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Time, project budgets, team planning, and invoicing in one considered workspace for design studios.

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The sample studio is fictional. Nothing in it is emailed, invoiced or charged.

Northline StudioProjectsKIT-001 Kite brand identity

Illustrative sample

One project, four steps

Timer running

Logo system refinements

KIT-001 Kite brand identity · Round 4

Elapsed 01:24:36

Started again from recent work. Switching to another task stops this timer in the same step, so there is never more than one running.

Logged on KIT-001

  • Tom Lindqvist

    Senior designer

    75h

  • Ana Sousa

    Brand designer

    65h

  • Grace Whitfield

    Strategist

    40h
Hour budget180h of 400h

Labor cost at snapshotted rates: 180h at $90 an hour is $16,200.

Every entry keeps the cost rate in force when it was logged, so the 180h logged so far carry $16,200 of labor cost.

Who it is for

Built for the way studios actually work

Identity work on a fixed fee, product design by the hour, websites in phases, retainers that roll over, and the internal work that keeps a studio running. Each is modeled on its own terms, with its own budget, margin and billing rules.

  • Fixed fee

    Brand identity

    Fixed fees, included revision rounds and milestone billing. Rounds beyond the allowance are flagged before they turn into unpaid work.

  • Hourly with a cap

    Digital product

    Hourly engagements with a fee cap, reviewed task estimates and approvals by project, so the forecast reflects the work still ahead.

  • Phases and milestones

    Websites

    Design and build phases, change requests for added templates, and invoices from approved time or completed milestones.

  • RetainerStudio and Scale

    Ongoing creative retainers

    Monthly allowances with rollover caps and expiry, an overage rate, and a ledger that shows where every included hour went.

  • Internal

    The studio itself

    New business, the studio website and operations, tracked as internal projects and kept out of client margins.

Time tracking

Less remembering. More making.

A timer for the work in front of you, a week grid for what you remember later, and a clean submission at the end of the week. Accurate time, without a second job.

  • Recent work stays close

    Restart a timer on a project and task you used recently. Starting another stops the first, so only one ever runs.

  • Durations the way you type them

    90m, 1h 30m, 1:30 and 1.5h are all understood, and anything ambiguous shows how it was read before it is saved.

  • Calendar drafts, if you want them

    With an optional calendar connection set up by an admin, meetings appear as private drafts that only you can confirm.

  • A week that reaches the right people

    Each project’s hours go to its lead, and approved time is locked. Approvals are part of Studio and Scale.

More about time tracking

Timer running

Logo system refinements

KIT-001 Kite brand identity · Round 4

Elapsed 01:24:36

Recent work

  • Wordmark spacing study

    KIT-001 Kite brand identity

    2h 15m

  • Design QA with developers

    HAR-002 Harbor & Co website

    1h 30m

  • Appointment booking screens

    MER-003 Meridian patient app

    3h

Draft from a connected calendar

Only you

Kite round 4 review

10:00 to 11:00 · 1h · not saved until you confirm

Calendar drafts need an optional calendar connection. Without one, nothing is read from your calendar.

Tom Lindqvist · This week

Hours as h:mm

Sample week for Tom Lindqvist by project and day, in hours and minutes
ProjectMonTueWedThuFriTotal
KIT-001 Kite brand identity3:303:303:003:303:0016:30
HAR-002 Harbor & Co website2:002:002:302:001:3010:00
MER-003 Meridian patient app2:002:002:001:452:1510:00
INT-006 Studio operations0:30–0:300:300:302:00
Day total8:007:308:007:457:1538:30

38h 30m logged this week

Submitted for approval

Kite and Harbor & Co hours go to Priya Nair, Meridian to Leo Park and studio operations to Daniel Reyes.

Scope and margin

See the extra round before it becomes an expensive habit.

Each deliverable carries its included revision rounds. When work goes past the allowance, the project says so, shows what it is costing, and leaves the decision with you: absorb it, or price the new work as a change.

