.jpg)
The Handbook: The Operations Podcast
Running a serviced based business, an agency or consultancy isn’t just about great client work. It’s about keeping everything behind the scenes running smoothly.
That’s where The Handbook comes in. Our goal? To help you take your business to the next level of business maturity.
This podcast is for operations and service-business leaders who are juggling it all – people, processes, finance, tech, and everything in between.
Every other week, we dive deep into a specific challenge that businesses face as they grow in headcount and complexity. You'll get practical insights and real-world advice from experts who’ve been there, solved the problems, and know what works.
If you’re looking for smarter ways to scale, streamline, and strengthen your business, you’re in the right place. Welcome to The Handbook community, your go-to guide for better business operations.
And don’t forget to sign up for The Handbook newsletter – we’ll send you the key takeaways from each episode straight to your inbox: scoro.com/podcast/#handbook
The Handbook: The Operations Podcast is brought to you by Scoro.
The Handbook: The Operations Podcast
Ops Quickie: Why a PSA ≠ PM Tool
Ops Quickies – snackable episodes on tech, tools, and systems. 🍿
This one’s for anyone who’s ever asked: How is a PSA actually different from a project management tool? And does it even matter?
Spoiler: it does.
Harv breaks down how project management platforms and PSAs serve very different purposes – and why the difference becomes more obvious (and more valuable) as your business grows.
If you've got a question about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop Harv a message on LinkedIn. He might just turn it into the next Quickie.
And if you know someone stuck in spreadsheet purgatory or drowning in tools – send this episode their way.
Hey guys. I'm Harv Nagra, another Quickie on tech. Topic today: how does a PSA differ from a project management platform? And bonus question, what are the benefits? Let's start with that first bit. How does A PSA differ from a project management system? Well, the hint is in the name. Project management tools help you manage and collaborate on projects and tasks with your team, and they're good at that. Most of us have used one, but a PSA platform like Scoro? I think about that more like an operating system for your business. Project management is just one part of what it does. The real value of A PSA is the way everything kind of connects and comes together. Your budgets, your timeline, your resources, delivery, invoicing, reporting, all of that flowing through one system. The other key to understanding a PSA is that second word: automation. Actually, that's the third word, isn't it? Professional services automation. What that actually means is that when you enter data into the system, it's available everywhere in the system. You're not exporting or importing or manually recreating your tasks from the quote into the project view and then entering them again into a resource plan or a timeline or exporting the time sheet reports to compare them to a budget in a spreadsheet. The data flows automatically. So maybe it would help to imagine this workflow. This is what my team used to do with Scoro: Our account managers would quote the work using mix and match templates we'd created in the system, and they just need to customize them based on their client needs. They'd click a button to submit it to their team lead for approval on the budget they'd put together. The team lead would look it over and approve it, and that'd get pinged back to the account manager so they'd know that they could send it onto their client. Once they'd won the deal, they could turn that quote into a project with just a couple of clicks and they'd be able to carry over the line items in the quote as tasks in the project. They could assign their team while being able to see if someone is over capacity and then of course the team could track tasks, time and expenses against the project. The project, could be invoiced in as many intervals as desired. We could Report on things like utilization, project burn budgets, and overall business performance. All in one place in a single system with the data connected all the way through. So think about that for a second, because I know all of us have worked in workplaces that have had dozens of tools and spreadsheets for parts of that workflow where you're manually replicating information between each one. So having all of that in one place has benefits, like efficiency, because your team isn't spending all day exporting or copying information between different tools. Another benefit accuracy because the information flows automatically and there's a single source of truth rather than a dozen spreadsheets or systems that you're kind of comparing against. And of course, visibility because you're seeing live data rather than trying to collate information and reports manually. As soon as you do that, as soon as you export that spreadsheet, it becomes out of date and it's no longer live data. Right? So lots of information. Let's leave it there for this one. If you've got any questions about ops tech, PSAs, or Scoro, drop me a message on LinkedIn. I'll put a link in the episode notes and if you know someone who needs this explainer, forward it on and ask them to give it a listen. Thanks for listening to this Quickie.
