3 Partners. 4 Billing Models. 12 Active Engagements. One Invoice Run That Takes All Week.

Partners estimate time after the fact. Associates forget to log entries. Contractors submit in a different system. By the time the billing team assembles a client invoice, 10-20% of billable time has evaporated into 'administrative overhead' that should have been billed. Every unbilled hour at $250-$500/hr is pure revenue loss.

Client pays a $15K monthly retainer. Your team logged $18K in billable time. The overage needs to be invoiced separately, but only if the engagement letter allows it, and only at the rate specified in the contract. Retainer reconciliation across 20+ clients with different terms is where billing accuracy and client trust intersect.

One engagement has a partner at $500/hr, two associates at $275/hr, a contractor at $150/hr, and pass-through expenses at cost-plus-10%. Generating an invoice that correctly applies each rate to each person's logged time, adds the marked-up expenses, and formats it for the client's AP team takes longer than it should.