Role Playbooks / Consulting Admin

Consulting Admin

You run the company on Prilet. Hours, invoices and payouts move on their own — what they need from you is the short list of things only an admin can unblock.

Consulting company Any plan About 30 minutes a week

Your rhythm

Every day

  • Glance at Needs you on the dashboard; act only on what’s listed

Every week

  • Answer subcontracting requests and agreement proposals
  • Confirm nothing is stuck in Hours Review
  • Deal with anything marked Action Required

Every month

  • Check the invoice batch went out cleanly
  • Read last month’s hours and revenue
  • Review active consultants against your plan

Billing cycle

1st

The month closes

The final week of the month is cut short if it needs to be, so a month never spills into the next invoice. Those weeks calculate and summarise as usual, which means the last one is still inside its adjustment window on the 1st.

Around the 3rd

Monthly invoices generate and send themselves

Prilet looks every morning at 10:00 am ET once the month has closed, and sends each client’s invoice as soon as every billing week belonging to it is final. Most go around the 3rd, when the last week’s adjustment window closes; a client whose weeks were all confirmed early goes sooner. Both sides are emailed a copy.

A few days in

Check what went out

Open Invoices and skim the batch: right clients, right periods, nothing conspicuously missing. Five minutes, and the cheapest possible moment to catch a problem.

Once it’s quiet

Look at the numbers for the closed month

Hours, revenue and how the month compared with the last one. Worth doing after invoicing rather than before, when the figures have stopped moving.

You
Prilet

If an invoice comes later than usual

An invoice covers a group of billing weeks, and it waits for the slowest one. A single week still inside its adjustment window, or with a request the client hasn’t answered yet, holds the whole invoice back until it settles — which is the intended behaviour, since the alternative is invoicing a number that is about to change. A December invoice can easily land in the second week of January for that reason. Two other things move the date: clients on a weekly or biweekly cadence aren’t on the start-of-month schedule at all and are invoiced as each period closes, and an invoice deliberately left as a draft, such as expenses you wanted to review, waits for you.

A typical week

Lighter than you’d expect. The weekly hours cycle belongs to your managers and consultants.

Nothing here is on a timer for you personally. It is a rhythm worth keeping so that nothing quietly accumulates.

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
You
Prilet
Nothing due
Mon

The hours cycle starts without you

Summaries go out, adjustment windows open and close, and weeks lock for invoicing. Managers handle their own teams; you only step in if something jams.

Wed

Clear what’s waiting on a decision

Subcontracting requests, agreement proposals, anything flagged Action Required. None of these expire, which is exactly why they need a slot in your week.

Fri

Look at the pipeline

Who comes off an engagement soon, whose resume needs refreshing before it goes back in front of clients, and whether availability still reflects reality.

What each task involves

1

Keep Stripe healthy — everything else depends on it

Payouts, and your consultants’ ability to go live at all, hang off a verified Stripe account. Stripe periodically asks for updated information, and if it goes unanswered payouts pause and invoices are held. Those emails say “Action Required” and they mean it. Nothing else on this page is more urgent.
In the app: Settings → Payments About payouts →
2

Answer agreement proposals

Clients can propose a change to payment terms or billing cadence, and the change only takes effect once you accept. These sit quietly until someone acts, so treat them like the commercial decisions they are — payment terms decide when money actually reaches you.
In the app: Agreements About agreements →
3

Sign for the company

Accepting an assignment is yours alone. It commits the firm — and the first time you work with a client it signs your agreement with them at the same time, which then covers every project you take from them afterwards. Your managers can decline work their team can’t take without waiting for you, so nothing stalls in your inbox; what reaches you is the yes.
In the app: Client Projects About assignments →
4

Say who runs each client engagement

On any client project you can name a project manager for your side — the person actually running that work. It can be anyone at your company but a timekeeper, including a consultant who reports to someone else, which is usually exactly who it is. They get that project’s hours and revenue in their reporting and can read the assignments on it. It grants no authority: they still can’t accept, decline or end a line, and it tells them nothing about your other clients.
In the app: Client Projects → a project About projects →
5

Stand in for a client that won’t sign up

When a client’s procurement rules keep it off Prilet, add it as a managed client and do its side yourself. You accept offers for it with Accept for Client, naming the MSA or PO it signed with you, answer adjustments its contacts reply to you about, and set its terms directly. Its people get the hours and invoices by email and pay by bank transfer, so you only need to send their accounts payable team the payment instructions once.
In the app: Companies you work with → Managed Clients About managed clients →
6

Run your subcontractors

As a prime you invite a firm onto Prilet as your subcontractor. They propose who will do the work and the rate they’ll work for, signed; once you accept, that consultant works under your brand at your client rate. Proposals waiting on you are at the top of Subcontracting. Their sub invoices to you and your invoices to the client are generated as a matched pair. This needs the Agency plan, which is also what lifts the cap on how many consultants you can have listed at once.
In the app: Subcontracting → Invite a Subcontractor About subcontracting →
7

Watch the company’s hours, not every week

You have visibility of every billing week in the company, which is more than you need weekly. Look at the total, and at anything flagged — managers own the detail for their own teams. What you care about is that nothing is stuck before it reaches an invoice.
In the app: Hours Review About billing weeks →
8

