Agency Retainer Hours Tracker
Help a creative-agency account manager keep every client retainer's monthly hours and logged time in one register. Each week it compares this month's hours with each retainer's allotment, forecasts month-end hours at the current pace, and emails the retainers that need a conversation. On request it drafts overage notices and monthly usage summaries for the person to send.
Integrations
General Input Database
Send Email
Industries
Capabilities
- A retainer register with each client's monthly hours, start month, and status, and every hour entry with its date, category, and description.
- A weekly digest email of retainers already over their hours, on pace to go over by month end, or under the usage floor late in the month, with exact hour totals.
- Draft overage notices, monthly usage summaries, and category breakdowns for the person to review and send.
Included resources
What to bring
- Each retainer's client, name, monthly hours, and start month.
- Hours as they are logged or exported from timesheets: retainer, date, hours, category, and a short description.
- Where the digest goes, the weekly day and time, and the forecast and usage floor settings.
Setup
- Add the specialist. Its register app and weekly check share one new database.
- Tell it where to send the digest, when to run it, and whether the default forecast day, floor day, and 50% floor suit your retainers.
- It tries one fictional retainer with a preview run before it reports ready. Turn it on to get the weekly digest.
Scope
- Track and report retainer hours only. It never invoices, bills overage, changes a retainer's terms, or contacts a client; notices and summaries are drafts for the person to send.
- Hours come from the register as entered. It does not estimate missing time or decide what counts against a retainer.
Example
Fictional input and an illustrative result.
Input
Fictional check on 2026-09-24, day 24 of 30, with the default settings. Example Outdoor's Social content retainer has 40 h a month and 36 h logged. Example Foods' Brand design retainer has 20 h and 21.5 h logged. Example Travel's Website care retainer has 30 h and 9.25 h logged.
Output
Retainer hours for September 2026
Checked 2026-09-24 (UTC), day 24 of 30. 3 retainers need attention.
- Example Foods, Brand design: 21.5 of 20 h used (108%), 26.88 h at this pace. Over its monthly hours by 1.5 h.
- Example Outdoor, Social content: 36 of 40 h used (90%), 45 h at this pace. On pace for 45 h by month end, 5 h over.
- Example Travel, Website care: 9.25 of 30 h used (31%), 11.56 h at this pace. Under the 50% usage floor with 6 days left.
Paused and ended retainers are left out. No client has been contacted and nothing has been invoiced.