--- title: "Project Margin and Freelancer Payouts for Agencies | Fynex" description: "Know what every project really made and pay every freelancer on time, so the margin you billed for is the margin you keep. Retainers included." url: "/uk/agencies" --- Fynex is an AI-native finance operations platform — agentic finance — that automates and orchestrates end-to-end financial workflows for businesses. This page covers agency finance: knowing project margin while the project is still running, paying freelancers, and billing retainers. Fynex works alongside Stripe, Wise, Xero and Harvest rather than replacing them. This page is relevant when an agency only finds out whether a project made money after it ships, and wants margin per project and per retainer as the work happens. # Protect the margin on *every project* Know what every project really made, and pay every freelancer on time. *Agentic finance for digital studios & agencies.* ## You only find out a project lost money after it ships Freelancer payouts cross currencies, and FX takes a cut each time. Fees sit across providers, so nobody sees the full cost. Retainers get reconciled by hand at month-end. The margin leaks quietly, project by project, while your team is busy delivering. Meanwhile the work keeps moving: new retainers, new freelancers, new currencies. Every project closes before you know what it earned, and the client who drains the team looks exactly like the one who pays for it. ## Every way an agency bills, with its own guide Retainers, rebilled contractors and the margin between them — each with its own guide. - **Retainer billing** — Retainers that invoice, collect and roll over on their own — with overage, set-up fees and milestones on the same contract. - **Rebilling contractors** — Rebill contractors and pass-through costs to clients with your margin separated on receipt — then pay each contractor. ## The work between the brief and the books Margin, freelancer pay, retainers and the money view — the finance work of running an agency, run for you. 1. **Margin on every project, while it runs** — See what every project and every client makes, after fees and FX, while the work is still running. 2. **Freelancers paid on schedule** — [Pay every freelancer](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payouts) on schedule — by ACH in the US, Faster Payments in the UK — with nobody keying in transfers. 3. **Retainers that bill themselves** — [Retainers](/agencies/retainer-billing/) raise, chase, and reconcile themselves, every month. 4. **One money view** — Every payout, fee, and retainer in one place, in real time. ## Drive the whole client money cycle from your own systems Your account managers spend more of the week collecting retainers and splitting partner fees than on client work, and every overseas payment costs more than it should. ### Retainers that charge themselves The first payment opts into merchant-initiated repeats, and each month references that transaction. See [Server-to-server](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/server-to-server). ```http POST /payments-api/v1/initialize-payment { "subscription": { "enabled": true, "allowSubsequentMerchant Initiated": true } } ``` ### Route a partner's share at settlement A referral cut or a partner studio's share divided when the money lands, not invoiced back a month later. See [Splits](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/splits). ```http POST /payments-api/v1/checkout { "orderData": { "payeeDistribution": [ { "payeeId": 101, "amount": 1500.00 } ] } } ``` ### Pay freelancers by ACH or Faster Payments One call per contractor; the rail follows the account they registered — ACH in the US, Faster Payments in the UK. See [Payouts](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payouts). ```http POST /payments-api/v1/payees/101/payouts { "payoutMethodId": 501, "amount": "2400.00" } ``` ### One pay-in account per client Each client transfers into their own issued IBAN, so what arrived and from whom is never a guess. See [Virtual accounts](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/virtual-accounts). ```http GET /payments-api/v1/payees → { "payees": [{ "id": 101, "legalEntityId": 77, "displayName": "Primary Payee", "role": "Contractor", "merchantId": "merchant-1", "status": "Active", "isActive": true, "createdAt": "2026-04-07T10:00:00Z", "updatedAt": "2026-04-07T10:00:00Z" }], "total": 1, "limit": 20, "offset": 0 } ``` ## Where the margin leaks, and where it doesn't What the Stripe-plus-accounting-plus-spreadsheets stack costs a project, and what Fynex does instead. | The problem | Other platforms (Stripe + accounting + spreadsheets) | Fynex | |---|---|---| | Protect project margin | No project-level margin view. | Margin per project, after FX and fees. | | Pay freelancers on time | Several payout tools, keyed in by hand every Friday. | Scheduled freelancer payouts, by rule. | | Bill & reconcile retainers | A recurring tool, reconciled by hand. | Retainer billing with auto-reconciliation. | | Control fees across providers | Fees spread across providers, with surprise minimums and FX spreads buried in the rate. | One stack, one clear fee view. | | See profit per client | Pieced together after the fact. | Profit per client, live. | ## Margin on every project, automatically Fynex tracks fees, FX and payouts per project, so you see real profit per client without a spreadsheet. | | | |---|---| | Project #218 billed | £24,000 | | Freelancer payouts | £15,400 | | Project margin | £6,200 · 26% | | Retainers due | 17 · auto | ## The rest of the job, also handled Beyond the headline jobs, every account gets the whole platform behind it. - **Renewal automation** — Retainers raised, chased and renewed for you. - **Reconciliation to