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Retainers & Agreements

Retainers are recurring contracts where companies prepay for a block of hours each month. Vantage tracks usage, handles rollovers, and automates invoicing—so you can focus on delivering value.

Why Retainers Matter

Retainers provide:

Creating an Agreement

1

Navigate to Agreements

Go to Agreements → New Agreement (or from a company’s page).

1

Select Company

Choose the company for this retainer.

1

Set Terms

Configure the agreement:

  • Monthly fee - What they pay
  • Hours included - How many hours they get
  • Overage rate - Rate for hours beyond the allowance
  • Start date - When it begins
1

Configure Billing

Set up automatic invoicing:

  • Billing day of month
  • Auto-invoice or manual
  • Send automatically or draft for review

Agreement Types

Support Retainer

Standard monthly support package:

Development Retainer

Ongoing development capacity:

Hosting & Maintenance

Low-touch recurring services:

Create custom agreement types in Settings → Agreement Types to match your service offerings.

How Periods Work

Each agreement has periods—typically monthly billing cycles.

Agreement: Acme Support Retainer
├── January 2026 (closed)
│   └── 40 hours included → 38 used → 2 rolled over
├── February 2026 (active)
│   └── 40 + 2 rollover = 42 hours available
└── March 2026 (future)
    └── 40 hours + rollover from February

Period Lifecycle

  1. Future - Upcoming period, no time logged yet
  2. Active - Current period, accepting time entries
  3. Closed - Period ended, invoiced, rollover calculated

Periods close automatically at month end (midnight on the last day).

Tracking Usage

The Retainer Dashboard

The Retainers page shows all active agreements at a glance:

CompanyHours UsedRemainingStatus
Acme Corp28.5 / 4011.5On Track
Beta Inc78 / 802Near Limit
Gamma LLC45 / 40-5Over

Status Indicators

StatusMeaningAction
🟢 On TrackHealthy usageNone needed
🟡 Under-utilized<50% used, <25% time leftReach out to company
🟠 Near Limit90%+ usedWarn company
🔴 OverExceeded hoursBill overage

Logging Time to Retainers

When logging time, you can link it to a retainer:

  1. From a ticket - If the ticket’s project is linked to an agreement
  2. Direct entry - Select the agreement in the time entry form
  3. From project - Projects can be linked to agreements

Time logged to an agreement:

Time logged to a retainer counts against the allowance. Time logged to a regular project doesn’t.

Rollover

Unused hours can roll over to the next period.

Configuring Rollover

SettingDescription
EnabledWhether unused hours roll over
Max hoursCap on rollover (e.g., 20 hours max)
ExpirationHow long rollover lasts (e.g., 3 months)

Example

Agreement: 40 hours/month, max 20 rollover

January: 40 hours → Used 35 → 5 unused
February: 40 + 5 = 45 hours → Used 50 → 5 overage billed
March: 40 hours (no rollover from Feb - exceeded)

Rollover resets when a company exceeds their hours. They start fresh next month.

Overage Billing

When companies exceed their hours:

  1. Alert - Notification at 90% usage
  2. Continue working - Time still gets logged
  3. Overage calculated - Hours beyond allowance × overage rate
  4. Added to invoice - Separate line item for overage

Overage on Invoice

Monthly Retainer Fee          $5,000.00
Overage: 5 hours @ $150/hr      $750.00
─────────────────────────────────────────
Total                         $5,750.00

Automatic Invoicing

Set it and forget it—Vantage generates invoices automatically.

Invoice Schedule

  1. Period closes (end of month)
  2. Invoice generated (day you configured)
  3. Either:
    • Create Draft - Review before sending
    • Auto-Send - Sent immediately

What’s Included

Enable “Show detailed time entries” to include a breakdown of work performed. Great for transparency with companies.

Managing Agreements

Adjusting Terms

Need to change the retainer mid-contract?

  1. Go to the agreement
  2. Click Edit
  3. Update terms
  4. Changes apply to next period

Current period terms are locked once it starts. Changes take effect next month.

Pausing an Agreement

Temporarily suspend without canceling:

  1. Go to the agreement
  2. Click Pause
  3. No new periods created while paused
  4. Click Resume to restart

Canceling an Agreement

End the agreement:

  1. Go to the agreement
  2. Click Cancel
  3. Set effective date
  4. Final invoice generated for any outstanding usage

Company Communication

Usage Alerts

Automatic notifications keep companies informed:

AlertTriggerMessage
Near Limit90% used”You’ve used 36 of 40 hours…”
Limit Reached100% used”Your retainer hours are exhausted…”
Period SummaryPeriod closeMonthly usage summary email

Enable/disable in Settings → Notifications.

Company Portal

Companies can view their retainer status in the portal:

Reporting

Retainer Health

Reports → Retainer Health shows:

Profitability

Track retainer profitability:

MetricDescription
Effective RateMonthly fee ÷ hours used
Target RateMonthly fee ÷ hours included
Utilization ValueHours used × standard rate

A retainer is profitable when companies use less than included hours (you keep the difference) or pay overage (you bill the extra).

Best Practices

Sizing Retainers

Preventing Under-utilization

Preventing Overages

Common Workflows

New Retainer Setup

  1. Create agreement with terms
  2. Link existing projects (or create new)
  3. Set up auto-invoicing
  4. Enable portal access
  5. Send welcome email with details

Month-End Process

  1. Review approaching period closes
  2. Check for unusual usage
  3. Review draft invoices (if not auto-send)
  4. Approve and send
  5. Review any overages

Retainer Renewal

  1. Review utilization (aim for 70-90%)
  2. Discuss with company
  3. Propose adjustment if needed
  4. Update agreement or create new

Keyboard Shortcuts

ShortcutAction
G then AGo to Agreements
G then RGo to Retainers dashboard
N then ANew Agreement

Next Steps