Projectworks is a New Zealand-built PSA that's gained strong traction with consultancies and professional services firms across ANZ, the UK, and North America. It's known for clean resource planning and tight Xero integration.
AtomicSam is a modern PSA built around the same target audience — services firms that bill by time or fixed fee — but with a sharper focus on quoting, billing depth, and AI-assisted workflows.
If you're evaluating both, here's how they compare in 2026.
At a glance
Projectworks and AtomicSam are the closest competitors in this comparison series. Both are modern, both are services-focused, and both integrate well with Xero and QuickBooks. The differences are in depth, not direction.
AI invoice narratives AI & automation | ||
AI receipt parsing AI & automation | ||
Brand themes Customisation | ||
Capacity heat map Resourcing | ||
Compliance dashboard Time tracking | ||
HeadsUp proactive alerts Resourcing | ||
Leave & holiday calendars Resourcing | ||
Limit-based PO approval Purchase orders | ||
Non-destructive quote merge Quoting | ||
Override with reason audit Time tracking | ||
Per-user override limits Approvals | ||
Pre-invoice variance review Invoicing | ||
Retention release Invoicing | ||
Three-way matching Purchase orders | ||
Time reconciliation Time tracking | ||
Unified approvals system Approvals | Partial | |
Variation billing Invoicing | ||
ClickUp Integrations | Native | |
Cost stage tracking Purchase orders | 3-stage | |
Industry terminology presets Customisation | 5 presets | |
Invoice modes Invoicing | 7 | 3 |
Native AI features AI & automation | Native | |
QuickBooks Online Integrations | Native | Native |
Quote → job conversion Quoting | Smart | Basic |
Quote enforcement levels Quoting | 3 levels | |
Xero Integrations | Native | Native |
Pricing breakdown
Projectworks uses per-user pricing across three tiers (Standard, Professional, Premium). Pricing typically starts around NZD $35/user/month and scales upward with feature tiers. AtomicSam offers fixed-tier pricing:- Core — NZD $89/month for 3 users
- Pro — NZD $119/month for 3 users (14-day free trial)
- Ultra — NZD $269/month for 10 users
Where Projectworks wins
Mature resource planning UI. Projectworks has been refining its resource planner for years and the UX is polished — particularly the team timeline view. Forecasting reports. Projectworks has a strong set of pre-built revenue and utilisation forecast reports. Established ANZ ecosystem. Long history with Xero advisors and ANZ consultancies makes implementation support readily available.Where AtomicSam wins
Quote depth. AtomicSam's 3-level quote enforcement and non-destructive quote merge protect margin when scope changes mid-project. Projectworks quoting is more basic. Invoicing modes. AtomicSam supports 7 distinct invoice modes including retention, variation, and mixed billing. Projectworks supports 3. Three-way PO matching. AtomicSam matches quotes against deliveries and supplier invoices for full purchase order compliance. Projectworks does not. HeadsUp proactive alerts. AtomicSam's HeadsUp engine pushes capacity, margin, and overrun alerts before they become problems. Projectworks reports surface issues, but don't proactively alert. Native AI workflows. AI receipt parsing, invoice narratives, and smart quote conversion are built in. Projectworks does not have native AI features in 2026. Industry terminology presets. AtomicSam ships with 5 terminology presets (agency, consulting, engineering, IT services, architecture) so the UI matches how your team already talks. Projectworks uses a single terminology model.Best for: Projectworks
Choose Projectworks if you want a polished, mature PSA with a strong resource planning UI and an established consultant network for implementation, and you don't need deep quoting, AI, or three-way PO matching.
Best for: AtomicSam
Choose AtomicSam if you want the same modern, services-focused approach with deeper quoting, more flexible billing, native AI workflows, and stronger purchase order controls — at a lower per-seat cost.
Verdict
Projectworks and AtomicSam are the closest competitors here, and either will serve a services firm well. The decision comes down to depth: AtomicSam offers more flexibility in quoting, billing, and PO controls, includes AI as a first-class citizen, and costs less at most team sizes. Projectworks offers a more mature resource planning UI and a longer track record with ANZ consultancies. For most modern agencies and consultancies, AtomicSam is the stronger pick.
Try AtomicSam free for 14 days. No credit card required.
