invoicing for agencies · updated 2026-08-03
Invoicing for agencies
Lyto Sum is invoicing software for agencies: it bills retainers, time-and-materials and milestone work, drawing the line items straight from hours tracked in Tally against the project and client. Because it lives in the same suite as the CRM and project boards, the client you invoice is the same record you won and delivered — no re-entry — from €10 per seat per month billed annually, all seven apps included.
Lyto · all 7 apps, one login
from €10 / seat / mo
billed annually · €13 monthly · one bill
The usual way · 3 separate tools
A standalone invoicing app to send invoices
A separate time tracker to record billable hours
A spreadsheet to reconcile hours into line items
Lyto vs the usual separate-tools setup
| Lyto · Sum | The usual way | |
|---|---|---|
| Where line items come from | Drawn from hours tracked in Tally against the project | Exported from a time tool and re-keyed by hand |
| Billing models | Retainers, time-and-materials and fixed milestones on one client | Different tools or manual workarounds per model |
| Who the invoice is for | The same client record as the CRM and the project | A customer re-created in the invoicing app |
| Costs and margin | Sum tracks costs too; Pulse shows margin per client | Reassembled from separate exports at month end |
| Part of a suite | Invoicing plus six more apps in the same €10 seat | A per-seat invoicing subscription on its own |
Any competitor prices checked July 2026; see each vendor's pricing page for current figures.
The gap between tracking hours and getting paid
For an agency, most invoices are really a translation problem. The work happened in a project tool. The hours were logged in a time tracker. Now someone has to turn those hours into line items on an invoice — usually by exporting a timesheet, opening a spreadsheet, and re-typing it all into a standalone invoicing app that has never heard of the project or the client.
Every step in that chain is a chance to lose money: hours that never make it onto the invoice, a client re-created slightly differently in the billing tool, a retainer and a time-and-materials job that need two different manual work-arounds. The invoicing app works fine; it just lives too far from the work.
Invoicing that starts from the work
Sum is Lyto’s invoicing and costs app, and it bills from the same data the rest of the suite already holds:
- Line items from tracked time. Hours logged in Tally against a project become the billable lines on the invoice — no export, no re-entry.
- Every billing model on one client. Retainers, time-and-materials and fixed milestones all bill against the same client record.
- Costs as well as income. Sum tracks costs too, so Pulse can show margin per client rather than just revenue.
Because Sum shares one customer record with Pipeline, Workstream and Tally, the client you invoice is the client you won and delivered — the same record the whole way through.
Where a dedicated finance tool goes deeper
Sum is invoicing and cost tracking built for small teams, not a full accounting suite. If your agency needs double-entry bookkeeping, complex multi-entity tax handling or a deep accountant-facing ledger, you will still want dedicated accounting software — and Sum can feed it. For raising the invoices and seeing per-client margin, keeping it in the suite removes the re-entry that standalone tools force.
What it costs
Sum is one of seven apps in every plan — a six-person agency is €114 per month billed annually on Grow, €19 per seat, for all of them on one bill. The 14-day trial takes a card up front and cancels in one click.
Questions people ask
What is the best invoicing software for a small agency?
The best invoicing tool for an agency is one that bills from the work you actually tracked, not one you re-type hours into. Lyto Sum draws invoice line items from hours logged in Tally against the project and client, and it sits in the same suite as the CRM and project boards — so the invoice, the delivery and the relationship all reference one record, from €10 per seat per month billed annually.
Can Lyto handle retainers and time-and-materials billing?
Yes. Sum bills retainers, time-and-materials and fixed-milestone work against the same client record. Time-and-materials invoices pull from the hours tracked in Tally, retainers bill on their cycle, and milestones bill on completion — all without leaving the suite or reconciling a separate timesheet into line items.
Does invoicing connect to the rest of the tools?
That connection is the point. In Lyto the client you invoice in Sum is the same client you won in Pipeline, delivered in Workstream and tracked time against in Tally — one shared record. Pulse then reads costs and invoices together to show margin per client, so profitability is a view rather than a month-end spreadsheet exercise.
Try the whole suite, not a demo
Every plan includes all seven apps — from €10 / seat / mo, billed annually.
14-day free trial · card required · cancel in one click