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Industries · Professional Services

Time is the product. Track it like it.

Law firms, accounting practices, consulting and creative agencies, engineering and architecture studios — your inventory is hours. Your bottleneck is partner attention. Your margin is the difference between billable time captured and billable time forgotten. Daxonet implements D365 Project Operations or AutoCount to capture hours, track project margin, automate retainer billing, and run partner compensation properly.

Book a Partner Briefing → See Project Operations

Daxonet implements ERP and practice-management systems for Malaysian professional services firms across law, audit and tax, consulting, creative and digital agencies, engineering, architecture, and quantity surveying. The stack uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Project Operations + Finance for mid-large firms (50+ professionals), or AutoCount Accounting with project-extension templates for SME firms. Standard delivery includes time capture (mobile + desktop + AI assist), project profitability tracking with WIP, retainer billing with usage caps, partner compensation with multiple split formulas, professional-indemnity provisioning, MyInvois e-Invoice for B2B services, and trust-account compliance for legal practices. Engagements deliver 10-20% billable-hour recovery and visible per-project margin within the first quarter.

i
Billable hours
10-20%
Recovery in Q1
ii
Time compliance
85-95%
From 60-70% baseline
iii
Per-matter margin
Real-time
No more month-end surprise
iv
Go-live
3-15 mo
By firm size
The Reality

Three problems quietly costing every Malaysian professional services firm.

Each one shows up as the year-end profit-share argument. The pattern repeats every year until the systems change.

01
⏱️

Billable hours leak silently.

Senior takes a 45-minute call, never logs it. Junior works 90 minutes on a matter, logs 60. Multiply across 25 professionals × 200 working days. Annual leak: easily RM 800K-1.5M for a mid-size firm.

02

Project margin is a year-end revelation.

You quoted RM 240K for a fixed-fee engagement. Reality: 1,400 hours instead of 800. Real margin: -38%. You discover this six months after closing the file. Next bid is still gut-feel.

03

Partner comp is annual political theatre.

Originating credit. Working credit. Billing credit. Firm overhead. Adjustment for the rainmaker. Year-end disputes drag for weeks. Trust erodes. Some partners leave. Talent costs more than the dispute.

The Stack

Three configuration paths. One product family.

Different firm sizes, different complexity. Same architecture: hours captured, projects costed, partners paid properly.

Legal & Tax Practices

AutoCount + project templates for SME, D365 BC + Project Ops for mid-large. Trust account, matter management, conflict checks, retainer billing.

  • ✓Bar Council-grade trust accounting
  • ✓Matter management + WIP
  • ✓Professional indemnity reserves

Consulting & Agencies

D365 Project Operations primary. Project profitability, retainer billing, resource utilisation, multi-currency international clients.

  • ✓Real-time project margin
  • ✓Retainer with usage cap
  • ✓Resource utilisation analytics

Engineering & Architecture

D365 Project Operations + SCM. Stage billing, retention, performance bonds, sub-consultant management, BIM-data integration.

  • ✓Stage billing + retention
  • ✓Performance bond tracking
  • ✓Sub-consultant ledger
Capabilities

What Daxonet brings to every pro services engagement.

Three universal capabilities. Configured during go-live. Visible to partners, finance, and the management committee.

Time tracking and billable hour management
01 · Time Capture Engine

Mobile, calendar-aware, AI-assisted. Compliance jumps.

Mobile entry between meetings. Calendar + email metadata pre-fills suggested entries. Auto-prompts after meetings if nothing logged. Most firms see compliance jump from 60-70% to 85-95% in the first quarter — recovering hundreds of thousands in billable hours.

  • ✓Mobile + desktop time entry
  • ✓AI-suggested entries from calendar
  • ✓Auto-prompts on missed entries
02 · Project Profitability

WIP, realisation, margin — visible while the matter is open.

WIP at the firm and matter level. Aging buckets surface bleeding matters early. Realisation rates per partner, practice group, client. Per-matter margin in real time, not at year-end.

  • ✓WIP aging 0-30 / 30-60 / 60-90 / 90+
  • ✓Realisation rates per dimension
  • ✓Per-matter margin live
Project profitability and matter management
Partner compensation and firm reporting
03 · Partner Comp Engine

Modified-Hale, eat-what-you-kill, originating credit — math, not theatre.

Each partner's comp formula is parameterised. Monthly statements auto-generate. Year-end profit-share is mechanical. The political conversations stay political — the math stops being a weapon.

  • ✓Configurable per-partner formulas
  • ✓Originating / working / billing credits
  • ✓Monthly + annual statements auto
Ready to stop leaving billable hours on the table?

