Budgets & retainers

Track project budgets and monthly retainers

Catch budget overruns early, before extra work eats into your fee. Track hours or billable value against your budgets as your team logs time.

Try free for 14 days See pricing

No credit card needed. Every feature on every plan.

Illustration of Projects with a website redesign at $8,922 of its $10,000 budget and a rebrand over budget at $4,380 of $4,000.

Illustration of Goals with a monthly retainer at $6,400 of $10,000 and a pinned Weekly Chargeable Goal at 28 of 40 hours.

Keep fixed-fee projects on budget

Set a budget in hours or money for the whole job, then compare it with the work your team logs. Use project reports to see where the hours went and quote the next job more accurately.

When revisions or extra requests start using up the allowance, you have the figures to discuss extra fees with your client before taking on more work.

Explore project reports

Illustration of the website redesign project’s report: 40.22 hours logged and $8,922 estimated billable, with hours broken down by user and by rate.

See your remaining hours as you work

Pin a Goal for a client, project, task or team member to your Time screen. Check progress as you log time, without opening a report.

Keep a weekly billable-hours target alongside a client’s monthly allowance. A quick glance helps you decide how much time to spend on the next task and where to focus for the rest of the week.

Explore time tracking

Illustration of the Time screen with a pinned Weekly Chargeable Goal at 28 of 40 hours, above today’s time entries.

Keep monthly retainers worth the work

The extra calls and quick requests add up. Set a monthly allowance in hours or money for a client or project and see how much each month’s work uses. The budget resets on the first of each month.

When the work outgrows the fee, use those figures to agree a higher retainer or tighter scope.

Retainer questions

Illustration of a monthly retainer project at $1,380 of its $1,500 budget this month.

Bill your fixed fee and agreed extras

Build invoices from your tracked hours, add fixed charges and include any agreed extras. Send the draft to your accounting software to approve and send.

See how invoicing works

Shivani Ganguly, Founder and Principal of Friday Consulting — **Shivani Ganguly**Founder & Principal, Friday Consulting

Questions about budgets and retainers

Can I track a retainer for a whole client?: Yes. Set a monthly Budget on the client’s Contact to cover all their work, or on a Project for one engagement. Choose hours to track all logged time, or money to track billable value at your rates.
Can budgets repeat weekly or yearly?: Contact and Project Budgets can repeat weekly, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly. Each resets at the start of its calendar period, so monthly allowances restart on the first of each month.
Can I budget in money instead of hours?: Yes. A Budget in money measures billable time at your Billing Rates against your allowance.
Can I set a budget for specific dates?: Use a Goal with a start and end date for a defined period. For a whole project with no recurring reset, choose an “in total” Budget.
How do I show a budget beside my timesheet?: Create it in Goals and pin it to the Time screen. Budgets set in Contact or Project settings stay on the Contacts or Projects screen.
Can I track non-billable time?: Goals can include billable, non-billable or all time. Filter by people, clients, projects and tasks.
Can my team try it for free?: Your team gets every feature free for 14 days, with no credit card needed. Every paid plan includes budgets, Goals and retainers; plans differ only in the number of users included. See pricing.

Try budget tracking on your next project

See the hours used and budget remaining as your team logs time. Agree extra scope before the allowance runs out. No credit card needed.