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Run Retainers and Ongoing Client Collaboration

A retainer uses one long-lived Project with bounded delivery cycles. Each cycle preserves its plan, usage, billing and client-safe report instead of resetting the Project or fabricating repeated financial records.

Configure the retainer

Section titled “Configure the retainer”

Open Financials → Retainer and choose Configure Retainer. Record:

  • optional linked signed Agreement and contract dates;
  • monthly, quarterly or bounded-interval frequency;
  • anniversary or calendar boundaries;
  • fee, Invoice item, HSN/SAC, GST and preparation timing;
  • draft-only or approved safe automatic-issue policy;
  • included hours and deliverables;
  • no, full, capped or expiring rollover;
  • overage visibility, review or proposed-billing policy;
  • renewal notice and grace period;
  • whether clients may see usage and cycle reports.

Activate only after the accepted term and controls are correct. Existing cycles keep their configuration snapshots when future terms change.

Open and plan a cycle

Section titled “Open and plan a cycle”
Run a retainer cycle
  1. Open the current cycle for the correct date boundary.
  2. Add recurring definitions for milestones, tasks, deliverables or client responsibilities.
  3. Select Prepare work. Generated items become ordinary Project records for that cycle.
  4. Deliver through the normal task, review, appointment and client-action workflows.
  5. Refresh allowance usage and review any overage.
  6. Prepare the cycle Invoice when policy and timing allow.
  7. Review closure exceptions, close the cycle, then publish the client-safe cycle report if enabled.

Changing a recurring definition affects future generation only. Generated work remains historical ordinary Project work. Preparation is idempotent, so retrying does not duplicate records.

Track allowance and overage

Section titled “Track allowance and overage”

Usage comes from eligible accepted Project time attributed to the cycle. Rejected, foreign or already-attributed entries are excluded. The cycle shows included time, brought-forward allowance, adjustments, eligible usage, remaining allowance and overage.

An authorised adjustment needs a reason and preserves history. Overage can remain visible, require a decision or propose billing according to the saved policy; it is never silently added to an Invoice.

Prepare recurring billing

Section titled “Prepare recurring billing”

The retainer cycle prepares one canonical Invoice and links it. Amount billed, Credits, collection and outstanding balance come from that Invoice and its Payments. Repeating preparation does not create another cycle Invoice.

Close and report the cycle

Section titled “Close and report the cycle”

Closure checks unfinished generated tasks, open client actions, pending reviews, unreviewed overage and required recurring billing. Resolve the source or use only an authorised, reasoned exception. Closure snapshots the cycle; publishing makes the client-safe report available to stakeholders with cycle-report access.

Use client collaboration

Section titled “Use client collaboration”

When enabled, Delivery → Client Collaboration provides:

  • Messages for contextual asynchronous discussion, with internal or client-visible visibility;
  • Client action items assigned to one stakeholder for an upload, confirmation, review or payment-related responsibility;
  • optional version-specific review annotations.

Client actions remain separate from internal tasks. Only the assigned active stakeholder can complete an action, optionally with a note or upload.

Renew or finish

Section titled “Renew or finish”

Use the renewal control to link the next accepted term without rewriting the current contract or closed cycles. Retainer statuses include Draft, Active, Paused, Pending Renewal, Expired and Terminated. Upcoming cycles without delivery, usage or billing history can be cancelled with a reason.

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