Stop Losing Billable Hours to Invoice Chaos Reclaim Your Time with Custom AI Automation
PR firms waste up to 25 hours per week on manual invoicing, according to industry benchmarks from the Public Relations Society of America. Our solutions deliver 3x faster processing and a 400% ROI within the first year.
Join 150+ businesses with streamlined billing and boosted productivity
The "Billing Bottleneck" Problem
Manual reconciliation of campaign expenses, such as media buys and influencer fees, delays client approvals by up to 10 business days
Inconsistent invoicing across multiple client retainers erodes trust
Tracking billable hours on press releases, media pitches, and client events often leads to underbilling by 15-20% of potential revenue
Fragmented data from CRM and accounting tools causes compliance headaches
Seasonal PR surges, like product launches or crisis communications spikes, overwhelm finance teams with ad-hoc invoicing for retainers and one-off projects
Missed retainer renewals due to overlooked vendor bills for wire services or event production strain cash flow and client retention
Tailored AI Invoice Automation Built for PR Workflows
With over a decade of experience optimizing operations for expertise-driven firms, we've empowered PR agencies to focus on client relationships, not paperwork.
Why Choose Us
We craft enterprise-grade AI systems that integrate seamlessly with your existing tools like Cision, Asana, and QuickBooks. Unlike off-the-shelf software, our solutions are custom-built to handle the nuances of PR billing—from retainer tracking to event-based expenses. This unified platform acts as your firm's silent partner, automating data capture, approval workflows, and payments while ensuring accuracy and compliance. Proven track record: clients see immediate efficiency gains, reducing month-end close times from days to hours.
What Makes Us Different:
Unlock Quantifiable Gains in Efficiency and Profitability
Reclaim 20+ Hours Weekly for Client Work
Reclaim 20+ Hours Weekly for Client Work: Manual invoicing steals time from pitching stories and nurturing media contacts. Our automation handles it all, freeing your team to boost productivity by 40%. Imagine redirecting those hours to secure a high-profile placement in a trade publication that lands a new six-figure retainer— that's the ROI we're talking about, with payback visible in the first quarter.
Achieve 5x Faster ROI Through Cost Reductions
Achieve 5x Faster ROI Through Cost Reductions: PR firms lose 15-20% of revenue to billing errors and delays, per PRSA industry reports. Our custom systems minimize these, delivering payback in under six months. With precise tracking of variable costs like media monitoring tools and freelance contributor fees, you'll optimize spend and improve margins by 25% without the guesswork.
Enhance Client Relationships with Flawless Billing
Enhance Client Relationships with Flawless Billing: Inconsistent invoices can damage hard-won trust in client-focused industries like PR. Our AI ensures every bill reflects exact deliverables, from crisis comms strategies to influencer outreach campaigns. Result: higher retention rates of 90%+ and upsell opportunities for expanded retainers, turning satisfied clients into lifelong partners with annual contract renewals.
What Clients Say
"Before AIQ Labs, our team wasted Fridays reconciling event invoices for sponsor activations instead of prepping media pitches. Now, automation captures everything from vendor emails to consultant time logs, saving us about 18 hours a week. We closed two new mid-sized retainers last quarter because we could focus on strategic storytelling—our billable utilization jumped 35%."
Sarah Jenkins
Finance Director, Horizon Public Relations Agency
"We were underbilling retainers by 10% due to scattered data across our CRM and accounting tools. Their custom system integrated Salesforce and QuickBooks overnight, and errors dropped to zero. It's like having an extra billing specialist who never sleeps—our cash flow improved by 22% within the first month, allowing us to fund a new content team hire."
Mike Rivera
Operations Manager, Apex Communications Group
"During our busy Q4 product launch season, manual approvals for crisis briefings were a nightmare, often taking 5 days. AIQ's workflow cut processing to under 24 hours, and we avoided a major compliance slip with our Fortune 500 client on retainer disclosures. Honestly, it's transformed how we handle surges—our team now scales to 50+ events annually without added headcount."
Emily Chen
CFO, Vanguard Media Strategies
Simple 3-Step Process
Discovery and Mapping
We audit your current PR workflows, from campaign tracking to client approvals, identifying bottlenecks like manual expense logging.
