Accelo vs Certinia PSA

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Our analysts compared Accelo vs Certinia PSA based on data from our 400+ point analysis of PSA Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Accelo Software Tool

Product Basics

What’s a workspace without organization? Chaos. Just like an event coordinator needs a detailed planner, your business needs PSA software like Accelo.

Its cloud-based platform is ideal for getting your tasks checked off and ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. How? By automating processes and letting you manage client and service operations in one place.

The system assists small professional service businesses with sales, client billing, project management and time tracking. It offers complete visibility into projects, clients, and finances from any device, with features for reporting and team collaboration.

Designed for sectors like accounting, engineering, consulting, and design, it integrates various systems to provide real-time insights into your company’s health. It also supports maintaining client relationships, staying competitive and enhancing profitability.

According to our Express App data, Accelo earns a 95 in customer relationship management (CRM), 91 in project management and a perfect 100 in resource management.

It’s one of our top five PSA products for CRM, integration and extensibility, and ranks in the top ten for project and resource management.

Users praise its support team for being responsive, helpful and effective. Users also note the platform is great for centralizing work and company information, including emails, tickets, and invoices. Customization options for workflows, invoicing and time tracking are also appreciated.

In contrast, some users report challenges with confusion during onboarding, limited automation capabilities and a time-consuming approval process.

What are some stand-out features off the bat?

  • Live Profitability Reporting
  • Skills-Based Scheduling
  • 360° Client View
  • Custom Retainers
  • Automatic Recurring Tasks

Let’s take a closer look at what Accelo brings to the table.


Price $50 Per User, Monthly
Deployment Method Cloud
Business Size Small
Customer Service Availability Accelo’s global support team is available 24/6. You can submit issues via email or the Get Help menu.
Popular Integrations Google Workspace, Microsoft 365

Quick Comparison

See how Accelo stacks up against top competitors below.

Product Starting Price Free Trial User Score Ideal for Deployment
Accelo $50 per user, monthly No N/A Small Businesses Cloud
Asana $10.99 per user, monthly Yes 88% S, M, L Cloud
Scoro $26 Monthly Yes 92% S, M, L Cloud
Workday PSA $99 per user, monthly Yes 81% Large Businesses Cloud
Certinia PSA $175 per user, monthly Yes 84% M, L Cloud, On-Premise
Dynamics 365 Project Operations $95 per user, monthly Yes 78% M, L Cloud, On-Premise
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Certinia PSA (formerly FinancialForce PSA) offers users complete clarity over their business' sales, finances and services. It enables users to manage clients, team members, projects and financial information in one PSA system. Users receive uniform data points so they can better monitor resources and make accurate estimates.

