25 Effective Business Management Software for Independent Business Management Consultants

89%: That’s the proportion of companies that have already adopted digital-first strategies or plan to do so. If you consider the sheer amount of business management software for management consultants alone, it’s clear that independent business management consultants no longer have the luxury of taking time to decide whether to digitize the business. 

With the appropriate software, business management consultants can now save time by automating repetitive admin tasks, streamlining the day-to-day workflow, building a loyal client base, and elevating customer experience while reducing the operational cost. 

But what are the right business management software for management consultants? We bring you a comprehensive list of software that helps independent business management consultants like you disentangle the daily workflow and scale their businesses. 

Client management software 

Client management software is critical in tracking and identifying potential clients, engaging them, managing relationships with prospects and existing clients, and much more. 

1. Bonsai 

A popular client management software for business management consultants, the cloud-based Bonsai is tailor-made for consultants. It’s an all-in-one tool that helps manage your clients, projects, and finances seamlessly. It offers a wide range of customizable features like client intake forms, e-contracts, an easy-to-use scheduler, flexible invoicing, time-tracker, billing system, integrated banking, etc. It brings all your business functionalities under one roof. 

Starting Price: $17/ month 

2. HoneyBook 

HoneyBook business management software offers end-to-end support for business consulting companies—right from managing enquiries to client communication and payments. With features best suited for small businesses, you can seamlessly automate your workflow using HoneyBook. They offer built-in templates for each stage of the “clientflow”—showcase services, booking, project management, and feedback. This helps accelerate the process of selling your services to your customers and streamlines the onboarding process. 

Starting Price: $16/ user/ month 

3. Simply.Coach 

Simply.Coach is an all-in-one platform that helps you take your business digital. The platform helps you digitize your proprietary methodologies so you can reduce operational work and save time while still offering clients the same great experiences for which they signed up with you. Plus, it takes away the hassle of multi-platform communication, endless shared resources, and excel upon excel of reports, with features such as Digital Assessments & Forms, Resource Library, Actions & Reminders, Reports, and more. Be it contract creation, scheduling sessions, invoicing and payment or contact management—Simply.Coach takes care of every minute detail. 

Starting Price: $9/month 

Video conferencing software 

Constructive communication is the backbone of any consultancy service. Reliable video conferencing software for management consultants is one of the most basic steps to digitize services without compromising on the long-lasting relationships with clients. 

1. Zoom 

Zoom is a cloud-based video call software that facilitates virtual meetings (one-on-one, group or live chat). If you are hosting a meeting, all you need to do is share an invitation link with the other participants (an instant meeting or a scheduled one). You can also conduct online courses and webinars via zoom. You may go for the free basic plan (up to 40 mins/ meeting) or attend a demo to get an in-depth idea of the application. 

Starting price: $14/ user/ month 

2. Microsoft Teams 

Developed by Microsoft as a segment of the Microsoft 365 clan, Microsoft Teams is a communication software that facilitates video conferencing, workspace chat, application integration, file storage, etc. You can schedule meetings using Microsoft Teams, invite multiple attendees, and share content during the call. You can communicate within the team via different channels and share information through third-party connectors like MailChimp, Bing News, etc. You can also sign up for free and collaborate with clients on the go. 

Starting price: $4/ user/ month 

3. Google Meet 

Google Meet offers an enterprise-grade video conferencing facility that is built on Google’s “robust and secure infrastructure”. It allows up to 250 attendees and offers screen sharing and live chat options during calls. It’s integrated with Google Calendar, and you can schedule a meeting or invite participants via a link. All you need is a Google account. 

Starting price: $6/ user/ month 

Project management software 

Project management software for business management consultants help streamline intra-organizational collaboration by managing tasks, finances, and employee logbooks. 

1. Asana 

Asana helps plan, create, manage projects and provides real-time insight into progress on each task. You can break down the tasks and assign all the sub-tasks either to one individual or allot each to different assignees. This helps easy coordination among different stakeholders and ensures transparency within the team. It can be easily integrated with the existing work apps and has a user-friendly interface. You can also opt for their free basic plan. 

Starting price: $10.99/ user/month, when billed annually 

2. Mavenlink 

Now known as Kantata, Mavenlink helps streamline operations and manage projects seamlessly. It is more in sync with the needs and requirements of a consulting business. It offers better project visibility by bringing all the relevant information under one roof so that you can set tasks and track their real-time status, manage your calendar, share information, and interact with stakeholders. This helps allocate resources based on priority, and meet deadlines and budget goals. It automates workflow and allows easy integration into your existing system. 

