What the treatment bought
One shoot. One edit. Two rounds. $16,000. Overtime was half a day, $1,400. The third cut was $1,600. Together that is $3,000, 19% of the quote. Travel was $720 on a card, and it is an expense, not the fee.
The producer knew which of those were in the quote. The invoice, typed after the drive home, did not.
One day is enough
$3,000 is inside the $1,000 to $5,000 a month that 57% of agencies leave unbilled. 78% rarely or only sometimes charge for it. A treatment does not need twelve quiet months. One long day is already the ordinary leak.
A client who asks for one more version rarely opens the treatment again. The editor does the version. The fee does not move.
The day on the job
The job holds the statement of work, the days, the people, and the expenses. Overtime and the third cut are change orders, $1,400 and $1,600. Travel stays a $720 expense, in the travel category, and off the fee. A rejected receipt never reaches the invoice. The invoice is drafted from the signed treatment, those two signed lines, and the approved expense.
The client sees it on a link. They do not pay inside the product, and they do not get a login. Crew who can log in are members. Crew who only get paid are not seats.
Margin risk snapshot
The treatment was $16,000. The day was not.
One shoot, one edit, two rounds. The day ran long, and a third cut shipped. Travel was a card export. The invoice was the treatment. The dollars are a worked example.
What the job contained
One job
- Treatment$16,000
Signed
- Overtime$1,400
Half a day, not in the quote
- Third cut$1,600
Not in the two rounds
- Travel$720
Expense, not the fee
Sent$16,000
Left off$3,000
Fee if the day is signed$19,000
Bars are scaled to the $16,000 treatment. Overtime plus the third cut is $3,000, 19% of the quote. Travel stays $720 beside the fee.
One job
$3,000
left off this shoot. Inside the band 57% of agencies already report each month.
- Share of this treatment
- 19%
- Agencies in the $1,000–$5,000 band
- 57%
- Rarely or sometimes charge
- 78%
Production shops are in the creative half of the same cash-flow study. A treatment does not need twelve quiet months. One long day is already the ordinary unbilled amount.
Where $3,000 sits
Share of agencies, by monthly amount left off the invoice
- $1,000–$5,000 a month · This day57%
- More than $5,000 a month30%
78% rarely or only sometimes charge for out-of-scope work. 1% bill all of it.
Sources
- Ignition. 2025 Agency Pricing & Cash Flow Report · 22 May 2025
- The Drum. Cash flow crunch: US agencies struggle to grow as late payments and scope creep bite · 2025
Unbilled bands and out-of-scope billing: Ignition, April 2025, 273 US agency leaders. 19% is arithmetic on $3,000 against the $16,000 treatment. The 1% figure: The Drum, citing that report. The dollars are an example.
Before and after
Turn the agency leak into an operating workflow.
The research above shows the financial risk. The product workflow is deliberately simple: connect the deal to delivery, watch utilization and budget while the work is live, approve the change, sign it, and invoice it.
Before
A deal is won in CRM, then delivery rebuilds the project plan by hand.
With Blinkdots
The proposal becomes a live job with scope, staffing, rates, and invoice rules attached.
Before
Over-servicing is invisible until utilization and budget reports are reviewed later.
With Blinkdots
Billable time, WIP, and scope risk stay visible while the work is still moving.
Before
Extra requests land in chat, meetings, or tickets and become invoice-day arguments.
With Blinkdots
AI drafts the change, an owner approves it, and the client signs before it becomes a line.
Rollout
Start with one active job, not a migration project.
- 01Import accounts, contacts, services, and rates.
- 02Start with one won deal or active job and its signed scope.
- 03Connect Slack, Teams, Jira, or Zapier only where the team already works.
- 04Approve the first change order and watch the invoice draft from the job record.
Seats and the voice line are on the pricing page. Clients are not seats. Book a demo to see the job on one record.
Questions
- How should a studio bill overtime and a third cut?
- As change orders on the job that started with the statement of work. In the example those lines are $1,400 and $1,600. Travel is a $720 expense on the same project. Rejected receipts stay off the invoice.
- Do clients get a portal for cuts and invoices?
- They get a PIN link, not a login. It shows the statement of work, signed change orders, and invoices. A change order to sign has its own link.
- Are freelance crew members seats?
- If they can log in, they are members. If they do not log in, they are not. Clients and signers are never seats.
