Juggling 10 monthly retainers across different billing dates using spreadsheets was a full-time job in itself. Here's how a copywriter got his invoicing on autopilot.
Marcus T. writes for SaaS companies — product pages, email sequences, onboarding copy, blog posts. He's been doing it for six years and built a roster of 10 retainer clients who pay him monthly for a set volume of work.
From the outside, 10 long-term clients sounds like a dream. From the inside, it felt like a billing nightmare.
Every client had a different retainer start date. Some paid on the 1st. Some on the 15th. One client had a quirky billing cycle tied to their own invoicing quarter. Marcus was managing it all in a Google Sheet — a color-coded, formula-heavy monstrosity he'd built up over three years.
"I had a tab for each client, a master tab, and a calendar I checked every morning to see who needed an invoice that day," he says. "If I had a busy week and forgot to check, I'd miss an invoice. Then I'd have to chase payment a month late."
He missed two invoices in one quarter — losing $2,800 in revenue he had to write off because the client's accounting had already closed the period.
Marcus found Builtomate after searching for "recurring invoice automation for freelancers." The recurring invoice feature let him set a billing frequency (monthly), a start date, and a fixed amount per client — then forget about it.
"I set up all 10 clients in about an hour. Each one has their own recurring schedule. Builtomate generates the invoice automatically and I just review and send."
Marcus's monthly routine now takes 20 minutes instead of 3 hours. At the start of each week, Builtomate surfaces any invoices due that week. He reviews the auto-generated invoice, adds any scope-creep notes, and hits send.
The client portal feature means clients can also view their invoice history themselves — so Marcus no longer gets the "can you resend April's invoice?" emails that used to eat up 20 minutes each.
For new clients, Marcus sets up the recurring invoice before the first project is even finished. By the time the project wraps, billing is already automated.
Since switching to Builtomate, Marcus has invoiced 10 clients across 14 months without missing a single payment. Total billed: $186,000. Late payments: zero.
"It sounds dramatic but I genuinely don't think about invoicing anymore," he says. "It just happens. I spend that time writing instead."
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