Agency

Many publishers sell not only titles but also work, design, campaigns, websites or annual reports, for instance. That needs a different kind of invoice from a book, one built from hours, fixed prices and expenses. That is exactly what this module does, in the same system as the rest.

At the beginning stands the quote. It is not a text field but structured, with sections and line item rows that can be reordered by dragging, an introduction and a closing text in the editor with placeholders, and items from a service catalog. The status carries it from draft through sent to accepted or rejected; attachments can be added, duplicating works, archiving too. And an accepted quote becomes a project at the press of a button. That is the point at which things are otherwise copied out by hand.

The project is the control view, with phases, hourly rates of its own, a budget in euros and in hours, and a status from active through paused to completed. The customers for it come from the CRM. From here the path leads into the times and into project invoicing.

Recording happens per project and activity. What separates this from a timesheet is the approval. A time entry only counts once it is approved, and then for the invoice and for the analysis alike. Where a task system is in use, nothing has to be recorded twice. Projects can be connected to bryve, and the times booked there come in through a secured return channel.

Not every service fits into hours. That is why fixed-price items and retainers sit beside them in the project, with their periods and the recurring allowance that carries many an agency relationship. Expenses come in as a third element, and not by retyping. An existing incoming invoice can be pulled into the project directly from Incoming invoices as a billable expense.

It all comes together in the project's invoicing cockpit, as a summary of times, fixed prices, expenses and retainer, from which order line items with an account assignment are created. From there it is a normal case in Orders & invoices, e-invoice and DATEV included. So that nothing is left lying around, a module-wide inbox collects the open billing cases, and at every order line item it can be traced which agency service it came from.

Four analyses keep an eye on the business: WIP, the work already delivered but not yet billed, shows the position separately for times, fixed prices and expenses. Utilization shows how full the weeks are. Profitability shows which project pays for itself. And the timesheet is the record you can put in front of the customer.