Project management portal for consultancy teams on Salesforce
Build a Professional Services Automation (PSA) portal — a Certinia-style web app for services estimation, resource management, and project management — backed by a set of custom objects in Salesforce (or your team's CRM/system of record), together with the tooling that provisions that schema and seeds it with data. The workflow has three parts: 1. The portal (browser app). Serve a web app at an authenticated route (e.g. /portal), restricted to members of the workspace. On load it should hydrate from live data by calling a separate read-only data endpoint; if that call fails, fall back to bundled demo data so the UI always renders. Cover the core PSA modules: accounts/contacts, projects and tasks, resources and assignments, and estimates with line items. Make it a polished, production-grade interface. Record edits can live in the browser session to start, with write-back as a later enhancement. 2. The data endpoint. Serve a read-only API route (e.g. /psa-data, same space auth) that queries the PSA custom objects in Salesforce (or your chosen system) and returns them as a single JSON document in the shape the portal expects. The portal's browser session should carry its auth cookie through to this endpoint. 3. Salesforce setup & schema tooling — all run manually, not on a trigger. Include utility steps that: Seed the org with a small, idempotent dummy dataset (accounts, contacts, projects, resources, estimates + line items, assignments, tasks). Create the custom fields on the objects via the Tooling API (for when objects were deployed without their fields). Grant the connector user field-level access to those fields via a permission set, so REST reads/writes can see them. Generate schema artifacts: a spreadsheet export, a deployable Metadata API package (zip), and a schema diff CSV. Read the org base URL from an environment variable rather than hardcoding it. Note the one-time setup order: deploy objects → deploy fields (if missing) → grant field access → seed data. Use Salesforce as the system of record and the Salesforce REST, Tooling, and Metadata APIs for reads, field creation, permissions, and schema work — or swap in your own CRM / database and its APIs. Keep all routes private to the workspace by default. The seed, field-deploy, and grant steps write to the external system; the portal and data endpoint are read-only. Tools used: Salesforce (connector), Salesforce REST API, Salesforce Tooling API
What this prompt builds
This workflow builds a Professional Services Automation (PSA) portal on top of Salesforce, delivering Certinia-style project management, resource allocation, and revenue tracking without the cost of enterprise PSA software. It includes a browser-based portal, a read-only data endpoint, and Salesforce setup tooling that provisions custom objects, seeds demo data, and manages schema via the Tooling and Metadata APIs. Consultancy teams running on Salesforce can manage projects, estimates, and resources in one system instead of juggling spreadsheets and disconnected tools.
The problem
Consultancy firms running on Salesforce face expensive PSA solutions like Certinia or costly custom development to manage projects, resources, and estimates on the platform. Without a unified system, teams scatter project data across spreadsheets and disconnected tools, making it nearly impossible to see total revenue or allocate resources effectively. This workflow delivers a Certinia-style Professional Services Automation portal built directly on Salesforce custom objects — covering accounts, projects, tasks, resources, assignments, and estimates — all accessible through a polished browser app and backed by live data from the org. Teams get production-grade project management and revenue visibility without the enterprise price tag or lengthy consulting engagements.
Solution and impact
The workflow provisions a complete PSA system on Salesforce with a browser-based portal, a live data endpoint, and schema tooling that handles object provisioning, field deployment, permissions, and demo data seeding. Consultancy teams save months of implementation time and significant licensing costs by deploying a customizable, revenue-centric project management hub that runs entirely on their existing Salesforce instance. They gain unified visibility into projects, resource allocation, and revenue — eliminating spreadsheets and improving decision-making across the business.