A one-day partner briefing. A fixed-fee proposal in 5 working days.

Daxonet principals walk your practice, audit your time-capture and billing flow, and propose a phased path. No slideware.

Book Partner Briefing
Outcomes

What professional services firms actually ship after Daxonet engages.

1
10-20%

Billable hour recovery

Mobile + AI-assisted time capture. RM 100K+ recovery on a 20-professional firm.

2
85-95%

Time entry compliance

From 60-70% baseline. Achieved within first quarter.

3
Real-time

Per-matter margin

Bleeding matters surface early — not at year-end.

4
Auto

Partner comp statements

Monthly + annual. Math stops being political.

5
< 30 sec

Trust account audit response

Bar Council audits become queries, not 3-week reconstructions.

6
3-15 mo

Go-live by firm size

SME firm fastest. Multi-office partnership slowest.

FAQ

What do clients ask before commissioning this service?

We're a 12-partner law firm. AutoCount or D365?
12 partners is right at the boundary. AutoCount with project-extension templates handles 8-15 partner law firms comfortably — time capture, matter management, trust account, billing. D365 Project Operations starts paying back at 20+ professionals when complexity (multi-office, multi-practice-group, complex partner comp formulas) demands it. Most 12-partner firms start on AutoCount and migrate to D365 BC + Project Ops at the 20-25 professional mark when growth justifies it.
Time capture compliance — half our seniors don't fill timesheets. How does software fix that?
It doesn't, fully. But Daxonet's stack reduces friction enough that compliance jumps. Mobile time entry (capture between meetings, in transit). AI-assisted suggestions from calendar + email metadata (the system pre-fills 'Met with X for 1 hour on Matter ABC' — the senior just confirms). Auto-prompts 7 days after a calendar event if no time entered. Daily/weekly reminder digests.
Retainer billing kills us. Clients on RM 15K/month retainer use 80 hours one month and 12 the next. We over-deliver, under-bill.
Retainer-with-usage-cap is a core configuration in D365 Project Operations and AutoCount project templates. Each retainer has a monthly hour cap; the system tracks usage in real time; partners get alerts at 70%, 90%, 100% utilisation. Hours over the cap fall into 'overage WIP' which triggers a separate invoice or carries to next month. The client knows where they stand; you stop subsidising heavy users.
Partner comp formulas are political. We use modified-Hale, modified-eat-what-you-kill, plus an origination credit. Can software handle that?
Yes. Partner comp is configured as a calculation engine on top of project / matter / billing data. Each partner's comp formula is parameterised: base draw, originating-partner share, working-partner share, billing-partner share, firm overhead allocation, and bonus pool participation. Monthly statements auto-generate. The political conversations stay political — but the math stops being a political weapon.
We do trust-account work for property conveyancing. Bar Council audit grade. Can ERP handle?
Trust accounting for legal practices is configured as a separate ledger structure in D365 / AutoCount with strict segregation, audit trail, and reconciliation discipline. Every trust receipt and disbursement is logged with matter reference + client identification + bank reference. Monthly reconciliation against bank statement is automated. Bar Council audit response is a query, not a 3-week reconstruction.
How do you handle WIP — work-in-progress, unbilled time?
WIP is a foundational concept. Hours captured but not yet billed = unbilled WIP at the firm-wide and matter levels. Daxonet configures WIP-aging reports (0-30 / 31-60 / 61-90 / 90+ days) so matters that are bleeding (high WIP, low realisation) surface early. WIP write-off authority is workflow-driven — partners approve write-offs above a threshold. WIP-to-cash velocity becomes a KPI the management committee actually tracks.
What about professional indemnity? Our insurer asks weird questions.
Professional indemnity provisioning is configured as a contingent liability ledger. Each known claim or potential claim has: matter reference, claim amount range, probability assessment, insurer notified date, current status, reserve amount. Monthly PI reserve calculation rolls up. Year-end PI insurance renewal disclosures auto-generate. The renewal conversation goes from 'we'll get back to you' to 'here is the schedule, broken down properly'.
How long to go live?
SME firm (under 15 professionals, AutoCount path): 3-5 months. Mid-size firm (15-50 professionals, AutoCount or D365 BC + Project Ops): 5-9 months. Large firm (50+ professionals, multi-office, complex comp, D365 F&O + Project Ops): 9-15 months.
Ready to start?

Book a 45-minute briefing with a Daxonet principal.

We review your current state, map a phased path to your target outcome, and tell you honestly whether we are the right partner — or who is.

Book a Partner Briefing +603-9212 8336
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