From First Contact
to First Invoice.
Track your team's client development activity, schedule follow-ups, and see which relationships are turning into revenue. Business development isn't a mystery — it's a process.
What is a relationship CRM for service businesses?
A relationship CRM is a system designed for how service businesses actually develop work — through long-cycle referral relationships, repeat-client engagements, and warm-intro intake. It tracks the contacts, interactions, and pipeline that drive new work, and it connects that activity to the engagement and billing systems so owners can see which business development efforts actually produce revenue.
Track Billed Time's client development tools are built into the same platform as time tracking, billing, and client management. That means there's no double entry, no separate CRM seat to license, and no disconnect between the "lead" in the sales tool and the "client" in the billing system. Capture an interaction, schedule a follow-up, convert a prospect — all in one flow.
Business Development Tracking, Built In
Log meetings, calls, emails, and coffees. Tag them to contacts and clients. Build a complete picture of every relationship your team is developing — and who's doing the work.
- Log interactions by type (call, meeting, email)
- Tag to clients and contacts
- Track BD time alongside billable time
Client Development Activity
Jane Park — Acme Corp
Discussed expansion of outside counsel relationship. Interested in IP work.
Tom Rivera — Bright Holdings
Follow-up on contract review proposal. Will send engagement letter.
Acme Corp
First invoice from BD activity: $8,500 — Employment matter originated from Jan coffee meeting.
Lisa Chen — Cedar Partners
Sent article on recent regulatory changes. Scheduled follow-up for April.
Upcoming Follow-Ups
Jane Park — Acme Corp
Send proposal
Due: Apr 2
Tom Rivera — Bright Holdings
Lunch meeting downtown
Due: Apr 8
Lisa Chen — Cedar Partners
Share industry update article
Due: Apr 15
Never Let a Relationship Go Cold
Schedule follow-up activities after every interaction. Get reminders when they're due. Snooze when life gets busy. Keep your pipeline warm without keeping it all in your head.
Connect Development Activity to Billing Revenue
See which client development efforts are turning into real revenue. Track Billed Time connects the dots between that first coffee meeting and the billing that follows — so you can invest your time where it pays off.
Activity Logged
Coffee meeting — Jan 15
Client Engaged
Engagement signed — Feb 1
Revenue Generated
$8,500 — First invoice Mar 15
See What's Coming
Track prospects through your pipeline from initial contact to active client. Know the value of what's in the funnel and where each opportunity stands.
Why generic CRMs don't fit service businesses
HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive are designed around a sales process: lead → opportunity → deal → close, measured in weeks or months, with a quota at the end. That model doesn't describe how service businesses develop work. Most engagements originate from referrals, repeat clients, and relationships measured in years. A "deal" might be a single $5,000 engagement, or it might be a 10-year ongoing relationship that produces seven figures of annual billings. The sales-funnel metaphor breaks down immediately — and people notice. They log in, see fields that don't match how they think about clients, and stop using the system within a month.
The structural mismatch is worse. Generic CRMs don't know what an engagement is, so there's no way to connect a logged interaction to the resulting work. They don't connect to billing, so owners can't see which BD efforts actually generated revenue — only which ones generated activity. And they require duplicate data entry: every prospect has to be created in the CRM, then re-created in the engagement system when they sign.
Track Billed Time's approach is built around how service businesses actually develop work. Capture interactions in seconds — meeting, call, email, coffee — and tag them to contacts and clients. Schedule follow-ups with reminders that surface before they're urgent. Track BD time alongside billable time so owners see the full picture of what relationship investment costs. Convert a prospect to a client without re-entering data. And see the revenue attribution path: first interaction → engagement → first invoice → total billings.
Client development is where growth starts — see how it works for solo professionals, boutique teams, and growing service businesses. Or jump to pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Relationship CRM, BD tracking, pipeline, and revenue attribution — answered.
What is a relationship CRM for service businesses?
A relationship CRM tracks the contacts, interactions, and pipeline that drive a service business — and connects that activity to engagements and billing. Generic CRMs (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) are built for sales teams chasing transactional deals; they don't understand engagements, repeat-client relationships, or the long-cycle referral dynamics that drive most professional service revenue.
Why do consultants and service teams resist HubSpot or Salesforce?
Generic CRMs require a sales-process mindset — pipeline stages, deal sizes, close dates — that doesn't match how service work originates. Most service business comes from referrals, repeat clients, and long-cycle relationships measured in years, not quarters. People log in, see fields that don't fit, and stop using it within a month. Track Billed Time was built around how service businesses actually develop work: capture interactions quickly, schedule follow-ups, and connect activity to revenue when it materializes.
Can I track business development time alongside billable time?
Yes. BD time is captured the same way as billable time but resolves to a non-billable rate automatically. That means owners can see exactly how much time was invested in a relationship before it became a paying client — and which efforts are actually generating revenue.
How does revenue attribution work?
Track Billed Time connects the interaction record to the client record. When a logged contact converts to an engaged client, the system surfaces the path: first interaction → engagement → first invoice → total billings to date. You can see which originating activities are producing real revenue, not just pipeline noise.
Does the pipeline live next to my billing?
Yes. The pipeline and client database share the same model, so a prospect can convert to a client without re-entering data. The same contact record carries through from first coffee to first invoice and beyond.
How much does it cost?
Business development tracking, pipeline, follow-up scheduling, and contact management are included in every Track Billed Time seat — no separate CRM module to license. Pricing is per seat with volume discounts, as low as $10/user/month at scale.
Turn Relationships Into Revenue
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