Workday PSA vs Polaris PSA

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Our analysts compared Workday PSA vs Polaris PSA based on data from our 400+ point analysis of PSA Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Workday Professional Services Automation is a cloud-based app that delivers fully integrated solutions for project management, talent acquisition, expense tracking, timekeeping and more.

This system has an adaptive framework that streamlines human capital management and offers visual customizations of the intuitive interface. Manage teams, projects, recruiting and finances from one location. Improve productivity through suggested insights and automate workflows to increase customer engagement.
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Polaris PSA streamlines professional services workflows for project-based businesses. Its core strength lies in automating administrative tasks like time tracking, invoicing, and project reporting, freeing up valuable time for client work. While ideal for agencies of all sizes, it particularly caters to those juggling multiple projects and juggling complex client billing structures. Users praise its intuitive interface, powerful reporting tools, and seamless integrations with popular accounting software. Compared to similar offerings, Polaris PSA stands out for its focus on scalability and customization, allowing businesses to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Pricing follows a tiered model based on the number of users and project complexity, ensuring cost-effectiveness for growing companies.

Pros
  • Intuitive interface
  • Comprehensive features
  • Strong integrations
  • Robust reporting
  • Reliable support
Cons
  • Steeper learning curve
  • Occasional bugs
  • Limited customization
  • Higher pricing
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$99/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$49/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Improved Resource Management: Allocate resources efficiently by matching skills to project requirements, reducing downtime and maximizing productivity.
  • Enhanced Project Visibility: Gain real-time insights into project status, budgets, and timelines, enabling proactive decision-making and timely interventions.
  • Streamlined Billing Processes: Automate invoicing and expense tracking to ensure accurate and timely billing, reducing administrative overhead and improving cash flow.
  • Optimized Workforce Utilization: Monitor and adjust workforce deployment to ensure optimal utilization, minimizing bench time and increasing billable hours.
  • Comprehensive Financial Management: Integrate project financials with core accounting functions to provide a holistic view of financial performance and profitability.
  • Scalable Solution: Adapt to business growth and changing project demands with a flexible platform that scales with your organization.
  • Enhanced Collaboration: Foster better communication and collaboration among team members with integrated tools for sharing documents, updates, and feedback.
  • Data-Driven Decision Making: Leverage advanced analytics and reporting capabilities to make informed decisions based on real-time data and trends.
  • Improved Compliance: Ensure adherence to industry standards and regulatory requirements with built-in compliance features and audit trails.
  • Reduced Administrative Burden: Automate routine administrative tasks, freeing up time for strategic activities and reducing the risk of human error.
  • Enhanced Client Satisfaction: Deliver projects on time and within budget, improving client satisfaction and fostering long-term relationships.
  • Seamless Integration: Integrate with other enterprise systems such as CRM and ERP to create a unified, streamlined workflow across the organization.
  • Customizable Dashboards: Tailor dashboards to meet specific needs, providing stakeholders with the information they need at a glance.
  • Proactive Risk Management: Identify and mitigate potential risks early with tools for risk assessment and management, ensuring project success.
  • Enhanced Forecasting: Improve project forecasting accuracy with predictive analytics, helping to anticipate future resource needs and financial outcomes.
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  • Enhanced Project Visibility and Control: Gain real-time insights into project status, resource allocation, budgets, and timelines. Identify potential risks and bottlenecks early on, allowing for proactive adjustments and course corrections to ensure projects stay on track and within budget.
  • Improved Resource Utilization and Optimization: Effectively match the right people with the right projects based on skills, availability, and workload. Streamline time tracking and approval processes to ensure accurate billing and payroll. Optimize resource allocation to maximize productivity and efficiency.
  • Streamlined Financial Management and Reporting: Automate invoicing, billing, and revenue recognition processes, reducing errors and accelerating cash flow. Generate comprehensive financial reports and analytics to track project profitability, identify trends, and make informed business decisions.
  • Boosted Collaboration and Teamwork: Foster seamless communication and collaboration among project teams, clients, and stakeholders through centralized project information, shared workspaces, and real-time updates. Break down silos and enhance knowledge sharing to improve decision-making and project outcomes.
  • Enhanced Customer Satisfaction and Retention: Deliver projects on time and within budget, while maintaining high levels of quality and customer satisfaction. Establish a single source of truth for project information, fostering transparency and trust with clients. Strengthen client relationships and increase the likelihood of repeat business.
  • Data-Driven Insights for Strategic Decision-Making: Leverage the power of real-time data and analytics to uncover actionable insights, identify areas for improvement, and make informed strategic decisions. Improve project outcomes, optimize resource utilization, and drive overall business growth.
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  • Expense and Revenue Tracking: Control spending using the Mobile Expense Capture tool to scan and upload receipts on the go. Analyze expenditures or approve budgets according to user controls. Oversee lifecycles for all projects and customize billing schedules, rates or exceptions. 
  • Project Management: Assign team members to activities based on skills. Configure or modify processes without coding knowledge. Monitor roles, revenue and hours linked to each task. 
  • Workforce Management: Provide flexible support to employees using personalized pay options like period salary or multiple one-time payments. Simplify time tracking with the mobile and web time clock that includes geofencing. Monitor and approve timesheets quickly by viewing highlighted anomalies and automating approvals. 
  • Employee Self-Service: Set up direct deposit without an administrator. Request time off or check balances and accruals through mobile and voice self-service. Update personal information, view updates or pay and benefits at any time. 
  • Reporting and Analytics: Using global data to scale workforce needs, anticipate staff absences or changing employment regulations. Improve business performance by building competitor benchmarks into reports. 
  • Integration: Integrate with SAAS apps or with third-party tools such as Salesforce. Submit expense reports from Slack or Microsoft Teams. 
  • Performance Management: Upskill employees and recommend learning modules or job opportunities. Apply predictive talent insights to coaching sessions and set performance goals. Develop career plans and schedule follow-ups. 
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  • Live Intelligence: Harvest live information through its SmartBeats interface that provides a 360 degree view of how actions impact business. Visualize and filter data within MissionControl and display recommendations relevant to a user’s role. 
  • Project Management: Reference historical metrics to create pipelines and budgets for new clients. Oversee beats in each stage or improve collaboration with instant updates and feedback. Push notifications to manage project statuses and expenses. 
  • Financial Forecasting: Track resource costs, billing rates and finance benchmarks using SmartBudget. Simulate prices, revenue and other factors to strategically bid on accounts. 
  • Client Management: Organize customers, vendors, funding institutions or sales partners under the client entity. Share workload reports and presentations to define project metrics. Deliver account support in the consolidated view to assess project recommendations, billing and client profiles. 
  • Governance:  Achieve compliance by setting validation rules for forms and attachments. Simplify complex workflows by creating checklists and forming breakdown structures to monitor process adherence. Adapt to users in different time zones, currencies and languages. 
  • Time and Expense Tracking: Create customized or pre-populated timesheets for faster submission. Track time and expenses from a desktop or mobile device with built-in GPS tracking and geofencing capabilities. Enable automatic approvals, upload receipts or manage availability and budgets. 
  • Resource Allocation: Configure dimensional reports to determine availability and pinpoint underutilized resources. Reduce training time and create positions based on skills needed or assign placeholders to account for pending projects. Leverage the recommendation engine Smartmatch to analyze talent and recommend applicants based on skill rating to expedite hiring efforts. 
  • Billing and Invoicing: Create rate structures to accommodate versatile contracts and eliminate invoice discrepancies. Offer flexible billing plans specific to the user level, role or other combinations. Manage invoices, track delinquencies and monitor financial health in real-time. 
  • Integrations: Connect platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams and Quickbooks for seamless workflows. Increase revenue and engagement with the use of its open APIs. 
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Product Ranking

