Data Files samples / Consultancy or agency

Bramble Studio

Clients, projects, time sheets, expenses and invoices for a small studio or consultancy.

Download 145 KB13 tables, 17 queries, 8 reports, 5 print templates and 6,412 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

Rutba Data Files with Bramble Studio, the consultancy or agency sample, open at its print template Invoice: a page laid out with the business's own name and address at the head and one of its records filled in, beside the list of the database's tables and how many records each holds — Bramble Studio in Rutba Data Files, made with its invented records and open at its print template Invoice.

Overview

For a small firm that sells its time: a design studio, a consultancy, a bookkeeper or anyone who quotes for work, logs hours against it and invoices for it. It answers the questions such a firm asks each week: what time has not been billed yet, which projects are eating their budget, who is owed what and for how long.

Bramble Studio is invented. Six people work there: two partners, a senior designer, a designer, a developer and a project manager. They make brand identities, websites, annual reports, packaging and campaigns for about two dozen small and mid-sized clients, most in the UK and a few in Ireland and the US. Some work is for a fixed fee paid in stages; some is by the hour, invoiced at the start of each month for the month before, including three retainers that renew.

The records cover the last sixteen months, counted back from the day the file is made. Proposals come in every few days and about two in three are won, fewer when the studio is already busy. Every hour is logged to a task, including the studio's own time on admin and new business, so the billable share of each person's week shows. Some projects overrun, a few are paused by the client for a while, some invoices are paid late or in two parts, and the studio is quiet in August and shut over Christmas.

It prints what a studio sends out: the invoice, with time, fee stages and expenses on separate lines and VAT worked out line by line; a proposal listing the parts of the work and the hours allowed for each; a statement of a client's invoices and what is still owed; each person's weekly time sheet to sign; and a letter of engagement setting out the work, the fee, payment and who owns the result.

In Rutba Data Files, choose Consultancy or agency on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.

It suits, with small changes

A freelance designer or developer
A marketing or branding agency
An architect's practice
IT or management consultants
An accountant or bookkeeper who bills by the hour
A small law practice
A translation or copywriting business
A video or photography studio

Read on

Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 6 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 13 tables, and how they are related.
Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.

Things you should know

Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
The studio is in Clients too, as Bramble Studio with the Sector Internal, so that its own time (admin, new business, training) can be logged to three internal projects. Leave it out of anything you send: it has no invoices.
Numbers are typed, not made for you: invoices INV-, proposals QUO- and time sheets TS-, each a new run each year. Each number can be used only once.
An invoice's Net, VAT and Total are kept on the invoice as it was sent. If you change a line afterwards, change these too, or the totals block on the printed invoice and the figures in the revenue queries will differ.
VAT comes from the client: 0.2 for clients in the UK, 0 for clients abroad. Each invoice line carries its own Tax Rate so an old invoice keeps the rate it was sent at.
An hourly project's Fee is the estimate while the work goes on; when it is completed the Fee becomes what its billable time came to, so Project profit compares like with like.
Each print template prints for every record of its table unless you choose one: choose the invoice, project, client or time sheet you want before pressing Print. The Proposal and the Letter of engagement are for projects whose Status is Proposal or newly Active.
The Statement lists every invoice the client has had, paid or not; the balance owing is the sum of the Owing column.

Starting with your own records

Start with Business: your own name, address, VAT number, bank details and the words for the foot of your documents, which every print template uses. Then Staff: each person with their hourly cost and charge-out rate. Then Clients and their Contacts, adding your own firm as a client if you want to record internal time. Add a project for each piece of work, with its kind, budget hours and fee, and break it into Tasks. From then on, log Time Entries and Expenses as the work goes. When you invoice, add the Invoice and its Invoice Lines, and put the invoice in the Invoice field of the time entries and expenses it covers, so they drop out of the unbilled queries. Record each Payment when the money arrives and bring the invoice's Paid and Status up to date.

Making it yours

Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.

If rates differ by client, add a Rate field to Projects and use it instead of the person's charge-out rate in the Unbilled time query.
A law or accounting practice can rename Projects to Matters and Tasks to Stages, and add a Matter Type and a Fee Earner field.
Add a Payment Link field to Invoices for clients who pay by card online, and a line in the Invoice template that prints it under the bank details.
Add a Leave table, or an internal Holiday project, so time off shows on the time sheet and the hours per week add up.
Add a Status of Invoiced to fixed-fee projects whose last stage has gone out but whose work is not signed off yet.
Add a Mileage expense category with a Miles field, and a calculated column at your mileage rate in the Unbilled expenses query.
Make a query of Time Entries by Work Type to see which kinds of job overrun most, before quoting for the next one.

Questions people ask

How do I see what has not been invoiced yet?: Run the query Unbilled time for hourly work, or print the report Work in progress. Unbilled expenses lists costs to pass on. Fixed-fee work is invoiced in stages instead, so its hours never show there.
How do I print an old invoice again?: Open the print template Invoice and choose the invoice by its number, or open the invoice in the Invoices form and print from there. The template prints whatever is in the record, paid or not.
Why does a time entry need a Time Sheet?: So the week's hours can be printed, signed and approved together. Each entry points at its person's sheet for that week; open a new sheet each Monday for each person.
A client pays in two parts. What do I do?: Add a Payments record for each part. Bring the invoice's Paid up to the total received and set Status to Part paid until the rest arrives, then Paid.
How do I see who is busy and who has room?: Run Hours by person, last 30 days. It shows each person's hours, how many were billable and what those were worth, against their Hours per Week in Staff.
A client needs their order number on our invoices. Where does it go?: Type it in Client PO on the project. The Invoice prints it as Your order number on every invoice for that project.
Can I use the letter of engagement as it is?: Treat it as a draft. It is written plainly for this sample and is not legal advice; have it checked for your own country and kind of work, then change the words in the print template Letter of engagement.

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