AI Indexes
Finance AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Receivables and billing › PSA › Small business › September 2026 Edition

Professional services automation for small business buyers

Asked as “professional services automation platform”, and as “PSA tool for project billing and utilization”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 55 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each. Added to the September 2026 Edition; its answers are read by the distilled judge (ai-indexes-judge-qwen3-14b-run3), not the claude-opus-5 judge of the earlier categories: how the two compare.
Standing · first-choice share
38%
Contested · Productive 15%
38BigTime15Productive07Ruddr40others

38% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01BigTime38%2%53endorsed leader
02Productive15%0%25accepted challenger
03Ruddr7%0%13accepted challenger
04Scoro5%7%45accepted challenger
05Avaza5%0%11accepted challenger
06Teamwork.com2%0%15accepted challenger
07Syncro2%6%17accepted challenger
08Rocketlane2%8%12accepted challenger
09Kantata2%65%37criticized challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
11Certinia Professional Services Cloud0%100%14criticized challenger
10Accelo0%6%31accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
S07
08
09
10
11
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01BigTime38%
02Productive15%
03Ruddr7%
04Scoro5%
05Avaza5%
06Teamwork.com2%
07Syncro2%
08Rocketlane2%
09Kantata2%
10Accelo0%
11Certinia Professional Services Cloud0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Kantata
65%
24 of 37 labels negative · 10 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“platforms like Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) or Kantata are out of reach due to steep implementation costs, long contract lock-ins, and high minimum seat requirements” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Certinia Professional Services Cloud
100%
14 of 14 labels negative · 9 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“legacy enterprise Professional Services Automation (PSA) platforms like Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) or Kantata are out of reach due to steep implementation costs” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
ConnectWise PSA
80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“Platforms to avoid or approach carefully: ConnectWise PSA — powerful, but reviews repeatedly point to setup complexity, performance issues” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt
Autotask PSA
100%
3 of 3 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“initial setup is challenging due to its size and complexity. Good fit for some MSPs, less so if you want something lightweight.” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

77 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1033 links across 166 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · Scoro49 answers · 57 citations · 13 models
vendor site · BigTime46 answers · 116 citations · 13 models
vendor site · Kantata46 answers · 56 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Teamwork.com35 answers · 49 citations · 12 models
vendor site · G234 answers · 54 citations · 14 models
vendor site · G234 answers · 34 citations · 12 models
31 answers · 31 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Rocketlane27 answers · 36 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Accelo24 answers · 32 citations · 11 models
21 answers · 22 citations · 9 models
20 answers · 24 citations · 10 models
vendor site · Productive19 answers · 25 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best professional services automation platform”, “professional services automation platform”, “professional services automation platforms”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
BigTime bigtime.net38%12218,10027830,730$2,22130
Productive productive.io
Productive 15%, Productive.io 4%
18%5860,5001,234,021102,038$1,647613
Ruddr ruddr.com7%2159011,261$27,13014
Scoro scoro.com5%1011,300234,736511
Avaza avaza.com5%1872053,60418
Ravetree ravetree.com4%53
Teamwork.com teamwork.com2%351,90023467,27816
Syncro2%3,600383
Rocketlane rocketlane.com2%533,6005215,010$7,64955
Projectworks projectworks.com2%10320145,04698