Sales engagement, project management, time and expenses and resource management are some of Certinia PSA's top capabilities.
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Integrate Seamlessly: Connect with popular platforms like GSuite, QuickBooks, HubSpot, Stripe, PayPal, Airtable and Slack (just to name a few).
  • Manage From Anywhere: Use the mobile app to handle every aspect of your business wherever you are, anytime.
  • Create Quotes Easily: Generate and convert quotes for any project with a single click.
  • Collaborate on Projects: Work together on projects, sales leads, and support issues to meet deadlines and ensure project success.
  • Drive Business Processes: Get smart alerts if things go off track and forecast future needs to keep your processes running smoothly.
  • Achieve Success in Client Service: Streamline ticket tracking, time billing, invoicing, and recurring tasks while gaining insights into profit margins and resource use.
  • Set Automated Triggers: Use replicable templates and automated triggers to manage retainers and track ongoing services effortlessly.
  • Forecast Team Schedules: Predict your team’s billing needs and schedule tasks according to project workflows, with the flexibility to adjust as needed.
  • Make Billing Painless: Integrate with key business apps and modules for real-time access to client, financial, and project data.
  • Tailor Access Permissions: While it's handy to easily provide access to clients and your team, it's even more important to protect certain information from unauthorized access. Permissions help you easily grant access and also restrict it as needed. 
  • Enhance Business Intelligence: Take a look at key insights and reports in real time and track profitability to predict your revenue (including performance tracking and project tracking).
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  • Master Record: Users can utilize a master record of customer data with immediate transparency and seamless teamwork throughout their projects, resources and clientele. 
  • In-depth Insights: Certinia PSA enables users to gain deep analytics and robust insights from their company to make timely and wiser business choices. 
  • Automatic Business Practices: Users can automate all of their business practices from opportunities to pinpointing revenue.  
  • Flexible and Cohesive: This solution is adaptable and works with small and large companies. Its cloud deployment enables users to seamlessly collaborate with every essential employee, internal and external stakeholders. 
  • Full Transparency: Certinia PSA can showcase resource data 24/7 so users can immediately pull up needed resources or preserve them. 
  • Accessibility: Users can access the time and expense management and upload snapshots of expense receipts with the mobile app. The app can streamline the time and expense tracking process by making it available at any time on any connected device.  
  • Receive Accurate Predictions: Users can implement the billing and revenue recognition module to generate accurate forecasting and predictions. It includes thorough scheduling information and an analysis of revenue impact. Users also receive current and future perspectives with full transparency of their sales pipeline.  
  • Adjustable Dashboards: Having trouble sharing the right metrics with the right people? Executives, resource and project managers, financiers and consultants can implement Certinia PSA's flexible dashboards to study and evaluate key performance metrics. 
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  • Resource Allocation: This is Accelo's leading functionality (ranked at 100). Let's take a closer look at the features that earned this score.
    • Skills-Based Scheduling: Ensure tasks are assigned to the best-equipped team members, leading to better results and reducing burnout.
    • Live Profitability Reporting: Direct resources for better financial outcomes with real-time insights into project performance.
    • Automated Time Tracking: Capture every minute, from sending an email to closing a task. This helps expand on resource usage and make smarter task assignments and adjustments. Advanced time rounding rules also help enhance precision.
    • Activity Dashboard: Monitor project progress with a real-time overview of ongoing tasks and team activities.
    • Utilization Insights: Get detailed data on how resources are used to optimize workload distribution and improve efficiency.
  • Sales: Its built-in sales quoting feature makes it easy to build and maintain customer relationships. It updates automatically with each client interaction, keeping you in the loop on everything.
    • Automation and Processes: Guide your next steps by sending template emails, scheduling follow-ups and updating due dates all in one go.
    • Team Scheduling: Plan when to start new projects based on workload predictions.
    • Client Records: Make faster, more informed decisions with access to all customer-related data.
    • Team Inbox: Access all client-related information and email communication with a team inbox.
    • Tracking and Sync: Share client appointments, emails, notes, attachments and custom fields with their team members.
    • Cloud-Based ServOps: Oversee the primary functions of your business, from prospect to payment.
    • Expenses: Stop chasing down receipts. Manual expense tracking isn't just outdated; it's time-consuming and prone to inaccuracies. To combat this issue you can add expenses either on the web or mobile app.
  • Professional Services Automation: Accelo's all-in-one place design lets you run your service operations from the cloud. It covers project management, client management, time tracking and invoicing.
    • CRM and Client Database: Share client databases in real time and let users see client work in a synchronized way.
    • 360° Client View: Gain a comprehensive view of client interactions and history for personalized engagement.
    • Invoicing: Offer partial and bulk invoicing, customizable templates, and online payments.
    • Payments: Sync with QuickBooks or Xero to support two-way payments. Get automatic late payment reminders and set up recurring or automated payments to keep things running smoothly and save yourself from chasing down payments.
    • Email Tracking: Stay on top of emails with the help of its two-way sync with Office365, Google Apps and Exchange.
    • Timesheet Reports and Automated Timesheets: View completed work for individuals or on a team level to gauge workplace productivity. Populate weekly timesheets automatically with employee names and ongoing work.
    • Projects: Ease full project management with Gantt charts, collaboration tools and budget tracking.
    • Services: Track tickets with emails and automated timers.
    • Retainers: Manage ongoing service contracts and projects with automated notifications and auto billing.
  • Project Management: Accelo’s project management capabilities provide features for flexible invoicing and reporting. (This functionality ranks at 91).
    • Project Planning: Structure project planning with drag-and-drop Gantt charts.
    • Project Tracking: Users can manage their budget and deliverables with Accelo, ensuring that projects are profitable.
    • Time Tracking: See exactly how time is spent and don’t miss a minute with email timing, task-based time, a mobile timer and automated time-tracking sheets. Its time-tracking capabilities earn a decent score of 83.
    • Client Portal: Offer clients access to a portal that allows them to create, submit and track their tickets.
    • Automation and Processes: Get alerts when projects get held up or slow down before customers call them out.
    • Expenses: Submit expenses for client or internal reimbursement on a per-project basis.
    • Invoicing: Generate value or T&M-based invoicing that syncs automatically to QuickBooks and Xero.
