Your developers are billing less than they’re delivering.
Software agencies lose thousands in unbilled hours every month — hours spent on bugs, scope changes, support, and internal meetings that never make it to the invoice. FlowQi connects every hour your team works to the right project, the right client, and the right invoice line.
Hours go in. Revenue doesn't come out.
We finished a project 3 weeks late and 40 hours over budget. Nobody saw it coming because nobody was tracking against the scope.
Our developers work 8 hours a day. We bill an average of 5.2. The other 2.8 hours go on Slack, internal fixes, and things nobody logged.
A client asked why the invoice was higher than expected. I couldn't explain it because our time entries were too vague to tell a clear story.
We run a support retainer for three clients. I have no idea whether any of them are profitable because I can't see hours per client per month.
Sprint planning takes two hours every Monday because nobody knows who has actual capacity. Everyone just guesses.
software agencies don't fail on technical skill. They fail because the work is invisible — hours not logged, scope not tracked, invoices sent on gut feel.
Built for dev teams that bill for what they build.
One platform for your projects, your developers, and your clients — from first sprint to final invoice.
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Ready to capture every billable hour your team delivers?
Try FlowQi freeThe business case in 60 seconds
For the CTO or engineering lead who needs to decide.
Stop losing dev hours to poor logging. Every hour your team works flows to the right project and the right invoice — automatically.
See planned vs actual per sprint, per developer, per client. Catch overruns while there's still time to act — not when the project is already over budget.
Track support hours against retainer budgets in real time. Know which retainer clients are profitable and which are eating your margin.
No migration project. No long setup. Most teams are fully running within days.
Plan the sprint. Track the hours. Invoice what was built.
Set hours and rates per project and developer
Every project gets a planned hour budget. Every developer gets a role and hourly rate. 120h across three developers, each at their own rate. Set it once — FlowQi tracks the rest.
Log hours per ticket — planned vs actual always visible
Developers log time directly on tasks. Open any sprint and instantly see: 68 of 80 hours used, €6.460 of €7.600 consumed, 12 hours remaining. No spreadsheet. No end-of-sprint surprise.
Invoice per sprint — every billable hour accounted for
FlowQi turns every logged billable entry into an invoice line: developer, task, hours, rate, total. Fully itemized per person. Clients see exactly what was built and by whom.
software agencies that changed how they bill
Tracking time in Jira, invoicing manually in Excel. Hours were consistently underreported because developers logged at end of week from memory. Invoice disputes were common.
- Average billable hours per developer increased by 18%
- Invoice disputes dropped to near zero after switching to itemized billing
- Sprint invoicing time cut from 4 hours to 15 minutes
We were billing around 65% of hours worked. After FlowQi, we're at 83%. Same team, same hours — we just stopped losing them.
[Name], CTO · [Software Agency A]
Running 8 support retainers without visibility into hours per client. Discovered three retainer clients were consistently over-consuming with no additional billing.
- Identified 3 underpriced retainers in the first month
- Retainer profitability visible in real time per client
- Renegotiated two contracts based on actual hour data
I didn't know two of my biggest retainer clients were actually losing me money. Now I see it every week and I can have the right conversation.
[Name], Director · [Software Agency B]
You're probably already using something. Here's the difference.
Most software agencies track time in one tool and invoice in another — with a manual step in between that loses hours and context.
| Feature | Jira + spreadsheet | Harvest + project tool | FlowQi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time tracking per ticket/task | Jira only, no billing link | Good tracking, separate tool | Per task, per dev, per project |
| Planned vs actual hours | Story points only, no hours | Hours only, no budget link | Live — budget vs logged per sprint |
| Hours → invoice lines | Manual rebuild in Excel | Export only, manual invoice | One click — entries become line items |
| Per-developer billing rates | Not supported | Single rate only | Different rate per developer/role |
| Support retainer tracking | Not supported | Hours only, no retainer budget | Retainer budget vs hours in real time |
| Client & project management | Projects only, no CRM | Not included | Clients, projects, and billing connected |
| Developer capacity planning | No capacity view | Not available | See who has room before the sprint |
| Scope change tracking | Manual, not linked to billing | Not supported | Flag changes, link to extra billing |
| Setup time | Fast, two tools to sync | Fast, but fragmented | Running in under a week |
Built for software agencies that ship real work
Encrypted in transit and at rest. Role-based access per client and project. Never used to train external AI models — important when handling client IP and project data.
