Free Project Reference Software for Capability Statements & CVs

Project reference software stores your firm’s completed projects, references, and people in one structured database and generates the documents you need to win work - capability statements, reference sheets, portfolios, and CVs - from that single source. Instead of retyping the same twenty projects into every bid, you maintain the data once and export a current, formatted document whenever a tender or client asks.

SUNAGO’s project reference tool is free to use (0 EUR, no card required). It is the standalone entry point to SUNAGO Matrix: start with the free database and document exports, and upgrade to the full project ERP only if and when your firm also needs time tracking, resourcing, and finance in the same system.

Is there free project reference software?

Yes - SUNAGO is genuinely free project reference software, not a time-limited demo or a locked trial. The standalone tool costs 0 EUR to use, with a free account to build your database and generate documents. The same free suite includes free capability statement software built on the shared project database.

What project reference software does

Firms that sell expertise keep answering the same three questions in every bid: What have you done? Who will do the work? Can you prove it? The evidence - projects, contract values, client references, staff CVs, competences - already exists inside the company, but it lives scattered across old proposals, spreadsheets, and individual laptops. Reference software fixes the storage problem so the documents become a by-product of clean data.

The tool covers four jobs firms otherwise do by hand in Word:

• A living project reference database. Record each completed project once - client, sector, contract value, dates, your role, scope, outcomes, and a reference contact. Filter and reuse those records across every future bid.
• Capability statement generation. Assemble a one-page capability statement from selected projects and firm credentials, then export a formatted PDF. When a project or certification changes, regenerate rather than re-edit.
• Project sheets and one-pagers. Produce project reference sheets and one-page project summaries in a consistent field order that evaluators can compare side by side.
• CV and skills management. Keep every consultant’s CV and competence profile current, with self-assessed star ratings per skill, and export tailored CVs and a company portfolio for bids.

Why free matters here

Every established tool in this category - AG5 for skills, Flowcase (formerly CV Partner) and Sprint CV for bid CVs - is demo-gated enterprise software with pricing available only on request. That leaves smaller and mid-sized firms managing references in Word and Excel because the dedicated tools are priced for large organizations and sold through a sales call.

A genuinely free tier changes the entry point. A three-person engineering practice can build a proper project database and stop losing the good version of its capability statement, without a procurement decision or a budget line. The free tool is not a trial that expires; it is the standalone product. SUNAGO Matrix, the paid ERP, exists for firms that later want project delivery, resourcing, and finance managed in the same place - but the reference database and document exports remain free to use on their own.

The three modules

The free suite is organized as three linked tools that share one database.

1. Capability statement builder

The free capability statement builder turns your firm’s details and selected projects into a formatted, one-page capability statement. Enter core competencies, choose past-performance entries from your project database, add differentiators and company data (including UEI, CAGE, and NAICS fields for US federal work), and export a print-ready PDF. Because the projects come from the shared database, the past-performance section is never out of date the way a hand-edited Word file is.

2. Project reference manager

The project reference manager is the database at the center of the suite. Store each project once and generate reference sheets, project one-pagers, and company portfolios on demand, in a consistent format. It is the tool that ends the “which laptop has the current project list?” problem, and it feeds the past-performance section of every capability statement and bid.

3. CV & skills management

The CV & skills management tool keeps consultant CVs and competence profiles current and exports tailored, formatted CVs for proposals. Skills are scored with star ratings so a bid manager can find the right person for a role, and the same data drives a firm-wide skills matrix - the evidence procurement teams increasingly ask for alongside CVs.

How it compares to paid category tools

The tools that rank for skills management software and cv management software are strong, established products aimed at larger organizations. The table sets out the honest positioning differences - for full comparisons see the guides to the best skills management software and the best CV management software for consultancies and engineering firms.

	SUNAGO (free tool)	AG5 (skills)	Flowcase / Sprint CV (bid CVs)
Price	Free (0 EUR), no card	On request, demo-gated	On request, demo-gated
Primary focus	Project references + CVs for project firms	Skills matrices, frontline/manufacturing	Bid CVs for professional services
Project reference database	Yes, central	No	Partial (people-led)
Capability statement export	Yes	No	No
Free standalone tier	Yes	No	No
Upgrade path	SUNAGO Matrix ERP	Enterprise plans	Enterprise plans

The point of the table is not that SUNAGO does more than a mature enterprise platform - AG5’s skills-matrix depth and Flowcase’s bid tooling are genuinely more specialized. The point is that no other tool combines a project reference database with CV management in a free product for project-based firms.

Who uses it

Consulting engineers and architects. Firms whose tenders demand three to five comparable project references, staff CVs, and a company profile keep all of it in one database and export what each notice asks for.

Construction contractors. Contractors compiling prequalification packages - project lists, contract values, safety and bonding data, key-personnel CVs - assemble them from stored records instead of rebuilding each PQQ from scratch.

IT services and management consultancies. Firms that respond to RFPs with capability statements and consultant CVs regenerate current documents on deadline, without hunting for the latest version.

From free tool to full ERP

The free tool is deliberately standalone: nothing you build in it is locked in, and every export is a normal Word or PDF file. It is one part of SUNAGO Matrix, the project ERP that consulting and engineering firms use for project delivery, timesheets, resourcing, and finance. The CV & References module on the SUNAGO Matrix pricing page is the same capability, integrated with the rest of the platform. Firms that outgrow standalone document management can upgrade without re-entering their project data - but there is no obligation to, and the reference tool stays free on its own.

Start with your project database

The fastest way to see the value is to start free: create a free account, enter five real projects, and export a capability statement. Open the project reference manager to build the database, the capability statement builder to produce your first one-pager, and the CV & skills tool to keep your team’s profiles bid-ready. If you would rather start from a file, every template works standalone and imports later.