Home > PSA Software > BigTime > BigTime vs Polaris PSA

BigTime vs Polaris PSA

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Our analysts compared BigTime vs Polaris 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.

Overview Pricing Benefits & Features Analyst Ratings Comparison Charts User Ratings Analyst Summary Screenshots
BigTime Software Tool
SelectHub Award Winner
Polaris PSA Software Tool
SelectHub Award Winner
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Product Basics

Analyst Rating

we're gathering data
Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Excellent User Sentiment (2302 Reviews)

Analyst Rating

88 Detailed Analysis

User Sentiment

Excellent User Sentiment (202 Reviews)
BigTime is a cloud-based professional services management software suite built to manage projects, billing and tracking. It is designed for accounting firms, government contracting, advertising agencies, legal, construction companies, engineering, government contracting and IT services. It provides functions teams need to deliver billable work within budget and on time. It gives users a 360-degree view of employee schedules, clients and engagements, and helps them track, bill and budget their time. It is suitable for companies of all sizes and supports invoicing, expense tracking, DCAA compliance and workflows. It also supports iOS and Android devices for on-the-go entries.

BigTime offers comprehensive project management modules that lets managers track statuses, define activities and tasks and assign tasks. Core features offered include time tracking, mobile timesheet application, task and engagement tracking, advanced reporting, built-in billing and invoicing tool, expense tracking, costing, budgeting, workflow management capabilities and seamless integration with QuickBooks and Lacerte Tax.
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Polaris PSA streamlines professional services workflows for project-based businesses. Its core strength lies in automating administrative tasks like time tracking, invoicing, and project reporting, freeing up valuable time for client work. While ideal for agencies of all sizes, it particularly caters to those juggling multiple projects and juggling complex client billing structures. Users praise its intuitive interface, powerful reporting tools, and seamless integrations with popular accounting software. Compared to similar offerings, Polaris PSA stands out for its focus on scalability and customization, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Pricing follows a tiered model based on the number of users and project complexity, ensuring cost-effectiveness for growing companies.

