Know where the margin goes, while you can still do something about it.
AtomicSam is the project-to-invoice operating system for professional services firms. It holds the link between what you sold, what you delivered and what you bill, so margin stops leaking at the handoffs.
Nobody loses margin all at once.
They lose it five times, quietly.
Every one of these is a handoff, and a handoff is where the detail gets dropped. AtomicSam sits on all five.
Between what you sold and what you set up
The quote is agreed. Then the Job gets built from memory, and the commercial structure that made it profitable does not survive the handover.
Quote-to-Job conversion with three non-destructive merge strategies, budget snapshots, and the invoice mode captured at the moment of acceptance rather than reconstructed at billing.
Between work done and time recorded
Time goes in late, rounded down, or not at all. Retainer and senior work in particular never fits a stopwatch, so it gets guessed or skipped.
Time reconciliation flags any Job completed with no time recorded against it. VibeTime records the work a stopwatch was never going to capture, as a percentage allocation with its own approval flow.
Between scope agreed and scope delivered
Extra work gets done because saying no is awkward. The variation is discussed in a call, never governed, and by invoice week it is too late to raise without a fight.
HeadsUp fires a client-facing variation email when burn crosses your threshold, so the conversation happens in week three as a routine touch-point instead of in week eight as a dispute.
Between cost committed and cost recovered
Supplier costs are committed in week two and surface in week eight, unmarked up, absorbed, sometimes billed at cost by accident.
Three-stage cost tracking from estimated to committed to actual, the full purchase order chain with limit-based approval and partial receipting, and cost templates that carry markup and tax defaults.
Between work delivered and invoice raised
The last mile, and where the most money dies. The invoice gets assembled from whatever could be found before month-end. Unapproved time is left off. Variance goes unexamined.
The pre-invoice dashboard shows quoted against actual on every open Job, and blocks the invoice on unapproved time or unmapped accounts. Seven invoice modes including retention release.
Four things this category does not have.
HeadsUp
When a Job crosses your burn threshold, AtomicSam drafts the client email with the scope detail attached. The margin conversation you can still win is the one you have before the invoice.
ActionPlan
Included on Pro and UltraThe delivery layer that sits inside the same system as the money. Board, calendar and timeline views, reusable templates, baselines that show variance against the plan you committed to, and automation that acts on the Job rather than just notifying someone.
VibeTime
Some work never fits a stopwatch. Account management, retainers, senior oversight. VibeTime records it as a percentage allocation across clients, with its own approval lifecycle, so it stops being guessed or skipped.
Desktop time capture
In developmentA companion app that builds an evidence trail of your working day, then proposes time against Jobs. It does not guess and it never writes billable time on its own: it learns your rules, shows what each proposal was based on, and waits for you to confirm.
Quote accepted
Client: Acme Corp
Job created
Budget, rates and invoice mode carried across
Ready to invoice
Pending review
The Job inherits what you sold
Quotes convert into live Jobs without rebuilding scope. Budget, rates and the agreed invoice mode carry across, so the commercial structure survives the handover.
- Fewer handoffs, fewer missed charges.
From the accepted quote to the live Job, nothing is retyped.
Budget vs actual
Variance detectedBudget
$24,000
Actual
$26,400
Margin clarity while you work
Budget against actual as the Job moves, with burn visible before it becomes a write-off. Profit should not be a surprise.
- Better decisions earlier, fewer write-offs later.
See variance early — act while it still counts.
Pre-invoice review
Nothing goes out until it is right
The pre-invoice dashboard shows quoted against actual on every open Job, and blocks the invoice on unapproved time or unmapped accounts.
- Faster invoicing, fewer client questions.
A pre-invoice check that prevents messy surprises.
This week
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Timesheets that people actually complete
Fast capture for the team, with the controls the business needs. VibeTime covers the retainer and senior work that never fits a stopwatch.
- More accurate billables, better forecasting, fewer end-of-week scrambles.
Fast capture for staff — clear capacity for leads.
See what the Job actually earned, before you bill it.
Quoted against actual on every open Job. Missing time, unapproved costs and scope changes surfaced while they are still recoverable.
| Job # | Job | Status | Due Date | Budget | Actual | Invoice | Staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22507 | Website Updates Kererū Partners | Quoted | 20-09-2026 | $0.00 | $0.00 | — | — |
| 22506 | Client Portal Rollout Northvale Interiors | Active | 11-09-2026 | $12,000.00 | $2,000.00 | — | — |
| 22505 | Field App Configuration Northvale Interiors | Active | 29-09-2026 | $9,900.00 | $0.00 | — | PD |
| 22504 | Reporting Pack Build Halberd Advisory | ActiveFOR REVIEW | 05-09-2026 | $720.00 | $0.00 | INV-0001 | — |
| 22503 | Homepage Website upd... Tarn & Hollow Studio | Active | 03-09-2026 | $1,075.26 | $176.84 | — | PD |
| 22502 | Seasonal Campaign Chec... Wren Cottage Foods | Completed | 27-08-2026 | $990.00 | $0.00 | INV-0003 | — |
| 22501 | Website Updates to Che... Tarn & Hollow Studio | CompletedCLOSED | 22-08-2026 | $1,505.82 | $212.91 | INV-0004 | PDJB |
For firms that outgrew the spreadsheet and did not want an enterprise rollout.
Five to fifty people. Agencies, consultancies, architects, engineers. The work got more complex before the systems caught up, and the founder is still the last line of commercial defence. AtomicSam is built for that stage, and it speaks your language: every org sets its own terminology, so Jobs can be matters, engagements, phases or projects.
Control the Job.
Keep the margin.
Start a free trial and run one live Job through it, quote to invoice.
14-day free trial · No credit card required