Winning Back Time: How Professional Services Firms Can Beat the Administration Drain
The professional services industry is facing a crisis that few talk about openly, but everyone feels acutely: time is slipping away. Not to strategic work or client innovation, but to administration. Mountains of it.
A new study from PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants), commissioned by Unit4, has quantified what many in the industry have long suspected. Based on briefings with 500 senior PS leaders worldwide, the findings are stark, the implications serious, and the opportunity for change significant.
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The Scale of the Problem
The PAC research found that almost one third (30%) of professional services firms experience frequent or regular delays in project delivery due to operational inefficiency, with only 3% stating this is never the case. IT Services companies are the most frequently disrupted, with 34% regularly impacted.
These are not minor inconveniences. Project delays damage client satisfaction, erode future revenue, and in an era of online reviews and community message boards, bad news travels fast. More fundamentally, clients are increasingly pushing PS firms to move away from time-and-materials models towards outcome-based commercial arrangements. Operational inefficiency is not just a cost problem. It is an existential threat to the business model itself.
30%
of professional services firms
experience frequent or regular delays in project delivery due to operational inefficiency
Where the Hours Go
One of the study's most revealing findings is just how much time professional services professionals are losing to work that adds no client value whatsoever.
More than a quarter of client-facing specialists, 28%, are spending more than 30% of their working week on administrative tasks rather than on core project delivery. During an average working week, that is more than 12 hours lost to the admin burden. In IT Services, the problem is even more acute, with more than a third (34%) of frontline staff spending at least 30% of their time on administration.
The study also found that frontline and operations teams are routinely working evenings and weekends to ensure tasks such as project resource management, payroll processing, and financial reporting are delivered on time. Accounts reconciliation (37%), project cost and profitability management (37%), and project timeline management (36%) are all pushing teams to work beyond their normal hours.
The root causes are clear. While period-close bottlenecks are the most cited driver of overtime, 59% of organizations point to inconsistent data models and 55% blame outdated or overly complex processes and technology. These are not isolated IT problems. They are structural issues cascading across the entire business.
The Real Cost of Fragmented Data and Rework
Perhaps the most striking finding is not just how much time is being lost, but how much of it is spent correcting work that should have been right first time.
More than a third of PS leaders admit their teams spend time daily or weekly correcting work across finance, HR, and project management. Timesheet management is the biggest culprit, with 47% of firms regularly spending time on corrective work.
The divide between firms on modern platforms and those on legacy systems is also highlighted. Organizations running modern, integrated cloud platforms spend significantly less time correcting errors in financial reporting (29% vs 37%) and budgeting and forecasting (28% vs 36%). Yet only one third of PS firms currently operate on such a platform, meaning the majority are absorbing an entirely avoidable productivity tax every single day.
47%
of firms
regularly spending time on corrective work
The business case for change is compelling. diva-e Conclusion reduced financial reporting time from days to minutes by implementing a single data view across 12 divisions. Canalta eliminated 25,000 hours of manual data entry, saving CA$750,000 annually, by standardizing its platform across multiple brands.
Fragmented data is not just an inconvenience. It is a competitive liability.
The Human Toll
The productivity drain is not just a financial problem. It is a people problem. And in professional services, people are everything.
The study found that 59% of PS organizations believe retaining their best talent will be critical to their short-term success, yet the conditions driving talent attrition remain largely unaddressed. The talent challenge is particularly acute in some segments. Research from Harvey Nash found that 48% of cyber security specialists planned to change jobs within the next 12 months.
The 2025 Deloitte Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey found that close to 80% of both groups believe AI has already improved the quality of their work, and more than 75% say it has helped improve their work-life balance. Younger workers expect roles free from repetitive manual tasks, and firms that cannot offer that will struggle to compete for the best talent.
The human cost is brought into sharp focus by one of the study's most telling statistics: 62% of PS executives say that if they could be freed from avoidable administration and reworking tasks, they would spend that time with family and friends. More than half (55%) say they would invest that time in personal health and wellness.
59%
of PS organizations
believe retaining their best talent will be critical to their short-term success
The firms that are getting this right are seeing real results. Change management consultancy Nine Feet Tall reported an attrition rate of just 5% in its most recent financial year, well below the sector average, with 95% of staff recommending it as a place to work.
The Path Forward
The PAC research is clear on what PS leaders need to do and, importantly, most already know it.
88% of senior decision-makers agree that implementing a single, consistent data management platform would have the biggest positive impact on their organization's processes. Automating repetitive manual work and improving data integration are close behind.
More than 60% of PS executives expect AI to have a positive impact on core processes, with more than 30% anticipating a transformational effect on finance, HR, and project management. But AI ambitions must be built on solid foundations. Firms need clean, consistent data before they can unlock AI's true potential. Cloud SaaS now represents more than 85% of total application software investment in the PS sector, up from less than 70% just five years ago, reflecting a growing recognition that modern platforms can deliver results in weeks, not years.
88%
of senior decision-makers
agree that implementing a single, consistent data management platform would have the biggest positive impact on their organization's processes
The firms that invest in modern, integrated platforms, automate the avoidable, and build clean data foundations, are already pulling ahead. The question is not whether professional services firms need to modernize. It is whether they can afford to wait any longer.
Download the Full Report
The full whitepaper, 'Winning Back Time: How Professional Services Firms Can Beat the Administration Drain', includes detailed survey findings from 500 senior PS leaders, real-world case studies, a framework for building a modern digital core, and expert analysis on the role of AI in transforming PS operations.
Download the complete PAC whitepaper to discover how your firm can win back time, boost productivity, and build the operational foundation for sustainable growth.
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