Pros
  • Intuitive interface
  • Comprehensive features
  • Strong integrations
  • Robust reporting
  • Reliable support
 Cons
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Occasional bugs
  • Limited customization
  • Higher pricing
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$19/User, Monthly
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$49/User, Monthly
Free Trial is available →
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
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Android
Chromebook
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Android
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Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
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Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
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Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Customizable Timesheets: Its timesheets contain all necessary field types and can be organized in the way users prefer. Users can create daily and weekly timesheet views, add, rename or remove columns, round time entries automatically and lock completed timesheet periods.  
  • Settings Security and Required Fields: Users can limit timesheet data access to control sensitive data, reduce errors and speed up time entry. They can also set required fields that employees must fill before saving. Managers can also set custom user rights.  
  • Smart Tracking: Time tracking tool has smart lookups, user-driven defaults, customizable views and support for intuitive timesheets.  
  • Faster Billing: Its central hub for tracking drafts, billing rates, WIP, cost rates, billing rules and PDF formats helps users create invoices faster and realize higher revenues.  
  • Crafting Better Teams: It gives users a real-time view of resource allocations. They can also avoid under and over scheduling, thereby ensuring the happiness of consulting teams.  
  • Flexible Billing Rates: Users can manage bill rates and override them as needed. Users can set bill rates of project tasks, staff and work codes. They can also create base rates and an unlimited number of custom rates.  
  • Customizable Invoice Templates: Users can use invoice templates to customize invoices according to their client’s needs. They can also personalize templates, edit them and choose the details they wish to include.  
  • Approve Expense Reports: Managers can approve expenses for specific projects. Reviews can be automated, and notifications and alerts can be sent to managers when an expense report is available.  
  • Accelerate Project Progress: Standardized review features help increase overall team accuracy. With the help of reviews, users can avoid and eliminate time-consuming billing errors.  
  • Standardized Workflows: Managers can view the exact status of a project based on its due date and status. They can also assign employees to projects and define due dates. Multiple projects can be tracked using custom statuses and task types.  
  • Mobile Access: Simplifies on-site time entry with time-tracking apps for Android and iOS. Users can enter time manually or use timers. They can also submit reports and assign expenses to projects.  
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  • Enhanced Project Visibility and Control: Gain real-time insights into project status, resource allocation, budgets, and timelines. Identify potential risks and bottlenecks early on, allowing for proactive adjustments and course corrections to ensure projects stay on track and within budget.
  • Improved Resource Utilization and Optimization: Effectively match the right people with the right projects based on skills, availability, and workload. Streamline time tracking and approval processes to ensure accurate billing and payroll. Optimize resource allocation to maximize productivity and efficiency.
  • Streamlined Financial Management and Reporting: Automate invoicing, billing, and revenue recognition processes, reducing errors and accelerating cash flow. Generate comprehensive financial reports and analytics to track project profitability, identify trends, and make informed business decisions.
  • Boosted Collaboration and Teamwork: Foster seamless communication and collaboration among project teams, clients, and stakeholders through centralized project information, shared workspaces, and real-time updates. Break down silos and enhance knowledge sharing to improve decision-making and project outcomes.
  • Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Retention: Deliver projects on time and within budget, while maintaining high levels of quality and customer satisfaction. Establish a single source of truth for project information, fostering transparency and trust with clients. Strengthen client relationships and increase the likelihood of repeat business.
  • Data-Driven Insights for Strategic Decision-Making: Leverage the power of real-time data and analytics to uncover actionable insights, identify areas for improvement, and make informed strategic decisions. Improve project outcomes, optimize resource utilization, and drive overall business growth.
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  • Expense Tracking: Expenses are tied to billable client projects or internal project records. Users can record billable or internal project expenses, equipment use and mileage. Users can also categorize expenses as billable, non-billable, reimbursable, non-reimbursable or as service fees.  
  • Invoicing: It has flexible invoicing options that improve income by billing a project’s in-progress work. Submitted bills can be reviewed immediately for approval and payment. Users can also show entry details or group them as needed. They can also mark-up expenses like recurring service fees and equipment use.  
  • Time and Materials Invoices: BigTime simplifies expense calculation with automation tools. Users can send their clients a detailed bill and recalculate invoices when entries are deleted. They can also provide more detailed invoices with options that display staff, tasks, departments, project roles or labor codes.  
  • Lookup Fields: It has smart lookup fields to reduce clicks and get rid of scrolling for quick timesheet recording. It only shows required fields and can auto-complete fields as users type.  
  • Credit Card Charge Capture: Users can assign and record credit card charges to specific projects for billing in QuickBooks. Charges can be billed to clients, and QuickBooks can help reconcile bank statements.  
  • Work-In-Progress Management: This suite helps users manage unbilled expenses and time to improve cash flow. It provides complete visibility, and WIP is selectable by date range.  
  • Task and Budget Tracking: Users can keep track of all their tasks and set them up for every project while assigning expense budgets. Users can control secure information by giving custom access rights to managers.  
  • Gantt Charts: Gantt charts facilitate visual task management. Users can put their projects on a timeline and see how components fit together, highlighting critical paths and dependencies.  
  • Workflow Management: Managers can assign employees to tasks and define due dates. They can track schedules and use custom tasks and statuses. They can also sort, group and filter to view project details.  
  • Resource Allocation: Its dashboard shows which employees are available and how much time can be allocated to them. Users can reduce time spent on planning and make decisions about when more staff is required.  
  • Utilization Dashboard: Gives insights into operations and helps users manage resources more efficiently. They can also lower staff bench time by identifying areas to increase productivity.  
  • Custom Reports: Helps users create custom reports in real time. They can pull utilization metrics and sort them by role, department and employee. Line graphs can be generated to compare budgets to actual expenses, and efficiency can be analyzed on a monthly basis.  
  • Integrations: Supports deep integrations and combines them with users’ existing ecosystems. It can be integrated with QuickBooks, Lacerte, Salesforce, Slack, Google Apps and Zapier. It also integrates with existing IDs and codes, eliminating double entry between systems.  
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  • Live Intelligence: Harvest live information through its SmartBeats interface that provides a 360 degree view of how actions impact business. Visualize and filter data within MissionControl and display recommendations relevant to a user’s role. 
  • Project Management: Reference historical metrics to create pipelines and budgets for new clients. Oversee beats in each stage or improve collaboration with instant updates and feedback. Push notifications to manage project statuses and expenses. 
  • Financial Forecasting: Track resource costs, billing rates and finance benchmarks using SmartBudget. Simulate prices, revenue and other factors to strategically bid on accounts. 
  • Client Management: Organize customers, vendors, funding institutions or sales partners under the client entity. Share workload reports and presentations to define project metrics. Deliver account support in the consolidated view to assess project recommendations, billing and client profiles. 
  • Governance:  Achieve compliance by setting validation rules for forms and attachments. Simplify complex workflows by creating checklists and forming breakdown structures to monitor process adherence. Adapt to users in different time zones, currencies and languages. 
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Create customized or pre-populated timesheets for faster submission. Track time and expenses from a desktop or mobile device with built-in GPS tracking and geofencing capabilities. Enable automatic approvals, upload receipts or manage availability and budgets. 
  • Resource Allocation: Configure dimensional reports to determine availability and pinpoint underutilized resources. Reduce training time and create positions based on skills needed or assign placeholders to account for pending projects. Leverage the recommendation engine Smartmatch to analyze talent and recommend applicants based on skill rating to expedite hiring efforts. 
  • Billing and Invoicing: Create rate structures to accommodate versatile contracts and eliminate invoice discrepancies. Offer flexible billing plans specific to the user level, role or other combinations. Manage invoices, track delinquencies and monitor financial health in real-time. 
  • Integrations: Connect platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Quickbooks for seamless workflows. Increase revenue and engagement with the use of its open APIs. 
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Product Ranking

#12

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PSA Software

#15

among all
PSA Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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88
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

BigTime
Polaris PSA
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Dashboard And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Project Collaboration Project Financials Project Management Resource Management Time And Expense Management 58 100 89 93 87 100 85 100 100 0 25 50 75 100
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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 2302 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 202 reviews
91%
of users recommend this product

