For independent consultants

A ₹42L year isn’t ₹42L in your account.

Retainers and milestones across three clients, each deducting TDS, each with its own GST. More revenue, more to track. HourSlip holds it all — and shows the one number that matters: what you actually keep after 194J and advance tax.

Founding cohort

Free Pro through beta · founder pricing locked in · no card required

AureliaBeaconKestrel3 clients · FY26
What you actually keep
₹33.7L
of ₹42L billed · 80% kept
Take-homeTDS ₹4.2L · creditedAdvance tax ₹4.1L
Known in June — not discovered the following March.
Three clients, one ledger

Fewer invoices. Far more to keep straight.

Retainers and milestones mean fewer, larger bills — but spread across several engagements at once, each deducting its own TDS, each with its own GST treatment. The complexity isn’t volume; it’s keeping three businesses reconciled in one head. HourSlip holds them in one ledger.

Retainers billed
₹42,00,000
3 clients · FY
GST per client
auto
CGST+SGST / IGST
TDS aggregated
−₹4,20,000
194J across all
Advance tax
−₹4,10,000
4 instalments
Real take-home
₹33.7L
the number that matters
Living in several businesses

Every client, its own P&L — in one place.

Fractional work means you’re effectively running three businesses at once. Each client gets its own financial summary, GST treatment, and TDS trail — switch between them, or see the whole book combined, without three spreadsheets fighting each other.

3 active engagements · FY 2026–27
FY BILLED
₹42,00,000
OUTSTANDING
₹7,50,000
TDS WITHHELD · 194J
₹4,20,000
GST TREATMENT
mixed
Aurelia Capital
₹18,00,000RETAINER
Beacon Health
₹15,00,000MILESTONE
Kestrel Ventures
₹9,00,000RETAINER
Retainers, advances & milestones

Advances drawn down cleanly, GST on the right base.

You took an advance up front; each month’s work draws it down. Get the GST base wrong and the invoice is off — and your client’s auditor notices. HourSlip applies the advance correctly, charges GST on the right amount, and keeps the running balance in view.

  • Auto-recurringmonthly retainers generate and send themselves
  • Milestone & Proformafirm-grade layouts with PO reference and signature
  • Formula columnscustom templates that look like a firm sent them
Advance ledger · Aurelia Capital
Retainer drawdown
Opening advance₹6,00,000
May retainer · drawn−₹4,50,000
Closing balance₹1,50,000
GST base (drawn)₹4,50,000
IGST · 18%₹81,000
Invoiced this month₹5,31,000
194J across every client

The TDS they all hold, added up and credited.

Each client knocks 10% off under 194J before paying. Spread over three engagements, that’s lakhs sitting as credit against your PAN — easy to lose track of, easy to under-claim. HourSlip aggregates it across clients and reconciles the lot against your 26AS/AIS.

TDS receivable by client · FY 2026–27
Aurelia Capital₹1,80,000
Beacon Health₹1,50,000
Kestrel Ventures₹90,000
All reconciled to 26AS · Sec 197 where it applies
Total TDS credit · ITR₹4,20,000

Credited against your tax in full — not the fraction you remembered to track across three clients.

Gross is a vanity number

A ₹42L year is not ₹42L in your account.

After 194J TDS and four advance-tax instalments, what’s left is the only figure that matters. HourSlip compares old-vs-new regime on your real receipts — and applies 44ADA (now s.58(2) Sl. 3 of the Income-tax Act 2025) presumptive only where your work is an eligible profession (many management and strategy consultants aren’t) — then schedules advance tax, so you set money aside before the demand, not after the 234B/234C (now ss.424/425) interest.

Gross billed · FY 2026–27
₹42,00,000
₹33.7L
Take-home · ₹33,70,000
TDS withheld · ₹4,20,000Advance tax · ₹4,10,000

The TDS your clients withhold is credited against your total tax at ITR — claimed in full, not lost. Your effective tax here is about 20% under the new regime; the take-home is known in June, not discovered the following March.

Pro · Accountant access

Hand your CA one clean cockpit, not a drive of PDFs.

At year-end your accountant gets an OTP-protected, read-only link spanning every client — GSTR exports, the TDS reconciliation, ITR-4 summary and a tidy P&L, already done. Revocable any time. They never need your password.

Accountant access · read-only
Shared
GSTR-1 · 3Ball clients
TDS · 26ASreconciled
ITR-4 summaryexport-ready
Tally XML · P&Lper client
hsl.in/ca/aurelia-menon · OTP-gatedRevoke
And the rest of it

Firm-grade, without the firm.

The multi-client machinery is the spine. Around it sits the everyday tooling that lets one person bill like an established practice — getting paid, billing back, and handing off — without hiring a back office.

Billing
05
  • Recurring retainers — auto-generate and send
  • Advances drawn down — GST on the right base
  • Milestone & Proforma — PO reference, signature
  • Custom templates — formula columns
  • CGST+SGST / IGST — correct per client location
Getting paid
05
  • Share link — UPI · Razorpay · bank
  • Automated reminders — skip the awkward follow-up
  • Payment prediction — per-client DSO
  • Billable expenses — bill back, mileage
  • Receipt OCRPro
Across clients
05
  • Per-client P&L — project codes & tags
  • Client health — shareable statements
  • GSTR-2B reconcile — input creditPro
  • Read-only CA access — all clientsPro
  • Tally · ITR-4 export — spanning the book
Early access · 2026 cohort

Your time is worth more than reconciling 26AS by hand.

You closed the engagements. Don’t lose evenings to the billing and tax that follow. Put it in one place and get back to the work clients pay you for.

Founding cohort: free Pro through beta, plus founder pricing locked in. No card required.