Agencies & Consultancies
Agency margins die in the gap between hours worked and hours billed. Time-tracking lives in Harvest, the retainer agreement lives in DocuSign, the invoice lives in QuickBooks, the project plan lives in Asana, and the client just wants one place to see what they're paying for. 4b2b collapses retainer management, time-to-invoice and client communication into a single client portal — billable utilization stops being a quarterly post-mortem.
Where the pain shows up
Pain point
Retainers roll over month after month, but scope creep eats hours that never get invoiced. Project leads only notice when utilization drops at quarter-end.
How 4b2b helps
Each retainer has a per-month hour budget. Tracked hours decrement the budget live; overage hours are auto-flagged and either invoiced as variable or surfaced for client renegotiation.
Pain point
Logging time in Harvest, then re-entering it in QuickBooks to make an invoice, then emailing the PDF — three steps, three sources of typos.
How 4b2b helps
Approved time entries become invoice line items automatically. Client gets a branded portal link plus a Stripe-pay button on the invoice itself.
Pain point
Subcontractors and freelancers need 1099s at year end. Most agencies cobble them together from contractor invoices and 1099 software at the last minute.
How 4b2b helps
Contractor payments are tagged at invoice-pay time. Year-end 1099-NEC totals are query-ready by January 1, with vendor TINs already on file.
Pain point
Multi-currency clients (UK, EU) get FX surprises when the invoice settles. Bookkeeping notices the gain/loss two months later.
How 4b2b helps
Invoices issue in client currency at the day's spot rate; settlement creates a clean FX gain/loss journal in your home-currency books.
Recommended modules for an agency
4invoices.net — invoicing, subscriptions & Stripe
Retainer + project invoicing, time-to-invoice automation, multi-currency, 1099 reporting.
4notify.net — transactional SMS & email
Project status updates and approval requests to clients by email + SMS.
4marketingonline.net — marketing automation
Lead capture from your agency site, proposal-to-signature workflow.
Questions we hear most
Do you integrate with Harvest or Toggl?
Yes — both via their public APIs. Approved hours flow into 4b2b nightly. If you prefer to drop Harvest entirely, 4b2b has its own time-tracking module included.
How do retainer rollovers and unused hours work?
Configurable per retainer. The defaults are: no rollover, overage billed at the same hourly rate, and a per-month cap that converts excess into a renegotiation flag rather than a surprise invoice.
Can each client see only their own data?
Yes. Each client gets a portal account scoped to their projects, invoices, retainer balance and approved hours. They cannot see other clients or your internal margin.
Will it produce 1099-NEC filings for me?
It produces clean per-contractor totals with TINs ready for e-filing through your preferred 1099 service (Tax1099, Track1099, etc.). 4b2b is not itself an IRS-authorized e-file provider.
Stop leaking billable hours.
We model your retainer book, set up time-to-invoice, and give every client a live portal — usually inside two weeks.
Talk to us
