client data across business development, delivery, and finance, so anyone on the account can see the full relationship history instead of piecing it together from separate systems.
What can Power Automate and Copilot actually take off our team's plate?
Power Automate handles repetitive steps like client onboarding, time entry reminders, and approval routing. Copilot can draft a first pass of a client status report or meeting summary so your team edits instead of starting from a blank page. Neither replaces judgment, they remove the manual busywork around it.
How long does a Dynamics 365 implementation take for a professional services firm?
It depends on scope, but most engagements follow TrellisPoint's Discover, Decide, Design, Deliver, Grow framework, starting with a free two-hour assessment to scope the work before any implementation timeline is set.