For virtual assistant businesses
Invoice Crowd lets a virtual assistant bill a monthly retainer with included hours, record project time and invoice clients in the currency agreed. Clients can approve your hours in their portal before the invoice goes out.
The workflow
A virtual assistant may combine a stable monthly fee with overage hours, one-off projects and client expenses. These screens put each part on the right invoice.
Attach time to a client project instead of a loose sheet
Use projects, tasks and timesheet entries to record work that sits outside the fixed retainer. Bill those hours on the next invoice, rounded to 6, 15 or 30 minutes if you like, without turning the invoice into a task list.
Raise the recurring part on the agreed cycle
Set up a retainer with the monthly fee and the hours it includes. Time you log on that client's projects counts against the allowance, unused hours carry over or expire, and extra hours go on the next invoice. A flat fee with no hours can stay a plain recurring invoice. Clients can see their retainer hours in the portal and approve or question each week's hours before you invoice.
The right customer and currency on every record
Each client's details, currency and balance are reused on every proposal and invoice, so you bill in the currency you agreed. Keep their passwords and inbox access in a password manager, not here.
Why it fits
The retainer, the extra hours and the client's approval of them sit on one record, so the invoice is never a guess.
Log the hours, count them against the retainer and bill the extra, without exporting a timesheet. Paid plans.
In the customer portal, clients see their retainer hours and approve or question each week before you invoice. They see hours, never rates.
Connect PayPal, Stripe, Payoneer or ten others and clients pay from the invoice. PayPal works on the free plan too.
Invoice each client in their own currency while your reports total in yours.
Also included
These sit in the same account as your retainers, hours and invoices.
Start a timer from the header. If you step away, keep the time, remove the idle part or stop at the moment you left, and a forgotten timer stops automatically.
Bill unbilled hours up to a date, rounded to 6, 15 or 30 minutes if you like. Only the invoice is rounded; your logged minutes never change.
Reminders go out before and after the due date. Set a flat or percentage late fee when you send the invoice, and it is added automatically if the invoice is still unpaid after the due date.
Type “log 2h on Northwind inbox yesterday” and the assistant drafts the time entry for you to confirm. Paid plans, with AI credits.
Prepaid hours are recorded as an advance with its own receipt, then applied to the invoices they cover.
On the Team or Business plan, invite a subcontractor with a role and limit them to selected customers only.
Clients sign in to see every invoice you sent them, what they have paid and how their retainer hours are going.
Sell a fixed starter pack, such as five hours of inbox support, as a payment link the client pays online. They become a customer with an invoice automatically.
When you compare tools, test each one on the same job: a retainer, two overage entries and a foreign-currency invoice.
Questions
Yes. Start the timer or log time against a client's project and task. If you step away, you can remove the idle time when you come back. Time tracking needs a paid plan.
Yes. A retainer is a monthly recurring invoice with an hours allowance: logged hours count against it and overage goes on the next invoice. For a flat fee with no hours, a recurring invoice holds the amount, customer, currency and schedule. Both need a paid plan.
Use it for proposals, time, retainers, invoices and payments, and keep using your task and chat tools for the daily work.
Yes. Invoice each client in their own currency while your reports total in yours, and they pay through any of the gateways you connected.
Yes, on the Team plan (two members) or Business plan (three). Each person gets a role, and you can limit a member to selected customers only.
Use a dedicated password manager approved for that purpose. Do not store passwords or access secrets in invoices, customer notes or time entries.
Set up the retainer, log the work and let the client approve the hours before the invoice goes out.
