Free Tool
Retainer Profitability Tracker
Is your retainer client actually profitable? Enter 6 months of real hours and see if you're making money or quietly over-serving.
Retainer details
$10,000
60h
Target rate: $167/hr
$65
Fully loaded cost (salary + overhead)
Actual hours delivered each month
+2h over
+10h over
+5h over
+18h over
+12h over
Retainer health
Average Effective Rate
$149/hr
vs $167/hr target — $17/hr below target
Average Margin
56.5%
$5,645/mo profit
Over-Serving
5/6
months over budget
6-Month Profit
$33,870
on $60,000 revenue
Trend
Hours Increasing
avg 62h (first 3mo) vs 72h (last 3mo)
Total Overage Hours
+42h
$2,730 in absorbed cost
Projected Annual Cost of Over-Serving
$5,460/yr
At this pace, you'll give away 84 hours of free work on this retainer annually
Month 1 — 55h (5h under)$182/hr — 64% margin
Month 2 — 62h (+2h over)$161/hr — 60% margin
Month 3 — 70h (+10h over)$143/hr — 55% margin
Month 4 — 65h (+5h over)$154/hr — 58% margin
Month 5 — 78h (+18h over)$128/hr — 49% margin
Month 6 — 72h (+12h over)$139/hr — 53% margin
Why retainer tracking matters
- Most agencies over-serve retainer clients by 15-25% without realizing it
- Effective rate = retainer value / actual hours (not budgeted hours)
- Over-serving erodes your target rate and reduces margin month over month
- Tracking 6 months reveals trends — a single month can be an outlier
- The fix: set hour alerts at 80% usage, have scope conversations early, bill overages consistently
Track retainer hours automatically
Real-time drawdown. 80% alerts. Overage billing. Monthly profitability per client.