Zoho for consultancies, agencies and practices
Win the work. Deliver the work. Bill every hour.
Zoho CRM, Projects and Books configured for UK professional services firms. Proposals in minutes, engagement letters signed online, live utilisation and budgets, and timesheets that turn straight into invoices.
- Zoho Premium Partner
- ISO 27001 and ISO 9001
- Cyber Essentials certified
- UK team in Northampton
In one sentence
What is Zoho for professional services?
It is Zoho CRM, CPQ, Sign, Projects, Books, Analytics and WorkDrive working as one practice system. Opportunities become proposals, signed proposals become projects, approved timesheets become invoices and every engagement shows its real margin.
- 01Who it is for
- Management and IT consultancies, marketing and creative agencies, accountancy, engineering and architecture practices
- 02Core Zoho apps
- CRM, CPQ, Sign, Projects, Books, Analytics, WorkDrive
- 03Typically replaces
- Spreadsheet resource plans, timesheet apps, Word proposals, manual WIP
- 04Your partner
- Thoughtlogik, Zoho Premium Partner with UK consultants in Northampton and a delivery centre in Coimbatore
The bigger picture
A huge sector that runs on billable time.
Margins in professional services depend on how well you plan, record and bill expertise.
Sound familiar?
What we hear from consultancies and agencies.
Great people and great work, but the systems behind them do not talk to each other.
Every unbilled hour, late proposal and blown budget comes straight off your margin.
- 01
Invisible utilisation
Nobody can say who is over or under booked next month until timesheets are chased on Friday afternoon, by which point the margin has already gone.
- 02
Slow, inconsistent proposals
Proposals are rebuilt from old Word files with out-of-date rates, and approval of discounts happens over email.
- 03
Scope creep and overruns
Budgets live in a spreadsheet separate from the work, so overruns are spotted at month end rather than as they happen.
- 04
Unbilled time leaks
Hours logged in one tool are re-keyed into the accounts package, and billable work is missed or invoiced late.
- 05
Pipeline guesswork
Partners keep deals in their heads, making it hard to forecast revenue and plan hiring against confirmed work.
- 06
Too many disconnected tools
CRM, project tool, timesheet app, e-signature and accounts all hold part of the client story and none of them agree.
Follow one engagement
Follow one engagement from opportunity to repeat business.
Pick a stage and switch between how it runs today and how it runs in Zoho.
Opportunity
Leads arrive via referrals and LinkedIn and sit in partners' inboxes.
Pick a stage, or switch between Today and With Zoho.
2-minute readiness check
Is your firm outgrowing its systems?
Five quick questions for an honest view of whether Zoho would pay back.
- Are proposals built by copying an old Word document?
- Is utilisation calculated in a spreadsheet, if at all?
- Do timesheets get re-keyed into your invoicing tool?
- Do you find out a project is over budget after it has finished?
- Is your pipeline forecast a gut feeling?
One system
One system from proposal to payment.
Sales, delivery and finance working from the same numbers.
Zoho, set up for professional services firms
Propose, sign, plan, deliver, record time, bill and report from one platform.
The solution
Everything a practice needs.
Standard Zoho apps, configured by Thoughtlogik around how your firm sells and delivers.
Proposals with price rules
Build accurate quotes fast, with complementary services added automatically and discounts calculated by rule rather than by memory.
A consistent sales process
Standardise how opportunities move from qualification to signed work, with checks, automation and escalations so nothing stalls.
Engagement letters signed online
Send engagement letters and statements of work from CRM and keep a clear record of every view and signature.
Timesheets with approvals
Staff log time against tasks manually or with timers and managers approve entries before they flow to billing.
Resource and budget planning
See who has capacity, compare planned with actual effort and track budget status in real time to catch overruns early.
Bill by fixed fee or hours
Invoice approved time and expenses by fixed fee, task hours or staff hours, and report on project profitability.
MTD-ready accounting
Calculate VAT and file returns directly to HMRC from the same system that raises your invoices.
Practice dashboards
Combine CRM, Projects and Books data into utilisation, realisation and margin dashboards delivered automatically to leadership.
Secure client file sharing
Share deliverables with clients through expiring links while keeping every version and a log of who changed what.
Compliance
Compliance without the admin.
Zoho will not replace professional judgement, but it keeps the records, filings and controls in order.
All VAT-registered UK businesses must keep digital records and file VAT returns using MTD-compatible software.
Zoho Books is HMRC-recognised MTD software and files VAT returns directly to HMRC; your accountant or finance team remains responsible for the figures submitted.
Firms holding client and contact data need a lawful basis for processing and must answer subject access requests within one month.
Zoho CRM records consent and lawful basis per contact and supports data subject rights requests, which helps you manage client and prospect data responsibly.