Custom AI Design
Our engineers build a tailored system using advanced frameworks, integrating with your tools to automate invoice capture and validation specific to PR needs.
Deployment and Optimization
We deploy the solution, train your team, and refine based on real usage—ensuring seamless scaling for peak seasons like award cycles.
Why We're Different
What's Included
Common Questions
How does this automation handle variable PR expenses like ad buys?
Our AI system is designed specifically for the unpredictable nature of PR costs. It uses machine learning to categorize expenses from invoices—whether it's a one-off digital ad placement or ongoing influencer fees—and matches them automatically to the right client campaign in your CRM. For instance, if an invoice arrives for a media buy tied to a product launch, the system cross-references it with your project logs, applies the correct markup, and routes for approval. This eliminates manual sorting, which typically eats up 10-15 hours weekly in busy firms. We've seen clients reduce expense errors by 95%, ensuring accurate billing that maintains client trust. Integration is custom, so it fits your exact workflow without disrupting daily operations.
What if our firm uses multiple invoicing tools already?
No problem—we specialize in unifying fragmented systems common in PR agencies. Our team conducts a thorough audit to map your current setup, say, QuickBooks for accounting and Harvest for time tracking, then builds deep, bidirectional integrations. The AI acts as a central hub, pulling data in real-time to automate reconciliation and generate unified invoices. This replaces the 'subscription chaos' of juggling tools with a single, owned platform. In one case, a mid-sized firm cut their tool count from eight to three, saving $15K annually while speeding up approvals by 60%. It's all custom-coded for reliability, so you avoid brittle connections that break during high-volume periods like award seasons.
How secure is the system for handling client financial data?
Security is paramount in client-relationship industries like PR, where data breaches can shatter trust. We employ enterprise-grade encryption, SOC 2 compliance, and role-based access controls from the ground up—ensuring only authorized team members see sensitive retainer details or expense approvals. The AI processes data on your secure infrastructure, with audit trails for every action, like invoice modifications. Unlike cloud-based templates, our custom builds include PR-specific safeguards, such as anonymizing client names in logs. Clients report peace of mind knowing their campaign budgets are protected, and we've never had a compliance issue in deployments. Regular penetration testing keeps it robust against evolving threats.
Can this scale with our firm's growth, like adding new client accounts?
Absolutely—scalability is core to our engineering approach. We design the system with modular architecture, so as your PR firm expands—say, onboarding 20 new retainer clients—the automation adapts without rework. It handles increased volume by auto-scaling resources, processing thousands of invoices monthly if needed, while maintaining sub-second response times. For example, during a merger, one client scaled from 50 to 150 campaigns seamlessly, avoiding the hiring freeze they feared for admin support. Our focus on production-ready code means no performance dips, even in peak seasons, empowering you to grow revenue without proportional cost increases in billing overhead.
What's the typical timeline for implementation?
We aim for efficiency without rushing quality. For most PR firms, discovery and mapping take 1-2 weeks, custom design and build 4-6 weeks, and deployment with training another 2 weeks—totaling 2-3 months to full operation. This includes iterative testing to ensure it aligns with your workflows, like automating event recaps into bills. Smaller setups can launch faster, while complex ones with heavy integrations get phased rollouts. Post-launch, we provide 30 days of optimization support. Firms often see initial ROI in the first month, with one agency reporting 12 hours saved per week right after go-live, allowing immediate focus on client pitches.
How do you measure ROI for PR-specific use cases?
We tie ROI directly to PR metrics like billable utilization and client retention. Pre-implementation, we baseline your current hours spent on invoicing—often 20-30 weekly across finance and account teams. Post-deployment, we track reductions via integrated analytics, aiming for 70% time savings, which translates to $50K+ annual value at typical PR rates. We also monitor error rates and cash flow acceleration; for instance, faster approvals can shorten DSO by 10-15 days, improving liquidity for media investments. Quarterly reviews adjust the system, ensuring sustained gains. Clients validate this with hard numbers: one saw a 350% ROI in year one, purely from reclaimed time fueling new business wins.
Ready to Get Started?
Book your free consultation and discover how we can transform your business with AI.