Billing Software for Event Planning owners

Event Planning Billing Software

Event planning billing has 3 layers: planner fee (your retainer), vendor pass-through (caterer, florist, AV all paid through you with markup), and day-of overtime. Each layer needs separate tracking.

7 days free · No credit card · Built in Florida

Smarfle CRM. Event Planning 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 event planning CRM

Why generic billing software fails event planning owners

Generic billing tools weren’t built for event planning. Smarfle was.

Generic billing software

What everyone else gives you

  • Recurring billing requires Stripe + Zapier + a spreadsheet
  • No way to save customer cards for future auto-charge
  • Failed payments don’t auto-retry or notify the customer
  • ACH for big invoices means logging into 3 different tools

Smarfle for Event Planning

Built for your actual workflow

  • Vendor pass-through mixed with planner fee
  • Planner retainer auto-billed too aggressively
  • Day-of overtime not billed because nobody tracked it
  • Built specifically for event planning businesses
Step-by-step

How event planning billing works in Smarfle

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

  1. 1

    Customer signs up for recurring service

    Via portal subscribe button or office-generated first invoice. Card saves to Stripe Customer.

  2. 2

    Auto-charge runs on schedule

    Daily cron processes recurring invoices, charges saved cards off-session. event planning owner sleeps; revenue lands.

  3. 3

    Failed cards trigger retries + emails

    Stripe auto-retries 3-4 times. If all fail, customer gets an email link to update their card. No manual chase.

  4. 4

    Customer gets receipt + invoice instantly

    Each successful charge fires a receipt email + creates a Paid invoice in Smarfle. Aging report stays clean.

  5. 5

    Owner sees monthly recurring revenue

    Subscription dashboard shows what's coming next 30 days. Cashflow forecasting actually possible.

Where event planning billing breaks down

The friction every event planning owner recognizes.

Vendor pass-through mixed with planner fee

Total event $50k. Your planner fee = $8k. Vendor pass-through $42k. Without separation, you can't report margin or income accurately.

Planner retainer auto-billed too aggressively

Monthly $1k retainer. Auto-charge fires. Card declines. Client cancels in frustration. Without smart dunning, you lose long-term planner relationships.

Day-of overtime not billed because nobody tracked it

Day-of coordinator stays 3 hours late. Overtime not logged. Bride never gets billed. You eat the labor cost.

The math for event planning owners

Cut AR by 80% on recurring revenue

Auto-charge saved cards for recurring service contracts. Failed payments auto-retry + email customer. The chasing-payments task disappears.

<24h

AR cycle (recurring)

70%+

Failed payments recovered

5-8h/wk

Hours saved chasing

Based on typical event planning operations. Your numbers may vary.

Event Planning Billing Software CRM questions

Yes. Planner fee = your income. Vendor pass-through = pass-through (with optional markup). Each tracks separately for clean accounting.
Monthly auto-charge on signup anniversary with smart retry on failure. Member portal lets client update card any time. Saves long-term retainer relationships.
Time-tracking on the event WO captures actual hours. Overtime above contracted hours auto-bills at the contracted overtime rate. No surprise labor losses.

Try Event Planning Billing Software free

7 days to test the full platform with your real event planning workflow. No credit card.

Start Free Trial