The engagement lifecycle

Every engagement on track, from proposal to renewal.

Consulting runs on relationships and milestones, both easy to lose when the context lives in one person's head. HotKup keeps the whole engagement in one place.

Proposal
scope and pitch
Kickoff
team and plan
Delivery
milestones in flight
Review
sign-off and invoice
Renewal
the next engagement
Every decision and conversation, on the engagement.
Engagement activity timeline on the client record in HotKup
Northwind Group: Strategy review
Milestone 3 of 5, stakeholder interviews.
On track, due Friday
  • Context survives turnover. Every decision, note, and contact lives on the engagement, not in one partner's head.
  • Owners on every milestone. Progress never waits on a status meeting to surface.
  • Pick up any engagement in minutes. New staff start with the full history, not a blank page.
Where engagements slow down

The three things that drain a consulting firm, and how HotKup fixes each.

01 / Deliverables

Get deliverables out of Word docs and inboxes.

Project plans, status updates, and reports shared as email attachments. Version control doesn't exist and deadlines slip. In HotKup every deliverable and message lives on the engagement, where the whole team works from one source.

  • Every email and document attached to the engagement, automatically.
  • One timeline of calls, notes, and files for the whole relationship.
  • No more hunting for the latest version of the deck.
Proposals, reports, contracts: all on the engagement.
Engagement emails and documents on the client record in HotKup
02 / Delivery

Every milestone tracked, without chasing for status.

Break an engagement into milestones and tasks with owners and due dates. Managers see exactly where things stand without pinging anyone on Slack, and approvals escalate on their own if they stall.

  • Milestones and tasks with owners and due dates.
  • Time logged per engagement, actual versus scoped.
  • Approvals route to the right person and escalate if they stall.
Who owns what, and what is overdue, at a glance.
Engagement milestones and tasks with owners in HotKup
03 / Pipeline

A pipeline for new engagements, not a follow-up you forgot.

Track proposals, follow-ups, and negotiation stages so you never lose a prospect because a partner got busy delivering. When a deal is won, the engagement and client record are created for you.

  • Stages for proposal, follow-up, and close.
  • Automatic reminders so no prospect goes cold.
  • Win a deal and the engagement spins up, with no double entry.
Proposal → follow-up → won, nothing slips.
The view from the top

See utilization, margins, and what is at risk.

Which engagements are over budget, who is overloaded, which deliverables are late. HotKup turns live project and time data into a picture of the firm, without a single manual report.

  • Time and progress per engagement, always current.
  • Workload by consultant, so you can rebalance early.
  • Late or over-budget work surfaces on its own.
Spot an over-budget engagement before it is a write-off.
Live dashboard showing engagement utilization and risk in HotKup
Built around your reality

Made for how consulting firms actually run.

Expertise that scales

Your firm's knowledge belongs in the firm, not trapped in a senior partner's memory. HotKup makes it shared, searchable, and lasting.

Delivery and relationship in one

The record that won the engagement is the one your team delivers against. No hand-off, no second tool, no status chasing.

Records that outlast staff

When a consultant moves on, the engagement history and client relationship stay with the firm, not in their inbox.

Your expertise is the product. Don't let it walk out the door.

See how HotKup keeps every engagement, document, and relationship in one place, in a walkthrough built around a consulting firm.

Book a Demo → See Pricing