# BlueHill for agencies > How agencies run multi-client retainers on BlueHill — per-client portals, time tracking with billable categorization, onboarding templates per client, internal notes the client never sees. ## The agency job pattern, in three lines 1. Onboard new clients into a retainer or project structure. 2. Run the actual work — campaigns, design, development, strategy — across a team that's billable by the hour or by retainer block. 3. Keep clients informed without giving them everything (especially the internal "this client is being difficult" conversations). The first part is templated work. The third part is the trickiest — because most generic project tools either show the client nothing (clients call you for updates) or show them everything (your team can't have a frank conversation). BlueHill is built around that third part. ## Per-client portal, per-client onboarding, per-client billing Every client lives as a [Customer](/features) in BlueHill. Each client gets: - **Their own [portal](/features/customer-portal)** — branded, scoped to only their data, with their team members invited as portal_users - **Their own onboarding template** — cloned from a master template, dates auto-scheduled against their kickoff date - **Their own ticket queue** — work requests, support questions, deliverable approvals all flow through here - **Their own time entries** — billable, scoped to that client only, ready for invoice export - **Their own forms** — brand questionnaires, feedback collection, project intake forms A 30-person agency running 25 active clients has 25 of these. The team navigates between them via the customer switcher; clients only ever see their own. ## The onboarding template — clone, not rebuild The [relative-date onboarding template](/features/onboarding) is built once per service line (e.g., "SEO retainer onboarding," "Brand identity project onboarding") and cloned for each new client. ``` Template: "SEO retainer onboarding" Day 1: Kickoff call (calendar invite sent) Day 2: Access provisioning (Google Search Console, Analytics) — form Day 5: Competitive audit completed (internal task) Day 7: Strategy doc shared in portal Day 14: First content brief approved Day 30: First reporting deliverable in portal ``` When you create the new client "Acme Corp" with a kickoff date of June 1: - Day 1 → June 1 - Day 5 → June 5 - Day 14 → June 14 - Day 30 → June 30 Every CustomerTask is created, scheduled, assigned, and surfaces in both your team's view and the client's portal (where applicable). Your team isn't manually rebuilding the same plan every week. ## Internal notes — what your team thinks vs what the client sees Every interaction in BlueHill is typed (see the [team collaboration page](/features/team-collaboration) for the full table). The crucial split: - `EMAIL_OUTBOUND` → goes to the client, appears in the portal - `INTERNAL_NOTE` → never appears in the portal, never in any customer-facing query Real agency examples: - "Client is asking for revisions on the deliverable that was signed off two weeks ago. Let's quote the revision policy back to them." - "Account manager: this is the third missed payment. Pause work after Friday if not resolved." - "Strategy concern: the brief is changing weekly. Schedule a scoping conversation." Your client never sees these. Your team works in the open internally; the client experience stays clean. ## Time tracking + billable categorization Time entries on CustomerTasks (the `time_estimate` and `time_unit` fields, plus billable categorization) roll up into per-client reports. The reports answer: - **For retainer clients**: how much of the retainer block is consumed this month? Are we over-servicing? - **For project clients**: how much have we billed vs the project budget? - **For internal**: utilization per team member, billable ratio per role For invoicing, billable entries by client by period export to CSV (and import cleanly to QuickBooks). Native QuickBooks sync is on the roadmap — currently a manual import step. ## The white-labeled portal The [customer portal](/features/customer-portal) on Professional includes: - Your agency's logo + color palette - Your custom domain (e.g., `clients.youragency.com`) - A login experience that doesn't say "BlueHill" anywhere - Your branded email templates for portal invites and notifications To the client, this is your agency's platform. To your team, it's BlueHill. Both true. ## A representative week **Monday standup**: open the team dashboard. 25 active clients, 12 with active work this week. Three milestones due Friday. Two retainer blocks at 80% consumption — flag for client conversation. **Monday-Wednesday**: production work. Tasks open, time auto-tracks via the stopwatch. Internal notes capture decisions ("client wants the bolder option — go with v3"). Forms collect brand feedback from a new client. **Thursday**: client check-ins. Portal updates are mostly automated — clients have been seeing status changes in real time. The check-in covers strategic direction, not status. (Time saved per check-in: ~20 minutes.) **Friday**: deliverable shipping. Mark milestones complete in the portal — client gets a notification. Time entries logged. End-of-week summary auto-pulls for the Monday standup. **End of month**: billing run. Export billable time by client. Reconcile against retainer blocks. Send invoices via QuickBooks. ## Outcomes agencies report After 90 days on BlueHill (averaged across agencies switching from "PM tool + portal vendor + time tracker + Notion notes"): - **New-client onboarding setup**: 2.5h → 15min - **Status-update emails per client per week**: 4 → 0.5 - **Billable time captured**: +18% (less time falls through the cracks) - **Retainer reconciliation time at month-end**: 6h → 1.5h - **Account-manager capacity**: +30% (less status-chase, more strategy) ## Pricing for agencies Most agencies land on **Professional** ($79/user/month) for the white-labeled portal, time tracking with billable categorization, and full analytics. Smaller agencies (under 10 people, 1-3 clients) can start on **Starter** ($29/user/month). Enterprise tier (50+ team members) for SSO and custom workflows. [See pricing](/pricing) · [Read customer stories](/customers) ## What this replaces Agencies arriving at BlueHill typically replace: - Asana / Monday / ClickUp for project management - A separate portal tool (Client Portal, SuiteDash, Plutio) - Harvest / Toggl for time tracking - Notion / Google Docs for internal client notes - A spreadsheet for retainer block tracking The consolidation is the value — but the bigger win is the per-client privacy split. You can't half-build that on top of generic tools. ## See also - [BlueHill vs Asana](/compare/asana) — the most common switch