Phase-based fee control
Fee budgets by phase with live burn against them — so the moment hours run ahead of fee, it is visible in the project, not in a retrospective report.
The project record and the firm’s money — finally in the same system.
Civil consultancies run delivery in one set of tools and the business in another: a job-tracking spreadsheet here, timesheets there, claims in an accounts package, permits in a folder. Engis puts the project management and the commercial management — fees, WIP, timesheets, claims, variations — into one operating system built for engineering delivery.
What makes project management “civil engineering” project management?
A civil consultancy’s project is not a task list. It is a fee agreement structured in phases, delivered against planning permits and authority approvals, documented through drawings, RFIs and transmittals, and paid through progress claims and variations. Managing it means managing all of those at once — and knowing at any moment where the fee is burnt, what is claimable, and what is blocking the next phase.
Generic project tools track tasks. Practice management systems track hours and invoices. Engis is built for the whole shape of consulting-engineering work: the delivery domain (phases, approvals, authorities, documents, spatial context) and the commercial layer (fees, WIP, timesheets, claims) as one record.
When delivery and commercial live apart, the firm flies blind.
The classic failure mode of a consultancy is quiet: hours go into a phase whose fee is already burnt, variations are delivered but never claimed, WIP ages because claims lag the work, and nobody sees it until the month-end reconciliation — or the year-end write-off. It is not a discipline problem. It is what happens when the system that knows the work and the system that knows the money never talk.
- Fee burn discovered at month end, not during the phase
- Variations done on goodwill and never converted to fees
- WIP ageing invisibly between claim cycles
- Timesheets disconnected from the phases they burn
- Claims assembled by hand from three systems
- Project status and profitability reported from different truths
What Engis gives a consultancy
One system where the delivery record and the commercial position are the same record.
Live WIP and ageing
Work-in-progress and WIP ageing tracked continuously across the firm, giving principals a live answer to the question “what have we done that we haven’t been paid for?”
Timesheets that feed the record
Weekly grid timesheets flow straight into phase burn and WIP. Logging time is the same act as updating the commercial position.
Progress claims and variations
Claims built from the project record, variations tracked from identification through approval to invoice — with an available Xero integration that pushes claims and syncs payment status back automatically.
Delivery programme
A dependency-aware programme across the phases your firm actually runs — from planning and design through construction phase services — rolled up into portfolio dashboards.
Documents, RFIs and transmittals
Controlled document numbering, transmittals, RFIs and submittals attached to the project — the correspondence discipline clients and authorities expect, without a separate document system.
Approvals and authorities
Permit conditions, engineering approval submissions and referral-authority coordination tracked as part of the job — the delivery context practice-management tools don’t have.
Spatial intelligence
Live parcels, zoning, overlays, flood and utility assets from Australian authority services on the project map — site context in the same workspace as the fee and the programme.
AI document intelligence
Engis reads fee proposals, AS 2124 and AS 4000 style contracts and construction programs — extracting terms and structure into the record, and pre-filling project setup from a dropped fee proposal.
Built for the firm, not just the job
Directors and principals
Firm-wide fee, WIP and claims position live — plus prospect-to-project pipeline visibility — without waiting for the bookkeeper’s month end.
Project managers
Phases, approvals, documents and programme in one workspace, with the commercial state of the job alongside the delivery state.
Engineers
Timesheets, RFIs and documents in the same system as the project — less admin friction, better records.
Clients of the firm
A shareable, scoped portal view of project status is available, so client reporting can be a link rather than a monthly document.
Against the tools consultancies use today
Practice management software
Strong on hours and invoicing, but generic — it has no concept of permits, authorities, RFIs, parcels or Statement of Compliance. Engis carries the same commercial layer and the delivery domain in one system.
Contractor construction platforms
Built for head contractors administering site works, and priced like it. A consultancy’s world — fee phases, approvals, design deliverables, claims — is not their shape.
The spreadsheet stack
Free until it isn’t: fee burn found late, variations never claimed, WIP ageing quietly. The spreadsheet stack has a real cost — it is just booked as write-offs instead of licence fees.
Frequently asked questions
Is Engis practice management software?
It covers the commercial ground practice management tools cover — fee budgets, timesheets, WIP, claims, invoicing — but inside a system that also runs the delivery itself: phases, permit conditions, authorities, documents and spatial context. For civil consultancies that means one record instead of a practice system plus a delivery stack.
Does Engis integrate with Xero?
Yes — a Xero integration is available that pushes progress claims to Xero and syncs payment status back automatically. It is enabled per firm on request.
Can we track WIP and fee burn per phase?
Yes. Fees are budgeted by phase, timesheet hours burn against those phases live, and WIP and its ageing are visible continuously — not reconstructed at month end.
How does Engis handle progress claims and variations?
Claims are built from the project record with a live preview, and variations are tracked from identification through approval so delivered work converts to fees instead of goodwill. GST-aware invoicing is part of the flow.
How do I get access?
Access is provisioned per firm. Request a three-day sandbox preview on synthetic data, book a demo, or contact the team. There is also an ROI calculator if you want to estimate what disconnected workflows are costing the firm.
Run the firm and the projects from one truth.
Request a sandbox preview, book a 20-minute demo, or run the ROI calculator on your own numbers.
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