Invoicing as an Agency Owner

Running an agency means juggling retainers, one-off projects, and a team whose hours all need to land on the right invoice. Fee-Lion keeps that whole machine in one workspace: your crew logs time and expenses, you watch the margin on every project, and the money lands in your own Stripe — not ours. Here’s how to invoice like the studio owner you are.

Set the team up on Studio

Solo is great for one person, but an agency lives on the Studio plan ($29/mo), which gives you seats for your team. Each person you invite gets their own login to log time, track expenses, and move project work forward — while you keep the billing controls.

1. Open Settings → Preferences and confirm your plan is Studio under Plans & seats.
2. Go to your team area in the left sidebar and invite each teammate by email.
3. Set their contact role and permissions so juniors can log time but only you touch invoices and payouts.
4. Set shared defaults once in Settings → Preferences — Branding, payment terms, tax, and a default deposit percentage — so every invoice the studio sends looks consistent.

Tip: Lock your Branding (logo, colors) before anyone else starts sending estimates. Every magic-link portal your team opens then carries the studio’s look, not a blank default.

Run retainers on autopilot

Most agency revenue is predictable — so don’t re-create it every month. Set up a recurring invoice for each retainer client and let it bill itself.

1. From the left sidebar, create a new invoice for the client and add the retainer as a line item.
2. Switch it to recurring and pick the cadence (usually monthly).
3. Invite the client to enroll in auto-pay so their card is charged automatically each cycle — no chasing, no reminders.

For project work that runs alongside the retainer, you can still drop extra line items onto a one-off invoice, or bill tracked time and expenses separately so the retainer stays clean.

Capture every billable hour and dollar

This is where margin is won or lost. Have the team track work as it happens, then pull it onto invoices.

• Teammates log work with time tracking or the live timer, tagged to the right project.
• You review entries, then bill tracked time to an invoice in a click — hours × rate, already added up.
• Billable expenses get attributed to a project, so you can rebill an expense to your client instead of eating the cost.

Because both time and expenses attach to the project, you see real margin — revenue minus logged cost — not a guess.

Watch the margin and bill it clean

Open a project to see its profitability at a glance: what was estimated, what’s been logged, what’s been spent, and what’s left to bill. When you’re ready, convert an approved estimate into an invoice in one click — no retyping line items.

1. Check the project’s margin view before you send the final invoice.
2. Pull in any unbilled time and rebillable expenses so nothing slips through.
3. Send the invoice; the client opens the portal with no login and pays by card straight into your Stripe (we take a small platform fee).
4. Use the ops dashboard and invoice aging reports to spot slow payers and your most profitable clients, then export a pack for your accountant.

Tip: Press ⌘K anywhere and type something like “create invoice for Acme” or “pay INV-204.” For a studio billing all day, the command palette is faster than any menu.

What’s next

• Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices
• Track project profitability and margin
• Invite a teammate to your studio
• Bill tracked time to an invoice