Starting price: $39/ user/ month 

3. Trello 

With an easy-to-use interface, Trello consolidates all your tasks in one place, allows easy organizational collaboration, and enables workflow automation via unique tools. You can organize and view task status via Trello board. You can simply use the in-built workflow status (to do, doing & done), or customize as per your requirement. The “Timeline view” helps identify and plug in gaps in progress and stick to deadlines. Trello ensures easy integration with existing apps if any. You can also get Trello for free with limited offerings. 

Starting price: $5/ user/ month when billed annually 

Accounting & invoicing software 

Accounting & invoicing software for management consultants aid in the seamless creation of bills, tracking of payments, nudging for payments, and much more. 

1. Stripe 

Stripe facilitates businesses of all sizes, ranging from startups to big organizations. The software along with APIs enables payment acceptance and sending out of invoices. The payment platform ensures a secure payment process and offers up to eight payment options like cash vouchers, cards, e-wallets, etc. You can customize and use the payment interface right from the Stripe dashboard without any code required. All you need to do is create an account there. You can either sync your Stripe data into your own website or seamlessly integrate it with other software like NetSuite, Salesforce, etc. 

Starting price: 2% of the transacted value for domestic payments and 3% of the transaction value for international payments 

2. PayPal 

With PayPal you can send instant invoices and accept prompt online payment. Your clients can make payments via any of the payment modes—PayPal, Pay Later, Venmo, and even with credit and debit cards. You can receive payments against your invoices even if your clients do not have PayPal. You can simply share your personalized payment link on social or in person. The software can be easily integrated with other digital tools like marketing, operations, etc. Their AI-powered fraud prevention tools ensure safe transactions. 

Time-tracking & scheduling software 

As the name suggests, time-tracking & scheduling software helps keep track of time that has been spent on both billable & non-billable activities by tracking employee work hours, number of leaves, duration spent on different activities, etc. 

1. Calendly 

With Calendly, you can get rid of all the back-and-forth emails for scheduling appointments/sessions. It helps automate the booking process and saves your time and energy. You can create multiple events, define the session duration and other details, and share the booking links with your clients. You can also set reminders and follow-ups with Calendly. Integrate the software with other tools like Salesforce, Stripe, Zoom, etc. and enhance productivity. You can get started with their basic plan for free. 

Starting price: $8/ seat/ month 

2. Toggl 

If you bill your clients based on time invested instead of number of sessions, Toggl is the right time-tracking software for you. With Toggl, you can track every billable hour. Its transparent interface helps log your work hours for accurate reporting. You can also track the workflow of your associates with Toggl. 

Starting price: Start Toggle for free 

Still in doubt whether to use business management software?  

Read our blog post on the 5 benefits of using management software for consulting 

Marketing software 

Marketing software is instrumental in scaling businesses by helping you conduct successful campaigns, generate leads, and convert leads into paying clients. 

1. Canva 

Create professional designs using Canva and use them for marketing your services. You can create logos, posters, flyers, website and social media content and much more with the help of the thousands of in-built designs, templates, and images available in Canva. You can even plan, create, schedule, and publish your social media posts directly from Canva. Plus, it’s free with limited features. 

Starting price: $9.99/ user/ month for an annual subscription 

2. Hootsuite 

Hootsuite help you stay on top of your social media game and save time. The software is integrated with more than 35 social media platforms such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc. With Hootsuite, you can see all your content in one calendar, organize the schedule and publish the posts on relevant social profiles, track their effectiveness, and then create new posts based on the metrics. 

Starting price: $99/ month 

Proposal software 

Proposal software helps automate the process of creating client proposals, integrate it with invoicing, accounting & digital signature tools, and helps generate analytical insights. 

1. Proposify 

Proposify helps draft compelling digital proposals, track deal progress, and close deals — all within your company CRM. It also offers built-in proposal templates where you can add your company’s specific style and incorporate videos and images to make the template on-brand. It also facilitates digital signatures. 

The software also includes tools that help accelerate the client approval procedure. Your client can interact with you by leaving comments right in the proposal and you can set automatic reminders. 

It minimizes errors in your document in a variety of ways: 

• It helps sync your contacts and lets you use the custom variables to fill in the document fields. 
• It helps set approval permission so that your proposal lands into your clients’ inbox only after the right people have signed off on it 

Starting price: $49/ user/ month 

2. Pandadoc 

With Pandadoc, you can design custom client-facing proposals and contracts, send them across, and have your clients e-sign them. You can use their pre-built templates and data from your CRM to create error-free proposals. You can also track the real-time status of your proposal — when was it viewed, opened, commented on, or closed.  

You can communicate with your client within the proposal and set follow-up reminders with the help of Pandadoc. It facilitates easy integration with your CRM system and helps streamline the sales further. 

