You worked 38 hours for a client last month. Did you bill all 38?

Where service revenue leaks

A manufacturer can count what is on the shelf. A consultant, an agency or a professional firm sells time, and time has no shelf. Three leaks follow. Hours are worked and never billed. The client deducts TDS and nobody records it, so your numbers drift from their certificate. The retainer invoice goes out on the 14th because the partner was travelling.

Each leak is small. Together they are the gap between the revenue you earned and the revenue you can show. The fix is not a bigger tool. It is a record that starts when the work starts, not when the invoice is typed.

A month with one client

A consultant opens a job card for a manufacturing client: client, matter ("vendor audit, plant 2"), rate ₹4,500 an hour. Through the month, hours go into the timesheet from the phone, after each visit. At month end you say: "Bill the vendor audit job."

The card says Not saved yet. You read it, tap Confirm, and the invoice is made. The job card links to the invoice it produced, so six months later "what did we bill for the plant 2 audit?" has a one-tap answer. Services are not treated as stock, so nothing odd appears in your inventory. The TDS rate depends on the section, and your client deducts it; your CA confirms the rate. GST on most professional services is 18%.

The TDS you are owed

When a client pays you ₹1,84,680 against a ₹2,01,780 invoice, the remaining ₹17,100 is not lost. It is a tax credit that sits with the government. AawazAI keeps a TDS receivable register by client PAN, which you can take as a PDF for your CA. At year end the question is not "where did ₹17,100 go?" but "does the client's certificate agree with our record?" That is the check that saves you a notice. Booking only the cash received, as many firms do, understates revenue and leaves the credit unrecorded.

Retainers that do not slip

An agency on a ₹1,50,000 monthly retainer should not depend on a calendar reminder. A recurring bill is set up once with its frequency and day, and when it is due it comes up for you to review, with ₹27,000 GST on top, so the client's finance team gets it on the same day each month. You send it on WhatsApp or as a PDF, and you press send. Approvals can sit in the middle if a partner must sign off before a large bill goes out.

Law and CA firms billing as businesses use the same structure: the matter is the job, the partner's hours are the timesheet, and a disbursement is a separate line.

What changes in your first week

• Day 1. Choose Services at sign-up. The menus show job cards and timesheets, not challans or stock.
• Day 2. Add your three biggest clients with their GSTIN and PAN. A GSTIN fills in the registered name.
• Days 3 to 5. Log hours on a live job and bill one end to end.
• Day 7. Set up the retainers, and give your CA a read-only login so the month-end pack needs no email chain.

Waiting costs you hours you will never get back to bill. Books are free in AawazAI; credits pay for AI chat, scans and portal calls only, per the pricing page. See how the GST documents and input tax credit fit in, or browse the business types.

Frequently asked questions