Where no other rate is agreed, businesses can claim statutory interest of 8% plus the Bank of England base rate on late B2B payments.
Zoho Books payment reminders and receivables reporting help you spot overdue invoices early and act on your payment terms; claiming interest remains your decision.
Integrations
Connected to how your team already works.
Email, calendars, video and payments, all linked to the engagement.
Why Thoughtlogik
A solution partner, not just a software reseller.
Zoho is powerful, but the value comes from how it is set up for your firm. We start with your problems, design the process and only then configure the software.
UK consultants who know your sector
Your project is led from Northampton by consultants who map your real processes on site, not from a template.
Phased, fixed-scope delivery
We agree scope, milestones and price up front, then go live in phases so you keep trading while you switch.
Certified and secure
ISO 27001 for information security, ISO 9001 for quality and Cyber Essentials certified. Your data is handled properly.
UK and India delivery team
UK functional consultants backed by our technical team in Coimbatore keeps quality high and cost sensible.
Migration without the drama
We move your customers, contacts, deals, open items and history from spreadsheets, Word templates and separate timesheet apps and test them before you switch.
Support after go-live
Training, a named contact and ongoing improvements, so Zoho keeps up as your firm grows.
How we work
A phased roadmap that keeps you trading while you switch.
- 1
Discover
A free review of how a client engagement moves through your business today.
- 2
Design
A clear solution blueprint, scope, milestones and price.
- 3
Build and migrate
Zoho configured for your processes, with your data moved and checked.
- 4
Train and go live
Hands-on training for each team, then a planned switch-over.
- 5
Support and grow
UK support, health checks and new apps as you need them.
The outcome
What professional services firms gain.
The results our clients look for when they move to Zoho.
Faster proposals
Templates and price rules turn a brief into a proposal in minutes.
Live utilisation
See who is over or under booked before it hurts.
Every hour billed
Approved time flows straight to invoices.
True margins
Budget against actual on every engagement.
Try Zoho free
Start your free Zoho trial
Explore Zoho's apps in a free trial. Signing up through Thoughtlogik links your account to us as your partner, so help is on hand from day one.
FAQs
Questions professional services firms ask us
Straight answers to the questions professional services firms ask us most. Something else on your mind? Ask a consultant.
Can Zoho track utilisation across our team?
Yes. Zoho Projects records timesheets and planned versus actual hours, and its workload view shows who has capacity. We then build Zoho Analytics dashboards that turn this into utilisation by person, team and client.
How does time get from timesheets to invoices?
Approved time logs in Zoho Projects flow into Zoho Books, where you invoice by fixed fee or by hours. This removes the re-keying between timesheet and accounts tools that causes most unbilled time leakage.
We already use Xero. Do we have to move to Zoho Books?
No. Zoho CRM integrates with Xero, and we design around the finance system you already trust where that is the right call. Where firms want proposals, projects and billing in one place, we explain the trade-offs of moving to Zoho Books.
Can Zoho produce consistent proposals and quotes?
Zoho CRM CPQ applies your price rules and service bundles so every quote uses current rates. Blueprint can route discounts for approval and Zoho Sign sends the engagement letter for signature straight from the deal.
Is Zoho suitable for accountancy or engineering consultancies, not just agencies?
Yes. The building blocks are the same: clients, engagements, time and billing. We configure modules, fields and project templates for your service lines, and Zoho Creator covers anything bespoke such as drawing registers or job sheets.
How do you migrate us from spreadsheets and old tools?
We map your existing clients, deals, projects and open time into Zoho, run test imports and reconcile them with your team before go-live. As an ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified Zoho Premium Partner, we follow a documented delivery process for every migration.
How much does Zoho cost in the UK?
Zoho is priced per user, ex VAT. At October 2026, Zoho One costs £37 per employee per month on annual billing with All Employee pricing, or £80 per user per month with Flexible User pricing. Zoho CRM on its own runs from £12 (Standard) to £42 (Ultimate) per user per month on annual billing. Implementation is scoped separately after a free process review, so you know the full cost before you commit.
Where is our Zoho data hosted?
UK customers are normally set up on Zoho's EU data centres, with Amsterdam as primary and Dublin as secondary, on the zoho.eu domain. Zoho does not sell or advertise on customer data, and we configure roles, profiles, field-level security and two-factor authentication as part of every implementation.
Zoho by industry
Explore Zoho for other service businesses.
See how Zoho fits other sectors we work with, from advice firms to engineers in the field.
Start your project
Ready to see where your margin is going?
Tell us about how you sell, deliver and bill. A certified Zoho consultant will get back to you within one working day with practical next steps.
- Free, no-obligation consultation
- Review of your proposal-to-invoice process
- Clear plan, milestones and pricing
Timesheets in one tool, invoices in another?Talk to a UK Zoho professional services specialist.
Book a free call