Revision rounds by deliverable

  • Logo system

    Identity exploration

    Round 4 of 3 included

    1 beyond the included rounds

  • Visual language

    Refinement

    Round 2 of 2 included

  • Brand guidelines

    Guidelines and handover

    Round 1 of 2 included

Priya NairInternal comment
Round 4 on the logo system came from the leadership review, not a miss on our side. The icon extension is genuinely new scope, so I have priced it separately.

CR-002 · Sent to Kite Mobility

Extended icon set and motion guidelines

Awaiting client
Fee
+$10,000
Effort
+45h
Cost
+$4,050
Schedule
+10 working days

Adds a 40-icon extension to the system and a motion guidelines chapter.

Projected margin

33.33%

Target 40% · 6.67 points below

  • Rounds counted, not remembered

    Time logged against each round shows exactly where the allowance went.

  • Changes with their own terms

    A change request carries its fee, hours, cost and schedule impact, and records the client’s decision.

  • Proposals stay proposals

    Committed totals change only when an accepted change is applied, and it can only be applied once.

  • A margin you can check

    Every forecast shows its calculation and the records behind it. There are no unexplained scores.

More about project profitability

Planning

A realistic week for everyone.

Capacity starts from each person’s working pattern, minus approved leave and studio holidays, counted once. Try a staffing change and see what it does to capacity and project cost before anything moves.

Week planner · Kite team

Plan to show

  • Tom Lindqvist

    Senior designer

    27.5h of 40h

    Kite17.5hMeridian10hKite motion15h, moving to Sam Ito

  • Ana Sousa

    Brand designer

    11h of 12h

    12h approved leave

    Kite7hFieldnote4h

  • Grace Whitfield

    Strategist

    30h of 40h

    Kite10hMeridian20h

  • Sam Ito

    Motion designer, freelance

    24h of 24h

    Fieldnote9hKite motion15h, proposed
Proposed, not applied

Move motion principles to Sam Ito

30h of Kite work moves from Tom Lindqvist at $90 an hour to Sam Ito at $70 an hour.

Effect of the proposed staffing change
MeasureLive planIf applied
Kite forecast cost-$600 over the remaining work$40,000$39,400
Projected marginTarget 40%33.33%34.33%
Tom Lindqvist, this week42.5h of 40h27.5h of 40h
Sam Ito, this week9h of 24h24h of 24h

Nothing in the live plan or the project forecast changes until the change is applied.

Leave and holidays, counted once

A studio holiday that falls inside approved leave is not subtracted twice, so capacity stays honest.

Confirmed, tentative and to hire

Bookings can be tentative, and placeholder roles stand in for people you have not hired yet.

Scenarios before commitments

Draft changes leave live bookings alone until they are applied. Planning is part of Studio and Scale.

More about resource planning

Invoicing and payments

From approved work to a clear invoice.

Choose what to bill from approved time, expenses, milestones and retainer periods. Each source can be billed once, the invoice is numbered when it is issued, and the balance reflects only payments that actually succeeded.

  • Billing readiness first

    Missing approvals, unassigned time and work not yet invoiced are listed before you draft.

  • Your studio on the page

    A branded preview and PDF with your details, your client’s details and their purchase order number.

  • Paid means paid

    Clients pay through your own Stripe account. A finished checkout page is not treated as payment; the invoice changes only when Stripe confirms it.

More about invoicing and payments

Billable sources for Kite Mobility

  • Milestone: Identity approved, selected

    Complete, ready to bill

    $30,000

  • Milestone: Guidelines delivered, not selected

    Planned, billable once complete

    $30,000

  • Expenses: 2 approved, excluded

    Not billable under this fixed fee

    $1,800
Selected to invoice$30,000

Payment status

  1. Issued, done

    INV-0004 is numbered, and its totals and line snapshots are locked.

