Client Work Requests
A client briefs work in the portal, a contractor scopes it, and the client holds both gates: approve the estimate before anything starts, accept the work before anything bills. The moment they accept, the invoice is created in QuickBooks and lands in their inbox.
One loop, two client decisions
This is the client side of the loop. The contractor side runs on Contractor Payments, and the invoice lands in the ledger kept true by QuickBooks Invoice Sync.
How each step works
The portal offers three doors: a general request that routes to the team through the CRM, a project brief aimed at a specific contractor, and pre-paid token packs of 40 hours for $2,000 for ongoing work. This workflow follows the project brief.
The brief goes straight to the contractor through a secure link. They come back with an estimate: hours, timeline, and what done looks like. No account manager translating in the middle.
Decision one. The client approves, requests changes, or declines, right in the portal. Nothing gets built and nothing gets billed until they say go.
The contractor delivers and submits the finished work through the same request, so the client sees exactly what they are being asked to sign off on.
Decision two. The client reviews the work and accepts it, or sends it back with notes. Acceptance is the only thing that triggers billing.
The moment the work is accepted, an invoice is created in QuickBooks at the agreed rate and emailed to the client, then mirrored into the CRM so the account view is current immediately. If anything is off, the system flags a human instead of guessing. A billing problem never blocks acceptance.
The seven elements
Every workflow we document has the same anatomy: seven elements, each assigned to a human, a machine, or both. This is the Centaur Map from our workflow design method.
A client needs work done and opens a request in the portal. No email chains, no relay through an account manager.
The client's brief plus the contractor's estimate: hours, timeline, and a definition of done.
Both gates belong to the client: approve the estimate before work starts, accept the work before billing.
Every transition notifies the right person automatically: the contractor gets the brief, the client gets the decision, the accountant gets every billing outcome.
Accepted work and a QuickBooks invoice, created the moment the client says yes.
QuickBooks emails the invoice and the CRM mirrors it instantly, so the account page is current before the weekly sync runs.
An event log stamps who decided what and when, and every request carries a billing status, so nothing invoiced slips and nothing failed hides.
The standing rules
- The client decides twice; nothing starts and nothing bills without them
- Our team sees every request but is never a required gate
- Billing failures flag a human; they never block acceptance
- Contractor pay runs on its own monthly cycle, untouched by this flow
Why it works
- Requests skip the inbox and land where the work is tracked
- An estimate before approval means no surprise invoices
- Billing at the moment of acceptance means revenue never trails delivery
- The event log ends “who agreed to what” conversations before they start