Starting price: $19/ user/ month 

Talent optimization software 

The consulting business is predominantly resource oriented, aking talent optimization software crucial. It helps identify the right prospects for specific roles, builds desired goals, and nudges employees in the right direction. The most popular talent optimization software is: 

1. The predictive index 

With the help of the predictive index, you can guide your clients to choose the right employee for the right role. You can use the software to help your client organization hire the right individuals, acknowledge their best efforts, build teams that drive affirmative results, and keep your employees positively engaged. 

Video recording software 

This software helps you record repetitive content like instructions and share them with your clients to save yourself the time and energy of doing it in real time, each time. It also helps you record your interactions with your clients for you to introspect and improve on later. Effective video recording software include: 

1. Movavi 

This screen recorder enables you to capture webcam video and online video, and record only audio in various formats including s4, AVI, MOV, GIF, MP3, and JPG. Best for educational, business and personal purposes, Movavi comes with a host of features like Screencast creation, Audio recording, Webcam capture, Recording scheduling and Video editor. You can download it for free. 

Starting price: $54.95/ year subscription 

2. OBS studio 

An open-source and free video recording and streaming platform, OBS Studio’s key features include embedding pictures inside videos, adding personalized watermarks on video,s using noise suppression for audio, and much more. Other capabilities include Screen capture, Video recording, Video broadcasting, Cloud storage, and Quality management. 

Cloud storage software 

Like on mobile phones, this is a backup storage for documents that helps you save and retrieve them anytime even when your device crashes. 

1. Google Drive 

With Google Drive, you can safely store, share, and collaborate on files and folders from any electronic device. Since it is a cloud-native software, it provides maximum protection against potential malware or ransomware attack, phishing, and spam. It integrates with Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. to enable easy content creation and real-time and effective team collaboration. 

Google Drive comes with pre-embedded Google Search capabilities and blends right into your existing system. Each user can enjoy up to 15GB storage at zero cost. 

Starting price: $6/ user/ month (up to 30GB, when you exceed their free usage limit) 

2. Dropbox 

If you are searching for encrypted and secure cloud storage, Dropbox is the answer to all your woes. Apart from secure storage, you can sync at lightning-fast speed, allow previews of files, and work with various file types. That apart, Dropbox has added functionalities that allow users to validate your workflows with e-signatures, automatically backup your files and store passwords, capture screenshots and screen recordings, and more. That’s not all! You can also integrate Dropbox with other work apps like Zoom, Slack, Trello, Microsoft Office, Canva, etc. You can also sign up for their free plan. 

Starting price: $9.99 / user/ month 

Productivity software 

Productivity software is like the team manager who ensures collaboration and teamwork. Such software enables different digital tools to work in symphony. 

1. Zapier 

A popular platform, Zapier automates communication among 2,000+ web apps. Each of these interactions – termed a Zap – can be combined to automate workflows and make work more efficient. What’s more, there’s no coding required. Think bringing together key productivity apps like Evernote and Slack (create a note whenever you save a Slack message), Asana and Toggl (sync projects in Asana with those you are tracking in Toggl), and more. 

Starting price: $19/ user/ month, when billed annually 

2. Evernote 

Looking to jot down quick notes? Go for the ever-popular and free productivity tool, Evernote. If you want more out of the app, choose the paid plan to integrate with other apps such as Salesforce, Slack, etc., get more storage, and enjoy other capabilities such as searching in PDFs, uploading documents and importing emails. You can either sign up for free version and enjoy limited features or opt for any of their paid plans. 

Starting price: $10.99/ month 

Scale your consulting business with Simply.Coach 

If you are an independent business management consultant, using up to 10 to 12 digital tools at one time can be very overwhelming. To maximize operational output the business management software you choose should be comprehensive – packed with relevant features and functionalities on one platform, intuitive, easy to implement, user-friendly, and accessible through multiple device types; thus, saving you time and money.  

Simply.Coach is one such management platform that a business management consultant needs. It helps manage your business, your clients, and offers a way to digitize your offline methodologies and save time. Yes, you heard it right—Simply.Coach helps take your business digital and accelerates client growth, all while ensuring the highest level of security (it’s SOC2, HIPAA, GDPR-compliant). 

Whether it’s Google, Office 365, Zoom or Teams, you can seamlessly integrate it all with Simply.Coach — the software for management consultants that’s received the “High Performer Overall” badge from G2 in 2023— into your everyday workflow. 

Sources: Expertbox, Predictiveindex, Paperbell 

FAQs 

1. What software do consultants use? 

Some of the software consultants use include CRM software, communication software, project management software, time-tracking and scheduling software, invoicing & payment software and talent acquisition software.  The software must be intuitive, easy to implement, user-friendly, and packed with relevant features and functionalities on one platform and should be accessed through multiple device types that can save you time and money.