The ERP Built for Engineering Firms
Stop Managing Projects with Disconnected Tools.
Integrate Everything from Bids and Designs to Billing and Reporting.
The Blueprint for Success
Why ArionERP is the Right Choice for Engineering Firms
Generic ERPs don't understand the language of engineering. They can't handle milestone billing, track resource utilization against complex project phases, or connect design data to financial outcomes. ArionERP was built for this. We provide the integrated, project-centric foundation you need to deliver on time, on budget, and at a higher profit.
Project-Centric by Design
Unlike finance-first ERPs, every module in ArionERP revolves around your projects. From the first proposal to the final invoice, the project is the single source of truth.
Real-Time Job Costing
Stop waiting for month-end reports. Instantly see the financial health of every project with real-time tracking of labor, materials, and subcontractor costs against your budget.
Integrated CAD/BIM Data
Our framework allows for connections to your design tools. Link project milestones and material requirements directly to your CAD and BIM files, bridging the gap between design and execution.
Advanced Resource Scheduling
Maximize billable hours. Our visual scheduling tools help you assign the right engineers to the right tasks, forecast capacity, and avoid costly over or under-utilization.
Flexible, Complex Billing
Effortlessly manage milestone, time & materials (T&M), and fixed-price contracts. Automate invoicing based on project completion to improve cash flow and reduce administrative overhead.
Compliance & Document Control
Maintain a complete, auditable record. Centralize contracts, change orders, drawings, and compliance documentation within each project for easy access and version control.
AI-Powered Forecasting
Leverage historical project data to create more accurate bids and proposals. Our AI tools can identify potential budget risks and forecast project completion dates with greater accuracy.
A Platform That Scales
ArionERP grows with you. Whether you're a 10-person firm or a 500-person enterprise, our scalable architecture ensures the system supports your needs today and in the future.
Expert Implementation
Our team understands the engineering and construction industry. We don't just install software; we partner with you to configure workflows that match your business processes.
Integrated Modules
A Unified Toolkit for Engineering Excellence
ArionERP provides a comprehensive suite of modules designed to manage the entire engineering project lifecycle. Each component is powerful on its own but seamlessly integrated to create a single, authoritative source for all your operational data.
Project & Job Costing
Gain granular control over project finances. This module is the core of your operations, ensuring every dollar and hour is accounted for, from initial bid to final sign-off. It transforms financial data into actionable project intelligence.
- Track labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractor costs in real-time.
- Compare actuals against budgets and forecasts to identify variances instantly.
- Generate detailed cost-to-complete and work-in-progress (WIP) reports.
CRM & Bid Management
Win more profitable work. This module streamlines your entire business development process, from tracking leads and RFPs to creating accurate, data-driven proposals that give you a competitive edge.
- Manage your sales pipeline and client communications in one place.
- Utilize historical project data to create more accurate estimates and bids.
- Track bid-to-win ratios and analyze the profitability of different project types.
Advanced Billing & Invoicing
Automate your revenue cycle and improve cash flow. This module is designed to handle the complex billing structures common in engineering, eliminating manual errors and accelerating payments.
- Supports fixed-price, time & materials, milestone, and cost-plus billing.
- Automatically generate invoices based on project progress or time/expense approvals.
- Manage retainage, change orders, and complex tax requirements seamlessly.
Financials & Project Accounting
Connect project operations directly to your general ledger. This isn't just standard accounting; it's a project-aware financial system that provides a true picture of your firm's profitability and financial health.
- Automate revenue recognition based on project completion percentages.
- Drill down from high-level financial statements to individual project transactions.
- Manage multi-company and multi-currency operations for growing firms.
Resource Management & Scheduling
Your people are your most valuable asset. This module ensures you are deploying them effectively to maximize utilization, meet project deadlines, and forecast future staffing needs with confidence.
- Visualize resource allocation across all projects with Gantt charts and capacity planning tools.
- Assign staff based on skills, availability, and project requirements.
- Forecast resource needs and identify potential bottlenecks or hiring gaps.
Time & Expense Tracking
Capture every billable moment and reimbursable expense accurately. With easy-to-use mobile and web interfaces, your team can submit time and expenses from anywhere, ensuring timely data for costing and billing.
- Mobile app for on-the-go time and expense entry with receipt capture.
- Multi-level approval workflows to ensure accuracy and policy compliance.
- Data flows directly into job costing and invoicing modules, eliminating double entry.
Document Management & Control
Establish a single, secure repository for all project-related documentation. This module ensures everyone is working from the latest versions and provides a complete, auditable trail of all documents.
- Centralize contracts, drawings, RFIs, submittals, and change orders.
- Implement version control and approval workflows to maintain data integrity.
- Link documents directly to specific projects, tasks, and financial transactions.
Business Intelligence (BI) & Analytics
Turn your operational data into strategic insights. Our BI module provides customizable dashboards and reports that give you a 360-degree view of your business performance.
- Real-time dashboards for project profitability, resource utilization, and cash flow.
- Analyze trends, identify your most profitable clients and services.
- Create custom reports to meet the specific needs of your stakeholders.
Proven Results
Success Stories from Engineering Leaders
Client Overview
A 75-person civil engineering firm specializing in land development and public works projects. They were struggling with disconnected systems for accounting (QuickBooks), project management (spreadsheets), and time tracking, leading to significant delays in billing and a complete lack of visibility into real-time project costs.
