Deltek
Project-based cloud ERP and PSA for government contractors, A&E firms, consultancies and agencies
About Deltek
Deltek is a cloud ERP and professional services automation platform built for organizations whose revenue comes from projects rather than products. Instead of one generic suite, Deltek ships industry-tuned ERP products that share a common project lifecycle model: Costpoint for government contracting, aerospace and defense; Vantagepoint for architecture, engineering and consulting firms; Maconomy for larger professional services organizations; WorkBook for advertising and creative agencies; and Ajera and ComputerEase for smaller A&E and construction practices. Across those products the platform covers the full win-plan-execute-analyze cycle: CRM and pipeline, opportunity and bid management, resource scheduling and utilization, project accounting, timesheets and expenses, revenue recognition, billing and invoicing, procurement and — in Costpoint — manufacturing and DCAA-oriented compliance with FAR, DFARS, CAS and CMMC controls plus FedRAMP Moderate Equivalency on Costpoint GCCM. An AI layer branded Dela sits on top for natural-language reporting, smart summaries, automated timesheet and expense capture, and proactive risk alerts. This is the core ERP and PSA suite, distinct from Deltek's separately sold Talent Management HR product, which integrates with these ERPs rather than replacing them. Deltek reports roughly 30,000 customer organizations, with 84% of the top 25 government contractors on Costpoint and 98% of the top 500 A&E firms using a Deltek product.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Compliance depth for government contracting is the strongest in the market — FAR/DFARS/CAS/CMMC traceability and DCAA-oriented audit trails are built in rather than bolted on, and Costpoint GCCM carries FedRAMP Moderate Equivalency
- Project-first data model means job costing, WIP, utilization and revenue recognition work natively instead of being forced onto a product-oriented general ledger like NetSuite or Dynamics
- Real vertical fit — Vantagepoint understands A&E pursuit and phase structures, WorkBook understands agency retainers and rate cards, so less configuration is needed to match how the firm already works
- One system spans CRM, pipeline, resourcing, timesheets, billing and financials, removing the spreadsheet-and-integration layer most project firms run between a PSA tool and an accounting package
- Deep install base and longevity (founded 1983, ~30,000 organizations, Roper-owned since 2016) means mature partner and consultant ecosystems and low vendor-risk for multi-year ERP commitments
- Managed Deltek Cloud hosting removes upgrade and infrastructure work, with FedRAMP-equivalent options for defense workloads
Cons
- No public pricing anywhere — every evaluation starts with a sales conversation, and third-party reports put multi-seat annual subscriptions plus implementation well into five and six figures
- Implementation is a project in itself, typically involving a Deltek partner, data migration and months of configuration; this is not a tool a team self-serves into production
- The UI and reporting in the older products, Costpoint in particular, feel dated compared with modern SaaS PSA tools, and report writing often needs specialist help
- Product sprawl is confusing — Costpoint, Vantagepoint, Maconomy, WorkBook, Ajera, ComputerEase, Polaris and Replicon overlap, and picking the wrong one is expensive to correct later
- Overkill for small project teams; firms below roughly 20-30 people usually get better value from lighter PSA tools unless GovCon compliance is a hard requirement
- Modular licensing and role-based user tiers make total cost hard to predict as headcount and module needs grow
Key Features
Industry-specific project ERP
Separate ERP products tuned per industry — Costpoint (GovCon, A&D), Vantagepoint (architecture, engineering, consulting), Maconomy (professional services), WorkBook (agencies), Ajera and ComputerEase (small A&E and construction) — rather than one generic suite with vertical add-ons.
Project accounting and revenue recognition
Job costing, multi-company and multi-currency general ledger, WIP tracking, complex contract types (T&M, cost-plus, fixed price), automated billing and invoicing, and revenue recognition tied to project progress.
Government contracting compliance
Costpoint bakes in FAR, DFARS, CAS and CMMC traceability, indirect rate calculation, DCAA-oriented audit trails and 300+ reports. Costpoint GCCM meets FedRAMP Moderate Equivalency per DoD policy.
Resource management and utilization
Staffing views showing who is over- or under-utilized, skills-based assignment, capacity forecasting and scenario planning so project plans match actual staff availability.
CRM and pipeline for pursuits
Opportunity tracking, bid and proposal management, client activity history and forecast reporting geared to how project-based firms win work, including GovCon capture workflows.
Time and expense capture
Web and mobile timesheets and expense entry with approval routing, labor distribution to projects, and compliance-grade audit logging; Deltek Replicon extends this for global labor cost and compliance tracking.
Dela AI orchestrator
Natural-language querying of project and financial data, executive-ready content generation, client and project smart summaries, AI-assisted timesheet and expense coding, and proactive alerts on project risk.
Deltek Cloud deployment
Managed SaaS hosting with the vendor handling upgrades, backups and infrastructure; more than 80% of Vantagepoint customers run on the Deltek Cloud, with FedRAMP-equivalent hosting available for GovCon workloads.
Pricing
- Project accounting and billing for small architecture and engineering firms
- Time and expense capture
- Project management dashboards
- Entry point into the Deltek project ERP family
- Full ERP for architecture, engineering and consulting firms
- CRM, pipeline, resource management and project planning
- Accounting, billing and financial management
- Dela AI, dashboards and automated approval workflows
- Role-based user tiers (full, reporting, self-service) priced differently
- Agency management for advertising, marketing and creative firms
- Job and retainer management, scheduling and capacity planning
- Time tracking, rate cards and client billing
- Profitability reporting per job, client and team
- Cloud ERP for larger professional services organizations
- Multi-entity, multi-currency financials
- Resource planning and revenue recognition
- Global consolidation and reporting
- ERP for government contracting, aerospace and defense
- FAR, DFARS, CAS and CMMC compliance controls with 300+ reports
- Indirect rates, contract management, procurement and manufacturing
- Costpoint GCCM with FedRAMP Moderate Equivalency per DoD policy
- Highest-tier implementation and configuration effort
Best For
Government contractor needing DCAA-compliant accounting
A defense or federal services contractor uses Costpoint to run indirect rate pools, segregate direct and indirect costs, maintain audit-ready timesheet trails, and satisfy FAR, DFARS, CAS and CMMC requirements without building a parallel compliance system.
Architecture or engineering firm consolidating systems
An A&E practice running separate CRM, spreadsheet resourcing and a generic accounting package moves to Vantagepoint to get pursuit tracking, staff utilization, project phase budgets and billing in one place with a single source of project truth.
Consultancy scaling across entities and currencies
A professional services firm operating in multiple countries uses Maconomy or Vantagepoint for multi-entity consolidation, cross-border resource allocation, revenue recognition and group-level reporting as headcount and geographies grow.
Creative agency managing retainers and job profitability
An advertising or design agency runs WorkBook to plan capacity against retained and project work, track time against rate cards, invoice clients accurately, and see profitability per job, client and team rather than only at company level.
Construction contractor tying field costs to the office
A construction firm uses ComputerEase for job costing, certified payroll, equipment costing and field-to-office reporting so change orders and labor costs flow into project margins as work happens.
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