#94

among all
PSA Software

#15

among all
PSA Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

80
88
68
58
100
100
89
89
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Dashboard and Reporting
Resource Management
Time and Expense Management
Project Collaboration
Platform Capabilities
Dashboard and Reporting
Project Financials
Resource Management
Time and Expense Management
Platform Capabilities

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Workday PSA
Polaris PSA
+ Add Product + Add Product
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Dashboard And Reporting Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Project Collaboration Project Financials Project Management Resource Management Time And Expense Management 68 100 89 92 97 86 66 100 100 58 100 89 93 87 100 85 100 100 0 25 50 75 100
45%
0%
55%
27%
0%
73%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
80%
0%
20%
80%
0%
20%
93%
0%
7%
93%
0%
7%
100%
0%
0%
80%
0%
20%
86%
0%
14%
100%
0%
0%
67%
0%
33%
83%
0%
17%
100%
0%
0%
100%
0%
0%
100%
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100%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

50%
0%
50%
70%
0%
30%

User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 26 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 202 reviews
81%
of users recommend this product

Workday PSA has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 81% when considering 26 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

Polaris PSA has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 202 user reviews from 2 recognized software review sites.

4.0 (21)
n/a
n/a
4.6 (198)
4.2 (5)
5.0 (4)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Workday PSA and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Time and Expense Management.

