Billing Signal Latency

Billing Signal Latency is the elapsed time between work performed and the moment a client can actually pay for it. Every handoff in that chain (timer to timesheet, timesheet to approver, approval to invoice, invoice to gateway) adds delay that compounds into days sales outstanding. Agencies feel it as a cash flow problem, but the root cause is usually a data problem: hours logged late, expenses missing receipts, or invoices batched to month-end because nobody owns the conversion step. Harvest's time-to-invoice conversion is the canonical example of compressing this chain, while Xero's bank reconciliation and cash forecasting show what becomes possible once the signal arrives clean. The framework matters because reminder automation cannot rescue an invoice that was never sent; shortening latency upstream of collection is cheaper than chasing payment downstream. Measure it per client, not per agency, since retainer accounts and project accounts fail at different points.