Billing software for accounting owners

Accounting billing software

Your monthly retainers compete with client work every single month they are raised by hand. Smarfle puts each engagement on its own cadence with terms held on the client, so the cycle runs without anyone opening it.

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Smarfle · Accounting Recurring Billing
Next 30 days

$8,420

Active subscriptions

47

Upcoming auto-charges

Acme Office Park

Monthly maintenance

$485

in 3 days

Riverside Apartments

Quarterly service

$1,200

in 12 days

Downtown Plaza

Monthly recurring

$320

in 18 days

West End Hotel

Bi-weekly contract

$680

in 5 days
Auto-charge enabled · Stripe Connect0.5% platform fee

Real Smarfle UI · Live data from your accounting CRM

Why generic billing software fails accounting owners

Generic billing tools weren’t built for accounting. Smarfle was.

Generic billing software

What everyone else gives you

  • A retainer raised by hand goes out late in the weeks you are busiest
  • Tax-season project fees are collected a month after the filing went out
  • An annual rate increase means opening every client one at a time

Smarfle for accounting

Built for your actual workflow

  • The monthly charge runs on its agreed date without competing with client work
  • Season fees are raised at delivery from the hours already on the client file
  • One edit moves the rate on every affected arrangement and the clients are notified
Step-by-step

How accounting billing works in Smarfle

From the first touch to the closed loop. No missing pieces.

  1. 1

    Each engagement gets its own cadence

    Monthly bookkeeping, quarterly advisory and an annual return are three arrangements on one client rather than one relationship billed whenever there is time.

  2. 2

    One transaction sets the cycles running

    The opening payment carries every cycle after it, which matters most in the weeks a practice has no spare hour for a billing run.

  3. 3

    Each cycle charges on its date

    The arrangement produces the charge whether or not anybody opens it, so busy season stops being the reason a retainer went out late.

  4. 4

    Season work bills at delivery

    A return handed over raises its fee from the file the same day, keeping the annual work close to the moment the client valued it.

  5. 5

    Rate changes apply across the book

    An annual increase is set once and takes effect from the next cycle, with clients told first, rather than being deferred for another year.

Where accounting billing breaks down

The friction every accounting owner recognizes.

✕

Retainers compete with client work every month

Whoever raises the invoices is also the person with a filing deadline. Billing therefore slips in exactly the months when cash matters most.

✕

Rate increases are put off for a year

Raising the price across a book of retainer clients means opening every arrangement and having every conversation. Most practices postpone it until the margin makes the decision for them.

✕

The value is continuous and the billing is not

A client calls in March, June and September and pays in April. Whether the arrangement actually covers what they use is a question nobody revisits.

The math for accounting owners

1,140 retainer charges a year

Ninety-five retainer clients billed monthly is 1,140 documents a year, raised by the same people who are supposed to be doing the work. The month a practice is busiest is the month that job slips. On a cadence held with the client, the cycle runs whether or not anybody has a quiet afternoon.

95

Retainer clients

12

Months a year

~1,140

Invoices raised

Based on typical accounting operations. Your numbers may vary.

Features powering accounting billing

Each one a deep-dive in its own right.

Engagements run as standing arrangements

A monthly retainer sits on the client with its own date and amount, so it charges every cycle without competing with a filing deadline for attention.

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Rate changes travel with the service

Because the engagement is priced from a service definition, a rate review is applied once and the whole book follows rather than one client at a time.

Learn more

Clients collect their own documents

Signed-in clients download statements and reports themselves, which absorbs a category of email that arrives every month and answers itself.

Learn more

Time against an engagement is visible

Hours recorded on a client show what a fixed retainer actually costs to deliver, which is the evidence a rate conversation needs.

Learn more

Accounting billing software questions

Held on the client as a charge that repeats on a fixed date. The point is to remove the monthly decision, because in a busy month the billing run is what slips.
Yes, raised from the client file when the return is delivered. That is when the client values the work most, and every week after it the fee gets harder to collect.
Across the affected arrangements at once, from the next cycle, with clients notified. Doing it one at a time is why most practices carry last year's rates for another twelve months.
The mechanics are one edit. The conversation is still yours to have, and most firms send the notice ahead of the cycle so the first charge at the new rate is not the announcement.
Smarfle records what was invoiced and what was collected, and both are reportable. It is not a general ledger, so the basis your accounts are prepared on is decided in your accounting software rather than here.

Moving your accounting billing software off another tool?

Most accounting businesses arrive at Smarfle from one of the tools below. See a side-by-side comparison.

Smarfle vs Smith.aiSmarfle vs CallRailSmarfle vs BrightLocalSmarfle vs GoHighLevel
See all alternatives →

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