Time and Expense Management Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Polaris PSA and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Time and Expense Management. Polaris PSA stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Time and Expense Management Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Streamlined Project Management: Users praise Workday PSA for its intuitive interface and robust project management features, enabling efficient planning, tracking, and execution of projects.
Enhanced Resource Management: Workday PSA excels in resource management, allowing organizations to optimize resource allocation, track availability, and ensure projects are adequately staffed.
Improved Financial Control: Users appreciate Workday PSA's financial management capabilities, which provide real-time visibility into project costs, budgets, and profitability.
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Intuitive Interface: Users consistently praise Polaris PSA's ease of use, even for those without extensive technical backgrounds.
Flexible Customization: The software allows for tailoring to specific workflows and business needs, ensuring a seamless fit within existing processes.
Comprehensive Project Management: Users appreciate the ability to manage all project aspects, from planning and scheduling to resource allocation and budgeting, within a single platform.
Accurate Time Tracking: Polaris excels at capturing billable hours precisely, streamlining timesheet submission and approval processes.
Streamlined Invoicing: Generating accurate invoices based on project data is effortless, leading to faster client billing and improved cash flow.
Robust Reporting: The software provides insightful reports on project performance, resource utilization, profitability, and other key metrics, empowering data-driven decision-making.
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Reporting Limitations: Users express frustration with the inflexibility and limitations of Workday's reporting features, particularly when trying to create custom reports or extract specific data sets for analysis.
Complex User Interface: The system is often described as being difficult to navigate, with a steep learning curve for new users and even experienced users struggling to find specific functions or complete tasks efficiently.
Integration Challenges: Integrating Workday PSA with other systems can be a significant hurdle, often requiring extensive customization and support from Workday or third-party consultants.
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Learning Curve: Users report a steeper learning curve compared to simpler PSA tools.
Initial Setup Complexity: Setting up Polaris PSA can be complex for smaller teams or those with limited technical expertise.
Limited Workflow Customization: While flexible, some users find it challenging to tailor the software to highly specialized workflows.
Performance Issues: Users have reported occasional lag or glitches, especially on older hardware or with large datasets.
Software Bugs: While uncommon, some users have encountered bugs that require technical support to resolve.
Pricing Concerns: Polaris PSA's pricing can be higher compared to some basic PSA tools, especially for smaller businesses.
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Is Workday PSA the workhorse of PSA solutions? User reviews from the past year suggest that Workday PSA is a strong contender in the PSA market, particularly for larger organizations with complex needs. Users praise its robust feature set, highlighting its comprehensive financial management capabilities, seamless integration with other Workday products (like HCM and Financials), and powerful reporting tools that provide granular insights into project performance. For example, users mention the ability to track project profitability in real-time and proactively identify potential budget overruns as a major advantage. However, this robust functionality comes at a price. Users frequently cite Workday PSA's complexity and steep learning curve as drawbacks, suggesting that it may not be the best fit for smaller businesses or those with limited IT resources. Some users also express frustration with the platform's user interface, finding it less intuitive than competitors like FinancialForce PSA or Projector PSA. Despite these criticisms, many users maintain that Workday PSA's strengths outweigh its weaknesses, particularly for organizations already invested in the Workday ecosystem. Its ability to unify financial, HR, and project data into a single source of truth is a powerful differentiator that enables data-driven decision-making and streamlines operations. In conclusion, Workday PSA is a powerful but complex solution best suited for large, enterprise-level organizations with the resources and technical expertise to maximize its potential.

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User reviews for Polaris PSA paint a picture of a powerful, albeit demanding, PSA tool. Many praise its intuitiveness and flexibility, with one user calling it "a breath of fresh air compared to clunky legacy systems." It stands out in its comprehensive project management, effortlessly handling everything from planning to billing within one platform. Another user loved "ditching the patchwork of apps we used before and having everything in Polaris." However, Polaris' learning curve can be steep. "It's not as pick-up-and-play as some simpler tools," admitted a reviewer. The initial setup can also be complex, especially for smaller teams. This complexity, while offering deep customization, led some to feel limited in tailoring it to specific workflows. "We have a unique process, and while Polaris is flexible, it took more work than expected to get it just right," shared one user. Performance isn't always flawless, with occasional lag and bugs reported, particularly on older systems. Despite these hiccups, many appreciate Polaris' robust reporting and data-driven insights, with one user exclaiming, "Finally, we can make informed decisions based on actual data, not just gut feeling!" Ultimately, Polaris PSA shines for its comprehensiveness and power, but demands investment in training and setup. Users often compare it to Asana or Monday.com, finding it more robust but less user-friendly. If you're a growing team seeking a one-stop PSA solution with deep customization and powerful reporting, Polaris is worth a look. Just be prepared to dedicate some time to mastering its intricacies.

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