Skip to main content
A retainer is a budget that resets every month. Set the budget once, choose monthly periodicity, and each new calendar month starts fresh. You do not create a new project or a new budget every month.
The example: Bluebird Coffee – Monthly Retainer. 40 hours per month. Priya Raman (Project Manager) runs it. Daniel Okafor (Finance) bills it.

​
Before you start

Plan requirement. Budgets and invoicing are Pro. See Free vs Pro.
You need the Budgets & profitability app on, which needs Projects & tasks and Time tracking. See Apps and modules.

​
Set the retainer up once

1

Priya creates a separate project for the retainer

Keep the retainer as its own project, even for a client who also has fixed price work.Bluebird Coffee has two projects: Website Redesign (fixed $40,000) and Monthly Retainer (40 hours a month). Mixing them into one project means you can never tell which one is profitable.→ Create a project · Client projects
2

Priya sets a monthly budget

Set the budget to 40 hours and the periodicity to monthly.A one-time budget is a single ceiling for the life of the project. A monthly budget is a fresh ceiling each calendar month. The month boundary follows your workspace timezone.→ Recurring retainers · Set a project budget
Choose hours, not money, for most retainers. A retainer is a promise of capacity, and an hours budget counts every hour the same whoever works it. Use money if the deal is “$4,000 of work a month” rather than “40 hours a month”. See Hours vs money budgets.
3

Priya adds the people and sets rates

Add Sarah, Jonas and Ana as project members. Their rates are already set at the person level, so the retainer picks them up.→ Project members · Set a person rate
4

Priya sets up recurring tasks and alerts

Retainer work repeats. Create the standing tasks once and let them recur, instead of retyping them every month.Turn on budget alerts so 40 hours does not arrive as a surprise. They fire at 50%, 75%, 90% and 100% – so at 20, 30, 36 and 40 hours.→ Recurring tasks · Budget alerts

​
A normal month

March at Bluebird.
  • Retainer used: 36 of 40 hours, which is 90%.
  • Four hours unused.
  • Margin: 3,800−3,800 − 1,770 = $2,030, or 53.4%.
The 90% alert fired near the end of the month. Nothing needed doing.
Unused hours do not carry into April. The budget resets on 1 April. If your agreement with the client says hours roll over, you have to track that yourself – the reset is a clean line.

​
The month you go over

April at Bluebird. A campaign launch pushes the work up.
  • Retainer used: 48 of 40 hours, which is 120%.
  • Eight hours over. In April those last eight hours were Jonas’s, at 120anhour,sotheoverageisworth∗∗120 an hour, so the overage is worth **960**.
  • Margin on the whole month: 4,960−4,960 − 2,480 = $2,480, or exactly 50%.

​
What Priya does about it

1

She saw it coming at 36 hours

The 90% alert fired with a week of April left. That is when the conversation happens, not on 1 May.→ Budget alerts
2

She tells Ruth before the work happens

Priya messages Ruth at Bluebird: the retainer is at 36 of 40 hours, the campaign needs roughly another 8, and Northwind can either stop at 40 or bill the extra at standard rates.Getting agreement before the hours are worked is the difference between an invoice and an argument.
3

Ruth approves the extra

Bluebird agrees to the 8 extra hours.
4

Daniel bills the retainer and the overage separately

Two lines, or two invoices:Keeping the overage on its own line is what makes it obvious to the client, and easy for you to see how often it happens.→ Create an invoice · Invoice from tracked time
5

If it happens three months running, change the retainer

One busy month is normal. Three in a row means the retainer is the wrong size. Raise it to 48 or 50 hours and reprice.→ Set a project budget

​
Read the retainer every month

Save one retainer report and schedule it for the first working day of each month. Then the review happens whether or not anyone remembers. See Schedule a report.

​
Retainer patterns that work

​
Common questions

No. A monthly budget resets at the start of each calendar month, in your workspace timezone. If your agreement allows rollover, either track it outside the product, or use a one-time budget for the whole committed block instead. See Recurring retainers.
No. A budget is a measuring stick, not a hard stop. Work continues and the burn keeps counting past 100%. The alerts are how you find out.
Yes, and you should. One client can have many projects. Keeping them separate is the only way to tell which one is profitable. See Client projects.
Only if you share it. A client portal contact sees what is explicitly shared with their company, and budget and cost are internal by default. See What clients can see.
Edit the budget on the project. The new amount applies going forward. Past months keep the figures they were measured against.
On an hours budget, yes – every hour counts. That is worth agreeing with the client up front, because internal admin time can quietly eat a retainer. See Billable vs non-billable.

Monitor project profitability

The weekly check that catches the overage early.

Month-end close

Billing the retainer with everything else.

Quote to invoice

Pricing the project work alongside a retainer.

Track work for a client

The full chain for one client.

Setup for an agency

Running several retainers at once.