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Consulting Firm Software Cost in 2026: Per-User Prices and a 10-Person Firm Example
Published prices for time and billing, project management, e-signature and accounting, which vendors only quote, and a worked example for a 10-person consulting firm.
By Localhost Labs
In short
- Consulting software is mostly priced per user per month. Harvest publishes $9 (Teams, annual) and $14 (Enterprise, annual); Teamwork $9.99 (Basics) and $24.99 (Accelerate); Scoro from $17; Kantata and Accelo only quote.
- In an illustrative 10-person firm, the published-price stack of time and billing, project management, e-signature and accounting comes to about $580 a month, or $58 per person, before a CRM, payment processing and implementation.
- Quote-only tiers (Kantata, Accelo, Harvest Enterprise Plus, Teamwork Optimize) are where the real cost of a larger firm sits, so ask for per-user price, user minimum and implementation in writing.
Most consulting firms know what they pay for timesheets. Fewer know what the whole stack costs: time and billing, project management, e-signature and accounting, each billed by a different vendor, usually per user, and often with tiers that are only available by quote.
This post adds it up using the prices vendors publish. All prices are as listed on each vendor's own pricing page on November 2, 2026, in US dollars and before tax. They change often, promotions come and go, and negotiated pricing can differ. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price, we say so rather than guess.
What the published prices are
| Tool | What it does | Published price (per user per month unless noted) |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest | Time tracking and invoicing | Free (1 seat); Teams $9 annual / $11 monthly; Enterprise $14 annual / $17.50 monthly; Enterprise Plus by quote |
| Teamwork | Project management | Free; Basics $9.99 (3-user minimum); Accelerate $24.99 (5-user minimum), billed annually; Optimize and Enterprise by quote |
| Scoro | Work management with quoting and billing | Time-billing $17; Projects & Resources $29; Quote to Cash $29; End-to-end $57; 5-user minimum |
| Kantata | Professional services automation | Quote only |
| Accelo | Professional services automation | Quote only |
| DocuSign eSignature | E-signature | Standard $25; Business Pro $40; Enhanced by quote |
| QuickBooks Online | Accounting (priced per company) | Simple Start $38; Essentials $85; Plus $140; Advanced $340 (list prices; introductory discounts apply to new customers) |
Two caveats. First, Float, a resource-planning tool, prices per scheduled person ($7 Starter, $12 Pro) and does not handle billing, so it is a complement to the tools above rather than a replacement. Second, the true cost of the quote-only vendors can only be learned by asking.
A worked example: a 10-person firm (illustrative)
Take a 10-person consulting firm that tracks time and invoices clients, manages projects, sends contracts for signature and keeps its books in QuickBooks.
| Line | Calculation | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Time and billing: Harvest Teams | 10 users x $9 | $90 |
| Project management: Teamwork Basics | 10 users x $9.99 | $99.90 |
| E-signature: DocuSign Standard | 10 users x $25 | $250 |
| Accounting: QuickBooks Plus | one company, list price | $140 |
| Total | about $580 |
That is about $58 per person per month, or roughly $6,960 a year, before a CRM, payment processing, any implementation fees and the time spent moving data between tools. Swapping Harvest and Teamwork for a single Scoro plan at the Time-billing tier is $170 a month for 10 users at the list price, but it covers less of the project side.
The costs outside the subscription
- Seat minimums. Teamwork requires 3 users on Basics and 5 on Accelerate; Scoro requires 5.
- Quote-only tiers. Kantata, Accelo, Harvest Enterprise Plus and Teamwork Optimize do not publish a price. Ask for the per-user price, user minimum, implementation fee and contract length in writing.
- Introductory discounts. QuickBooks and others advertise promotional pricing for new customers, so compare list prices for a multi-year view.
- Integration time. Time entries, project budgets and invoices live in different systems, and someone reconciles them. It never appears on a vendor invoice, but it is real.
Why the stack matters more than any one price
Utilization and realization depend on time reaching the invoice accurately. When timesheets, budgets and billing sit in separate tools, the numbers drift. Our guide to consulting utilization tracking covers benchmarks and how to make timesheets reliable, and our consultant utilization calculator shows what a few points of utilization are worth.
How to price your own stack
- List every tool your team logs into and the number of users on each.
- Use list prices for a like-for-like view, and ask quote-only vendors for written numbers.
- Add one-time implementation and the hours your team spends re-typing between tools.
- Compare the total with one platform built around how your firm runs. See software for consulting firms and our custom software cost guide.
When fewer systems make sense
If you pay for four or five tools and your staff still re-enter the same hours, the subscription total understates the problem. A single platform on a published subscription replaces the handoffs. Book a 20-minute call and bring your tool list.