7 Signs Your A/E Firm Isn’t Using Deltek Ajera to Its Full Potential

Deltek Ajera is designed to give architecture and engineering firms better visibility into projects, financial performance, billing, labor, and overall business operations. But simply having Ajera does not mean your firm is getting everything it can from the system.

Many A/E firms invest in Ajera and then find themselves continuing to rely on spreadsheets, manual workarounds, disconnected processes, or reports that don’t provide the information leadership actually needs.

If any of the following sound familiar, your firm may not be using Ajera to its full potential.

1. Your Project Managers Rely on Spreadsheets to Manage Their Projects

Spreadsheets can be useful, but if your project managers regularly create their own spreadsheets to determine project budgets, labor performance, remaining hours, or profitability, it may be a sign that your Ajera setup isn’t giving them the information they need.

Project managers should have access to meaningful, timely information about their projects without having to recreate the data somewhere else.

When information is maintained in multiple places, it becomes much easier for numbers to get out of sync.

A well-configured Ajera system can help bring project and financial information together so your project managers and accounting team are working from the same information.

2. You Don’t Trust Your Project Profitability Reports

One of the biggest benefits of a project-based accounting system is the ability to understand how your projects are performing.

But if leadership regularly asks:

• “Is this project actually profitable?”
• “Why does the project look good on revenue but not on the bottom line?”
• “Why doesn’t this report match what the project manager is telling me?”
• “Where did our margin go?”

then it may be time to take a closer look at your data, setup, and reporting.

Profitability depends on much more than revenue. Labor costs, billing, utilization, multipliers, overhead, expenses, write-offs, and project performance all play a role.

If your reports aren’t giving you confidence in the answers, the problem may not be Ajera itself. It may be how the system is configured, maintained, or being used.

3. Billing Requires Too Much Manual Work

Billing shouldn’t feel like starting from scratch every month.

If your accounting team spends excessive time tracking down missing information, correcting project charges, reconciling spreadsheets, or manually determining what should appear on an invoice, there may be opportunities to improve your workflow.

A more effective process connects project activity with accounting and billing.

The goal isn’t simply to produce invoices faster. It’s to make sure billable labor, reimbursable expenses, subconsultant costs, and other project-related charges are captured accurately and billed promptly.

Better processes can also help reduce missed revenue and unnecessary write-offs.

4. Your Timesheet Process Creates Constant Problems

Accurate timekeeping is critical for A/E firms.

When employees submit time incorrectly, charge time to the wrong project, forget to enter time, or don’t understand how their time affects project performance, accounting ends up spending valuable time fixing problems.

More importantly, inaccurate time creates inaccurate project information.

Your timesheet process should support both accounting and project management.

Employees need to understand not just how to enter time, but why accurate time matters.

That is where training and clearly defined processes become just as important as the software itself.

5. Leadership Doesn’t Have Timely Financial Information

If the answer to a financial question is always, “We’ll have to pull that report,” or “Accounting will have to look into it,” your firm may not be getting the visibility it needs.

Firm leaders need timely information to make decisions about:

• Staffing
• Project performance
• Cash flow
• Billing
• Utilization
• Overhead
• Profitability
• Future opportunities

The value of Ajera isn’t simply recording what already happened.

The right information can help leadership identify what’s happening now and make better decisions about what happens next.

6. Your Team Uses Only a Small Portion of Ajera

This is one of the most common challenges we see with sophisticated software.

Your firm may have invested in Ajera, but your team may only be using the functions they were originally trained to use.

Over time, businesses change. Employees change. Processes change. Reporting needs change.

What worked several years ago may no longer be the best way to use the system today.

Sometimes the issue isn’t that your software needs to be replaced.

You may simply need to step back and ask:

“Are we using the system we already own as effectively as we could?”

7. Your Accounting, Project Management, and Leadership Teams Aren’t Looking at the Business the Same Way

Your accounting department may understand the financial statements.

Your project managers may understand what’s happening on their projects.

Your principals may understand the firm’s overall goals.

But if those three groups are working from different information—or interpreting the same information differently—your firm can lose valuable time and visibility.

Ajera should help connect these perspectives.

When project information and financial information work together, leadership can get a clearer picture of what is really happening throughout the firm.

What Should You Do If You Recognize These Problems?

The answer isn’t necessarily to purchase another software system.

Start by evaluating the system you already have.

Ask:

1. Are our project structures set up correctly?
2. Are our employees entering information consistently?
3. Are our reports providing the information leadership actually needs?
4. Are project managers using the information available to them?
5. Are billing and accounting processes unnecessarily manual?
6. Are our financial and project reports telling the same story?
7. Are we taking advantage of the capabilities available within Ajera?

Sometimes a few changes to configuration, processes, reporting, or training can make a significant difference.

Your Ajera System Should Work for Your Firm

Deltek Ajera can be a powerful tool for architecture and engineering firms, but software alone doesn’t create better financial visibility.

The system needs to be configured correctly. Your processes need to support it. And your team needs to understand how to use the information it provides.

At AE Advisory Services, we specialize in helping Architecture and Engineering firms get more from Deltek Ajera. We work with firms on Ajera consulting, accounting, training, support, reporting, project profitability, and financial processes.

If you’re wondering whether your firm is getting everything it should from Ajera, it may be time to take a closer look at your current system and workflows.

You may already have more information available than you realize—you just need to know where to look and AE Advisory Services LLC can assist!