Fast billing in service companies: how Alibeez transforms your timesheets into cash without friction
For digital services companies (ESNs) and consulting firms, invoicing can sometimes be too slow. The result? Cash flow delays, recurring errors, lost margins and, often, avoidable tensions with clients.
Among the causes are incomplete timesheets, laborious manual approvals, and contracts that are poorly linked to projects. So how can digital services companies and consulting firms prevent the ‘hidden tax’ of slow invoicing? In this article, discover how fast billing allows digital services companies to regain control of their invoicing.
The problem with slow invoicing: the ‘hidden tax’
In digital services companies (ESN) and service providers, invoicing is based on a chain of interlinked actions, including time tracking, approvals, contractual rules and invoice generation ⇗. If one link in the chain weakens, the entire process slows down. Incomplete or inaccurate timesheets, scattered manual validations and late invoices create what could be called a ‘hidden tax’ with:
- cash flow delays;
- invoicing errors;
- eroded margins;
- unnecessary tensions with customers.
Furthermore, the structural complexity of digital services companies amplifies this phenomenon. Indeed, the multitude of projects, the diversity of clients and the variety of billing methods make errors inevitable. This is especially true when these elements are managed using Excel files or manual checks.
Invoices then become a reconstruction exercise involving cross-checking, verification and adjustment. This is a time-consuming task that ties up resources and delays cash collection. Ultimately, overall financial performance is weakened.
From operational disorder to the need for fast billing
Fast billing is not just about speeding up invoicing. It is primarily about creating a continuous and reliable flow between time entry, validation, invoicing and payment.
When commercial, staffing, project and financial data are scattered across separate systems, each step becomes a challenge. Teams waste time manually compiling hours worked, checking contract terms and conditions, monitoring expenses, etc. Ultimately, each additional delay extends the billing cycle and slows down cash flow.
Implementing fast billing therefore restores consistency and continuity in the data. It also means re-evaluating the role of everyone involved, from the consultant who records their time to the finance department that manages cash flow.
Convert your working hours into cash with Alibeez
The Alibeez model is based on a central principle: eliminating friction between operations and finance by unifying data and processes. Alibeez’s mission? To put an end to energy and value loss. The idea is to create a continuous, automated flow.
Alibeez acts as a single centre of gravity for the entire company. Employees, projects, contracts, time entries and financial information are all linked on the same platform. Everything is connected, from the first sales opportunity to the last invoice paid.
This unified architecture automatically links the hours entered to the right project, with the right rate and according to the right contractual conditions. No more re-entering data, omissions or last-minute adjustments. Everything that is validated becomes immediately billable.
In other words, Alibeez converts your working hours into cash without friction, without loss of information and without waiting for the end of the month.
Principle 1: Ensure intuitive time entry for consultants
The experience begins with smooth, guided time entry. In Alibeez’s vision, consultants are not administrative ‘reporters’: they are the ones who know the truth about the work that has been done. The tool must therefore assist them, not slow them down.
The Alibeez data entry interface is predictive and user-friendly, with preconfigured projects, predefined tasks and a clear interface. As Pascal points out, ‘It’s the consultant who knows.’ The aim is to make data entry almost automatic so that it becomes a natural part of the daily routine.
Principle 2: Automate validations and invoicing rules
Once the times have been entered, the Alibeez system orchestrates the appropriate validations.
Managers receive targeted alerts and can immediately see any anomalies or delays. But above all, structural controls (active projects, day limits, availability, etc.) are automated as soon as the data is entered.
On the invoicing side, Alibeez models each contractual rule: average daily rate (ADR), flat rate, recurrence, milestones, or any other specific pricing method. Approved times are then directly translated into contractually compliant invoice amounts without manual copying or reprocessing. Invoicing becomes a natural consequence of the work performed.
Principle 3: Automatically generate invoices
The magic of fast billing really works here: at the end of the period, invoices are generated automatically based on validated times, contracts and associated expenses. No more risks of oversights or incorrect allocations. The invoice is clean, justified and consistent.
The system can issue invoices in electronic format, integrate them into accounting tools and comply with local requirements (legal notices, mandatory electronic invoicing, etc.). The result? Accurate invoices, sent faster and paid sooner.
Principle 4: Ensure real-time monitoring of cash flow and indicators
Automating invoicing makes perfect sense when it feeds into real-time management. Thanks to Alibeez, managers and finance teams have a dynamic overview of invoice status, utilisation rates, margins and cash generated by project or client.
This transparency transforms the relationship between teams: departments now understand the impact of timesheet quality on overall financial performance. Fast billing makes the direct link between work, value and cash visible, which could otherwise be lost in administrative delays.
Invoicing in digital services companies with fast billing: eliminate errors, speed up payment, free up finances
In Pascal’s words, this automated chain does the job: fewer errors, fewer disputes, and ultimately less time spent by the finance department correcting what should have been right from the start. Teams can focus on analysis, management and anticipation, while sales representatives and managers have a reliable view of future revenues and margins.
Among the accounting and operational benefits are the following:
- drastic reduction in customer adjustments and disputes;
- time savings for finance teams, who can shift their focus from corrective measures to analysis;
- reliable visibility for managers and salespeople on future revenues.
- improved working capital requirements (WCR) and cash flow;
- increased employee satisfaction, as they no longer have to ‘hunt’ for missing timesheets.
The company manages a continuous flow between work performed and value received.
Fast billing in companies is not a technological utopia. It is a strategic element. A model where data, operational rigour and ease of use restore the principle that every hour worked must generate cash without friction.