Finance tracking for design studios
Manage your studio's finances alongside your design projects
Client contracts, payments, expenses and tax years tracked beside the design work they belong to: one glanceable view per financial year for your studio or freelance business.
How it works
Set up the year
Create a financial year with its start and your opening bank balance. Every figure your studio records after that is filed against the right year.
Log design contracts and payments
Add each client's design contract as fixed, retainer or hourly, and schedule its payments month by month. Retainers repeat; one-off projects land where they fall.
Add the studio's costs
Log expenses and your design subscriptions against the year, along with staff costs, dividends, corporation tax payments and loan repayments.
Read the position
The overview shows income against costs across the year, with tabs for clients and payments, expenses, tax, dividends and loans, so you always know where your studio's money is.
What’s included
- Track design contracts and their payment schedules, month by month
- Fixed, retainer and hourly contract types
- Log your studio's expenses and design subscriptions against the year
- Tax, dividends and loan repayments tracked in their own tabs
- One glanceable overview per financial year: income, costs and tax position
- Financial years with their own labels and opening balances
- Sits beside the quotes and contracts the money comes from
Why track your finances beside the design work
Accounting software tells you what happened after the fact. What a design studio needs day to day is simpler: which client contracts are paying this month, what is going out, and roughly where the year is heading.
Drool Client Management keeps that view beside the design projects themselves. It is not a replacement for your accountant or your bookkeeping; it is the studio-level picture you check before you take on the next design job.
Questions
Is this accounting software?
No. It is a studio-level tracker for design contracts, payments, expenses, tax, dividends and loans, kept beside your client work. Your accountant and bookkeeping software still do the books.
Can I track design retainers?
Yes. Add a contract as a retainer and schedule its monthly payments; fixed-fee and hourly design work are tracked the same way.
Can I keep more than one financial year?
Yes. Each year has its own label, start and opening balance, and its own overview.
Who can see the finances?
Workspace owners, and the designers on your team you give finance access to. Clients never see it.
Works with the rest of your design toolkit
One subscription, every tool a designer needs to manage clients. Your first 7 days are free, then £39 a month, cancel anytime.
Sign Up for Free