Industries / Professional Services
Bill the work. Skip the paperwork.
Estimates that win the engagement, invoices that go out the day the work ships, and a P&L that shows whether the practice actually pays.
“June’s work is August’s money.”
You did the work in June, invoiced on the 30th, and the client’s AP runs net 45. The P&L says a strong month and the bank account disagrees — both are true. Bokeping builds both from the same ledger and flips between accrual and cash, so you can read performance and survival separately instead of arguing with one number.
“Invoicing slips to the weekend.”
A month of retainers duplicates from last month in a coffee break — same rates, same terms, same tax treatment. Out on the 1st instead of the 9th is eight days off every payment date.
“Chasing money makes me the bad guy.”
Reminders go out on day 3 and day 10 without you writing them, and every invoice carries a pay button. The awkward email mostly never has to happen.
End of the month
Month-end, minus the invoicing marathon
Eight retainers duplicate from last month in a few minutes — nothing retyped, nothing forgotten. Harlow’s June is the interesting one: the $6,000 retainer, plus $900 of out-of-scope work you would otherwise have failed to bill, less a $450 credit note for the deadline you missed. That is $6,450 realized on a $6,900 engagement, visible the day you close the month rather than the day your accountant closes the year. The P&L is already done, because it was never not done.
- A month of retainers duplicated, not retyped
- Out-of-scope work billed while anyone still remembers it
- Credit notes on the record when you eat something
- Billed, credited and collected — per client, per month
Built for the work
The parts of Bokeping you’ll lean on
Estimates
Scope the engagement in writing, then convert the yes into the first invoice.
Learn moreInvoicing
Duplicate last month’s retainers, add the out-of-scope line, send the batch.
Learn moreCustomer payments
Advances held as credit, partial payments, and the balance after a client overpays.
Learn moreCash vs accrual
Flip June between earned and collected without rebuilding a thing.
Learn moreThe slow payer
The awkward email you never have to write
Kestrel Partners is twelve days past due on $3,400, and you know how that conversation usually goes — you draft something polite, soften it twice, and send it a week later than you should. This time the reminder went out on day 3 and again on day 10 without you touching it. Tuesday morning the client clicks the pay button on the invoice itself, the payment posts, the receivable closes, and the receipt sends itself. Of the $7,400 June left outstanding, $4,000 remains, and you spent none of your Monday on it.
- Reminders on a schedule you set once
- A pay button on the invoice — Stripe’s standard rates, no markup
- Card or bank transfer, the client picks
- The payment posts and closes the invoice on its own
In the field
Built for days like these.
From the books
“Invoicing went from a dreaded Sunday ritual to something I do while the kettle boils.”
FAQs
Fair questions
Yes, and there are two ways to book it — the difference matters to your accountant. Invoice the deposit and it books as income when that invoice posts, which is simple and fine for a lot of cash-basis practices. Or take the money first and record it as a payment on the client’s account: it sits as their credit until you apply it to an invoice for work you’ve actually done. Use the second when the cash truly arrives ahead of the work — it’s the client’s money, not your revenue, and your P&L shouldn’t say otherwise. Either way, partial payments and the remaining balance track to the penny on both sides.
Read both — they answer different questions. Accrual puts the $21,600 in June where the work happened and tells you whether the practice is profitable. Cash puts the $14,200 in the month it landed and tells you whether you can make payroll. Bokeping builds both from the same double-entry ledger, so it’s a toggle on the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow rather than a rebuild, and the general ledger drill-down works either way. Which basis you file on is a call for your tax preparer — Bokeping doesn’t file returns.
Honest answer: you get an exact revenue side and no project cost side. Per client, everything billed, credited and collected is there — so a $6,000 retainer that realized $6,450 of a $6,900 scope is precise. What Bokeping doesn’t do is job costing: there’s no way to tag a subcontractor bill, a license or a payroll run to an engagement and get a per-project P&L. If most of your work is fixed-fee and thin, keep the cost side in a spreadsheet next to these numbers, or run a job-costing tool alongside. We would rather say that than ship a shallow version and let you trust the wrong number.
No, and that’s deliberate. Bokeping isn’t a time tracker, a timesheet system, or project management — and it doesn’t do per-employee time tracking either. Use whatever timer you already like, then bill the result as line items: hours × rate, a fixed fee, or a monthly retainer. Your books stay books.
No. Duplicate last month’s invoice, adjust what changed, send. Rates, terms, payment settings and tax handling carry over, so eight retainers go out in the time it takes the kettle to boil — and the ones with an extra line this month are the only ones that need thinking about.
A free login on any plan, including Free. They see real double-entry books — every entry balanced, every correction reversed and reposted rather than silently edited — and they pull the statements themselves instead of emailing you for exports. Most find there’s nothing to clean up first, which is usually the difference between a fee and a bigger fee.
Bokeping for professional services
Start free, bring your history over, and see your own numbers by this afternoon.
Other industries
Different shelves, same books
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