Welcome to Drum! This short walkthrough takes you from a sales opportunity all the way through to an invoice, using the same path most consulting firms use day to day.

By the end you will have:

Expect about 30 minutes. Stay high level here; deeper how-tos are linked where they help.

Drum is your single source of truth for professional consulting work: pipeline, delivery, time, claims and invoicing in one place.

Questions along the way? Use the live chat in the bottom-right of any Drum screen.

In the top navigation, click Opportunities (or go to https://app.getdrum.com/opportunities).

You will see the Opportunities Dashboard: active sales opportunities with status, value, owners and more at a glance.

Open an opportunity from the list (a fresh account usually includes a sample one).

An opportunity has:

Update a few fields so the opportunity feels real:

Next, price the work and build a client-facing proposal.

On the opportunity, open the Proposals area (or use Proposals in the top navigation and add a proposal linked to this opportunity).

Click Add Proposal, pick a template, then save.

Two views matter here:

Sections and line items your prospect will see. You can download a Word document from here when you are ready to send.

Click the Project Budget tab. This is where you structure deliverables and tasks, assign resource types and hours, and build an internal price.

Add estimated hours and roles on a few tasks. Rename or add deliverables as needed. The structure you set here becomes the project structure when you win.

Return to the Proposal tab and click Sync Budget. Choose a sync option (a simple consolidated layout is fine for this tour) and confirm.

Your proposal line items update from the budget. Optionally download the Word document, then set the proposal status to Accepted so we can convert.

With the proposal accepted, click Convert to Project.

Review the confirmation (deliverables and budget), then convert.

You land on the new project. The Work tab shows deliverables and tasks that match what you budgeted.

You can log time from the project Work tab, the project Time tab, the timer in the top navigation, or the timesheet.

For this tour, from the Work tab open the menu on a task (three dots) and choose Add Time.

Fill in the time entry and save. Project, deliverable and task budgets update as you go.

Open the Time tab if you want to review every entry on the project.

For a deeper timesheet walkthrough, see Tutorial: How to add and manage time entries on the Drum timesheet.

In Drum, you normally claim progress before you invoice. A progress claim is the structured payment claim (or payment application) you send or attach when billing by deliverable or milestone. The invoice comes from the claim.

If you do not see a Claims tab on the project, turn the feature on: open Settings, choose Features, and enable Enable 'Progress Claim' functionality for projects.

On your project, open the Claims tab and click Add Progress Claim.

On the first claim for a project, choose whether to claim at deliverable or task level. Deliverable level suits most projects. Later claims on that project stay at the same level.

Click Save and Edit.

On the claim, click Claim All Billables in Period so the time (and any expenses) you logged are allocated into the claim.

Adjust This Claim amounts or percentages per claim item so the claim matches what you want to bill. Use Preview Claim Document when you want to see the claim document.

For the full claims guide (including baseline claims and hybrid claims), see Tutorial: Creating & Managing Progress Claims.

When the claim amounts look right, approve and create the invoice. On the draft claim you will see:

For this tour, use Approve & Convert to Invoice so you can review the draft invoice in Drum first.

If you only clicked Approve, use Create Invoice From Claim under the claim table once the claim is approved. Choose whether claim items become one consolidated invoice line or one line per claim item, then save and view the invoice.

On the invoice, set tax rates, account codes, issued date and due date as required, then push to Xero or QuickBooks Online when you are ready.

Nice work. In this first onboarding walkthrough you:

Suggested next steps:

Need help? Email us or use the live chat in the bottom-right of any Drum page.