Billing Bottlenecks Are Starving Your Business — Here’s the Fix

The work is done. The hours are logged. But somehow, the money still isn’t flowing in. Billing delays aren’t just frustrating — they’re dangerous. Cash flow gets squeezed. Project pipelines slow down. And firm leaders are forced to make tough tradeoffs.

The Hidden Cost of Billing Bottlenecks: How Delays Strangle Cash Flow

We’ve seen A&E and project-based firms with six-figure invoices sitting in limbo for weeks—or worse, months—because of outdated billing workflows and poor visibility into WIP (work in progress).

The Symptom: You're Doing the Work, But Not Getting Paid

Billing bottlenecks tend to show up in a few familiar ways:

• Invoices go out late because project managers don’t enter and approve time entries in real time.
• Reimbursable expenses are often billed late and can be mistakenly classified as overhead due to manual tracking and oversight.
• Admin teams manually compile billing data, introducing delays and errors
• Clients dispute charges because they don’t understand what they’re being billed for

These delays don’t just frustrate clients—they choke your ability to reinvest in your team, tools, and growth.

The Root Cause: Billing Isn't Built Into Your Project Lifecycle

In many project-based A&E, consulting, and professional services firms, billing still functions as a back-office chore rather than a strategic part of project management. The disconnect between project execution and financial operations creates friction:

• PMs don’t have the tools to monitor WIP or pre-bill work
• Finance teams lack the project insight to invoice proactively
• No one is accountable for the “hand-off” between project and payment

The Strategic Fix: Integrate Billing Milestones Into Your Project Lifecycle

Our team helps firms redesign billing as a core part of their delivery process. Here's how it works:

1. Map billing milestones to project phases so everyone knows what gets billed and when.
2. Implement approval workflows that ensure time and expenses are reviewed weekly to ensure that nothing is missed and no hiccups are encountered during the invoicing process.
3. Create billing dashboards that track WIP aging, pre-billing eligibility, and invoice turnaround times.

This empowers PMs and finance teams to work together — faster, more transparently, and with fewer surprises.

Transforming Hours of Manual Work into Minutes: Accelerate Billing, Accelerate Cash

BQE CORE can be a powerful billing engine when optimized. Here’s how we help firms unlock that speed:

• WIP & Pre-Bill Insights: We set up custom views to show which projects are ready to bill, where billing is stalled, and how much cash is trapped in unbilled work.
• Automated Approval Workflows: CORE can automate time and expense approvals, ensuring that PMs don’t become billing bottlenecks.
• Client Transparency: By leveraging CORE’s invoice customization and client portals, we help firms reduce disputes and build trust through clearer, faster communication.
  

From Spreadsheets to Strategic Growth

One of our consulting firms used to spend countless hours manually creating invoices in Excel—a tedious process prone to human error. By switching to BQE CORE for time and expense tracking and leveraging its powerful invoicing templates, they’ve transformed their billing workflow. What once took hours is now done in minutes—accurately, efficiently, and effortlessly.

The result? A significant boost in productivity and a management team now free to focus on driving strategic growth instead of wrestling with spreadsheets.

Actionable Takeaways A&E and Consulting Firms:

• Audit your WIP monthly: how much is eligible to bill but hasn’t been invoiced?
• Identify your approval bottlenecks: who is holding up the billing chain?
• Standardize billing triggers: link them to project phases or deliverables.

Next Steps

Faster billing means faster growth. It’s not just about collecting cash—it’s about creating capacity for growth without burnout, reinvestment in strategic initiatives, and innovation.