How to Bill Clients as a Business or Life Coach

Coaching runs on rhythm: a discovery call, a package of sessions, and a steady cadence after that. Fee-Lion lets you sell the whole package up front, collect a deposit before the first session, and then let your clients pay on autopilot every month, so you spend your energy coaching instead of chasing.

Sell a prepaid session package

Most coaches don’t bill per hour, they bill per package: “12 sessions over three months.” That maps perfectly to units on an estimate, where each session is a unit at a set rate.

1. From the left sidebar, open Estimates and start a new one for your client.
2. Add a unit line item: name it “1:1 Coaching Session,” set the quantity (say, 12) and your per-session rate.
3. Add a surcharge for any onboarding or assessment work, or a discount if you’re offering a multi-session bundle price.
4. Set a deposit % so the client pays part (or all) up front. For prepaid packages, many coaches set this to 100%.
5. Send it. Your client approves it in their portal with no login, then pays the deposit by card straight into your Stripe.

Once the estimate is approved, one click converts it to an invoice or a project, so you can start tracking the engagement immediately.

Tip: Set a default deposit percentage at Settings → Preferences so every coaching estimate asks for payment up front automatically. No more remembering to add it each time.

Put ongoing coaching on auto-pay

For open-ended or monthly clients, a one-off invoice each month is friction you don’t need. Set up a recurring invoice instead and let the client enroll in auto-pay once.

1. Open Invoices from the sidebar and create a recurring invoice for the monthly coaching fee.
2. Choose the cadence (monthly is the coaching standard) and a start date.
3. Turn on auto-pay so the saved card is charged each cycle.
4. Your client confirms enrollment once in the portal, and every month after that the invoice sends and pays itself.

That’s the ongoing-retainer rhythm: you show up to the sessions, the money shows up on its own.

Package vs. recurring, which fits?

• Use a prepaid package when the engagement has a clear end (“a 90-day reset,” “six sessions to launch”).
• Use a recurring invoice with auto-pay when coaching is ongoing month to month with no fixed finish line.
• Plenty of coaches do both: a paid intensive up front, then a lighter monthly maintenance fee after.

Bill stray sessions and keep your numbers tidy

Sometimes a client books an extra session or a one-off strategy call outside their package. Track it with the timer or a manual time entry, then bill that tracked time to an invoice. To keep your reporting clean, tag coaching invoices (for example, “Coaching” vs. “Workshops”) so your revenue drill-down tells you which offer is actually paying the bills.

Before you send your first one, make your estimates and invoices look like you: head to Settings → Preferences to set your branding, default payment terms, and tax defaults once, and they’ll carry into everything you send.

What’s next

• Collect a deposit on an estimate
• Turn on auto-pay
• Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices
• Set a default deposit percentage