# Contracts turn into invoices on schedule. Contractors get paid in one batch URL: https://www.orla.finance/en/for/agencies Markdown twin of that page. Append `.md` to any Orla page URL to get one. Northwind Studio runs eight clients, three monthly contracts and a dozen contractors on Orla. #### Contracts and schedules 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? - The assistant reads the signed file; its monthly fee and milestones become the schedule. - Not billed yet is shown per contract; an addendum is accepted into the schedule; a quote or an order is raised from a framework agreement without retyping the terms. - Rate cards price by unit or by order; a changed file is read again on its own. #### Invoices, quotes, and who owes what next Which client is overdue, who promised to pay and did not, and when the client answers the invoice mail, whose inbox does the reply land in? - Four figures as filters: owed, overdue, received this month, paid without an invoice; each one opens its own list. - Who owes, one row per client and not per invoice: how much, how late the oldest is, how many reminders went and when the last one did, whether they answered, the day they promised, and one next step with its reason: nobody has reminded them, they promised and the day has passed, three reminders and silence so it is time to phone. The step is counted by Orla, not by a model. - Two presses under it. Write it down records the promised day. Send it sends the same reminder the schedule would, with the pay link, and refuses when the client asked not to be written to, already got several today, or has no address. - The invoice mail, its reminders, the receipt and the quote mail name you in the subject ("Invoice INV-7 from Acme"), and the client's Reply goes to the billing email printed on the document, or else to the person who made it. The From line stays Orla on purpose, so a mail about money cannot pretend to come from someone else. - Recurring invoices, reminders, and an invoice that marks itself paid when money lands. - Paid by card via your Stripe, by transfer or in stablecoins; a quote becomes the invoice. - A credit note corrects a sent invoice as a second document, never an edit. - A rule can speak at the moment money reaches the book: "Acme paid 4,000, thirty per cent of it is 1,200, move it to Tax". It moves nothing and books nothing. #### One client chat, even when two of your companies work with them 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? - A Telegram group or a Slack channel is bound to one client; the bot asks before it binds, so the team's own chat never turns into one by mistake. - One chat, two companies: when two of your spaces work with the same client, the second mints its own code on its own contact card and pastes it into the chat the first already connected. Each company delivers its own invoices, confirmations and reminders there, /invoices lists the open ones under each company's name, and the buttons under an invoice always act on that invoice's own company. This is being rolled out. - A question or a file from the client cannot know which company it is for, so the bot asks with one button per company, named as the client knows them. An hour without a press passes it to every company, marked as sent to every company in the chat. The first company is told the moment the second connects, and may disconnect. - In your own private chat with the bot, or in the Slack DM, a message may name the book: "in Alpha, how much is owed". It applies to that one message, the answer and every card under it start with the book's name, and the rights checked are those of the book named. Two books that fit get a question back, never a guess. - One client across your books: "how much does Acme owe us across both companies" answers with one row per space, the open invoices by currency and how the contact was matched. The rows are never added up: each is its own company in its own currency. - Writing to the client first, from your own number: on a contact reached on a phone channel such as WhatsApp or SMS, who has not asked to stop, the card has a Write to the client box, and what is typed goes from your own line. Orla never sends from a shared number. The reply lands on the contact's card and in your team's chat with buttons built from that contact's open invoices, and no model reads the client's words. A client who replies STOP closes the channel at once. This is being rolled out, for business spaces on the paid plans. - The invoice arrives in the client's chat with its number, amount, due date and pay link; reminders follow the same way, before the due date and after it. - What the client writes is carried to your channel as their words; every file they drop is filed under their contact without anyone pressing anything. - A client's buttons say paid or ask for time: neither moves the invoice; your channel gets the request with the button that does it. #### Contractors paid under a signing rule 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. - A queue for signature with an approval threshold and the number of signatures it takes; the person who prepared a payment never signs it themselves. - The rule checks the batch total, so it cannot be dodged by slicing. - Fiat leaves from your own bank account. Revolut Business holds a draft a person approves inside the bank; Airwallex a draft batch per currency that a person submits there; Mercury a request in its approval queue, under a token with no Send Money right. Slash has no drafts, so there a person with the right to release payments presses Send via Slash in Orla after the quorum, and a PayPal payout is sent by a press the same way. Mercury, Airwallex and Slash are being switched on space by space. - Ask what is paid this week and whether it all fits: the signing queue, the dated obligations and the cash forecast become one order, each line reads fits or move, and a line to move names the day money is expected on that account. The condition is said beside the answer ("it fits if Acme pays on the 15th"), and the card only moves a payment later, never earlier. - How much is really free: free on the accounts you can send from, committed to this week's payments, and what is left, per currency. - Before a supplier's or a contractor's bill is paid, the book looks for the one it already has: the same number written another way, the same amount within ninety days, or money that already left to that payee. A person says duplicate or different bill, and both papers stay. - Amend a payment after approval but before the money leaves. - Batch payouts, on the plans that carry them: up to 200 per batch, CSV preview, duplicate warning, autosave, and a template for the next one. #### Profit by client Is the Harbour Labs contract still worth it once the contractors, the ad spend and every tool subscription are counted against it? - One row opens one panel: category, counterparty, project, and every paper attached to the row. - The Profit and Loss tree splits every category by project, six months side by side, and every figure in it opens into the rows it was made of. - How dependent the studio is on one client, from what actually arrived over twelve months: the largest client's share, how many clients make eighty percent, and what a month loses if the largest leaves. - A report is described in words and saved as a question, and it runs again each time it is opened. Where routines are switched on, a saved question goes out on a schedule: what is burning, every Monday at nine, to your own Telegram or by mail. - Published by link as a frozen snapshot that expires; the team's thread stays inside. #### Cards for tools and ads Figma, the ad accounts, a stock library: who spends what this month, and why did Sam's card pay the same invoice twice? - 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. - A card per person with a ceiling, freeze and block; the issuer's history is checked against what you allocated, so a stray charge shows up the same day. - Refunds are answered in the books on their own. #### Tools and rent against a budget Subscriptions grow with every hire and the studio's rent is the biggest line. What may the month spend, and who hears before it is gone? - Monthly limits per category, what is left of each, what slipped past. - A budget watch tells the team before the limit, not after. - Unspent budget rolls into next month; the spend breaks down per team member. #### The month to the accountant The accountant wants the month by the fifth: every account, every receipt, and nothing still waiting for a second signature. - A closing checklist with a door into each list: rows without a category, rows without an account code, rows without paper, payments without a quorum, and every invoice still unpaid at the close. - Rows without paper are asked of whoever paid, from the receipts line of the close checklist, up to fifty rows a send. The teammate finds them under Asked of me, or presses Attach a receipt under the ask in Telegram or Slack, picks the expense and sends the photo. The row closes itself the moment a file arrives by any door, reminders go on the third and the seventh morning, and asking costs nothing on any plan. - A photo from someone with open asks is first asked which expense it belongs to, so it does not become a second copy of a row already in the book. - A zip archive, a journal CSV, and each account's feed for QuickBooks Online and Xero. - Review, Close, Reopen with a reason; what changed after the export is visible. - A closed month is read-only at every door, and the assistant can never reopen one; the archive says who sorted 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. #### 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. - 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. #### 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. #### 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 ##### 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.