Verity for consulting firms
A consultancy sells specific expertise and delivers with available people. Verity connects the pursuit, the staffing commitment and the delivery record so the gap between them stops being invisible.
Runs alongside your existing accounting and document tools.
Verity / Engagements
LiveActive engagements
27
Utilisation
68%
Over budget
6
Unbilled
₹34 L
Needs attention
Illustrative figures. Verity shows your own engagements in this shape.
How the business runs
The proposal names people. The delivery uses whoever is free when the work actually starts, because the pursuit closed later than expected or another engagement overran. That substitution is normal and usually fine, but it is also where margin, quality and client satisfaction all quietly move — and almost no firm records it well enough to see the pattern.
Utilisation is the number every consultancy watches and the one that hides the most. A firm at sixty-eight percent against a seventy-five percent target sounds mildly under-utilised. The reality is usually that three people are at forty percent while two engagements are short-staffed, which is a scheduling failure rather than a demand failure and has a completely different fix.
Budget overrun is the third. Consulting engagements are scoped against an assumed effort, and additional analysis, extra workshops and an expanded stakeholder group are absorbed because raising a variation feels like a commercial confrontation. Six engagements past budget with no variation raised is not six mistakes; it is a firm-level habit.
The fourth is that milestone billing depends on deliverables, so a deliverable running late blocks cash that has already been earned in effort.
Verity holds the pursuit, the engagement, the staffing commitment, the deliverables, the effort and the billing position as one set of records.
What Verity calls these things
What gets in the way
Consulting difficulties come from a gap between what was sold, who was promised and who actually delivered.
Staffing does not match what was sold
The proposal named a senior team. Delivery used whoever was available, and the client noticed before the firm did.
In Verity Proposed staffing and actual staffing are both recorded against the engagement, so substitution is visible and can be discussed rather than discovered.
Utilisation hides distribution
A firm-level figure conceals that some people are idle while engagements are short, which is a scheduling problem wearing a demand problem’s clothes.
In Verity Committed and actual hours per person are records, so idle capacity and short engagements appear in the same view.
Budget overruns without variations
Extra analysis and additional stakeholders are absorbed because raising a variation is uncomfortable, and the pattern repeats across engagements.
In Verity Effort against budget is visible per engagement, so an overrun raises a variation decision rather than an absorbed cost.
Pursuits are resourced against people already committed
A proposal promises a team whose time is already sold, and the conflict surfaces at the start date.
In Verity Pursuits carry provisional resourcing against the same capacity model, so a conflict is visible at proposal rather than at kickoff.
Deliverables slip and block billing
A milestone-billed engagement cannot invoice because a deliverable is late, and cash earned in effort sits unbilled.
In Verity Deliverables are records with owners and dates linked to billing milestones, so a slip is visible with its cash consequence.
Realisation by client is unknown
Rate cards are discounted per engagement and effort is not compared against the fee, so nobody knows which clients are genuinely profitable.
In Verity Effort at cost against fee produces realisation per engagement, client and practice.
The complete system
One system across pursuits, staffing, delivery and realisation.
Work
Each is work with a client, a scope, a budget, a team, deliverables, a state and the effort recorded against it.
Why it matters here The engagement is the commercial and delivery unit at once, and holding it as a record is what connects the two.
In practice Twenty-seven active engagements with six past budget and no variation raised.
People
The team is modelled once with grades, rates, skills and availability, and every engagement records who was proposed and who delivered.
Why it matters here People are the entire cost base and the entire product, and a consultancy that cannot see their commitments cannot schedule.
In practice Three consultants below forty percent while two engagements are short-staffed, in the same view.
Records
Deliverables are records with owners, dates, review steps and the billing milestone they unlock.
Why it matters here In milestone-billed work, a deliverable is a cash event as much as a delivery event.
In practice An overdue deliverable blocking eighteen lakh of billing, visible with its owner.
Relationships
Clients are records with their engagements, sponsors, rate agreements, history and balances.
Why it matters here Consulting revenue is repeat and sponsor-driven, and a sponsor changing roles is the most common cause of a pipeline drying up.
In practice A client with four engagements across two practices, with realisation measured across all of them.
Workflows
Scope variations, rate exceptions, write-offs and deliverable sign-offs move through defined steps with recorded decisions.
Why it matters here The variation conversation is the one consultancies avoid, and making it a step rather than a confrontation is what makes it happen.
In practice An engagement passing budget raises a variation with the effort attached rather than absorbing it.
Reports and analytics
Utilisation by person and grade, realisation by engagement and client, budget performance, deliverable timeliness and pipeline against capacity come from the operational records.
Why it matters here Consultancies report revenue and utilisation, and rarely realisation, which is where the profitability actually is.
In practice Realisation by client after discounts and overruns, which frequently reorders which clients are worth pursuing.
Communication
Notes, notifications and activity attach to the engagement, deliverable or client they concern.
Why it matters here A scope decision taken verbally in a steering meeting is the one that causes the dispute at closure.
In practice A client’s agreement to reduce a workstream, recorded on the engagement rather than in an inbox.
Control
One permission model and one audit trail, with rate and budget changes as recorded decisions.
Why it matters here Rate discounting is where consulting margin is given away, and it should be visible rather than negotiated privately.
