3 Functions of Accelo You Won’t Find Anywhere Else

You have a lot of choices for how to manage your client work. In the search for an appropriate tech stack, you’re probably comparing platforms on a feature-by-feature basis. But that may not be the best way to finalize your decision.

When you only seek out the functionality you’re aware of, you may overlook unique capabilities that could prove transformative for your business.

If you’re ready to cut back on the number of logins your team needs and smooth out the connection between each stage of client interaction, Accelo could have just what you need — and then some.

In the coming sections, we’ll review how your team can use Accelo to:

• Create and manage retainers for your all-important recurring client work
• Convert accepted quotes into projects in one click
• Save countless hours on accounting using automated bulk billing

1. Easy Retainer Management

In the world of client-based business, recurring work is gold. Yet, as nice as a steady stream of income is, billing repeat clients can be confusing and time-consuming.

CFO.com reports that 65% of companies that launch a recurring revenue product or service encounter operational problems, and 48% face accounting and reporting challenges with this type of client relationship.

Accelo’s Retainers product provides a solution.

Retainers allows you to:

• Templatize and automatically assign recurring tasks
• Customize workflows, statuses and automation
• Track how much time your employees have dedicated to a given client or project
• Roll additional time or budget over to — or pull them from — an upcoming period

BONUS: Connect Retainers to Projects and/or Tickets to show your team’s billable time on invoices for recurring work.

WHY IT’S IMPACTFUL:
Having a reliable, hands-off method for accurate retainer management frees up time to focus on building strong relationships with clients who’ve hired you for one-off projects, ideally converting them into ongoing work. Additional periodic revenue will bring nothing but great news, with no worry about how your team will handle the associated admin tasks.

READ NEXT: Why Retainer-Based Services Are the Best Option for You and Your Clients

2. Sales Quotes That Convert to Projects

Most professional services businesses use some version of a CRM to manage contacts and record interactions with new opportunities. However, a simple database is not sufficient to support the complete sales process — arguably your most critical area of business.

Because Accelo connects the entire sales process to quote and project creation, it’s much more powerful than a basic CRM.

With Accelo’s Sales product, you can:

• Create estimates and tentative project plans that help sales align with other internal teams and prospects
• View all email communication with a prospect in your Accelo feed — called the Stream
• Send a custom quote, see when a prospect views it and be automatically notified of its acceptance via the client portal
• Turn an accepted quote into a project with the click of a button

WHY IT’S IMPACTFUL:
Ensuring your team delivers on everything promised in the sales phase is essential. Accelo’s quote-to-project conversion feature minimizes the risk of oversight in the handoff between sales and account management. Instead of having to manually convert a new client’s data, your team will see information collected in the sales process — including budget, tasks, assignees and start date — show up automatically in the new project. Not to mention, it saves a ton of time!

3. Bulk Client Billing

A 2022 study by PYMNTS and Beanworks showed that 49% of invoices produced by U.S. businesses become overdue.

Despite the unreliable speed of payments, monthly invoicing requires a significant amount of time and effort for most businesses. Imagine saving your bookkeeper (or yourself!) all the hassle of manual invoice creation and upping the chances that your clients will pay on time with automatic notifications. Both can happen with Accelo.

Using Accelo’s company invoice tool, you can:

• Consolidate all billable work (complete or upcoming) logged in the Projects, Tickets and Retainers products
• Auto-generate accurate client invoices at the company level using customizable, predetermined invoice templates
• Sync real-time invoice activity when you integrate with accounting software like Xero and QuickBooks
• Notify your clients — and your team — about overdue invoices

WHY IT’S IMPACTFUL:
Cash flow is everything for small and medium-sized businesses, and access to cash depends on your clients’ timeliness with payments. They’ll be more likely to pay promptly when they receive clear, detailed invoices showing what you’re doing for them and how much time it’s taking.

Accelo Is a Unique Client Work Management Platform

When you start digging into the details of what it takes to master retainer management, quote creation and client billing, Accelo stands out amongst professional services software. Connecting these critical functions works best when using one end-to-end solution, not multiple platforms that don’t speak the same language.

Find out why our clients rave about all of the above with a free trial.

About the Author

Chelsea Williams is Senior Copywriter at Accelo, where she shares unique insights with service professionals and tells user stories via blogs, eBooks, industry reports and more. She has over 15 years of B2B and B2C writing experience — primarily in tech, sales, education and healthcare. Chelsea is an AWAI-certified Master Copywriter trained in brand storytelling and microcopy.