Google's top ten for the three searches hold 23 sites; 5 of them are among the sites the models cited here (g2.com, kantata.com, productive.io, scoro.com, thedigitalprojectmanager.com). The first result for “best professional services automation platform” is atera.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
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ModelDirect“What is the best professional services automation platform for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which PSA tool for project billing and utilization would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top professional services automation platforms for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best professional services automation platform for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a professional services automation platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which professional services automation platforms should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5BigTime
Three alternativesAvaza, Paymo, Scoro
BigTimeHeld
Two alternativesAccelo, Scoro
against: Kantata
ClickUp, Teamwork.com, Wrike
Four alternativesAccelo, BigTime, Productive, Scoro
against: Kantata
Wrike
Five alternativesBitrix24, Productive, Rocketlane, Syncro, Teamwork.com
no first choiceagainst: Accelo, BQE CORE, Kantata, WorkflowMax
GPT-5.4 miniScoro
Two alternativesBigTime, Productive
against: Kantata
BigTimeChanged
Four alternativesAvaza, PSOhub, Paymo, Projectworks
Accelo, Rocketlane, Teamwork.com
Two alternativesBQE CORE, Birdview
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Kantata
Teamwork.com
Three alternativesBitrix24, Syncro, Wrike
no first choiceagainst: Autotask PSA, Certinia PS Cloud, ConnectWise PSA, Kantata, SuiteProjects / NetSuite OpenAir
Gemini 3.5 FlashRuddr
Four alternativesHaloPSA, Productive.io, Scoro, SuperOps
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, ConnectWise, NetSuite
ProductiveChanged
Three alternativesAccelo, BigTime, Scoro
Ruddr
Four alternativesAccelo, Productive, Rocketlane, Scoro
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Kantata
Avaza
Four alternativesFlowlu, Paymo, Productive.io, Teamwork.com
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Kantata
Productive.io
Eight alternativesBigTime, HaloPSA, Projectworks, Runn.io, Scoro, SuperOps, Syncro, Teamwork.com
against: Asana, Certinia Professional Services Cloud, NetSuite OpenAir, Trello, Workday PSA
against: Autotask PSA, Certinia Professional Services Cloud, ConnectWise PSA, Deltek, Kantata SX, Oracle NetSuite OpenAir, SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Professional Services, Workday PSA
Perplexity SonarAvaza
Three alternativesBigTime, Productive, Scoro
BigTimeChanged
Three alternativesAccelo, Kantata, Scoro
Teamwork.com
Four alternativesBigTime, Birdview, Rocketlane, Scoro
Avaza
Three alternativesBigTime, Ruddr, Scoro
no first choiceagainst: BQE CORE, BigTime, Certinia Professional Services Cloud, ConnectWise/Autotask, Replicon
Grok 4.1 FastBigTime
Two alternativesAccelo, Scoro
against: Kantata
BigTimeHeld
Three alternativesAccelo, Kantata, Scoro
BigTime
Four alternativesAccelo, Avaza, Productive, Scoro
against: Kantata, Wrike
Bitrix24
Four alternativesBigTime, Bonsai, Productive, Teamwork.com
no first choiceagainst: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, ConnectWise Manage, Kantata, Scoro, Vorex
Mistral SmallBigTime, Kantata
Two alternativesConnectWise PSA, Ruddr
BigTimeChangedSyncro
Three alternativesAccelo, Kantata, Productive
PSOhub, SuperOps
Two alternativesHaloPSA, Syncro
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashBigTime
Three alternativesAccelo, Ruddr, Scoro
RavetreeChanged
Four alternativesAccelo, BigTime, Function Point, Scoro
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Kantata
BigTime
Four alternativesAccelo, Rocketlane, Scoro, Teamwork.com
against: Kantata
Productive.io
Two alternativesBigTime, Zoho Projects
against: Accelo, HaloPSA, Kantata
BigTime, Productive, Scoroagainst: Kantata, Rocketlaneagainst: Autotask PSA, ConnectWise Manage, HaloPSA, Kantata, Scoro, ServiceNow
Llama 4 Maverickno first choiceBigTime, Projectworks, RocketlaneChangedSyncro
Two alternativesAccelo, Kantata
Syncro
Two alternativesBQE CORE, Plaky
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashBigTime
Three alternativesRuddr, Syncro, Wrike
against: Acumatica
BigTimeHeld
Two alternativesHarvest, Scoro
ClickUp, Monday.com
Three alternativesDubsado, HoneyBook, StudioSite
Productive
Two alternativesBonsai, Smartsheet
no first choice
Three alternativesAvalara, ClickUp, Dext
against: BridgePoint, Mavenlink, Oracle, SAP S/4HANA, Unanet
against: Asana, Autotask, ConnectWise Manage, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Monday.com, Oracle NetSuite, SAP S/4HANA, ServiceMax, VOGSY, Wrike
Kimi K2BigTime, Scoro
One alternativeAccelo
BigTimeChanged
One alternativeScoro
against: ClickUp, Monday.com
BigTime, Ruddr
Two alternativesAccelo, Productive
against: Kantata
Ruddr
Three alternativesAccelo, BigTime, Scoro
BigTime
Three alternativesAccelo, Kantata, Ravetree
against: Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Microsoft Project Operations / Dynamics 365, NetSuite OpenAir, PSA by Canam Systems
GLM 4.7 FlashXProductive, Ravetree
Four alternativesAccelo, Rocketlane, Scoro, Syncro
BigTimeChanged
One alternativeProductive
against: Kantata
Productive
Five alternativesAssembly, BigTime, Rocketlane, Scoro, Teamwork.com PSA
Plaky
Three alternativesBigTime, Productive, Scoro
no first choiceagainst: Asana, ClickUp, Datto, Kantata, Microsoft Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Scoro, Syncro, Workday PSA, Wrike
MiniMax M2.5BigTime, Ruddr
Three alternativesAccelo, Kantata, Scoro
BigTimeChanged
Five alternativesAccelo, Magnetic, Productive, Projectworks, Ravetree
