One platform that runs the business side of a consultancy — from hours worked, to invoices sent, to books closed — and connects you to the firms you work with, so paperwork between businesses takes care of itself.
Hourglass runs the path from work done to money billed — with an approval at every step, so nothing reaches a client unchecked.
Staff enter their week in a simple grid and submit in minutes. Managers see what's waiting and approve with one click. Gentle automatic reminders chase the stragglers — so you don't have to.
Approved time becomes a polished, branded invoice at the rates you've set — ready to send the day the billing period closes, not weeks later.
Subcontractors submit their invoices right in the system. Your team reviews and approves them in one place — no chasing attachments through email.
Billing rates are set by role and seniority, and changes need sign-off before they take effect. Every project shows spend against budget as the hours come in — no month-end surprises.
Project expenses follow the same submit-and-approve routine as time, so project costs stay complete — and defensible.
Who billed what, which projects are profitable, where the budget stands — ready-made reports you can pull any day of the month and share as a file.
Everyone sees exactly what their role needs: staff enter time, managers approve, accounting bills, and leadership gets the overview.
See Hourglass in actionAbacus keeps a real set of accounts behind your business — accurate enough for your accountant, simple enough for whoever runs your office.
Every dollar is recorded properly and traceable — from any number on any report, straight down to the transaction behind it.
Profit & loss, balance sheet, GST summary, cash flow, bank reconciliation — generated from your books in one click, any time. Year-end stops being a scramble.
Load your bank statement and Abacus suggests where each transaction belongs — learning your preferences as you go. What took an afternoon takes minutes.
Run Canadian payroll in-house with wages, deductions, and remittances recorded properly — or leave it switched off and keep your current provider.
Moving from QuickBooks? Your accounts and history come across in bulk — no retyping years of records, no starting from zero.
The two systems are connected the day yours is set up. Whatever happens on the billing side is recorded on the books side, automatically and correctly.
Where the work happens
Where the books stay current
No re-keying, no month-end catch-up, no "does accounting match billing?" — they can't drift apart, because nothing is entered twice.
Either way, your business gets its own complete, private system — your own records, your own web address. Your data never shares a home with anyone else's.
We run your system, keep it updated, back it up, and watch its health. You just log in and work — up and running the day you sign on.
Prefer to keep everything under your own roof? The same system installs on your own server. When an update is ready you'll see a notice — apply it when it suits you. Nothing about your business leaves your building unless you choose to connect it.
Consultancies subcontract each other constantly — and then re-enter each other's invoices by hand, on both sides. On the platform, two businesses connect once, and the paperwork between them takes care of itself.
Send a partner firm a short invite code — like adding a contact.
Both sides see exactly who they're connecting with and approve it. No IT project required.
From then on, invoices between you travel system-to-system, securely.
The subcontractor
The prime
You stay in control at every step — nothing posts to your books without your approval. The typing is what disappears, not the oversight.
No two consultancies bill the same way. The platform bends to yours — set up once, usually in an afternoon.
Start from a ready-made consultancy setup or keep the account structure you already use. Your tax rates and rules are settings, not assumptions.
Define your own job disciplines, seniority levels, rate sheets, and invoice add-ons — whatever your services actually look like, not someone else's template.
Works with statements from any bank — a one-time setup teaches the system your bank's file, and the standard formats most banks offer work out of the box.
Receipts and backups live on your own server or in your Dropbox — your choice, changeable any time in settings.
The transaction-sorting assistant can run entirely on your own equipment — completely private — or use the AI service your business already trusts. Or stay off.
Need something bespoke? Both systems open up to your other business tools, and any developer — yours or ours — can build on them. You're never waiting on a vendor for every tweak.
Connecting businesses only works if every business stays in full control of its own information. On this platform, that's how it's built — not just promised.