In practice Rate exceptions recorded against the engagement with the approver and the reason.
Verity AI
Verity AI answers from your own engagement, staffing, effort and billing records, respects permissions, and can create assigned follow-ups.
Why it matters here The questions worth asking cross delivery, scheduling and commerce, which is why they are usually asked at a partners’ meeting.
In practice "Which engagements are past budget without a variation?" returns six, with reviews assigned to engagement leads.
Locations
Organisational units roll into the firm, with permissions and reporting following the same structure.
Why it matters here Multi-practice firms share people across sectors, and only identical recording makes utilisation and realisation comparable.
In practice Utilisation and realisation by practice, from one set of records.
Work in motion
These already run. As connected records, the gap between what was sold and what was delivered becomes visible.
Checking the proposed team against commitments at proposal time is what prevents a kickoff conflict.
Substitution is normal; a firm that cannot see how often it happens cannot manage its consequences.
Tying the billing milestone to the deliverable is what makes a slip visible as a cash event.
The point is that absorbing an overrun becomes an explicit decision rather than a default.
Idle people and short engagements in the same month is a scheduling failure, and it only appears if both are in one view.
Realisation, not revenue, is the number that tells a consultancy which work to do more of.
Verity AI
Verity AI reads the same engagement, staffing, effort and billing records the firm runs on. It answers from your own practice, respects permissions, and can turn an answer into reviews and resourcing decisions.
Verity / Ask
Verity AI only returns what the person asking has permission to see.
Without chasing
Each runs from the engagement records at the point the condition is met.
When
Effort passes a share of the engagement budget
When
A deliverable passes its due date
When
A proposal names people already committed
When
A consultant falls below utilisation threshold
When
Work remains unbilled beyond threshold
When
A rate exception is requested
What you can understand
Delivery and commercial performance from the same records.
Verity holds the engagement records. Your accounting and document tools continue to hold the accounts and the work product.
One system, different ways of seeing it
Everyone works from the same records, and each role opens on what they need.
Managing partner
Is the firm profitable and deliverable?
Realisation by client and practice, utilisation distribution, engagements over budget, pipeline against capacity.
Practice lead
What is at risk in my practice?
Engagements over budget, deliverables overdue, staffing gaps, pursuits with conflicts.
Engagement lead
Is this engagement on track?
Effort against budget, deliverables and sign-offs, team allocation, variations outstanding.
Resourcing manager
Who is free and who is needed?
Committed hours by person and period, short-staffed engagements, pursuit resourcing conflicts.
Consultant
What am I on and what do I owe?
Assigned workstreams and deliverables, effort to record, review points, upcoming allocation.
Where it is used
Both recorded on the engagement, so substitution is visible as a pattern rather than noticed by the client first.
Committed and actual hours per person, so idle capacity and short-staffed engagements appear in one view rather than behind a firm-level average.
Effort against budget per engagement, so passing it raises a variation decision rather than an absorbed cost.
Deliverables tied to the milestones they unlock, so a slip is visible with its cash consequence.
Provisional resourcing on pursuits against the same capacity model, so conflicts surface at proposal rather than kickoff.
Effort at cost against fee after discounts and overruns, which frequently reorders which clients are worth pursuing.
Discounts recorded as approvals with their realisation impact, rather than negotiated privately per engagement.
Plain-language questions across delivery, scheduling and commerce, with reviews assigned in the same step.
Getting there
Your accounting, document and collaboration tools continue to run and are mapped during implementation. Clients, active engagements, teams, rates and open pursuits are brought across, and Verity is introduced as the engagement and resourcing layer.
Implementation runs about four weeks: discovery and mapping, configuration, migration, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Questions
Verity AI answers questions from your own engagement, staffing, effort and billing records: which engagements are past budget without a variation, who is below utilisation while engagements are short-staffed, which deliverables are blocking a billing milestone, what realisation looks like by client. Each answer can become a review or a resourcing decision.
No. Accounting continues and is mapped during implementation. Verity holds the operational and commercial record — pursuits, engagements, staffing, deliverables, effort, variations, unbilled ageing and realisation.
Committed and actual hours are held per person, so the firm-level figure resolves into distribution. Three people at forty percent while two engagements are short-staffed is a scheduling failure with a different fix from a demand shortfall, and only the distribution shows it.
Effort at cost is compared against the fee after discounts and overruns, producing realisation by engagement, client and practice — which is a different ranking from revenue and usually a more useful one.
Effort against budget is visible as the engagement runs, so passing a threshold raises a variation decision with the additional effort quantified. Absorbing an overrun becomes an explicit, recorded choice rather than the default.
Pursuits carry provisional resourcing against the same capacity model as delivered engagements, so a proposal naming people whose time is already sold surfaces as a conflict before submission rather than at kickoff.
Deliverables are records with owners, dates, review steps and the billing milestone they unlock, so a late deliverable is visible alongside the cash it is blocking.
A ten-person firm has the same substitution, overrun and unbilled problems, and a single overrunning engagement is a larger share of its year.
About four weeks: discovery and mapping of how the firm pursues and delivers, configuration of grades, rates and stages, migration of clients and active engagements, then an ongoing operations partnership.
Most firms have several and have raised variations on none of them. Tell us how effort is tracked today and we will show you what visibility changes.