Commercial handoff
Keep accepted proposals, contract terms and onboarding requirements aligned.
Use case
Invoicing software for web design studios
Web design billing follows decisions about scope, content, revisions and launch readiness. ABH can preserve the commercial and work records while you manage design delivery in your existing tools.
Product capabilities reviewed against the ABH truth sheet on 14 October 2026. Any arithmetic examples are fictional, in USD and exclude taxes. Operational guidance only.
Short answer
On Starter and Pro, use proposals, contract templates and onboarding checklists to establish the engagement. Create deposit and milestone invoices manually, track delivery time by phase and record receipts from your external payment arrangement.
Use ABH for the work and invoice record. Receive client payments through your own external arrangement and record them manually.
Proposal that clients can accept online
A web design proposal should identify the pages or deliverables, content responsibilities, revision allowance and intended billing events. Separate optional work from the base scope. State what must be ready before the next phase begins, including access and client-supplied materials, so the commercial record does not imply the studio can start without those inputs.
ABH Starter and Pro support proposals that recipients can accept or decline through a public link. A proposal can be converted to an invoice or project. Conversion does not validate every scope detail or create an automated milestone schedule. Use the client onboarding checklist to connect the accepted commercial terms with the information delivery needs before design begins.
E-sign contract from a template
Use an appropriate contract template and review it for the engagement rather than assuming every website has the same terms. Make responsibilities, revision boundaries and the billing basis consistent with the proposal. Resolve mismatched wording before sending the contract. Decisions about legal terms belong with the studio and its adviser; the software does not provide legal advice.
Starter and Pro include contract templates and public e-signature links. Keep the signed agreement distinct from the design team's review of an individual mockup or page. Signing a contract in ABH is not a creative approval portal and does not demonstrate that a client has approved a launch. The commercial record tells you what was agreed; your delivery record still needs to explain what happened.
Deposit and milestone invoices
Choose billing events that can be evidenced: an agreed start deposit, completion of a specified design phase or another accepted milestone. Prepare each invoice with the correct service description and due date. The deposit and milestone guide explains how to distinguish an invoice trigger from the agency's internal estimate of progress.
ABH supports invoice statuses, PDFs and a public invoice link. Milestone invoices are prepared manually; there is no scheduled invoice engine or automatic charge when a task is completed. Check earlier invoices before issuing the next one so the same fee is not billed twice. Clients pay using your external arrangement, and the studio verifies receipts independently of any project-status update.
Change requests during the build
A request for another landing page, a new content module or additional revision rounds should be compared with the accepted scope. Record what changed, the effect on effort and the proposed billing treatment. Get the required agreement before doing chargeable extras, and keep the accepted change available to the person preparing the next invoice.
ABH's work and invoice records can carry context, but a dedicated creative change-approval portal is not available today. The scope change guide describes a manual decision process. Do not mistake a time entry approval for the client's acceptance of a new fee. When an agency correction is included in the original fee, preserve the effort without presenting it as an approved extra.
Time tracked per phase
Record time against the client, project and relevant tasks. Use task names and notes to distinguish discovery, layout, development coordination, testing and revisions. That makes the later review more useful than one undifferentiated entry called website work. Agree how contributors describe work without exposing passwords, unpublished material or internal comments to the billing recipient.
Single and bulk time entry approval support internal review before invoicing. For fixed fee work, actual hours help the studio improve estimates even when those hours are not charged separately. The effective hourly rate guide explains that calculation. ABH connects records; it does not automatically calculate project profit or tell you how much a particular revision should cost.
Record payments received elsewhere
When the deposit or milestone payment arrives through the studio's bank or another external method, reconcile its amount and reference with the invoice. An Owner records the receipt manually using exact amounts in ABH's append-only payment ledger. If only part of the invoice has arrived, preserve that distinction instead of marking the entire milestone fee as settled.
ABH does not process client payments or take a transaction fee on them. A public invoice link gives the recipient a view and PDF, not a checkout or escrow service. Keep the payment event separate from the delivery event: a client can pay before a phase is complete, and a completed phase can still have an open balance under the agreed terms.
What ABH does not do for design studios
Design file delivery, hosting billing and a client approvals portal are not available today. Continue using your established tools for mockups, file exchange, hosting and launch checks. ABH Starter and Pro add a lead pipeline, onboarding checklists and email templates for the commercial handoff, but those features do not replace the decisions needed to approve a design or release a site.
If that boundary fits, compare the small agency setup with this milestone workflow and review pricing for current plan details. The Bonsai comparison provides another billing-tool perspective without promising design collaboration inside ABH. Start with one engagement's proposal, signed terms, work records and invoice sequence before adopting the process across the studio.
At a glance
Fit for this workflow
Phase review
Log discovery, design and revision effort against the project tasks.
Manual milestone billing
Issue an invoice when the agreed event occurs and reconcile the external receipt separately.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can the client approve designs in ABH?
A design approvals portal is not available today. Public proposal acceptance and contract signing are separate commercial actions.
Are milestone invoices automatic?
No. Prepare each invoice manually using the billing event agreed with the client.
Which plan includes proposals and contracts?
Starter and Pro include proposals, e-sign contracts and onboarding checklists. See pricing for current limits.
Related
Keep exploring
Review the workflow before you choose.
Use ABH for the work and invoice record. Receive client payments through your own external arrangement and record them manually.