Avaza
Three alternativesBigTime, ClickUp, Monday.com
against: Kantata
BigTime, Ruddr
Two alternativesKlient PSA, Scoro
no first choiceagainst: Bonsai, Certinia Professional Services Cloud, Kantata
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:31yes97 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:31yes25 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:13yes1724 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:25yes183 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:46yes228 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:04yes95 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:36yes1422 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:38yes53 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:53yes951 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:53yes1622 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:38yes1315 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:42yes1326 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:21yes1410 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:43yes35 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:50yes1630 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:59yes172 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:16yes229 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:09yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:14yes2420 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:22yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:15yes1029 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:42yes2344 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:15yes21131 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:18yes1330 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:17yes1912 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:52yes36 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:57yes1426 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:22yes184 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:43yes2011 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:06yes2411 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:12yes1943 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:23yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:04no028 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:48yes1928 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:51yes2246 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:09yes2141 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:29yes98 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 23:23yes35 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:03yes2030 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:37yes183 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 23:15yes219 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:16yes105 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:45yes2328 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 22:44yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 23:17yes1521 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:31yes1926 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:47yes2022 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 22:47yes525 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:46no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:39no09 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 23:24yes1323 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:14yes184 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:51yes1510 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 22:12no08 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 23:16yes2039 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:15yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:55no028 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 22:44yes1317 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 22:40no010 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:03no09 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-04 22:12yes1711 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-04 22:53yes55 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-04 22:40yes1827 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-04 22:32yes184 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-04 22:26yes1811 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-04 23:25yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-04 22:24yes2461 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-04 23:15yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-04 22:32yes838 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-04 23:00yes2437 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-04 23:20yes2076 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-04 23:07yes732 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

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Category-scoped readings
Certinia read as Certinia Professional Services Cloud
Certinia (formerly FinancialForce PSA) read as Certinia Professional Services Cloud
Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) read as Certinia Professional Services Cloud
SAP read as SAP S/4HANA
Workday read as Workday PSA
Workday Professional Services read as Workday PSA
Unresolved, counted raw
Bill4Time
BridgePoint
CRMLeaf
Datto
Datto Autotask
Financial Force
Flowlu
Function Point
Magnetic
Microsoft Project Operations / Dynamics 365
N-able
OpenAir
PSA by Canam Systems (Restoration-focused)
Rocket Matter
Runn.io
SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Professional Services
StudioSite
SuiteProjects / NetSuite OpenAir
SuperOps.ai
Teamwork.com PSA
Vorex
WorkflowMax
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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