  • Service: With its customer service management feature, users can provide smooth, profitable and consistent client support. It’s built for professional services and includes a support ticket system that highlights which issues need your attention.
    • Automation and Processes: Build workflows for various work types like “onsite visit” or “website is down.”
    • Automated Notifications: Automate messages to manage tickets and send reminder emails before closing tickets.
    • Activity Tracking: See your client and team communications in a single platform.
  • Retainer Management: Manage your ongoing services and contracts with flexible options and automated tools.
    • Usage Tracking: Track retainer tasks by hours or by budget.
    • Custom Retainers: Set up allowance rollover and types flexibly.
    • Communications Tracking: Track and monitor relevant notes, emails and other communications between users and clients.
    • Client Portal: Give clients a bird’s eye view of total contract usage and customize the portal to provide a tailored experience.
    • Automatic Recurring Tasks: Create and schedule recurring tasks such as payroll and SEO for ongoing projects.
    • Tickets and Project Connection: View time worked on projects and sort by projects, tasks or emails.
    • Automated Notifications: Notify clients and teams when contracts approach their limits to manage expectations.
    • Unlimited Templates and Types: Create and customize new client setups with flexible contract or retainer types, including renewal and notification rules.
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  • Streamline Resource Allocation: Certinia PSA's resource management accessory enables users to comprehend every quality of a resource schedule such as project time, PTO, non-billable time and more, to maximize staffing and dominate project management. Users can track resource skills, certifications and availability and oversee and tailor utilization measurements to achieve their resource scheduling demands. 
  • Monitor Every Resource: Users can employ the resource management tool to review capacity, backlogs and availability throughout projects. This module can proactively display resource schedule information online 24/7. Users can find, preserve and generate needed resources right away or in the future. 
  • Establish Practical Expectations: This solution offers a sales engagement tool for users to actively participate in the sales cycle to formulate trustworthy quotes and monitor customer expectations. Users can project requirements and prices to create realistic expectations. When users gain visibility in the brainstorming stages of sales, they can boost margins and clientele gratification.    
  • Transparency in the Sales Channel: Users receive whole visibility in the sales channel with the sales engagement tool to plan ahead by recognizing gaps in supply and demand beforehand. Users can also forecast resource requirements before deals close so they can make informed business decisions. 
  • Communicate with Stakeholders and Clientele: The PSA communities accessory enables users to share current data, reports and project plans with internal and external stakeholders. Users can initiate prompt discussions and share the necessary documents. This tool also allows users to convey and work together with customers by sharing project statuses, data and files.  
  • Manage Partners and Subcontractors: Users can employ the PSA communities module to ensure partner and subcontractor stakeholders are in the know by sharing related costs, availability and project influences. This accessory can exhibit partner and subcontractor costs as they occur, automatically submit time and expenses and monitor invoices and vendor cost budgets. 
  • Develop New Projects in One Click: The project management accessory authorizes users to create new projects with one click and all of the significant information is automatically entered. Users can benefit from advanced project templates to reduce time and guarantee cohesive delivery methods for projects to reach positive outcomes.  
  • Launch Elaborate Procedures: Users can execute workflows and strategies with the project management tool. Managers receive configurable views of their assignments, intricate workflows are promptly activated to meet the most complex assignments and resources can be assigned to specific projects or jobs with thorough work breakdown structure (WBS) support. 
  • Gantt Conspicuity: The project management tool also offers hands-on Gantt charts to fully see plans, dependencies and timelines. Users can search and filter project information and dive into single resource schedules. The drag-and-drop component enables users to move or place assignments and effectively respond to changes.  
  • Facilitate Time Entries and Approvals: Users can implement the time and expense management tool to easily modify time for responsibilities and jobs in one place. Users can copy from other schedules or previous weeks. This module allows users to approve procedures through emails, social channel feeds and mobile devices. Bulk approvals come in handy for large quantities of timecards or expenses.  
  • Mobile-Friendly: The time and expense management module is available on the Certinia app so users can input or validate timecards and expenses. Users can also load snapshots of expense receipts. 
  • Oversee Project Profits: Users can leverage the project financials accessory to study the financial progress of a project. They receive authorization to revenue, bookings, backlog, billing, budgets and rate realization any time anywhere. This module enables users to effortlessly filter data by region, practice or group breakdowns. Users can also monitor the project's revenue costs and margins with the project or portfolio-mode views. 
  • Seamless Billing: The project financials module can be utilized to automate the bid to bill process that can be shared with a user's sales, services and finance departments. Users can also bill by time and expense, flat fee and retainer and combine several billing types for one project. This accessory also produces invoices or mixed billing events for the financial backend of a user's choosing.  
  • Set Budget and Watch Progress: Certinia PSA's project financials component has a revenue recognition extension that permits users to create revenue recognition standards to match your business needs or procedures. Users can upload revenue transactions into their financial system and receive complete transparency over what's ready to bill, what's already been billed and what's been invoiced. This tool can monitor actuals against budgets immediately as it occurs. Users can employ access and workflow restrictions to control budget approvals and requested modifications.  
  • Swift Billing and Easy-to-Find Revenue:  The billing and revenue recognition accessory permit users to pass along bills to their preferred financial system. This tool offers instant assembly of billing data as their projects are finished and submitted for flexible approval. Users can implement a protected audit trail for guaranteed compliance and effortlessly input revenue transactions into your financial application. 
  • Real-Time Data and Insights: Users can employ the dashboard and reporting accessory to promptly display performance and essential KPIs. This feature has vigorous, adaptable dashboards and reports and significant data so users can make crucial and punctual administrative decisions. Users can also develop a library of status reports for their archives and adjust automation options to email customizable reports and files. 
  • Role-Based Dashboards: The dashboard and reporting feature is equipped with personalized management dashboards. These dashboards are flexible for executives, resource managers, project managers, financiers and consultants. Users can also create data access rights that align with a particular role and divide metrics to review extra practical metrics.  
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Product Ranking

