For agencies and studios
Contracts turn into invoices on schedule. Contractors get paid in one batch
Northwind Studio runs eight clients, three monthly contracts and a dozen contractors on Orla.
From signed contract to money received
A statement of work becomes the schedule, the invoice goes out on its day, and the book knows who owes and what the next step is.
Invoices, links and cards in depth →A client signs a contract with a monthly fee and three milestones. Who remembers to invoice on the first, and who checks the milestone was billed?
INV-0019Harbour Labs4,800Sent
INV-0010Vela StudioAug 109,800Overdue
INV-0017Harbour Labs4,800Paid
INV-0016Kestrel Foods6,000Paid
Who owes, one row per client, with one next step and its reason. A client's reply to the invoice mail goes to your billing email, not into a void.
One client chat, whichever company bills
One chat serves both of your companies with that client, and their reply to an invoice reaches your billing inbox.
The Slack app →The client talks to you in one Telegram group, and you invoice them from two companies. Whose invoice is this, which company hears the reply, and can you write to their phone first?
Contractors paid under a rule, margin per client
A dozen contractors paid from your own bank under an approval rule, a card with a ceiling, and profit by client.
Payments and approvals in depth →A contractor's payout is prepared on the first of the month. Above the threshold it waits for a second signature, nobody who signs pays themselves, and the last press happens in your own bank.
ProjectInOutNetMargin
Kestrel app9,60035%
Vela rebrand8,60047%
Harbour Labs site17,50036%
One row opens one panel: category, counterparty, project, and every paper attached to the row.
Tools and travel
•••• 2093
FrozenOrlaVirtual
4512 •••• •••• 4417
Ads and hostingSam AdeyemiExpires09/29
Virtual cards from one prepaid balance, Visa or Mastercard picked when the card is issued, topped up in USDT or USDC when the balance runs low.
💻 Software & subscriptionsOver by $214118%Over
🏢 Studio rent100%Inside
✈️ Travel84%Inside
📣 Marketing & advertising56%Inside
Monthly limits per category, what is left of each, what slipped past.
The month, closed for the accountant
Missing receipts asked of whoever paid, then statements, a journal and one archive.
Reports and tax in depth →The accountant wants the month by the fifth: every account, every receipt, and nothing still waiting for a second signature.
The assistant
Ask it who is late, then press Send it
The composer reads the same rows the studio sees and answers with a card that does one thing.
The assistant in full →- Reading open invoices
- Reading the reminders sent
Three clients, 31,200 in all. Acme is 45 days late and promised the 10th, which has passed; Corvid and Bluefin were never reminded.
What it takes on
- Who is overdue, and what next
- One line per client: how late the oldest invoice is, the reminders sent, what they promised, and one next step with its reason. Write it down and Send it are a press each.
- The week's payments
- The signing queue, the calendar and the forecast as one order: which of the nine fit this week and which two are marked move, with the day money is next expected.
- The investor update
- KPI, cash flow, top clients, MRR and runway for the month, with the three moves that mattered explained.
Connections
Stripe in, your own bank out
Clients pay through your own Stripe or by transfer; contractors are paid from your bank, by PayPal or in stablecoins.
- Stripe
- Telegram
- Slack
- PayPal
- Revolut
- Airwallex
- Mercury
- Slash
Who does what
Finance prepares, the founder signs
- Founder
- Signs the batch on the first and reads profit by client.
- Account manager
- Talks to the client in one chat for both companies, writes to their phone first when it matters, and sees who owes and what the next step is.
- Office manager
- Forwards the contract and the supplier bills, keeps the address book, and raises the quote.
- Finance lead
- Prepares the batch and releases it in the bank, asks the team for the missing receipts, closes the month.
- Accountant
- Receives the month as a zip and a journal, and can open the closed period to read it.
Control and trust
Who may pay a contractor
- The key is the only lock
- A role is only a starting set: each action that changes the book asks for its own key, in the app and in the Telegram and Slack bots alike. Fine-grained keys come with the team plans.
- Signing rules
- A threshold, the number of signatures, address book only, a monthly allowance per person.
- Trusted payees
- A payee is marked trusted by an owner or admin; changing its rails takes the trust away.
- Paper
- A document becomes a bill to pay or the receipt on a payment; a whole sort run comes undone together.
Questions
The questions that come first
Can a monthly fee be invoiced without a contract file?
Yes. A recurring invoice runs on its own schedule with reminders. The contract is the door that fills the schedule from the signed terms, so nobody retypes them.
We run two companies and share one client. Do they need two chats?
No. The second company mints its own code on its own contact card and pastes it into the chat the first already connected. Each company's invoices arrive under its own name, a question from the client is passed on with one button per company, and in your private chat "how much does Acme owe us across both companies" answers with one row per book, never added up. Sharing a chat is being rolled out.
Where does the client's reply to an invoice mail go?
To the billing email printed on the document, or else to the person who made it, or the space owner. The subject names you, and the From line stays Orla on purpose, so a mail about money cannot pretend to come from someone else.
Can Orla send a contractor's payout from our bank on its own?
No. Revolut Business, Airwallex and Mercury end with a person inside the bank: a draft, a draft batch, a request in Mercury's approval queue under a token that cannot send money. Slash has no drafts, so there a person presses Send via Slash in Orla after the quorum.
Do contractors need an Orla account to be paid?
No. A contractor is a contact with rails: a bank account, a Revolut or PayPal handle, or a wallet address. The batch pays the contacts; only the people who sign need a seat.
Does the accountant need to log in?
Not to receive the month. The month leaves as a zip archive, a journal CSV and each account's feed for QuickBooks Online and Xero. An accountant seat is a read-only door into the closed period for those who want to look at the rows themselves.
See it on your own books
Thirty minutes: we connect an account, drop a real bill in, and close a month together.