What was signed
Eight templates. One integration. $36,000. The second integration was 30 hours at $160, which is $4,800. It lived as a ticket. The statement of work did not move.
The milestone was billed because the calendar said so. Fixed-fee sites leak when a ticket is treated as included.
The size of that ticket
$4,800 is 13% of the fee. Professional services firms reported an average project overrun of 11.3% in 2024, up from 9.6% in 2023. Eleven point three percent of this fee is about $4,100. The ticket is already past the average overrun, and it is inside the $1,000 to $5,000 a month that 57% of agencies leave unbilled.
On-time delivery in that same benchmark was 73.4%. A fixed-fee site that absorbs the extra integration looks on time and loses the margin.
Scope, then a signature, then a line
The job holds the statement of work, the milestones, and the billing stages. The second integration is a $4,800 change order. The client signs without an account. The invoice is drafted from leftover signed work: what is still unbilled on the $36,000, and the $4,800 once it is signed. WIP is that leftover until finance sends the invoice.
Jira can stay. A signed change order can open a ticket there. The tracker is not the record. Resources hold who is on the build, their skills, and the allocation. The rate card prices the hours. AI Agent reads that job. The answer is the signed change, not the nearest ticket.
Scope-to-invoice snapshot
The second integration was 13% of the fee.
The statement of work was $36,000 for eight templates and one integration. A second integration arrived as a ticket. The launch invoice did not move. The dollars are a worked example.
What the job contained
One build
- Statement of work$36,000
Signed
- Second integration$4,800
30 hours, still a ticket
Sent$36,000
Left off$4,800
Fee if the ticket is signed$40,800
Bars are scaled to the $36,000 fee. $4,800 is 13% of what was signed.
Against the average overrun
$4,100
is 11.3% of this fee. The ticket is already past it.
- Share of this fee
- 13%
- Projects delivered on time, 2024
- 73.4%
- Agencies in the $1,000–$5,000 band
- 57%
Professional services firms reported project overrun of 11.3% in 2024, up from 9.6% in 2023. Eleven point three percent of $36,000 is about $4,100. This ticket is the same shape of leak, on one job.
Project overrun
Average overrun reported by professional services firms
- 20239.6%
- 202411.3%
On-time delivery in 2024 was 73.4%. SPI’s note: overruns above 10% hurt margin and the next booking.
Sources
- SPI Research. 2025 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark, executive summary · Feb 2025
- SPI Research. The Truth About Billable Utilization · 2025
- Ignition. 2025 Agency Pricing & Cash Flow Report · 22 May 2025
Overrun and on-time delivery: SPI Research, 2025 Professional Services Maturity Benchmark, 2024 results, 403 firms. The $1,000–$5,000 band: Ignition, April 2025, including website development. $4,100 and 13% are arithmetic. 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
- Do we have to leave the tracker?
- No. Jira is optional. A signed change order can open a ticket there. The statement of work, the change order, and the invoice stay on the job in Blinkdots.
- How does a launch invoice stay honest?
- It is drafted from leftover signed work, approved billable time, and approved expenses. The rate card on the project wins, then the client card, then the person’s own rate. In the example, the second integration is a $4,800 change order before it is a line.
- Can the client sign a change without a login?
- Yes. They get a public sign link. A typed name is the acceptance. They never create an account.
