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A monthly budget refills at the start of each calendar month. A one-time budget does not – it is a single pool for the life of the project. Use monthly for retainers, where the client buys the same amount of time or money every month.

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What a retainer budget does

Bluebird Coffee pays Northwind Studio for 40 hours a month, ongoing. That is not one 40-hour pool that runs out in week two. It is a fresh 40 hours every month. A monthly budget models exactly that:
  • utilisation is measured against the monthly amount
  • the alert ladder – 50%, 75%, 90%, 100% – arms fresh each month
  • going over in March has no effect on April’s pool
A one-time budget is the opposite. One pool. When it is gone, it is gone.

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How to set one up

The Resets control only appears when the project’s Billing method is Retainer. That coupling is deliberate: a monthly reset only makes sense on work that is sold monthly.
1

Set the billing method first

In project Settings, find the Billing method card. Choose Retainer and save it. Its description reads “How this project bills its client. A retainer lets the budget reset every month.”
2

Open the Budget card

The Resets dropdown is now visible, because the Budget card reads the saved billing method. An unsaved switch does not reveal it.
3

Choose the budget type and amount

For Bluebird’s retainer: Total hours, 40.
4

Set Resets to Monthly

The helper text confirms: “A monthly retainer resets its budget at the start of each calendar month.”
5

Save

Click Set budget. A toast confirms Budget saved.

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Where the month boundary falls

The month boundary is midnight on the 1st, in your workspace timezone. That timezone matters. A workspace in New York and a workspace in Singapore roll over at different real-world moments.

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A concrete example

Northwind Studio’s workspace timezone is America/New_York. If the same workspace were set to Asia/Singapore, the rollover would happen twelve hours earlier in UTC terms – but still at local midnight on the 1st for the people using it.
The boundary is a calendar month, not a rolling 30 days and not your billing anniversary. A retainer that starts on the 15th still resets on the 1st.

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Example – a month in the life of a retainer

Bluebird Coffee – Monthly Retainer. 40 hours, monthly. The rungs for a 40-hour pool: March Check the arithmetic: 8 + 14 = 22; 22 ÷ 40 = 55%. Then 22 + 9 = 31; 31 ÷ 40 = 77.5%. Then 31 + 6 = 37; 37 ÷ 40 = 92.5%. Then 37 + 7 = 44; 44 ÷ 40 = 110%. March ends 4 hours over. The health chip is red and the 100% alert has been sent to Priya and the workspace owners. April At midnight on 1 April, New York time, the pool refills. The 50% alert fires again in April, even though it fired in March. That is the point of a monthly budget. Each rung fires once per month, not once per project. March’s 4-hour overrun does not carry into April. The retainer is a fresh promise every month.

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How the alert dedup works

TimeTracker records a rung as fired so it cannot fire twice for the same pool.
  • On a one-time budget, the record is per project and rung. The 75% alert fires once, ever.
  • On a monthly budget, the record is per project, rung and month. The 75% alert fires once in March, once in April, once in May.
Crossing the same rung twice inside one month – for example if hours are deleted and re-logged – does not send a second alert. Dismissing an alert from the in-app list never re-arms it. Dismissing is only about tidying your own list.

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What monthly does not do

Unused hours do not carry over. If your contract promises rollover, you are managing that outside the budget – a monthly budget always measures the current month against the full monthly amount.

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Money retainers

A retainer can be money instead of hours. Bluebird Coffee – Monthly Retainer, $6,000 a month. Set Budget type to Total money, the amount to 6000, and Resets to Monthly. Utilisation is then approved cost against $6,000, refilling each month. Remember the difference: a money retainer counts approved cost, so it lags until timesheets are approved. An hours retainer counts every hour the moment it is logged. On a retainer, where the client is watching the burn in near real time, the hours version is usually the more useful signal. See hours vs money budgets.

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Permissions

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Common questions

The project’s saved billing method is not Retainer. Change it in the Billing method card, save, then reopen the Budget card.
No. The two options are One-time and Monthly.
The budget resets on the 1st regardless. To measure a non-calendar cycle, use a report with a custom date range instead.
No. Each month is measured against the full monthly amount, starting from zero.
No. Health reads the current period’s utilisation. A red March does not make April red.
Your workspace timezone, set in workspace settings. It is not each person’s own timezone, so the whole team sees the same month boundary.
Yes, if you cross the same rung again. That is intentional – it is a new month and a new pool.

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Troubleshooting

Set a project budget

Where the Resets control lives.

Budget alerts

How the ladder re-arms each month.

Hours vs money budgets

Choosing the unit for a retainer.

How budgets work

What counts toward the pool.

Dates, times and timezones

Where the workspace timezone is set.

Project settings

Changing the billing method.