Managed services live on two rhythms: the steady monthly retainer that should bill itself, and the unplanned project or overage work that lands whenever a client’s network has a bad week. Fee-Lion handles both without making you chase anything — recurring retainers run on auto-pay, and one-off work goes out the moment the ticket closes.
Put your retainers on autopilot
Your bread-and-butter managed-service plans shouldn’t need a human every month. Set each client’s plan up once as a recurring invoice and let it run.
- From Invoices in the left sidebar, create a new invoice for the client and add the retainer as a line item — a fee/unit line like “Managed IT — 25 seats” at qty × rate works cleanly for per-seat plans.
- Set it to repeat monthly so it becomes a recurring invoice. Each cycle, Fee-Lion generates and sends the invoice for you.
- Ask the client to turn on auto-pay from their portal. Once they enroll their card, every monthly retainer charges automatically — no Pay button click, no reminder emails.
The money lands in your own Stripe account, not ours. We charge a small platform fee on top; you stay the merchant of record for every payout.
Tip: Set your billing day once under Settings → Preferences (payment terms) so all your retainers fall on the same date. Predictable inflow makes cash-flow forecasting in Reports far easier.
Bill project work and overage as one-offs
Onboarding a new office, a server migration, a security audit — that’s project work that sits outside the retainer. Bill it on its own so the recurring invoice stays clean.
- Fixed-scope projects: start with an estimate so the client approves scope and price in the portal before you begin. One click converts it to an invoice (or a project) when they sign off.
- Overage hours: when a client blows past their included hours, those minutes shouldn’t vanish. Use time tracking — the timer or a manual entry — and tag the work to that client.
- Bill the time: create a one-off invoice and pull the unbilled hours straight onto it. Tracked time becomes billed time without re-keying anything.
Keep project margin honest
If a managed project involves hardware or a contractor, log those under Expenses and attribute them to the project. The project’s margin view then shows what you actually cleared after costs — useful when you’re deciding whether a flat-rate plan is still priced right.
Give your techs their own seats
If more than one technician logs hours or closes tickets, the Studio plan ($29/mo) lets you invite teammates so each tech tracks their own time and updates project status. Solo ($9/mo) fits a one-person shop. Both start with a 14-day free trial, and you can move between them as your team grows.
- Go to Settings and invite each technician from the team area.
- Have them track time against the right client so overage hours roll up to the correct invoice.
- Use Projects with custom sub-statuses and checklists so everyone sees where each engagement stands.
Tip: Coming from a generic invoicing tool? Bring your client list over from Settings → Data Import before you rebuild your retainers — it’s faster to map existing companies than to retype them.
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