How to - Retainer billing

TimeCache 7.0 has extensive support for retainer biling. If you have clients who pay on a retainer basis, TimeCache can help with your billing as well as with your time tracking.

Basically all you need to do to bill clients for retainers with TimeCache is to create a retainer billing category.

Then when your retainer period begins, add an entry to your Daily Log that uses a retainer billing category, and enter the retainer amount for the charges for that Daily Log entry.

Meanwhile, if you want to track the actual time you put against a retainer, TimeCache can handle that as well. Just enter your time as you normally do, but use the "Apply to retainer" option for entries billed to a retainer.

When it's time to bill for retainer jobs, use the TimeCache invoice options to show only the retainer amount, or to also include entries applied to the the retainer. (Some users show only the retainer entry(ies), and then follow-up with a report that details the work applied to the retainer.) There is also an invoice option to show a review of retainer activity, including how much of a retainer fee there is remaining.

You can have more than one retainer billing category if necessary. You can also use them for handling situations that aren't formal retainer arrangements, such as day rates.

Download a free copy of TimeCache 7.0 and give it a try yourself.