How a solo consultant uses a finance agent

What can the finance agent safely draft?

Three outputs are enough. An invoice draft for work you have finished. A list of expenses from receipts or a sheet you keep. A one-page summary: what you billed, what you collected, what is still out.

The inputs are your own figures. A list of engagements, the fee you agreed, the date the work ended, and the expenses with amounts. If a number is not in that list, it does not go on the draft.

How should the monthly summary be shaped?

Keep it to one page. Billed this month. Collected this month. Still outstanding, with the client name and the invoice date. Expenses by a few plain categories you already use.

The summary is for you. It is not a forecast and it is not tax advice. If a line needs an accountant, the draft should say the question, not answer it.

When do you run it?

Invoice drafts happen when a phase ends, not on a vague weekly habit. The month summary happens once, after the month closes, when you have the collections and the expenses in one place.

How do you set up the finance agent?

1. Fix the invoice fields. Client, work description, fee, date, and payment terms you actually use. Put a sample invoice you have sent into the file.
2. List live work. Paste engagements that are ready to bill. Include only fees you agreed in writing or on a call you noted.
3. Paste expenses as a table. Date, vendor, amount, and category. The agent groups them. It does not hunt for receipts you forgot.
4. Draft one invoice. Compare every figure to your note. Correct the source note if the draft and the memory disagree.
5. Send from your own tool. Copy the approved draft into the invoicing tool you use. The agent does not send it.
6. Close the month. After the last collection you expect to record, ask for the one-page summary. Read it against the invoices.

What does a finance routine look like?

What are the approval rules?

The finance agent may draft from numbers you supply. You check every figure before it leaves your desk. That check is the approval gate.

It may not send an invoice, change a fee, or record a payment in your books. You do that in your own tool.

It may not move money, store a card number, or ask a client for payment details.

It may not invent a tax treatment, a write-off, or a legal conclusion. Those questions go to your accountant or your own judgment.

Outstanding invoices can be listed. Chasing them is a separate note you approve, in your voice.

Common questions