Keep the roster current

Invite people and set their roles as the team changes, and deactivate anyone who has left rather than leaving them in place. Keep half an eye on how many consultants you have listed at once, because that is what your plan is priced on: the Solo tiers allow one active consultant at a time, and Agency is unlimited and billed per consultant. Extra logins are free on any plan — the limit is on listed consultants, not on people who can sign in.
In the app: Settings → Users · Settings → Subscription Compare plans →
9

Read the month once it has closed

The month-so-far figures on your dashboard cover the whole company: hours, revenue, consultants working, and the change since last month. Reports opens the same thing up by month, quarter or a custom range with an export, on Solo Pro and above. If you are on Agency, job costing goes a layer deeper and gives you margin per assignment against your own cost categories.
In the app: Dashboard · Reports · Job Costing About subscriptions →

Your menu

  • My Team

    Manage all consultants in your company.

  • Subcontracting

    Manage subcontracting arrangements with other companies.

  • Invoices

    Create and track invoices.

  • Job Costing

    Analyze revenue, cost, and margin by assignment.

  • Receive Payments

    Your bank account for client payments, under Settings at the foot of the menu.

Items with something waiting carry a count, and the dashboard lists every one of them under Needs you. On a phone the menu opens from the button at the top left.

What lands in your email inbox

Anything titled “Action Required” is blocking money. Everything else can wait for your weekly slot.

“Action Required: Update your payment account…” Drop everything

Stripe wants information. Ignore it and payouts pause and invoices are held company-wide.

“Payout Failed: …” Drop everything

Money that should have reached your bank didn’t. Usually a bank detail Stripe can no longer use.

“Invoice Ready: …” Per invoice

Your copy of what went to the client. Confirmation, not a task.

“Payment Received: …” Per payment

The client paid. Your payout follows automatically.

“Payment Terms Change Proposed: …” Needs a decision

A client wants to change when they pay you. Nothing changes until you accept.

“… proposes … as your subcontractor” Needs a decision

A sub has put a consultant forward at a rate they've signed. Accept or decline.

“Still waiting: …” Day 3, 7 and 14

Something above is unanswered and a counterparty is waiting on you.

FAQ

Common questions

Do I need to create and send invoices?

No. Invoices are generated and sent automatically from finalised hours on each client’s cadence, and both sides get a copy. Monthly ones go out at 10:00 am ET once the month has closed — most around the 3rd — each one as soon as every billing week it covers has settled, so a client with one week still under discussion is invoiced a few days after the rest. Your job is to check the batch once it lands rather than to produce it. Manual generation exists for closing a client out early, and manual send only for an invoice deliberately held as a draft, such as expenses you wanted to review.

A client hasn’t paid. Do I chase them?

Payment reminders go out automatically as an invoice ages, so the routine chasing is handled. Your involvement starts when it stops being routine — a genuinely overdue account, a disputed invoice, or a payment hold.

What stops a consultant’s resume going live?

One of two things. Either the resume is incomplete — it needs a summary and at least one skill — or your company’s Stripe account isn’t verified yet. The second is the usual culprit, it applies to every consultant you have at once, and you are the only person who can clear it. As soon as both are satisfied the resume is published on its own, and Prilet emails the consultant and their manager to say so. For the very first resume in a new company it emails you and any other admins too, because that is the moment the company itself is fully set up.

What does the Agency plan give me that Solo Pro doesn’t?

Unlimited active consultants instead of one, subcontracting (taking other firms’ consultants on as subs), multi-user access with roles, and job costing. If you have more than one person working at a time, you are already on it.

Should I be reading every weekly hours summary?

No, and with a team of any size you shouldn’t try. Those exist for the consultant and their manager. Hours Review gives you the same information as a list, and the count beside it in the menu tells you whether it is worth opening.

How often should I run job costing?

Monthly, once the period’s hours have settled. A report is a snapshot taken when you run it — later changes to hours or rates won’t flow into a report you already generated, so running it too early gives you a number you’ll have to redo.

What can’t my managers do?

Three things, all of them yours: accepting an assignment (which signs for the company), invoices in full — raising, sending, voiding, writing off, and seeing them at all — and job costing. The reason is the same each time: an invoice or a cost report covers whatever work it covers, often across more than one team, so there is no honest way to show a manager part of one. What they do keep is their own team’s rates, hours and earnings, and declining work.

Does naming a project manager give someone extra access?

Only to that engagement, and only to read it. They get its hours and revenue in reporting, the project in their Client Projects list, and the assignments on it — names, dates, rates. They do not get a team, they cannot answer for the work, and they see nothing of the other projects they happen to be staffed on. Cost and margin stay with you either way. Naming is an admin’s because it is the only way anyone comes by project access at all.

Can I be left as the only admin?

You can, and Prilet will not let you remove yourself from it — the last active admin can’t be deactivated or moved to another role, because a company with nobody who can sign, invoice or set up payouts is stuck. Treat that as a guard rail rather than a plan: a second admin is what stops a holiday becoming a blocked month.

Different role? Consulting Manager · Consultant · Solo Consultant · All playbooks

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