Migrating from Deltek Ajera: A Complete Guide for A&E Firms

Deltek Ajera has been a workhorse for architecture and engineering firms for over two decades. But as the industry evolves and modern platforms emerge, a growing number of firms are asking whether Ajera still serves them well. If your firm is considering a move, this guide walks through the entire migration process so you can plan with confidence.

Why Firms Leave Ajera

In conversations with dozens of firms that have made the switch, the same pain points come up repeatedly:

• Dated interface: Ajera's UI was designed in a different era. Staff, especially younger hires, resist using it, which leads to poor data quality and low adoption.
• High total cost: Between licensing fees (typically $50-$80/user/month), annual maintenance, implementation consultants, and IT overhead, Ajera's true cost often surprises firms when they add it up.
• Slow innovation: Feature releases have slowed. Firms waiting for modern capabilities like AI-driven budgeting or native mobile apps have been left waiting.
• Complex administration: Managing Ajera often requires dedicated IT support or an external consultant, which adds ongoing cost and dependency.
• Limited integrations: Connecting Ajera to modern tools like Revit, Procore, or cloud storage platforms requires workarounds or middleware.

Step 1: Audit Your Current Ajera Usage

Before you migrate anywhere, understand what you actually use in Ajera. Most firms discover they rely on only 40-60% of the platform's features. Document your active workflows: time entry, project setup, invoicing templates, reporting, and any custom fields. This audit becomes your migration checklist.

Step 2: Choose Your New Platform

Evaluate alternatives against your audit checklist. Key requirements for most A&E firms include:

• Time tracking with multiple entry options
• Phase-based project budgeting
• AIA G702/G703 invoicing
• Resource planning and utilization tracking
• QuickBooks or Xero integration
• Modern UI that staff will actually use

Costifys covers all of these requirements at a fraction of Ajera's cost, with the addition of AI-powered budgeting, native e-signatures, and pipeline management.

Step 3: Plan Your Data Migration

This is the step that makes firms nervous, but it does not have to be painful. Typical data to migrate includes:

• Employee records: Names, roles, billing rates, departments
• Client and project data: Active projects, phases, budgets, contract values
• Historical timesheets: Depending on reporting needs, you may want 1-3 years of history
• Invoicing history: Outstanding invoices, payment records, retainage balances
• Expense records: Reimbursable expenses tied to projects

Most modern platforms accept CSV imports. Costifys provides dedicated migration support and import templates that map directly to Ajera's data export format, so you do not need to restructure your data manually.

Step 4: Run a Parallel Period

Plan to run both systems simultaneously for 2-4 weeks. During this period, staff enter time in the new platform while leads verify data against Ajera. This overlap catches mapping errors and gives your team time to adjust. It adds short-term effort but prevents costly mistakes.

Step 5: Train and Go Live

Schedule hands-on training sessions by role: one for project managers, one for technical staff, and one for firm leadership. Focus on daily workflows, not every feature. Most firms find that modern platforms require far less training than Ajera did - typically 2-4 hours per user versus the multi-day sessions Ajera implementations demand.

Expected ROI

Firms that migrate from Ajera to a modern platform typically report:

• 30-50% reduction in software costs
• 20-30% improvement in timesheet compliance (because staff actually like using the new tool)
• Elimination of IT consultant dependency for system administration
• Faster invoicing cycles, improving cash flow by 1-2 weeks on average

"We spent 18 months dreading the migration from Ajera. The actual switch took three weeks, and our team's time entry compliance went from 72% to 95% in the first month." - COO, 60-person engineering firm

Ready to explore what life after Ajera looks like? Start a free Costifys trial and see the difference a modern platform makes.