ERP or steering software: the question comes up at services companies, integrators and IT services companies that want to keep their ERP and keep their projects under better control. A services ERP runs the company: sales, invoicing, accounting, often time and resources. Steering software holds what the company promised its clients: milestones, contracts, committees, teams, approvals. The two partly overlap. This guide says where the line falls, and when a services ERP is enough.
It starts from the deal and runs to the accounts: opportunity, quote, order, contract, invoice, collection, cost accounting. It is the reference for running the company, and it is the one that issues invoices.
It starts from the commitment and runs to delivery: milestones, work packages, risks, decisions, committees, team workload, client approval. It is the reference for what happens before the invoice, while there is still time to act.
Four French vendors, described from their website, consulted in October 2026. Each claims to run the services company, from sale to invoice.
Presents itself as deal-based management software for service companies, commercial, operational and financial: CRM, sales, resources, time, contracts and invoicing, general and cost accounting, purchasing. It offers a client portal module (shared schedule, documents, issued invoices, support requests).
Presents itself as a publisher of ERP software for service companies, with ERPs for deal and project management: customer relationship, quotes, orders, invoices, subscription contracts, time, expense reports, workload plan and budgets.
Presents itself as ERP software for IT services companies and consulting firms, with CRM and recruitment: quotes, consultant staffing, time, expenses and absences, invoicing and e-invoicing, profitability per engagement.
Presents itself as a business activity management ERP for consulting companies, IT services companies, agencies and integrators, from pre-sales to invoicing: CRM, staffing, time tracking, invoicing, expenses, leave and project steering.
All of them issue invoices, which pylotik does not. Several also do staffing and time, like pylotik. The difference is therefore not a matter of a checkbox, but of what the tool puts at the center: running the company, or keeping commitments to the client.
You keep the ERP for what it does well, you leave it the invoice, and you take steering out of spreadsheets.
| Function | Your ERP | pylotik |
|---|---|---|
| Quotes, orders, sales management | Yes | No The project contract takes over what was ordered |
| Issuing invoices, credit notes, reminders | Yes | No It sends invoicing orders to the ERP, through a connector built to your needs |
| General and cost accounting | Yes | No |
| Project contract: fixed price or time and materials, payment schedule | Depends on the ERP | Yes Ordered, invoiced, paid, balance due, margin at completion |
| Staffing, workload plan, time entry | Depends on the ERP | Yes Forecast workload plan, weekly time, overload alerts |
| Milestones, work packages, dependencies between projects | Depends on the ERP | Yes |
| Committees, minutes, decisions, actions, risks | Rarely | Yes Frozen at each committee |
| Client approval | Rarely | Yes Minutes, interventions and amendments, free client access |
| Maintenance contracts with the client | Depends on the ERP, on the invoicing side | Yes Volume in days, catalog, committee, shared indicators |
| Weekly report and team reviews | Rarely | Yes Without rating anyone |
"Depends on the ERP" and "Rarely" describe the family, not a vendor: each services ERP has its own scope, to be checked in its documentation. The detail of what pylotik steers is on the product page, and how financial tracking joins the ERP is on project billing tracking.
No. If the ERP does sales management, invoicing and accounting well, keep it. pylotik steers what happens before the invoice, and sends it the invoicing orders, through a connector built to your needs.
No. It does not issue invoices and does not keep the books. It is operational commitment management software: contracts, projects, maintenance, staffing, time and teams, steered with clients.
Yes. Forecast team workload plan, overload and underload alerts, weekly time entry, weekly report and reviews. Time feeds the financial tracking of the time-and-materials project.
Connectors are optional and built to clients' needs, from the Business tier. There is no public API today; the connector is defined with you, starting from the ERP in place.
A demonstration on a data set that is already filled in: a fixed-price project, its contract and its invoicing orders, a team's staffing, and what the client reads of it.