What a PSA Is
Written by MSP Outpost.
In Short
A PSA (professional services automation) is the system an MSP runs the business through: every ticket, every hour worked, every contract and every invoice. The RMM watches the machines. The PSA tracks the work and turns it into billing.
What It Does
- Tickets. Intake by email, portal and phone, with queues, priorities and SLA clocks.
- Time. Technicians log time against the ticket they are working, so billable hours are not lost.
- Contracts and billing. Recurring agreements, block hours and project fees become invoices, usually synced to the accounting system.
- Projects. Onboarding and migrations tracked as tasks with budgets and owners.
- Quoting. Some include quotes and product ordering. Others hand that to a quoting tool.
- Reporting. Utilization, SLA performance and profitability, per client and per technician.
When You Need One
A shared inbox and a simple ticketing tool can carry you. Several all-in-one platforms bundle a PSA with an RMM at a low entry price, which is often the better first step.
Unlogged time and billing mistakes start costing more than the PSA does. This is when most MSPs adopt one properly.
The PSA becomes the record for contracts, dispatch and reporting, and leaving it gets expensive. Choose for the next five years, not the next quarter.
What to Look For
Must Have
- Email to Ticket
- SLA Timers
- Time Entry From the Ticket
- Recurring Billing
- Accounting Sync
- RMM Integration
Worth Having
- Client Portal
- Dispatch Board
- Quoting
- Project Templates
- An Open API
How It Is Priced
Most PSAs charge per technician per month, often with a minimum number of seats and an annual term. Look out for onboarding or implementation fees, modules priced separately, and bundles that discount the PSA when you also buy the same vendor's RMM.
Switching
Changing PSA is one of the hardest moves an MSP makes, because tickets, contracts, billing history and client records all live in it. Before you sign, find out how you export your data and in what format, how long the contract runs and what happens at renewal. Plan a move over a billing cycle, not a weekend.
Questions to Ask a Vendor
- What is the minimum seat count, and can it go down as well as up?
- Which integrations do you build and maintain, and which come from a third party?
- How do I export all my data, closed tickets and time entries included, if I leave?
- What does onboarding include, and what does it cost?
- How much has the price changed at renewal over the last two years?
- Can I buy the PSA on its own, or only as part of a bundle?