Key Challenges
- Inability to track actual costs against project budgets until weeks after month-end.
- Significant revenue leakage due to unbilled change orders and inaccurate time tracking.
- Budget overruns were common, but the reasons were unclear until it was too late.
- The manual invoicing process was slow and error-prone, negatively impacting cash flow.
Our Solution
We implemented ArionERP's core Project Costing, Time & Expense, and Advanced Billing modules. The solution provided a single platform to manage projects from bid to close.
- Integrated time tracking directly into the project costing module.
- Automated the generation of complex T&M and milestone-based invoices.
- Provided project managers with real-time dashboards to monitor budget vs. actuals.
- Streamlined the change order process, ensuring all work was captured and billed.
Client Overview
A fast-growing architectural firm with 40 employees, known for its innovative commercial and residential designs. Their rapid growth led to resource planning chaos. They relied on a series of complex spreadsheets to track project assignments, leading to staff burnout, missed deadlines, and an inability to accurately forecast hiring needs.
Key Challenges
- No central visibility into staff availability or workload.
- Difficulty in matching architects' skills to specific project phase requirements.
- Inaccurate capacity planning, leading to over-promising on project timelines.
- Lost revenue due to under-utilization of junior staff during project lulls.
Our Solution
We deployed ArionERP's Resource Management module, fully integrated with their existing project management workflow.
- Created a centralized, visual resource pool with skills and availability tracking.
- Implemented Gantt chart-based scheduling for all active and upcoming projects.
- Developed capacity vs. demand reports to forecast future hiring needs.
- Enabled project managers to request and assign resources through a formalized process.
Client Overview
A 300-person consultancy with offices in the US, UK, and Australia, providing structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering services. Each office operated on its own set of systems and processes, making consolidated financial reporting and global resource planning a manual, month-long ordeal that was always out of date.
Key Challenges
- Lack of a consolidated view of global project pipeline and financials.
- Inability to share resources effectively across different regions.
- Inconsistent project management and reporting practices between offices.
- Complexities with inter-company billing and multi-currency transactions.
Our Solution
We implemented a full ArionERP suite with multi-company and multi-currency functionality, creating a standardized global platform.
- Configured a single chart of accounts while allowing for regional variations.
- Established a global resource pool for cross-border project staffing.
- Automated inter-company transactions and currency conversions.
- Created a suite of consolidated BI dashboards for the executive team.
Integrations & Platform
Connect Your Entire Engineering Ecosystem
ArionERP is built on a modern, flexible technology stack and designed to integrate with the critical tools your engineering teams use every day.
What Our Clients Say
"For the first time, we have a single source of truth. The connection between project costs and our general ledger in ArionERP has given our finance team the clarity we've needed for years."
CFO, Structural Integrity Associates
"The ability to manage complex, multi-phase billing automatically has been a huge time-saver. We've cut our invoicing time in half and improved our cash flow significantly."
Controller, MEP Engineering Consultants
"As a project manager, the real-time budget vs. actuals dashboard is my most-used screen. I can catch potential overruns before they become a problem, not after."
Senior Project Manager, Environmental Services Inc.
"We chose ArionERP because they understood our project-based business. The implementation team felt like true partners, configuring the system to our specific workflows."
COO, Geotechnical Solutions
"The resource scheduling module replaced a nightmare of spreadsheets. We've increased our team's billable utilization by over 10% because we can see who is available and what their skills are."
Principal, Porter Architects
"The document control feature is fantastic. Having all contracts, drawings, and change orders tied directly to the project in one place has simplified our audits and reduced risk."
Compliance Manager, Power Systems Engineering
Your Partners in Success
Meet Our ERP Implementation Experts
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Implementation time varies based on complexity, but our phased approach is designed for speed. A 'QuickStart' package for smaller firms can get you live on core modules in as little as 8-12 weeks. More complex, multi-module implementations for larger firms typically range from 4-9 months.
ArionERP is designed with an open API architecture to facilitate integrations. While we don't offer a direct, out-of-the-box integration with every CAD program, we provide a framework and work with you to connect your design data (like material take-offs or project milestones) to the ERP system, bridging the critical gap between design and project execution.
We offer both. Our most popular option is ArionERP Cloud (SaaS), which is fully hosted and managed by us for a predictable monthly fee. We also offer an On-Premise perpetual license for firms that have specific security requirements or prefer to manage their own infrastructure.
Change orders are a critical part of engineering projects, and our system handles them seamlessly. You can create, approve, and track change orders within the project module. They automatically update project budgets, schedules, and can be added to the next invoice, ensuring you never lose revenue on out-of-scope work.
Our pricing is designed to be transparent and scalable. For our SaaS offering, it's typically a per-user, per-month fee that varies based on the modules you need. We have packages tailored for small, mid-sized, and enterprise firms. We also offer fixed-fee implementation packages to ensure cost predictability. Contact us for a detailed quote based on your specific needs.
Absolutely. Data migration is a key part of our implementation process. We have proven methodologies and tools to extract, clean, and import your historical data from systems like QuickBooks, Excel, and other legacy software. This ensures you have your client, project, and financial history available in ArionERP from day one.
Ready to Build a More Profitable Engineering Firm?
Stop letting disconnected systems and manual processes erode your margins. See how a unified, project-centric ERP can provide the visibility and control you need to scale your business. Schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our engineering industry experts today.
Talk to an Expert