RETAINER BILLING
Every retainer drafted, overage included.
No more eating the extra hours.
Set the fee, the included hours and the rate for extra hours once. Handl drafts each cycle's invoice as the cycle starts and adds the extra hours from last cycle.
Free for 7 days, then flat plans from $29/mo.
- Drafted as each cycle starts
- Overage added as a line
- Hours tracked against the fee
- Drafted as each cycle starts
- Overage added as a line
- Hours tracked against the fee
Questions this page answers
- Did last cycle's extra hours get billed?
- How many hours have they used this cycle?
- Did the retainer invoice go out on time?
How it runs
- One settings card with three lime values: fee $3,500, cycle monthly, included 20 hours.
Set it once.
Fee, cycle, included hours, overage rate and what happens to unused hours.
- Logged hours flow into a bar that fills to 17.5 of the 20 included hours.
Hours arrive on their own.
From Toggl, Harvest, Clockify or Hubstaff, against the fee.
- A cycle ring marking the 1st, and a drafted invoice with an extra-hours line of 4 hours, $600.
Each cycle is drafted.
As it starts, with last cycle's overage on its own line.
Try it, no sign-up
Retainer extra hours calculator
Included hours, the last three cycles and your rate for extra hours. See what you billed, what you didn't and the real hourly rate. Result on the page, no sign-up.
Open the calculatorWhat you get
- Drafted as the cycle starts
- Last cycle's overage, on its own line
- Tax included, ready to send
Questions people ask first
Do I have to leave QuickBooks or Xero?
No. Each invoice pushes straight into them.
Will it send without me?
Only if you switch auto-send on. It's off by default.
What about unused hours?
Choose per retainer: reset each cycle, or roll over with a cap.
Can I bill overage mid-cycle?
Yes. Bill it now with one click, or let it ride to the next invoice.
What if hours land on a project Handl doesn't have yet?
They show as "not in Handl yet" with the hours, until you import the project. Nothing's lost.
What does it cost?
From $29 a month. 7-day free trial on every plan.
Mix and match
Works alongside your other billing models
Most agencies don't run pure retainers. You've got a couple of retainer clients, a project on milestones, an hourly overflow client and the odd fixed-fee one-off. Handl runs all four at once — no separate tool, no separate logic.
Integrations
Works with the tools you already run.
Monday, Asana, Jira, ClickUp and Linear for the work. QuickBooks or Xero for the books. Stripe for the payments.
See how QuickBooks and Xero connect. Paying contractors? Pay them from your own Wise or Airwallex balance.
The problem
Why retainers break most invoicing tools
Retainers look like the easy one. Same fee, same date, every cycle. So why does it go wrong? Because the invoice is the easy part. The hard part is everything around it. Most invoicing tools treat a retainer like a recurring charge and stop there — they'll fire out “$4,000, due net 14” on the 1st and call it a day. But a retainer isn't really a subscription. It's a promise to do a chunk of work for a fixed fee — and the whole thing only makes money if the work stays inside the fee.
That's where it falls apart. The fee is fixed but the hours aren't. One cycle a client goes quiet and you're up. Next cycle they want three rounds of revisions, a last-minute deck and a “quick favour” — and you're 11 hours over without noticing. Your recurring-invoice tool can't see any of that. It doesn't know the work. It just bills the same number while your margin quietly bleeds out the side. The retainer that “runs itself” is usually the one losing you the most money.
“Hours delivered can quietly exceed the fee. That's the retainer trap in one line.”
How Handl handles it
Handl plugs into the place the work actually lives — so it doesn't just bill the calendar. It watches the work behind the fee.
Bills each cycle, automatically
Set the fee, the cycle and the included hours once. Handl drafts the invoice as each cycle starts, you press send (or switch auto-send on), and it pushes to QuickBooks or Xero so your books stay reconciled. You stop “remembering the 1st.”
Tracks hours against the fee as the cycle runs
Pulls logged time from Toggl, Harvest, Clockify or Hubstaff and shows included vs delivered while the cycle is still running — not three weeks after you've already lost the margin.
Turns overage into a billed line, not an awkward email
When you blow past the included hours, Handl adds the extra to the next invoice as its own line, or bills it now with one click. You stop eating it because the conversation felt too hard.
This is the bit nobody else does. Your accounting tool holds the money but has no idea you went 11 hours over. Your PM tool knows you went over but can't bill a cent. Handl sits between them and connects the work you did to the money you're actually owed.
What is retainer management software?
Retainer management software is the tool that runs the ongoing, fee-based side of client work: it holds the agreement, raises the invoice every cycle, and tracks the hours delivered against the fee. The point of it is doing both halves — the billing and the work sitting behind the billing — in one place.
In practice that’s the fee and billing cycle per client, hours pulled in from your PM or time tracker and measured against what’s included, the overage added to the next invoice as its own line, and a rough view of what’s landing next. Plenty of tools will send a recurring invoice. Whether the fee still covers the work is the part you’re actually paying for.
How do you invoice clients for retainers?
Three steps. One: agree the fee and the billing cycle in writing before any work starts. Two: raise the invoice on that cycle automatically — same day, every cycle, never a decision you have to make. Three: track hours against the fee as the cycle runs, so when you go past what’s included you can bill the extra while it’s still fresh.
Step three is the one everyone skips. The first two are easy and every tool does them. But a retainer only makes money while the work stays inside the fee, and you can’t tell whether it did if you’re checking three weeks after the cycle closed.
Longer version in the guide to retainer billing for agencies.
What should you do with unused retainer hours?
Pick a policy and put it in the agreement before it ever comes up. There are three that work: use-it-or-lose-it, where hours reset each cycle; rollover with a cap, where unused hours carry for a cycle or two and no further; or bank-and-review, where you log the underuse and have a proper conversation about resizing the retainer at quarter end.
None of them is clearly right. Use-it-or-lose-it is the cleanest to run and defensible — you reserved the capacity whether they used it or not — but some clients will push back hard. Rollover feels fairer and clients love it, right up until they’ve banked a stack of hours and call them all in during your busiest cycle. That’s why the cap matters.
The one thing that always goes badly is having no policy. Then it’s a negotiation, every time, and you’ll lose it.
Questions, answered
What is the best software for retainer management and invoicing?
How does automated retainer invoicing work?
Can I run retainers and milestone projects side by side?
Pricing
From $29/mo. Unlimited retainers on every plan.
Unlimited retainers, unlimited clients, on every plan — solo at $29, up to 3 seats at $99, unlimited team at $199. No “contact us for the retainer module.” Most retainer tools that actually track hours charge per user — the bill grows with every account manager you add. Handl prices by plan, not per head, and the top one caps at $199/mo however big you get. A freelancer with two retainers pays $29. A 10-person studio running twenty knows exactly where the ceiling is. Talk to Darren →
Get started — $29/mo
Reclaim your time
No more eating the extra hours.
Handl drafts each retainer as the cycle starts, overage included. You press send.