#5

among all
PSA Software

#16

among all
PSA Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

83
92
95
93
65
97
67
95
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Resource Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Project Management
Integration and Extensibility
Project Collaboration
Project Financials
Dashboard and Reporting
Mobile Capabilities
Time and Expense Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Accelo
Certinia PSA
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Dashboard And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Project Collaboration Project Financials Project Management Resource Management Time And Expense Management 95 65 67 73 80 71 91 100 83 93 97 95 92 100 100 93 94 95 0 25 50 75 100
91%
0%
9%
82%
18%
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50%
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50%
100%
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40%
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60%
100%
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73%
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27%
93%
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71%
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29%
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92%
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8%
92%
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8%
100%
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86%
14%
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78%
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22%
89%
11%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

75%
0%
25%
80%
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20%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 716 reviews
Great User Sentiment 536 reviews
88%
of users recommend this product

Accelo has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 88% when considering 716 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

84%
of users recommend this product

Certinia PSA has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 84% when considering 536 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.8 (9)
4.4 (513)
4.2 (438)
4.5 (172)
4.2 (49)
n/a
4.7 (22)
4.1 (31)
3.6 (18)

Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Certinia PSA and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Mobile Capabilities, Project Collaboration and Project Management.

Mobile Capabilities Award
Project Collaboration Award
Project Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

