01 · The Challenge
Before Anchor, Ignite Spot's billing workflow was spread across a patchwork of disconnected platforms. Proposals were built and sent through PandaDoc, with contact information manually copied over from HubSpot. Each proposal was customized for the individual client, a process that consumed hours of staff time. Once a client signed, payment authorization was collected separately, either through PandaDoc or DocuSign depending on the situation. Payments were then processed through either QuickBooks or Bill.com at different points in the firm's history, each requiring its own manual setup of recurring transactions.
"We always had a huge reconciliation process. Candidly, we would probably find one to two every single month that didn't follow. Whether it was a client that disengaged, a proposal change - there was always something we missed.”
Dan Luthi, Partner, Ignite Spot
The result was a billing environment with no single source of truth. Proposal changes triggered a separate authorization process. Recurring transactions required manual verification every month to confirm they had run correctly. And the reconciliation process at month end was consistently expensive in staff time, with the team regularly surfacing one to two billing errors per month including clients who had disengaged, proposal changes that had not been reflected, or payments that had simply not been processed as expected.
Dan estimated that reconciling and verifying the billing cycle was consuming hours every month across the team, with the back-and-forth between staff and himself adding further time to an already manual process. The firm had also never been able to offer clients credit card payment as an option: the complexity of managing card processing across their existing platforms made it impractical, limiting client payment flexibility to ACH only.
02 · The SolutionWhy Anchor
Dan first encountered Anchor through a market research conversation that surfaced it as a potential solution to the firm's billing challenges. A few weeks later, Anchor followed up directly, and the conversation moved into a product walkthrough, which coincided with a conference where the Ignite Spot team was able to meet and see the platform in more detail.
"The time savings alone was going to be such a massive win for us that there was actually no way that the sales team could be like, no, this doesn't make sense.”
Dan Luthi, Partner, Ignite Spot
The decision came down to operational clarity. Dan had visibility into the operational side of the firm and understood what a consolidated billing system would mean for the team's time. The value proposition was straightforward: proposals, agreements, payment collection, and reconciliation in a single connected workflow, with clients able to choose their own payment method. The time savings alone made the case difficult to argue against, and the sales team agreed once they saw the platform.
Implementation
After the decision was made, Ignite Spot moved into Anchor quickly. The integration with HubSpot allowed the team to move contact information directly into Anchor for proposal creation, removing the manual copy-paste step that had previously added time to every new client engagement. The firm was able to begin sending proposals within 30 to 40 minutes of an initial client conversation, with payment collection configured as part of the same workflow.
The transition allowed Ignite Spot to retire both PandaDoc and Bill.com entirely, consolidating the proposal, agreement, and payment functions into a single platform. The firm also introduced credit card payment as an option for clients for the first time, giving clients the ability to select whichever payment method worked best for them.
03 · The ResultsDirect Saving
The operational impact was immediate and measurable across several areas.
Reconciliation and billing admin time dropped by more than 10 hours per month. The manual monthly verification process that had previously occupied significant team time, along with the back-and-forth between staff and Dan to resolve discrepancies, no longer exists. Dan described the confidence of knowing the system is squared away as having freed up meaningful time to focus on other priorities, including workflow development and testing new tools for the firm.
"That conversation doesn't exist anymore. The confidence in being able to know it's already taken care of has been able to save us two, three, four hours a month per person of conversation back and forth.”
Dan Luthi, Partner, Ignite Spot
Processing costs fell substantially. When Ignite Spot was using QuickBooks for payment processing, the firm was paying approximately $2,200 to $2,300 per month in merchant fees. That figure is now approximately $900 per month, a reduction of roughly $1,300 per month. The firm also eliminated subscription costs for PandaDoc, which carried approximately $5,000 per year in licensing fees for the team's users, and DocuSign, which added another $500 to $600 per year.
Client payment friction also decreased. With ACH as the only prior option, some clients had payment arrangements that were cumbersome to manage. Anchor gave clients the ability to select their preferred payment method, and the pre-approved collection model means clients receive automated notifications when payment methods are approaching expiration, removing a source of failed collections that previously required follow-up.
The billing errors that had been surfacing monthly, the missed proposal changes, the disengaged clients not caught in time, the incorrect recurring setups, have stopped appearing. The team no longer runs a separate verification pass at month end.
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