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Invoicing software for digital agencies with retainers and projects

A digital agency bills two ways at once: a monthly retainer that should never need chasing, and project work that has to be scoped, tracked and invoiced. Invoice Crowd runs both from one account, with the ledger underneath.

  • Recurring retainer billing
  • Time logged against projects
  • Team roles and permissions

What is inside

Two revenue models, one account

Retainer income should arrive without anyone raising it. Project income has to be quoted, staffed and tracked. The same account handles both, and the books keep up with each.

Recurring revenue

Set the schedule once, then stop touching it

Recurring invoice profiles in Invoice Crowd with schedules and next send dates

Retainers that raise themselves

Set a recurring profile per client, with its own amount, currency, cycle and start date, and the invoice goes out on schedule whether or not anyone remembers it. Reminders chase what is unpaid and late fees apply on the terms you set, so a retainer that slips is caught before it becomes a quarter.

  • One profile per client, running on its own cycle
  • Reminders before anyone writes an awkward email
  • Late fees applied on the terms you already agreed
Recurring invoices

Packages for the retainer bundle

Most agency retainers are a fixed bundle: so many hours of strategy, a content run, a reporting call. Save that bundle as a package and it drops into a proposal or an invoice as one line with the parts still underneath, priced the same way for every client on the same tier.

  • Bundle the services you sell over and over
  • Drop a package into a proposal or an invoice
  • Change the bundle once instead of per client
Packages

Project work

From the pitch to the last hour logged

Scope it in a proposal, bill what was signed

New project work starts as a proposal: scope, phases, price and terms, signed in the browser rather than printed. What the client accepts is what carries into the invoice, so the number on the first bill matches the number they agreed to.

  • More than 40 proposal templates to start from
  • E-signature on the document itself
  • Accepted pricing carries into the invoice
The proposal builder
The Timesheet screen in Invoice Crowd, showing hours logged against projects and tasks

Time logged against the right project

Projects hold the work and the timesheet holds the hours. Team members log time against the project they are on, so when a client asks what the retainer actually covered last month there is a record rather than a reconstruction from calendars and memory.

  • Projects and timesheet in the same account
  • Hours attached to a project, not a spreadsheet tab
  • A record to answer a scope question with

The team and the books

Who can open what, and what it all adds up to

Team members with roles, not shared logins

Bring account managers, designers and a bookkeeper into the same account and give each person a role that limits what they can open and change. Team-member availability and limits depend on the current plan.

  • A role per person instead of one password
  • Two members on TEAM, three on BUSINESS
  • Role-based access for supported team members
What each plan includes
Chart of Accounts in Invoice Crowd listing accounts by type and sub-type

Agency numbers, not just invoice totals

Under the invoicing sits accounting records and report views with visible integrity checks with a chart of 184 accounts already built. Contractor bills, software subscriptions and studio costs post into it alongside the revenue, so profit and loss shows the agency's real position rather than a sum of what was billed.

  • 184 accounts ready before you post anything
  • Costs and revenue in the same set of books
  • Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow
The accounting module

Why agencies consolidate

One account from the pitch to the balance sheet

Agencies usually end up with a proposal tool, an invoicing tool and a bookkeeping tool, plus somebody whose afternoon goes on moving numbers between them.

  • Proposals, invoices and books together

    The document you pitched with, the invoice it became and the ledger entry behind it are three views of one record, not three exports to reconcile.

  • Sub-brands and side ventures

    Business profiles keep separate branding, customers and books under one account. The number of profiles available depends on the current plan.

  • However the client wants to pay

    PayPal, Stripe, Razorpay, Square, Payoneer, Braintree, Authorize.net, Airwallex, GoCardless, PayFast, PayTabs, Telr and M-Pesa, with split and partial payments when a project is billed in stages.

  • Clients abroad, reporting at home

    Bill an overseas client in their currency and still read the agency's revenue in yours, because the ledger holds base-currency values.

Also included

The rest of what an agency runs on

The parts of agency admin that usually end up in a spreadsheet, a shared drive or somebody's inbox.

  • Client portal

    Clients approve proposals, download invoices and pay in one place instead of a mail thread.

  • Estimate to invoice

    Approve an estimate and the invoice writes itself from the same lines, taxes included.

  • Payment gateways

    multiple provider integrations so the client pays on the invoice rather than through a bank transfer form.

  • Split payments

    Bill a project in stages: deposit up front, balance on delivery, both against one invoice.

  • Reminders and late fees

    Chase an overdue retainer automatically and apply the late fee your contract already allows.

  • Expense tracking

    Log contractor invoices and software costs with the receipt attached to the transaction.

  • Vendors and bills

    Record what freelancers and suppliers charge you against the projects they worked on.

  • Outbound webhooks

    Push agency data into the 5,000+ apps outbound webhooks reaches, or automate through Pabbly Connect.

  • Reports and exports

    Review aged debt, income and expense reports on screen, use the India-only GST Filing workspace when eligible, or configure supported reports for scheduled email delivery.

  • Client records

    One record per client holds the contacts, currency, terms and every document ever raised against them.

  • Budget against actuals

    Set a spend budget per ledger account, then read it against what the agency actually posted.

  • Proposal templates

    A content library keeps reusable sections, and 40+ proposal templates give the document a starting shape.

Questions

Running an agency on Invoice Crowd, answered

Can I bill retainer clients automatically every month?

Yes. A recurring profile holds the client, the amount, the currency and the cycle, and raises the invoice on that schedule without anyone opening the app. Reminders go out if it is unpaid, and late fees apply on the terms you set.

How many people can work in the account?

Supported plans can add team members with roles, so you decide who can open accounting records and who only sees the work their permissions allow. Review the Pricing page for current team limits.

Can I track time against a project?

Yes. Projects and a timesheet are part of the same account, so hours are logged against the project they belong to rather than in a separate tracker. That leaves you a record of what a retainer month actually contained when a client asks.

Does it handle a client who pays in another currency?

Yes. Invoice in the client's currency while financial reports use the business profile's accounting currency. India GST Filing is a separate, country-gated review and export workspace for eligible GST-enabled businesses; it is not presented as government submission.

Can two agency brands run from one subscription?

Yes, through business profiles. Each profile keeps its own branding, customers and accounting records, and you switch between supported profiles from one login. Review the Pricing page for current profile limits.

Is there a trial before we move the whole agency across?

Thirty days, with no credit card. That is long enough to run a full retainer cycle: raise the recurring invoices, send a proposal, log some hours and see what the reports look like at month end. Plans start at ten dollars a month.

Put the retainers on a schedule and the projects on record

Set the recurring profiles up once, scope the project work in a proposal, and let the ledger keep pace with both.

  • Retainers billed without a reminder
  • A role for every team member
  • Thirty-day trial, no card needed