Monthly service review
Separate included retainer effort from agreed campaign extras.
Use case
Billing software for marketing agencies
Marketing billing often combines recurring service effort with campaign-specific purchases. Keeping those two records distinct makes the retainer review easier to explain.
Product capabilities reviewed against the ABH truth sheet on 14 October 2026. Any arithmetic examples are fictional, in USD and exclude taxes. Operational guidance only.
Short answer
ABH connects campaign time, Pro retainer usage and invoice records. Review the period, create the invoice manually and itemize agreed pass-through purchases yourself. Client funds arrive outside ABH and are recorded as manual bookkeeping entries.
Use ABH for the work and invoice record. Receive client payments through your own external arrangement and record them manually.
Retainers with included hours
Start with the service agreement: which activities are included, what period applies and how extra work is authorized. Strategy, creative production and campaign management may share a retainer while an additional launch needs a separate decision. Put that distinction in the working scope before assigning tasks so delivery does not have to guess what the monthly fee covers.
ABH Pro supports flat fee and capped-hour retainers with usage by period. Generating the retainer invoice is a manual action, not an automatic calendar schedule. At the cutoff, compare included work with the logged activity and review exceptions using the monthly retainer guide. Retainer rollover and automatic client collections are not available today.
Tracked time tied to client and project
Use projects to separate ongoing service from a distinct campaign when that matches your agreement. Link tasks and time to the correct client and project, with notes explaining whether the activity was a briefing, creative revision or reporting preparation. A campaign name alone rarely explains why a particular set of hours belongs on the invoice.
ABH supports single and bulk time entry approval. Review dates, duplicate activity and scope before billing. The consistent team tracking guide helps set a contributor cutoff. This is a work-record process; it does not import campaign performance or measure advertising outcomes. Keep performance reporting in the tools used for that purpose and bring only suitable billing context into the invoice.
Itemized invoices with pass-through costs
Separate the agency service fee from client-authorized purchases. State the period and commercial basis for each charge so a recipient can distinguish ongoing delivery from a supplier reimbursement. For a purchase, keep the receipt, authorization and allocation in controlled records. Do not make a reimbursed purchase look like additional delivery hours or hide it inside an unexplained total.
ABH invoices can carry itemized lines, but expense rebilling is a manual preparation step, not an automatic ad-spend workflow. Pro expense records support bookkeeping. The pass-through cost guide explains the separate allocation decision. ABH does not collect ad spend or connect to advertising platforms, and recording an expense does not itself establish that the client agreed to pay it.
Public invoice link for clients
Send the billing contact a public invoice link for the reviewed period. They can view the invoice and download its PDF without creating an account. Check that line descriptions make the service period, campaign and approved extras understandable. The proof-backed invoice overview explains how lines can be traced to logged work rather than relying on a vague monthly total.
A public invoice link is not a client portal or a campaign reporting dashboard. It also does not establish acceptance of a new scope or purchase. Keep confidential strategy, credentials and unpublished creative details out of client-facing descriptions. Resolve questions about the invoice with the authorized contact and preserve the supporting record without sharing broader internal agency finance data.
Record payments received elsewhere
Your client pays through the arrangement you already use outside ABH. After checking the receipt, an Owner manually records the exact amount, date and reference against the invoice. ABH keeps those entries in an append-only payment ledger. A message saying that funds were sent is a reason to reconcile the receipt, not evidence that the invoice has been settled.
ABH never collects, holds or processes agency client money and takes no transaction fee on it. Keep partial receipts distinguishable from the remaining balance. A purchase reimbursement and a service payment may arrive together; reconcile the actual amount to the correct invoice rather than treating an advertising budget as money held by ABH. Our SaaS subscription billing through Polar is separate from this client workflow.
What ABH does not do for marketing teams
Ad-platform integrations, campaign reporting, ad-spend collection and client login portals are not available today. Neither are recurring invoice schedules or automatic client charges. If your primary need is attributing conversions, distributing media budgets or presenting creative approvals to a client, keep that workflow in an appropriate separate system rather than assuming the billing record covers it.
This fit is about the link between work, retainer review and a readable invoice. The small agency page covers the broader team setup. For a different project shape, the web design workflow focuses on milestones. Choose from the work you actually need to record, and check the Harvest comparison before deciding whether ABH's billing emphasis fits.
Plan limits and price (checked date)
Plans checked against the dev public plans endpoint on 14 October 2026: Free is $0 with 1 client, 1 project, 20 tracked hours per month, 3 invoices per month and 1 user. Free invoice PDFs carry an ABH watermark. It offers a bounded way to test core time and invoicing, but retainer tracking requires Pro.
Starter is $9.99 per month per workspace with up to 3 users and unlimited clients, projects, tracked hours and invoices. Pro is $19.99 per month per workspace with unlimited users and adds retainer tracking and expenses. Prices are flat per workspace, not per seat. Read current pricing before choosing; use the retainer feature details to confirm that the manual monthly review fits your process.
At a glance
Fit for this workflow
Purchase context
Itemize authorized supplier costs yourself instead of implying automatic ad-spend rebilling.
Recipient access
Share an invoice link and PDF without asking the billing contact to create an account.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can ABH collect our client media budget?
No. ABH does not collect or hold client funds, including advertising budgets.
Are retainer invoices sent automatically?
No. Pro supports retainer tracking and a manual generate-invoice action.
Does it import campaign performance?
No. Advertising integrations and campaign performance reporting are not available today.
Review the workflow before you choose.
Use ABH for the work and invoice record. Receive client payments through your own external arrangement and record them manually.