Less admin, more layouts.
Track every round, retainer and print job in one place. Plya keeps a design studio's fixed-fee identities, monthly retainers and print jobs together. The hours past the rounds you agreed to become invoice lines at your rate.
Free to start. No card needed.
This week
Line items
- Brand identity, balance$4,800
The fixed fee covers two rounds, so they're logged as Internal time. Round three is timed as Billable, and Pull time adds its hours to the balance invoice at the project's rate.
The admin that comes with client design work
A fixed fee usually includes two or three rounds of revisions, and the hours after that are billed at your rate. The admin around it tends to be a timer in one app, invoices in another and the scope in an email from the kickoff.
The third round nobody priced
The contract covered two rounds. The third arrived as a few small tweaks, took an afternoon, and never made it onto the balance invoice.
The final files the client already has
The balance was due on delivery of final files. The logo package went out on a Friday, and the balance is still open a month later.
The retainer month nobody added up
The retainer covers twenty hours a month. October's templates, headers and banners were timed in three places, so nobody knows if it ran to twelve or thirty.
The printer's quote in a thread from March
Three printers quoted the stationery run. The one you picked is somewhere in your email, between the proofs and the PMS numbers.
On the proofs
See what every client needs from you today
An identity's press proofs, a retainer's social templates and a menu waiting on feedback each sit on their own project. Today lists what's due across all of them, so an hour under the loupe doesn't push the rest of the week aside.
Bill a monthly retainer from the hours you logged
A retainer client is a project with its own rate. Through the month, the timer logs each social template, newsletter header and trade-show banner as billable time, and the week's chart shows where the hours went. At month end, Invoices shows which projects have uninvoiced work, and Create turns the month's entries into lines on one invoice.
How time tracking works- Ostrander Books retainer
- Marlow Bakery menus
- Social templates, set of 12Billable4h 30m
Keep the print specs and quotes with the job
A note linked to the project and the printer holds the stock, the PMS colors, the quantity and every quote you got. The printer you choose goes in Network tagged Supplier, and the proof approval, the press check and the delivery are tasks with their dates.
How notes workHoliday blend labels
Specs
- 3 × 4 in. labels, die-cut, uncoated stock
- PMS 7621 C and PMS 5463 C
- 5,000 labels on rolls of 500
- At the roaster by Nov 20
Quotes
- Gristmill Press · 8 business days$1,240
- Ward & Lyle Labels · 12 business days$980
- Lakeshore Litho · 6 business days$1,105
Tasks
0 / 3 done- Proofs approvedNov 6
- Press checkNo date
- Labels to the roasterNov 20
Halden Coffee identity
Tools for the full graphic designer's year
Award deadlines, new budgets, the summer lull and holiday print come around every year. Each one has a place in Plya.
- January to FebruaryJan to Feb
Award entries
Type and design competitions close their entries in late winter. Opportunities lists awards with their deadlines, and you mark each one Applied once it's in.
- March to AprilMar to Apr
New budgets, new briefs
Clients open new budgets in spring. Agencies and in-house teams go on your Clients pipeline, each with the date of its next follow-up.
- May to JuneMay to Jun
Launches before summer
Each identity is a project with its client, its due date and its value, so the June launches are in one list.
- July to AugustJul to Aug
The quiet weeks
Rewrite the scope template and the rate sheet in a note while the inbox is slow, and link them to the projects they came from.
- September to OctoberSep to Oct
Holiday print goes to press
Cards, labels and packaging go to the printer in the fall. The proofs, the press check and the delivery are tasks dated back from the ship date.
- November to DecemberNov to Dec
Year-end budgets and the last invoices
Clients spend what's left of the year's budget, and the last balances go out. Outstanding and Collected this year sit at the top of the invoice list.
Send the final files once the balance is paid
Plya tells you when a client pays an invoice, in your Inbox and by email. Keep the source files until then, and send them the day the balance comes in.
Made for every kind of studio
Furniture
Commissions, deposits and the design trade
Lighting
Trade orders, tear sheets and showrooms
Ceramics
Wholesale orders, stockists and commissions
Textiles
Commissions, licenses and galleries
Keep your hours for the kerning
The rounds, the retainers and the invoices go in Plya, where you can find them.