If you charge clients a fixed fee or work under a retainer arrangement, you can still track the actual time spent on the work. This gives you visibility into your real costs while billing the agreed amount.
This guide covers two common scenarios: billing a fixed price for completed work and writing off time against a prepaid retainer.
Track Progress with a Project Budget
Before you start working, set up a Project under your client's Contact for the fixed-fee or retainer work. See here for a full guide on creating a Project
Add a Budget to the Project using the billable value setting and set the amount to match your agreed fee. You can also set the Project rate to match your standard hourly costs. This lets you compare your actual cost against the fixed amount as you work. See our guide on Goals/Budgets here for more info!
For retainer arrangements, set the frequency to match your billing cycle - monthly, for example. Tracking towards the Budget will reset at the start of each period.
If you're consistently going over budget, it may be worth reconsidering your pricing for future agreements.
Bill Time against a Fixed Price Item/Project
When you've completed work with an agreed fixed fee, you can adjust the Invoice to reflect that price while keeping your time records accurate.
Go to the Invoices screen and start a new Invoice for your Contact
Select the Time Entries from your Project
Select the entries you want to include, then click Merge to combine them into a single Line Item
Click on the amount and change it to your fixed fee
Update the description if you'd like it to reflect the fixed-price arrangement
Complete your Invoice as normal
ℹ️ Note: The Time Entries attached to this Line Item aren't affected by the change. Your time records stay accurate, showing the actual hours worked. Only the Invoiced amount changes.
When you send or confirm the Invoice, all the underlying Time Entries will be marked as billed.
Write Off Time Against a Prepaid Retainer
When a Contact has already paid through a retainer or similar arrangement, you won't want to send an invoice.
Instead, you can use MinuteDock's invoicing to mark the time as billed in your records, without sending the invoice to your client.
Go to the Invoices screen and start a new Invoice for your Contact
Select the Time Entries from your retainer Project
Format the Line Items as needed
Click the dropdown on the Send button and select Confirm Without Sending
Using the 'Confirm Without Sending' option will mark the time entries as invoiced without delivering anything to the client.
Your Time Entries are now marked as billed and won't appear in future invoicing suggestions.
The Invoice will still appear in your Sent Invoices list for your records. If you need to make the time available for invoicing again, you can delete the Invoice. See our guide on deleting/archiving invoices for more information
Video Tutorial: Track Time and Bill for a Fixed Fee