Estii guides
How schedule slip quietly kills services margin
Work out the calendar cost inside a services deal, including your week-rate, break-even point, and how much delay the margin can absorb before the project falls below target.
21 Aug 2026 • 8 min
The five commercial commitments in every signed deal
A signed services deal is five commercial commitments: scope, margin, schedule, resourcing, revenue timing. Decide them before you sign, not in delivery.
03 Jul 2026 • 5 min
Scoping AI integration: estimation gets harder, not obsolete
Scoping AI integration projects is the new growth work for services firms. Novel work has no priors, which makes the estimate harder and worth more.
15 Jun 2026 • 6 min
Bench utilisation is lying to you
Bench utilisation is the headline metric most services CEOs trust. It measures how full your people are, not whether the firm is healthy. Here is the gap.
11 Jun 2026 • 9 min
Pricing agent-assisted delivery without flying blind
Pricing agent-assisted delivery breaks headcount as a cost proxy. Model the agent as a resource line with its own loaded rate so the estimate stays honest.
08 Jun 2026 • 9 min
Sold vs delivered margin: why the gap is designed in
Sales sets one to win the deal, delivery measures what the work cost. That is why sold vs delivered margin never agree, and tightening delivery never holds.
07 Jun 2026 • 10 min
You can't price an outcome you can't estimate
Outcome based pricing in professional services moves delivery risk onto you. Most firms underwrite that risk with an estimate built only to win the work.
04 Jun 2026 • 9 min
Killing the billable hour breaks more than your invoice
Everyone is killing the billable hour to fix pricing. But the same hour runs your estimating, capacity, and forecasting. Repricing leaves all three broken.
02 Jun 2026 • 10 min
We called it Sh*tGrid. We kept it anyway.
The email provider we hated for years, the day it deleted everything, and what it finally took to migrate off it and start sending product updates again.
29 May 2026 • 5 min
Make your service offer easy to buy, or lose to no decision
Most service offers don't stall on price. They stall because the buyer can't rebuild your number for the people who sign. What makes an offer easy to buy.
23 May 2026 • 7 min
What to know when vibe-coding your service pricing tool
Vibe-coding works well for a lot of internal tooling. Complex service estimation has specific properties that change the calculus.
21 May 2026 • 5 min
Why estimation variance is an information architecture problem
Estimation variance looks like padding or skill gaps. The causes are structural. Fix the structure and the spread between two developers quoting the same scope collapses.
19 May 2026 • 5 min
Resourcing velocity is the margin metric you're missing
Utilisation tells you who's busy. Resourcing velocity tells you whether the deal you sold became the deal you delivered. The leading indicator on services margin.
24 Apr 2026 • 7 min
Source of truth in the commercial stack
Four systems claim source of truth for every services deal and none can carry the commercial detail. Where commercial viability lives in your stack.
22 Apr 2026 • 7 min
The signed-to-started gap, where margin quietly dies
The signed-to-started gap is the weeks between contract signature and real delivery kickoff. Most firms do not measure it. All of them pay for it.
20 Apr 2026 • 6 min
Revenue velocity without wrecking delivery, the CEO balancing act
Revenue velocity is the rate closed pipeline becomes recognised revenue without burning delivery. A CEO playbook for measuring and compressing the whole cycle.
17 Apr 2026 • 14 min
How to build a services rate card that survives real deals
Build a services rate card that holds under negotiation. Role granularity, margin bands, region splits, and rebuild triggers that replace an annual review.
16 Apr 2026 • 10 min
Capacity-aware selling, sell what you can actually deliver
Capacity-aware selling puts delivery shape in front of sales before the quote lands. Sell what you can staff, shape what you can't, keep margin intact.
15 Apr 2026 • 10 min
How to price change requests without the margin leak
Change request pricing that protects margin on fixed-price SOWs. A four-step workflow (raise, size, price, approve) that stops silent scope creep.
14 Apr 2026 • 10 min
Professional services CPQ, a category services didn't ask for
Professional services CPQ came from product CPQ vendors, not from services firms. What the category gets right, and the gaps it still leaves.
Updated 13 Apr 2026 • 14 min
Statement of work, what belongs in one
What a statement of work is, how it compares to a proposal or MSA, and the nine sections every SOW needs to protect scope, price, and delivery margin.
17 Mar 2026 • 7 min
Capacity planning for technology solution providers
A practical capacity planning guide for technology solution providers. Three-layer demand view, weighted pipeline, named assumptions, scaling rituals.
Updated 12 Apr 2026 • 14 min
SOW generation from a priced estimate
SOW generation that keeps scope, price, and schedule in sync: generate a statement of work from your priced estimate, from proposal to signed contract.
Updated 14 Apr 2026 • 10 min
Services quoting software, the buyer's guide
Services quoting software, a buyer's guide for systems integrators, consultancies, and MSPs. What the category covers, where adjacent tools fall short, ten shortlist questions.
27 Jan 2026 • 14 min
Estimation platform ROI, a business case for RevOps and CFOs
Build the estimation platform ROI case your CFO will fund. Margin guardrails, pilot plan, and a one-slide summary RevOps leaders can ship this week.
Updated 14 Apr 2026 • 5 min
How to discount without losing margin, the trade rule
How to discount without losing margin in B2B services. Trade price for scope, timeline, or terms using a concession menu that protects deal economics.
Updated 14 Apr 2026 • 5 min
How to improve service estimate accuracy over time
Learn how to improve estimate accuracy over time by tracking variance, running post-project reviews, and calibrating your service estimation model.
12 Jun 2025 • 4 min
Fixed price vs time and materials vs retainer, how to choose
Fixed price vs time and materials vs retainer. How to pick a pricing model that matches scope uncertainty, keeps the buyer comfortable, and protects margin.
25 Feb 2025 • 5 min
Sales to delivery handover - a practical guide
A practical sales to delivery handover guide for services teams, with a six-part handoff checklist covering scope, estimates, schedules and commercials.
Updated 02 Nov 2026 • 7 min
How to estimate total cost of ownership for services
Learn how to estimate total cost of ownership for recurring services, model growth, and price quotes that win deals without eroding margin.
03 Nov 2023 • 9 min
Why spreadsheets fail for pricing - an opinion
An opinion piece on why spreadsheets fail for pricing work, and why opinionated estimation software beats endless flexibility for service teams.
29 May 2023 • 2 min
How to price a scope of work in B2B services
A practical guide on how to price a scope of work for B2B services, with steps for keeping scope, timeline and price in sync without blowing margin.
28 Apr 2022 • 4 min