How Spera Reclaimed 5 Hours a Week and Moved 95% of Clients to Autopay

01 · The Challenge

For the first decade and a half of running Spera, invoicing was one of the most time-consuming and stress-producing parts of Janine's month. On hourly billing, she reviewed every time entry before sending an invoice, and that review process left room for second-guessing. She would discount client bills, wondering whether a certain time was fair to charge, and the mental back-and-forth added hours she never got back.

When invoices did go out, they often went out late. Janine estimates that at the peak of this problem, roughly 25% of her monthly billings never got sent at all. Even as she began transitioning clients toward fixed fees, that figure had only dropped to somewhere between 10% and 15%. Revenue she had earned simply disappeared because there was never enough time or bandwidth to get to it.

Cash flow was unpredictable and reactive. "I did not have my finger on the pulse at all," she said. "It was just super reactive and hard to plan for anything." Collecting payment once invoices were sent required follow-up, mostly by email, with phone calls for the most overdue accounts. That follow-up consumed additional time every single week with no reliable endpoint.

Moving to fixed fees through QuickBooks Online helped reduce some of the review burden, but new problems emerged. QuickBooks invoicing was clunky, the interface changed frequently, and managing payment information and credit card data securely was a growing concern. The tool stack was not built for the kind of automated, recurring billing model Janine was trying to run.

"I know I was leaving money on the table because I was always behind and inevitably, I would forget to invoice someone or just simply run out of bandwidth to invoice.”
Janine Burke, Partner, Spera

02 · The SolutionWhy Anchor

The shift toward fixed and value-based pricing was itself a years-long process that required a mindset change, peer input from a mastermind group of business owners in other industries, and a willingness to rebuild workflows from the ground up. Once Janine committed to that model, she recognized that QuickBooks invoicing was not built to support it cleanly.

She first heard about Anchor through another mastermind group. By her account, the pitch was brief, perhaps ten seconds, and it was enough. The timing was right. She understood immediately that Anchor was designed to handle exactly the kind of automated, recurring billing she needed, and she signed up without hesitation. "I just knew that's what I needed," she said. "And I have not looked back."

Key factors in the decision included the ability to send a professional digital proposal and engagement letter that clients could sign from any device, the option to collect payment method details at the point of signing so that billing could run automatically from that point forward, and the integration with QuickBooks Online for reconciliation.

Implementation

Client migration onto Anchor required sending new proposals and engagement letters, and having each client connect a payment method as part of the signing process. The transition produced no meaningful client resistance. Janine described the response as silence, in the best sense: there were no complaints, no pushback, no squeaky wheels. Clients completed their payment setup without friction and moved on.

The onboarding experience extended beyond clients. Janine noted that the Anchor team was responsive throughout implementation and available to guide her through the process. Today, nearly all of Spera's clients are on a fixed monthly fee with autopay enabled.

The firm's admin team handled client questions as they came in during the transition, walking clients through setup when needed. The conversations were straightforward, and the volume of questions was low.

"My clients, I didn't hear a word from them about it. So, no news is good news, right? I feel like you're always gonna hear from the squeaky wheel and there were no squeaky wheels.”
Janine Burke, Partner, Spera

03 · The ResultsDirect Saving

The most immediate and measurable change at Spera has been the reduction in time spent on billing administration. The firm went from approximately five hours per week on invoicing, collections follow-up, and related admin to roughly ten minutes per week, based on Janine's own assessment. That time is now available for client work and business development, and the stress that came with the old process is gone.

Before Anchor, Janine estimates that the firm was leaving approximately 25% of potential revenue on the table through a combination of discounted invoices, forgotten billings, and uncollected payments from clients who were never invoiced at all. That leakage reflected not just lost money but hours spent second-guessing, following up, and reacting to an unpredictable cash flow. On autopay with fixed fees, that category of loss has been effectively eliminated.

"It’s not just the time, but it’s the stress. I don’t have that weighing over my shoulders all the time. It just allows me to be more focused on what’s more important for me - growing my business.”
Janine Burke, Partner, Spera

Cash flow is now predictable rather than reactive. With 95% of clients billing automatically on a fixed schedule, Janine knows within the first days of each month approximately what revenue has cleared. That predictability has changed how she thinks about the business and how she plans for growth.

The client experience has also improved in ways that go beyond payment mechanics. The proposal and engagement letter process now sets a professional tone from the first interaction. Onboarding is more organized, and Janine hears regularly from new clients that the experience reflects well on the firm. "I definitely feel like it just makes us look so much more professional," she said. "I get great feedback regarding our onboarding experience."