Backbone for consultants
Spend more time on billable client work, not back office tasks.
Write the quote, track the hours against it and turn both into an invoice. Track productivity, profitability and run your back office on autopilot.
7 days free, card required. €0.00 due today.
One client page. Everything you need to bill an hour.
- 1The rate
Set once per client; hours added from Time use it. - 2The month so far
Hours logged this month, right on the page. - 3What is open to invoice
Hours not yet on an invoice, with their value. - 4Straight to the invoice
Add hours or start a new invoice from here.
Sound familiar? The work is the easy part. The paperwork around it is not.
My hours live in a calendar, the quote in a Word file and the invoice in a third tool.
A client asks what the last month cost, and I have to add it up by hand.
I quote a fixed fee, then lose track of how many hours the project really took.
How Backbone fits. Quote, hours, invoice: three steps that use to be three tools.
01 · Quote
Write the quote, track against it.
Quotes use the same editor as invoices, with a valid-until date. Mark the result when the client answers: accepted, declined or expired.
- Same template, same check, same send
- Accepted, declined or expired at a glance
02 · Hours
Watch the budget, not a spreadsheet.
Log hours on the client or the project. The budget bar shows how much of the month is used, and a heads-up appears when it is nearly gone.
- Hourly rate, target hours and retainer per client
- Pitches kept apart from active clients
03 · Invoice
Add hours, check, send.
An accepted quote becomes an invoice with one click. Open hours from Time are added at the client's rate, marked as invoiced and checked before the invoice leaves.
- Add hours from Time on any client
- A payment QR code and, for business clients, a ZUGFeRD e-invoice
What you get. What a solo consultancy runs on.
Or just ask. Say it in a sentence, in Backbone or in your AI tool.
How many hours are open for Kinetik Studio, and what is that worth?
- Open hours Kinetik Studio · 36.5 h
- Value €3,467.50 at €95.00 / h
Shall I draft the invoice with those hours?
The right plan. Solo, unless you work with associates.
Most consultants work alone, and Solo has everything they need. If you bring in associates and want to see their hours too, Studio gives you a small team.
SoloRecommended for you
€19per month, VAT included
- 1 user, unlimited clients and projects
- Invoices, quotes and dunning
- Backbone AI and the MCP connector
StudioWith associates
€29per month, VAT included
- A small team
- Everything in Solo
- More than one workspace
Worth reading first
Consultant questions
Yes. Every client has its own hourly rate, and the hours you add from Time use it. You can still change any line on the invoice.
You mark the quote as accepted, declined or expired and turn an accepted quote into an invoice without typing anything twice.
Yes. Set target hours and a retainer on the client, and the budget bar shows how much of it is used. Hours above the target are flagged as over the retainer.
Clients can have the status Pitch, so a prospect with a quote does not mix with your active clients.
Yes. Through the AI connector you can ask for hours, drafts and open amounts. Backbone asks before anything is sent.
Yes. Business clients can receive a ZUGFeRD e-invoice with the PDF. XRechnung is coming soon.
Send the next invoice before the weekend.
7 days free, card required. €0.00 due today.
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