Invoicing & financial workflow
How money moves through a project - from quote to budget tracking to invoice. Financial hygiene keeps the business healthy and removes surprises for clients and the team.
The financial stages
Estimate
Scoped and sent before any work begins. Estimates pipeline time is tracked in Teamwork under the Quotes project. Conversion rate is reviewed monthly.
Estimate accepted
Client confirms in writing. Budget is entered into Teamwork. Project is created and work can begin.
Budget monitoring
Budget burn is tracked weekly via the automated team report. Warning at 70%, escalation at 100%. Project owner is accountable - not whoever logged the most hours.
Scope changes
Any work outside the original brief is quoted separately before it starts. We do not absorb scope creep, we name it, price it, and get agreement.
Invoice raised
Raised within two working days of project completion or agreed milestone, or depost agreed upon. Invoice references the project name and scope delivered.
Payment follow-up
Overdue invoices are followed up promptly. First follow-up at due date. Escalated by Kelly if unpaid beyond 14 days. For services such as hosting, emails or domains, failure to pay on agreed terms means we will suspend their website until payment in full has been recovered.
Time logging rules
Accurate time logging is not optional - it is what makes the budget tracking and reports meaningful.
Log time daily
Do not batch log hours at the end of the week.
Right project
Log against the correct Teamwork project every time.
Correct type
Billable, non-billable, or quotes - always specified.
Honest hours
Log actual time, not estimated or rounded heavily.
Billable vs non-billable
Type, and what it includes.
Billable - All production time on a client project, video, design, web, writing, meetings with the client, review rounds and project write up & notes, filing in the correct place their info, closing their tickets & tasks.
Non-billable - Internal admin, SL marketing meetings, learning, tool setup, internal reviews not tied to a client.
Quotes/Estimates - Time spent scoping, writing, and following up on estimates for potential work. Tracked separately in the Quotes project. When an estimate is approved by a client, the quote task in the Quote job must be moved to the new job.