# Know which clients make money before the month closes > Client projects, retainers and billable hours in one place. Every hour lands on the right client, at the right rate, and the margin is there while you can still act on it. - [Book a demo](https://akollo.com/en/demo) - [Read the docs](https://docs.akollo.com/en) ## How agencies run a client job in Akollo From the signed proposal to the invoice draft, the client, the plan, the hours and the margin stay in one record. 1. **Start from the client account** (CRM) — The account holds the contacts, the open opportunities and every project you deliver for that client. 2. **Set up the job from a template** (Projects) — A template for a website, a campaign or a monthly retainer puts phases, tasks and owners in place on day one. 3. **Staff it with the people who are free** (Resource planning) — See who has room across all client work before you agree a start date, and spot the person booked twice. 4. **Log billable and internal hours** (Time tracking) — Timers, weekly timesheets or the desktop agent. Each hour carries its client, project and whether it can be billed. 5. **Check the margin and prepare the invoice** (Budgets & profitability) — Rates by client, role or person turn hours into revenue. Compare it with cost and start the invoice draft from approved work. ## The views agency teams open every day Account managers, producers and finance read the same records, so nobody rebuilds the numbers in a spreadsheet. ### Client project board Every deliverable for a client as a card, from brief to approved, with owner, due date and the hours already spent. - Columns that match your client approvals - Comments and files on the card - Filters by client and owner ### Budget against actual Each project or retainer budget in hours, cost or revenue, with how much is used and a warning before it runs out. - Budgets in hours or money - Alerts as usage climbs - Variance by project ### Profitability by project Cost, expenses, revenue and margin per project and month, with the cost lines behind every figure. - Margin per month - Hours without a cost rate flagged - Forecast per row ### Accounts and pipeline Client accounts with their contacts, activities and opportunities, next to the projects you run for them. - Pipeline as a board or a list - Follow-ups with reminders - Projects tab on each account ## What you can finally measure Agency margin is lost an hour at a time. These come from the hours and rates the team already records. - **Billable share of hours** — How much of each person's week went to client work you can bill, and how much to pitches, admin and internal projects. (Time reports) - **Margin per client and project** — Revenue from your rate cards against cost from hours and expenses, by month, so a slipping job shows up early. (Budgets & profitability) - **Retainer usage** — Hours used against the hours agreed for the month, so you raise scope with the client before you give work away. (Budgets) - **Team load across clients** — Who is booked, who has room and who is past their hours this week, across every client at once. (Resource planning) ## Hand the admin to the assistant Akollo AI reads your projects, hours and team calendar, and asks before it changes anything. It never sets a rate or an amount. - “Draft a project plan for the Helio web shop from this proposal.” — Here is a plan with 4 phases and 22 tasks, with estimate ranges. I suggested owners based on who is free in November. Create it? - “Who could take on two days of design work for Nordwind next week?” — Selin Arslan and Jonas Weber both have room. Selin has worked on Nordwind before. Shall I prepare the assignment for you to confirm? - “Did I miss logging time anywhere this week?” — Tuesday and Thursday are about an hour short. Based on your open tasks, it was likely Kaya Foods. Add the entries? Run the assistant on our cloud, on your own model or switch it off. It only reads what the person asking is allowed to see. ## The Akollo modules agencies use - [Projects & tasks](https://akollo.com/en/products/work) — Client boards, templates and timelines. - [Time tracking](https://akollo.com/en/products/time) — Billable hours, timers and weekly approval. - [Budgets & profitability](https://akollo.com/en/products/finance) — Rate cards, budgets, margin and billing. - [CRM](https://akollo.com/en/products/customers) — Accounts, contacts and the pipeline. - [Resource planning](https://akollo.com/en/products/people) — See who is free across every client. - [AI assistant](https://akollo.com/en/products/ai) — Plans, staffing ideas and missed-time checks. ## Questions agencies ask ### Can we bill different rates for different clients? Yes. Rate cards hold billing rates for a client, a project, a role, a task type or a single person. Akollo uses the most specific one for each piece of work, and big rate changes wait for a second approval. ### How do we handle monthly retainers? Set up the retainer as a project with a budget in hours or money. The team logs time against it as usual, and you see how much of the month is used before it runs over. ### Does Akollo replace our accounting software? No. Akollo prepares invoice drafts and accounting exports from approved work, and your accounting system stays the book of record. ### We track time in Harvest or Toggl today. Why move? Because in Akollo the hours sit next to the plan, the staffing and the budget. You no longer match a time export against a project list to see the margin. ### Can freelancers log time on our client projects? Yes. Freelancers and consultants get time-bound access with a sponsor from your team. They see only what they are allowed to and log their hours like everyone else. ## See your client work in Akollo We will set up a client, a retainer and your rate cards, and walk you through the margin on a call. - [Book a demo](https://akollo.com/en/demo) - [Read the docs](https://docs.akollo.com/en) --- Source: https://akollo.com/en/solutions/agencies · [Türkçe](https://akollo.com/tr/cozumler/ajanslar-ve-danismanlik), [Deutsch](https://akollo.com/de/loesungen/agenturen-und-beratung)