  2. Sent to the client, done

    Accepted for delivery by the email provider. Delivery is confirmed separately.

  3. Deposit applied, done

    $15,000 received at signing, counted as cash once, when it arrived.

  4. Awaiting payment, pending

    $15,000 outstanding. The invoice is marked paid only when Stripe confirms a payment.

Northline Studio

214 Mercer Street, Floor 3, New York, NY 10012

Invoice

INV-0004

Partly paid
Bill to
Kite Mobility Inc.
88 Harbor Way, Oakland, CA 94607
PO number
KM-PO-2291
Terms
Net 30
Invoice lines
DescriptionAmount
Kite brand identity: Identity approved milestone (50% of fixed fee)$30,000.00
Total
$30,000.00
Deposit applied
-$15,000.00
Balance due
$15,000.00

The project overview

Scope, time, cost and cash, on one page.

The overview is where the work meets the numbers. Every figure states its basis and leads to the records behind it, and every risk comes with a reason and a next step.

Northline StudioProjectsKIT-001 Kite brand identity

Sample data

KIT-001 · Kite Mobility · Fixed fee · Lead Priya Nair

Kite brand identity

ActiveNeeds attention
Contract value
$60,000
Excluding tax · scope v1
Logged effort
180h
of 400h budget
Hour budget
45%
180h of 400h
Cost to finish
$22,000
220h remaining
Projected margin
33.33%
Target 40%
Next milestone
Guidelines delivered
$30,000

Project health

Each signal states its reason, calculation, the records behind it and a next step.

  • Needs attention

    Projected margin below target

    At the current forecast the project finishes at 33.33% against a target of 40%.

    ($60,000 revenue basis − $40,000 forecast cost) ÷ $60,000 = 33.33%

    Budget and forecastPrepare change request
  • Needs attention

    Revision allowance exceeded: Logo system

    Logo system is in round 4, beyond the 3 included rounds. This is not automatically chargeable; the contractual treatment needs review.

    1 extra round above the 3 included

    Time in extra roundsScope and roundsPrepare change request

Proposed change: CR-002

If CR-002 is accepted

Proposed figures are not committed until the client accepts and the change is applied.

Committed figures compared with the figures if CR-002 is accepted
MeasureCommittedIf accepted
Contract value$60,000$70,000
Forecast total cost$40,000$44,050
Projected profit$20,000$25,950
Projected margin33.33%37.07%

Even if accepted, the projected margin stays below the 40% target.

Billing

Net invoiced
$30,000
Cash collected
$15,000
Outstanding
$15,000

Invoiced, earned and collected are separate. A deposit counts as cash once, when received.

Imports

Bring your history with you.

Import clients, projects, people, tasks, time and expenses from CSV files, including Harvest-style exports. You map the columns, review the rows and run a dry run before anything is written.

  1. 1 Upload
  2. 2 Map columns
  3. 3 Match records
  4. 4 Formats
  5. 5 Preview
  6. 6 Dry run
  7. 7 Import
  8. 8 Results

What an import cannot do

  • A CSV file cannot recreate payment settlement, approval decisions or the audit trail of the original documents. Those stay in the system they came from.
  • People from your history are imported as archived names for attribution, with no login, no invitation and no paid seat.
  • Importing the same file twice is detected, and every record keeps its source and import batch.
  • An import can be undone only for records that have not been used or changed since.

Import time entries · Step 2 of 8: Map columns

time-entries-2026.csv
  1. 1Upload
  2. 2Map columns (current step)
  3. 3Match records
  4. 4Formats
  5. 5Preview
  6. 6Dry run
  7. 7Import
  8. 8Results
How each column in the sample file maps to a field
Column in the fileExampleBecomes
Date2026-09-14Work dateRead as year, month, day
ClientKite MobilityClientMatched to an existing client
ProjectKite brand identityProjectMatched to KIT-001
TaskLogo conceptsTaskCreated on import
Hours2.5DurationDecimal hours, read as 2h 30m
First name, Last nameOla BergPersonArchived name for attribution, no login or seat

Rows that need attention before the dry run

  • Row 18: The date 31/09/2026 does not exist. Check the date format chosen for this file.
  • Row 42: The project "Kite rebrand" has no match. Map it to an existing project or create it.

