Clearsulting

Background

Fragmented financial data challenges month-end close

Clearsulting empowers finance leaders to become better business partners. With offices in North America and Europe, they transform finance teams through a digital-first approach that delivers measurable results.

Success came quickly. In just six years, Clearsulting grew from a small team of three to nearly 200 consultants serving major clients in various industries. But with the company’s growth came the challenge of managing their consulting operations. As Monica Engelhardt, CFO of Clearsulting, explained:

“…about two or three years ago, we were getting to the point where we're like, we can’t do this the way we're doing it anymore. I think a big tipping point on that was our global expansion.” - Monica Engelhardt, CFO, Clearsulting

Clearsulting depended on its consultants’ efficiency. But teams were often hindered by tedious administrative tasks, diverting time from client work. Project proposal approvals were slow, lacking transparency in progress.

The finance team wrestled with fragmented data. Month-end close became challenging due to multiple subsidiaries and currencies. Extensive manual effort was needed to gather and reconcile information from disconnected systems.

Consultants felt that tracking time and expenses was disconnected from their daily tasks. Leadership lacked real-time insights into project performance and resource utilization, often making decisions based on outdated data from time-consuming manual processes.

With growth plans on the horizon, Clearsulting needed a scalable system that could connect their people, projects, and financials in one place.

Challenge

Barriers to business process optimization

Clearsulting’s rapid expansion to nearly 200 consultants surfaced operational cracks. Manual workflows, siloed systems, and limited data visibility slowed project approvals, dragged out financial closes, and hindered decision-making.

• Fragmented quote creation process
  Creating proposals took longer because different teams were using separate information sources and handling quotes on their own. This made it tough to keep pricing consistent and standardize services, which in turn slowed down approvals and made Clearsulting less responsive to new business opportunities.
• Siloed time and billing processes
  Consultants manually submitted their time and expenses, causing delays for finance teams in billing. The disconnection between delivery and finance slowed Clearsulting’s billing cycles and revenue recognition, increasing administrative work for all involved.
• Time-consuming report consolidation
  Putting together financial reports was a real hassle, as it involved manually combining data from eight different reports across three platforms into Excel. This lengthy process wasted a lot of resources every week and held up access to the crucial financial insights that leadership needed for their strategic planning.
• Spreadsheet-based project management
  Project estimates and approvals were trapped in spreadsheets, leading to delays and teamwork issues. The lack of a consistent workflow and central record system made it difficult for teams to align, track versions, and monitor the approval process.

Solution

Building a foundation for data-driven consulting

Clearsulting adopted Certinia’s Salesforce-native Professional Services Cloud, Financial Management Cloud, and Services Estimator to overcome operational bottlenecks. This platform replaced fragmented tools with connected workflows that streamlined business process optimization across project delivery and finance—giving Clearsulting the agility needed for smarter scaling.

Faster, more consistent proposal creation

Clearsulting replaced spreadsheets with Certinia’s Services Estimator, centralizing project planning and approvals in Salesforce. Teams can now create, review, and approve estimates directly, ensuring consistent pricing, standardized services, and quicker responses to new opportunities.

Seamless time and expense management

Certinia PS Cloud connects time and expense tracking software directly to finance, removing manual steps. Consultants can quickly submit reports, allowing finance to integrate this data into invoicing and revenue recognition, reducing Clearsulting’s billing cycle by six days, leading to better cash flow.

Multi-currency reporting automation

Certinia FM Cloud has eliminated manual financial consolidations for Clearsulting's subsidiaries and currencies, automating reporting and reducing month-end close time by over 50%. This allows finance teams to focus on delivering valuable insights for data-driven consulting.

Single-source pricing control

Project pricing, approvals, and teamwork are all streamlined in one connected process. This software for consulting firms has done away with the need for offline spreadsheets, which helps speed up approvals and enhances operational clarity—an essential benefit for implementing business consulting software.