BigTime has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 91% when considering 2302 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

Polaris PSA has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 202 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.9 (47)
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4.5 (1081)
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4.59 (573)
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4.6 (561)
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4.6 (198)
4.3 (40)
5.0 (4)

Awards

BigTime stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Polaris PSA and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Time and Expense Management. Polaris PSA stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Time and Expense Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Intuitive Interface: BigTime's user-friendly design makes it easy to navigate and find the information you need quickly, streamlining your workflow.
Robust Time Tracking: Accurately track time spent on projects, tasks, and clients with BigTime's comprehensive timekeeping features, ensuring precise billing and project management.
Seamless Project Management: Manage projects efficiently with BigTime's project management tools, including task assignments, progress tracking, and collaboration features, enhancing team coordination.
Detailed Reporting: Generate customizable reports that provide valuable insights into project performance, resource utilization, and financial data, empowering you to make informed decisions.
Mobile Accessibility: Access BigTime on the go with its mobile app, allowing you to stay connected to your projects and tasks from anywhere, ensuring uninterrupted productivity.
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Intuitive Interface: Users consistently praise Polaris PSA's ease of use, even for those without extensive technical backgrounds.
Flexible Customization: The software allows for tailoring to specific workflows and business needs, ensuring a seamless fit within existing processes.
Comprehensive Project Management: Users appreciate the ability to manage all project aspects, from planning and scheduling to resource allocation and budgeting, within a single platform.
Accurate Time Tracking: Polaris excels at capturing billable hours precisely, streamlining timesheet submission and approval processes.
Streamlined Invoicing: Generating accurate invoices based on project data is effortless, leading to faster client billing and improved cash flow.
Robust Reporting: The software provides insightful reports on project performance, resource utilization, profitability, and other key metrics, empowering data-driven decision-making.
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High cost: BigTime is more expensive than comparable PSA software, making it a less attractive option for small businesses and startups with limited budgets.
Steep learning curve: BigTime's complex interface and feature-rich environment can be overwhelming for new users, requiring significant training and onboarding time.
Limited customization: While BigTime offers a range of features, its customization options are somewhat limited compared to other PSA software, making it challenging to tailor the software to specific business needs.
Reporting limitations: Some users have reported difficulties generating customized reports and extracting data from BigTime, hindering their ability to gain insights and make informed decisions.
Integration challenges: Integrating BigTime with other business applications can be complex and time-consuming, requiring additional resources and expertise.
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Learning Curve: Users report a steeper learning curve compared to simpler PSA tools.
Initial Setup Complexity: Setting up Polaris PSA can be complex for smaller teams or those with limited technical expertise.
Limited Workflow Customization: While flexible, some users find it challenging to tailor the software to highly specialized workflows.
Performance Issues: Users have reported occasional lag or glitches, especially on older hardware or with large datasets.
Software Bugs: While uncommon, some users have encountered bugs that require technical support to resolve.
Pricing Concerns: Polaris PSA's pricing can be higher compared to some basic PSA tools, especially for smaller businesses.
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BigTime is PSA software with robust features for time tracking, billing, project management, and reporting. It has a clean and intuitive interface that makes it easy for users to navigate and find the information they need quickly. One of its key strengths is its customizable dashboards that allow users to tailor the software to their specific needs. BigTime also offers a mobile app that provides access to key features on the go. In comparison to similar products, BigTime stands out with its robust reporting capabilities. Users praise its ability to generate detailed reports on a variety of metrics, including project profitability, resource utilization, and time spent on tasks. Additionally, BigTime's customer support is highly responsive and helpful, which is important for ensuring a smooth implementation and ongoing use of the software. Overall, BigTime is a well-rounded PSA software solution that is suitable for businesses of all sizes. Its customizable dashboards, robust reporting capabilities, and excellent customer support make it a top choice for businesses looking to improve their project management and billing processes.

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User reviews for Polaris PSA paint a picture of a powerful, albeit demanding, PSA tool. Many praise its intuitiveness and flexibility, with one user calling it "a breath of fresh air compared to clunky legacy systems." It stands out in its comprehensive project management, effortlessly handling everything from planning to billing within one platform. Another user loved "ditching the patchwork of apps we used before and having everything in Polaris." However, Polaris' learning curve can be steep. "It's not as pick-up-and-play as some simpler tools," admitted a reviewer. The initial setup can also be complex, especially for smaller teams. This complexity, while offering deep customization, led some to feel limited in tailoring it to specific workflows. "We have a unique process, and while Polaris is flexible, it took more work than expected to get it just right," shared one user. Performance isn't always flawless, with occasional lag and bugs reported, particularly on older systems. Despite these hiccups, many appreciate Polaris' robust reporting and data-driven insights, with one user exclaiming, "Finally, we can make informed decisions based on actual data, not just gut feeling!" Ultimately, Polaris PSA shines for its comprehensiveness and power, but demands investment in training and setup. Users often compare it to Asana or Monday.com, finding it more robust but less user-friendly. If you're a growing team seeking a one-stop PSA solution with deep customization and powerful reporting, Polaris is worth a look. Just be prepared to dedicate some time to mastering its intricacies.

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