Pricing

Priced per internal seat. Client guests are free.

Plans differ in how much of the studio workflow they cover, not in how many clients or projects you can have. Pay monthly, or commit annually for a lower seat price.

Billing interval

Proposed pricing

These prices are a proposed configuration that is still awaiting review before launch, so they may change.

  • Core

    Time tracking and straightforward client billing.

    $12per internal seat per month

    Billed monthly, with no annual commitment.

    Start free trial

    Starts as a 14-day trial of Studio

    Includes

    • Timer and manual time entries
    • Weekly timesheets
    • Unlimited clients and projects
    • Fixed-fee projects and basic budgets
    • Invoices from tracked time, expenses and milestones

    And 2 more in the full comparison.

  • Studio

    For growing studios

    Full studio delivery and financial workflow.

    $24per internal seat per month

    Billed monthly, with no annual commitment.

    Start free trial

    14 days free, no card required

    Everything in Core, plus

    • Timesheet approvals
    • Revision rounds and change requests
    • Team planning, leave and utilization
    • What-if planning scenarios: one at a time
    • Cost rates, margin forecasts and project health

    And 5 more in the full comparison.

  • Scale

    Advanced planning and operational control.

    $36per internal seat per month

    Billed monthly, with no annual commitment.

    Start free trial

    Starts as a 14-day trial of Studio

    Planning a larger rollout? Talk to us

    Everything in Studio, plus

    • What-if planning scenarios: multiple
    • Audit log: expanded
    • Automation rules: advanced rules
    • Custom capability presets
    • API access
Compare plans, seats and billing in detail

Questions

Questions, answered plainly

How does it handle fixed-fee projects?
Set the fee, an hour or cost budget, a margin target and the included revision rounds for each deliverable. Logged time carries its cost rate, so the project shows actual cost, the cost to finish from reviewed estimates, and a projected margin against your target. Milestones can be invoiced as they are reached.
Can we run retainers?
Yes, on Studio and Scale. Set the fee, included hours, rollover cap and expiry, and an overage rate. Each period keeps a ledger of included, used, rolled over and expired hours, and a renewal cannot create a duplicate invoice.
Can our clients see their projects?
Client guests are free and see only what you share with them: client-facing projects, estimates, change requests and their own invoices. Internal costs, margins and internal comments are never sent to them. Client invoice access is included on every plan; the full project portal on Studio and Scale.
How do people sign in?
With their Google account. Every sign-in is verified on the server, and sessions are kept in a secure, HTTP-only cookie. There are no separate passwords to manage.
How do client payments work?
Each studio connects its own Stripe account, so clients pay you directly on a Stripe-hosted page and card details never reach Studioflow. An invoice is marked paid only when Stripe confirms the payment. Processing fees are set by Stripe in your account, and nothing is added on top.
Can we bring our history from another tool?
Yes, from CSV files, including Harvest-style exports. You map the columns, preview every row and run a dry run first. Payment settlement, approvals and original audit trails cannot be recreated from a CSV, and the importer says so. See how Studioflow compares with Harvest.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in the browser. The app is responsive, so people can log time, submit a week, approve work and review an invoice on a phone. There are no native mobile or desktop apps, and nothing tracks activity in the background.
What happens to our data?
Your workspace data belongs to your studio. Every request is checked on the server against your workspace, your role and the record itself, files are private and shared through short-lived links, and you can export your records. The privacy policy explains what is processed and by whom, and the security page lists the controls in place today.

A clearer picture of the work. A stronger studio.

14-day trial of Studio. No card required.

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