The monthly retainer stops quietly covering extra work.
Retainers, projects and campaigns across many clients, with the team split between them. See the included hours, the hours worked and the extra work to bill separately, client by client.
The problems every agency knows
The client pays a fixed retainer, and the work is never fixed.
The “small” requests that never end
One more banner, one more version, one more post. Each looks small, but together they go past the retainer’s hours and nobody bills them.
Retainers with no view of consumption
You know what the client pays each month, but not how many hours they cost you. You find the loss at renewal, if at all.
People split across too many clients
The same designer works on five brands. Without a shared view, two account managers promise them for the same week.
The special project, billed from memory
The campaign outside the retainer started with an email. At billing time nobody remembers what was agreed or how many hours went into it.
Every client, with their work in plain sight
See each client’s retainer consumption
You set up the retainer with its included hours. Hours used and hours beyond the allowance show on every contract and in work in progress. The overage, priced at the agreed rate, goes on the invoice instead of being quietly absorbed.
The overage reaches the invoice See the moduleExtra work goes into the contract
What falls outside the retainer goes into the contract through a change order, with approval and history. You see the hours worked over budget and decide what happens to them: bill them, or absorb them with the reason on record.
Every extra request, a decisionPlan the team across every client
You book people onto each engagement and see real availability: capacity minus leave and what other clients have booked. A plan that asks more of someone than they have available can’t be submitted.
Deadlines you can keep See the moduleMargin on every retainer and project
Set the cost of logged hours, at standard cost, against what you invoiced and you get the margin on every retainer and project, with the client in view. You see which retainers are worth renewing at the same price and which need renegotiating.
You renegotiate with numbersBefore the retainer renewal
The e-commerce client wants to renew its content retainer for another year at the same price. You open the contract: 78 hours worked out of 60 included, for the fourth month running.
You check profitability: the retainer is in the red, and the Black Friday campaign, agreed by email, was never billed. You put it into the contract through a change order, as approved extra work.
You come to the client conversation with the numbers: either the retainer grows to the real volume, or what it includes shrinks. Either way, extra work is no longer free.
The right bundle for an agency
Professional Services
From the hour logged for a client to the invoice export.
- Projects (planning & booking)
- Time
- Billing & Work in Progress