Your project and billing data is always available. No surprises on invoice day.
Fully exportable at any time. No vendor lock-in.
Developers see tasks and time. Managers see capacity and budgets. Clients see only what you share.
Connects with your dev and billing stack
FlowQi integrates with the tools dev teams already use for communication and accounting.
Software agency — frequently asked questions
What is a software agency?
A software agency is a company that designs and builds custom software — web apps, mobile apps, platforms, integrations — for external clients. Unlike a product company (which builds and sells its own SaaS) or an in-house IT team (which serves one employer), a software agency works on a portfolio of client projects, billed by the hour, by sprint, by fixed price or on retainer. Typical team roles: developers, designers, product managers, QA, a tech lead and an account or delivery manager.
What is the difference between a software agency, a software house and a dev shop?
The terms overlap. 'Software house' and 'dev shop' are older labels for the same model: a company of engineers building custom software for clients. 'Software agency' is the modern term and usually implies a broader scope — strategy, UX, product design and engineering together — rather than pure code-for-hire. The operational challenge is the same: billable hours, fixed-price risk, scope creep and developer utilisation.
What services does a software agency typically offer?
Most software agencies offer a mix of: discovery and product strategy, UX and UI design, full-stack web and mobile development, platform integrations and APIs, DevOps and cloud setup, and ongoing maintenance or support retainers. Some specialise (fintech, health-tech, e-commerce); others are generalist. Revenue usually splits across new-build projects and recurring support contracts.
How do software agencies charge clients?
Four common models. Time and materials (hourly rate × hours worked, the most transparent but also the most admin-heavy). Fixed price per project (predictable for the client, risky for the agency if scope shifts). Sprint-based billing (flat fee per two-week sprint). Retainer (a fixed monthly hour bucket for ongoing support and maintenance). Most agencies combine at least two of these across their client base.
What are the biggest operational challenges for a software agency?
Three recur. (1) Billable utilisation — how many of a developer's paid hours actually get billed to a client. (2) Scope creep — small client requests that pile up between sprints and never make it onto an invoice. (3) Cash flow — projects get delivered weeks before invoices get paid, and payroll doesn't wait. Agencies that systemise time tracking, sprint scoping and invoicing in one connected tool solve all three at once.
What tools do software agencies use to run the business?
Typical stack: Jira or Linear for issue tracking, Slack for comms, GitHub or GitLab for code, Figma for design. For the business side — CRM, developer time tracking, sprint budgets, client invoicing and capacity planning — software agencies increasingly consolidate into a single delivery platform like FlowQi, instead of stitching Toggl, HubSpot, a spreadsheet and Moneybird together.
How do software agencies track billable hours fairly?
Developers log time against a ticket or task, tagged billable or non-billable, and linked to a sprint or project. Good agencies review timesheets weekly, approve them in under five minutes per person, and roll approved hours straight onto the client invoice — so there's no memory gap between 'I worked on that Tuesday' and 'that got billed.' Tools that force timesheet submission at sprint close-out (instead of month-end) recover the most leaked revenue.
How does a software agency scale without losing margin?
Margin holds when three things are visible in real time: utilisation per developer (are we under- or over-staffed?), budget burn per project (are we ahead or behind?), and profitability per client (which clients actually pay off?). Agencies that see this data live — not at month-end — can hire, fire clients and re-price work while it still matters. That's the core of why software agencies adopt a unified delivery platform instead of running on five disconnected tools.
Ready to bill every hour your team delivers?
Try FlowQi free for 14 days — no credit card, no setup fee, no risk.