89% of users commend Accelo's customer support, noting it as helpful, quick and friendly.
80% of users appreciate its ability to centralize work and company information, integrations and comprehensive features for managing tickets, tasks and projects.
67% find invoicing straightforward, especially for setting up repeaters and managing client invoices, which is easier than using separate systems. They also enjoy the variety of invoicing options.
A little over half of Accelo users praise its time tracking, citing it’s easy to use and log time with options like manual entry or a timer.
Most users found the platform intuitive and liked the UI, frequent updates and the convenience of accessing information from any device.
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Friendly Interface: Precisely 62% of users stated that the program has an easy implementation process and an intuitive user interface.
Strong Performance: Certinia PSA is a single source of information that streamlines procedures and manages projects, teams, patrons and financial tasks, as stated by 65% of users.
Oodles of Features: This solution is equipped with a wide range of features including time tracking, resource planning and allocation, reporting, forecasting, bank reconciliation and more, according to 67% of users.
Smooth Integrations: Roughly 94% of users say the software can merge with other solutions such as Salesforce, Excel, NetSuite, Certinia Accounting, other CRM programs and more.
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Users have mixed feelings about Accelo's reporting. Some are frustrated by the inability to lock timesheets and find it difficult to search due to the system keeping activities open.
20% of users find the interface complex and missing features, such as smart text options and dark mode.
The platform’s many features and ways to perform tasks can lead to different team members using it in various ways, causing confusion.
While there are a lot of options to tailor the system to different workflows, they also note that there are limited aspects of the system that can be changed, such as rates.
Some users have experienced challenges with adjusting project schedules and time entries.
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Customization Limitations: Certinia PSA's customization options may not be as extensive as some users require, potentially leading to workarounds or compromises in tailoring the platform to specific workflows.
Usability Challenges: The user interface and overall user experience of Certinia PSA can be complex and require a significant learning curve, particularly for new users or those transitioning from other PSA solutions.
Reporting Flexibility: Generating customized reports or accessing specific data points within Certinia PSA may require advanced knowledge or technical expertise, potentially hindering efficient data analysis and decision-making.
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Get ready to "accelo-rate" your understanding of this PSA and project management software.Accelo commonly uses a dual-menu design, where you’ll find different menu options on the left and right sides of the screen. This setup can ease navigation by grouping related tasks. However, this can require more screen real estate, which could be a disadvantage on smaller monitors or devices, making the interface feel cluttered.Let’s dive into the sales module first, where you can view and manage your book of business (your clients). On the left-hand side, contact info is clearly displayed for quick reference. There’s a visual to see the momentum of your work with each client, including activities vs. hours, revenue and how many times they’ve been in touch with you over the past week.Personally, I liked the sales module and felt like the layout was easy to follow. There’s Recent Work that shows closed tasks like campaign planning, new product visuals and website maintenance.As a multitasker prone to triple checking things, I liked that this helps you track progress and ensure everything’s wrapped up before moving on to the next task. It's great for accountability and communication by keeping details transparent, so everyone stays on the same page without sifting through emails or notes.The page seems intuitive and reasonably simple to navigate. There are tabs at the top for contacts, attachments, assets, tasks and billing.Under the Work tab at the top, you can manage sales opportunities, such as web maintenance. All the info you need is in one place to help reduce time spent clicking around.Click on the opportunity, and from there, view important details. See the sale type to determine the right workflow and help reps understand which stage comes next (there’s also automation between steps). See the sale’s value, how likely closure is and when it’s due. Basically, it’s set up like the answer key in the back of a textbook that gives you all the clear details.Teamwork makes the dream work, right? There’s a sales pipeline report, and you can track effort. It’s known for its resource management feature, helping reduce burnout with automated recurring tasks and skills-based scheduling to get the job done by the best person.Integrate with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 to track communications between team and customer. Additionally, track time spent on emails directly in Accelo. A timer at the bottom of your emails tracks exactly how long you’ve spent on it.Click Add quote and select a template for creating a quote, and configure it based on your branding. On the left-hand side of the sales opportunity (in this example it’s web maintenance) there are sales details, team, bookings, comments, quote and a visual for sales activity (also additional details, sales email alias and tags).When ready to generate a quote, click the add icon on the right. The process is seamless, with just three steps: create an estimate, edit it and preview/publish.Quotes/estimates hold a lot of info, like details on services, terms and conditions, specific price breakdowns, and your team mission statement. The cool thing about Accelo is you can toggle on or off certain details easily, so if this is a client you’ve worked with a lot and they don’t need a lengthier quote, you can easily simplify it.Once you press publish, you have the chance to generate an email to the client. You can also include a link to the client portal and a PDF of the quote. On the client’s side, accept or decline are clearly displayed in the top right corner. Once they’ve accepted, you can convert the quote into a project.Under the Work tab, there's a comprehensive view of all ongoing activities for a client, including requests, sales, projects and tickets. Important details are all in one place, like billable hours, assignees, contacts and due dates. For a specific task, the left side shows progress, important dates, bookings and schedules, giving you a clear picture of what’s planned and what’s active.Some user reviews mention confusion during onboarding, specifically that having multiple ways to do the same action or task can be tricky. For example, viewing the schedule in different places might lead to mismatches if not handled carefully.The range of options and layout might seem overwhelming at first. While there might be a learning curve, the design aims to provide a flexible and detailed view of everything.Time tracking is color-coded to help you stay within your budget. If you log hours that are well within your limit, they’ll be displayed in green, approaching your limit in yellow and exceeding it in red.Its Tickets module is straightforward for managing and tracking your support requests. When you click on a ticket’s name/title, it opens up and displays key information on the left side, including priority, type and class.At the top of the page, you’ll see the workflow stages like tier one and tier two escalations, ticket resolved, and waiting to track where each ticket stands in the resolution process.On the right side, you’ll see key stats like the ticket’s age, days since the last update and the due date. Below this, you’ll find a stream that captures all communication back and forth, providing a clear history of interactions.The billing module takes a streamlined approach to managing invoicing, and it integrates with QuickBooks Online and Xero so your finances stay consistent.The platform includes an invoicing wizard that pulls together all customer work that’s ready for invoicing and guides you through each step. It also offers a handy Complete and email button, allowing you to finalize and send invoices with a single click.You’ve got a solid selection of templates to choose from and customize. Plus, you can set up automatic invoicing for retainer work, so you won’t have to deal with recurring billing manually. Within the Billing tab, view all invoices you’ve created and sent and track which ones are still outstanding.

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Certinia PSA is an effective PSA application that extends a full variety of features to its users. Its interface is user friendly and the implementation process is straightforward, avoiding confusion. It also integrates with other programs such as NetSuite, Salesforce, Salescloud, Certinia Accounting, other financial management solutions and more. Certinia PSA's overall performance expedites routine operations and governs projects, teams, customers and financial duties with ease, making it a robust and handy software.

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