The client portal for independent government contracting consultants.
Track MAS offers and certifications that run for months, keep a documentation trail that assembles itself, and bill retainers without chasing them — in a portal your clients actually log into.
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Generic client tools don’t know what you actually deliver.
The engagement outlasts the client’s patience
A GSA MAS offer can run six to twelve months from kickoff to award, and most of that time looks like nothing is happening from the client’s side. That silence generates the “any update?” email every other week — and answering it is unbillable work that makes you look less organised than you are.
Your deliverables aren’t tasks
A capability statement, a past performance narrative, a pricing narrative, an SF 1449 review — these are documents a client reviews and approves, not checkboxes someone ticks. Tools built for creative projects flatten all of it into “Tasks,” which is why the status never reads the way you would describe it out loud.
Everything you produce is potential evidence
Federal work runs on documentation. When a client is asked what was submitted and when, a folder of email attachments and shared Drive links is a bad answer. The record needs to be organised, dated, and attributable without you reconstructing it after the fact.
Certification work bills monthly, not per project
Advisory through an 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB or HUBZone process is a retainer relationship stretched across quarters. Chasing that invoice by hand every month is the part of the practice that quietly costs the most, and it is the first thing to slip when a proposal deadline lands.
How government contracting consultants use ConsultBase.
How does a government contracting consultant use ConsultBase?
You create an engagement for each client pursuit — a GSA MAS offer, an 8(a) application, a capability build-out — and give it milestones that match the real process: SAM registration verified, NAICS and SIN selection agreed, pricing narrative drafted, offer submitted, clarifications answered, award. Deliverables sit under those milestones for the client to review and approve. The client sees all of it in a portal branded to your practice, at your own URL, without you sending a single status email.
What does my client actually see during a nine-month MAS offer?
They see a portal with your firm’s name and colours on it showing which phase the offer is in, which milestones are complete, what is currently with them for review, and what you are waiting on from their side. Because the portal answers "where are we" before they ask, the check-in emails largely stop. Clients sign in with a passwordless link — no password to create, no account to remember.
Can I keep a clean documentation trail across a long engagement?
Every document you share, every deliverable a client approves, and every message exchanged is stored against the engagement with a timestamp, so the record assembles itself as you work. When someone later asks what was submitted and when, you are reading a history rather than reconstructing one from your sent folder. Documents can be shared to the portal or sent as expiring links to people outside it.
How do I bill a monthly retainer through a long certification?
Set up a recurring invoice once — amount, frequency, payment terms, your own tax rate — and ConsultBase generates and sends it on schedule with a payment link attached. Payments run through your own Stripe account at Stripe’s standard rates; ConsultBase takes nothing on top and never becomes the merchant of record. You can pause, resume, or end the schedule when the engagement changes shape.
What about the proposals I send to win the work in the first place?
Proposals are built in ConsultBase and sent as a link the prospect signs online. When they accept, the engagement is created automatically with its milestones already seeded from the proposal, and you can convert the accepted proposal to an invoice in one click. If you would rather start from a document, the free SOW, engagement letter, and retainer agreement generators produce a formatted PDF or Word file with no account required.
Does it work if I advise several clients through different certifications at once?
That is the normal case. Every paid plan includes unlimited clients, so a practice running four MAS offers, two 8(a) applications and a handful of capability engagements is not a pricing problem. Each client only ever sees their own portal. On Pro you can bring in up to three team members, and Firm raises that to five with owner, admin and member roles.
Questions government contracting consultants ask.
Does ConsultBase submit to SAM.gov, eOffer, or GSA eBuy?
No, and it is worth being direct about that. ConsultBase does not integrate with SAM.gov, eOffer, eBuy, or any federal filing system, and there is no plan to claim otherwise. It manages the advisory relationship around those submissions — the engagement, the deliverables, the documentation trail, the client’s visibility, and the billing. The filings still happen in the government’s own systems.
Is it secure enough for client financials and past performance data?
Client data is isolated at the database level rather than by application logic — row-level security on every table, so one client’s records are not reachable from another’s session even if a query is written wrong. Client portal access is passwordless and scoped to that single client. That said, ConsultBase has not pursued FedRAMP authorisation and is not positioned for CUI or classified material; it is built for the advisory practice, not for handling government-controlled data.
Can I bring in a teaming partner or subcontractor?
Pro includes up to three team members and Firm up to five, with owner, admin and member roles that control who can invite people, remove them, change branding, and manage bookings. It is a straightforward role system rather than a granular permission matrix — worth knowing if you need per-engagement access control, which is not currently how it works.
Do my clients have to create an account?
No. You send an invite and they sign in with a link sent to their email — no password to set, nothing to remember for the eleven months between logins. That matters more than it sounds for a client base of small business owners who are not going to maintain credentials for your tool.
What does it cost, and is my client count capped?
Every paid plan includes unlimited clients — the plans differ on team size, AI access, and white-labelling, not on how many clients you serve. Firm removes the "Powered by ConsultBase" mark from every client-facing surface, which is the plan most established practices land on. There is a 14-day free trial and no credit card is required to start.
Can I export my data if I leave?
Yes. Documents, invoices and proposals are all downloadable, and generated documents are yours as PDF or Word files from the moment they are created. Nothing produced in ConsultBase is locked behind a subscription to read.
Most tools that call themselves client portals were designed for photographers and creative freelancers, then sold sideways to everyone else. It shows in the vocabulary. When your work is a MAS offer with a pricing narrative and a clarification round, and the software insists on calling it a project with tasks, you spend the whole engagement translating.
ConsultBase was built for advisory practices specifically — engagements rather than projects, deliverables the client reviews and approves rather than checkboxes, retainers rather than subscriptions. For government contracting that alignment does real work, because your engagements are long, your documentation matters, and your client is buying confidence that a slow process is under control.
The practical effect for a solo GovCon advisor is that you stop looking like one. Your client logs into something with your name on it, sees exactly where their offer stands, and gets invoiced on schedule without you remembering to do it.
Built for the way you work.
Unlimited clients on every plan, a branded portal your clients actually log into, and Ivy — a 50+ tool AI associate that knows your engagements.
Start your 14-day free trialPrefer to try something first? Use our free SOW and contract generators — no account needed.