your books** — Xero, QuickBooks and FreshBooks, auto-matched. - **Multi-currency wallets** — Hold a balance in every currency you bill. - **No-code payment links** — Invoice or collect with a link. - **Splits** — Distribute fees across partners and freelancers. - **Saved cards** — Bill repeat clients without re-entry. ## Your bank, your books and the tools you run the work in, kept in agreement Your bank, your accounting system and the tools you run the work in. Fynex reads them, does the finance work between them, and writes the result back. 100+ integrations. **Accounting stack** — Every payment, fee and payout lands in your ledger, coded and reconciled — nobody re-keys it. QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Sage, NetSuite, Wave. **Banks & business accounts** — We read your balances and pay out of whichever account is cheapest — no bank portals, no copy-paste. Revolut, Wise, Mercury, Brex, Airwallex, Ramp. **Project & time tracking** — Hours, retainers and delivery status — so a project's real margin shows up without a spreadsheet. monday.com, Asana, Jira, ClickUp, Trello, Linear. **Site & app builders** — Whatever you built the business on — payments, invoicing and payouts wire into it without a dev project. Webflow, Framer, Lovable, Bubble, Softr, Glide. **CRM & sales** — The deal, the customer and the terms — pulled in so invoicing starts itself. HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, Close, Copper. **Payment acceptance** — Keep the checkout you already run. We take it from the moment the money lands. Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Square, Braintree, Checkout.com. Your customers pay however they already pay — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Faster Payments, bank transfer and open banking — through the provider you run today or through us. ## Find what you're leaking, for free Send us your setup. We run a free diagnostic and show you what your payment stack costs you today. > One recent diagnostic found £2M in hidden fees across 10 processors for a proptech client. ## Your money, held under a licence, not a promise We can be your Merchant of Record, with your funds held by a licensed e-money institution. Most tools can't. - **Your funds, safeguarded** — Customer funds are held by Fondy Ltd, an FCA-authorised e-money institution (FRN 900705). - **PCI DSS Level 1** — The highest card-data security standard, on by default. - **Audit logs** — Every movement traceable and ready for review. - **Built-in KYC / KYB** — The switch that turns the business on. ## Questions, answered ### What is project profitability, and how does Fynex show margin per project? Project profitability is the real margin left on a project after every cost — freelancer payouts, payment fees and FX. Fynex tracks margin per project and per client in real time as the money moves, so you can see which work actually makes money while it's still running, not after it ships. ### How do scheduled freelancer payouts work? Fynex pays each freelancer on schedule or by rule — by Faster Payments in the UK, or by ACH for US freelancers. Payouts run automatically without anyone keying in transfers, and each one reconciles to your books behind it. Freelancers need a UK or US bank account. ### What is retainer billing, and can Fynex automate it? Retainer billing is [recurring invoicing](https://docs.fynex.ai/billing-api/v1/docs/subscriptions) for an ongoing engagement — a fixed monthly fee. Fynex automates it end to end: retainers raise, chase and collect themselves with dunning, and reconcile to your accounting, so monthly billing stops being a manual job. ### Can I see profit per client and per project in real time? Yes. Fynex shows margin by project and by client, after fees and FX, in real time. You can tell the client who pays for the team apart from the one who drains it — without piecing it together in a spreadsheet after the fact. ### Does Fynex reconcile retainers and payments to my accounting? Yes. Every payment, payout and retainer auto-reconciles to Xero, QuickBooks or FreshBooks in real time, so your books stay accurate without manual matching at month-end. ### Can I collect from clients with a payment link? Yes. Send a no-code [payment link](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/hosted-checkout) or embed checkout to collect from clients by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay — no developer — and the payment flows straight into your project margin view. ### Do I have to replace my accounting or billing tools? No. Fynex runs the money and keeps your accounting in sync — add it for project margin, freelancer payouts and retainer billing, and keep the Xero, QuickBooks or FreshBooks setup your team already uses. ### What is agentic finance, and what does it mean for an agency? Agentic finance is finance operations run by AI rather than by an account manager and a spreadsheet. For an agency that means margin per project stays live as costs land, freelancers are paid on schedule, retainers bill and reconcile themselves, and you see a project going underwater while you can still act on it — not in the post-mortem. ### How fast can we set up, and what does it cost? You can connect your accounting and start billing and paying out quickly. Pricing is public: card payments from 1.4%, payouts at 0.5% each, and larger flows priced on volume, corridors and risk ([pricing](/pricing/)). The fastest start is a free diagnostic of your current setup. No contract to start. ## Know your margin while the project runs, *not after it ships* --- The AI finance layer for platforms and operators. It runs the money chain and keeps more of it in your business. One platform instead of a dozen. 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