Retainer projects allow you to have better control of your project's financials every month for the duration of the project. The article will cover what exactly Retainer projects offer and how they work.
This article includes:
- Understanding Retainer Agreements
- Creating a Retainer Project
- Reviewing the Project's Periods
- Exporting the Retainer projects periods
Understanding Retainer Agreements
A retainer agreement is a long-term work-for-hire contract between a company and a client that retains ongoing services from you and provides you with a stable amount of payments. It’s different from other pricing models in the way that the client or customer pays in advance for professional work to be determined later.
Essential facts about retainer projects
A retainer project in Forecast focuses on periods. These periods have a target, either a price or hours, that they need to reach. The way that the period meets its target is by collecting data from its corresponding phase on the Scoping page. The way this works is as follows:
- A period will have a start and end date. A phase that falls under that start and end date will fall under that period. This could be more than one phase as periods can cover long periods of time.
- All of the time registered in tasks within that phase will be brought over to the periods' tab either as actual revenue or Hours registered depending on whether the project is set on Fixed price, fixed hours, or time and material.
- Hours registered after a period's deadline will not be registered in that period but in a future period depending on the date of input.
- If a period does not reach its target before its end or goes over its target, it is possible to move that surplus/deficit to future periods.
Creating a Retainer Project
There are two ways to have Retainer Projects in your project portfolio. Either by creating a brand new project or by changing an already existing project to a Retainer project.
To create a retainer project
-
- Click Projects in the top bar.
- Select All Projects from the dropdown
- On the Projects page, click New Project, or click Create from anywhere in the platform and select Project.
- Fill in the name field and, optionally, the other fields.
- Click on the More settings dropdown button.
- Under Budget Type select Retainer.
- Select the following details:
- Rate Card: Select the rate card that should be associated with the project. All financial information will be based on the rates that the rate card currently has.
- Billing period: Select what the billing period should be. Choices are Daily, Weekly or Monthly. The periods that are created on the project will be based on this setting. For example, if the setting is set to monthly then the periods will be months.
- Frequency of billing: Select how frequently the project should be billed. For example, if the billing period is set to monthly, it is possible to set the frequency to two months instead of one.
- Period budget type: Select whether the period's budget type should be Fixed Hours, Fixed Price, or Time and Material. Based on this setting the last option will adapt accordingly.
- Hours/price/target: Depending on the previous setting, it would be required to input either the hours, the price, or the target. This will be the goal, of each period. It will be based on the number you set from here.
- Select whether the project should pre-create periods. It is possible to create periods manually later from the project itself.
- If Yes is selected, set the number of periods that should be pre-created in the field next to it.
- Change/Edit the dates of the periods from the calendar button.
- Click Save and Continue.
Updating an existing project type
If you wish to change an already existing project to a Retainer Project:
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- Click on Projects in the top bar,
- Select All Projects from the dropdown.
- Locate the project you wish to update to Retainer.
- In the left side panel, click Settings.
- Select Financials.
- From the Settings - Financials page, in the Project Budget Type section, click on Change Budget Type.
- Select Retainer, complete the Period Billing and Budget type, and then click Change.
Reviewing the Project Periods
The impact of selecting Retainers as the budget type of a project is a bit more significant than the other two budget types available (fixed price, time and material). That is because with the Retainers budget type the project now has one additional page, Retainer Tracking.
Retainer Tracking is the hub of any retainer project. From here it is possible to check different functions and information to ensure that the project is financially on track. The layout of the Periods tab is as follows:
- At the top of the page is the Retainer Status Chart.
- Next to the retainer status chart, it is possible to view the Retainer Totals.
- Below the retainer status chart it is possible to select which periods to view on the page. Options are All Periods, Past Periods, Current Periods, and Future Periods.
- Below the above options, is where the actual periods reside. Periods will always be sorted chronologically with the earliest one being first.
Retainer Status Chart
The retainer status chart reflects a series of data points, which are:
Data Points | Function |
Default Period Targets |
This is the target that was set at the creation of the retainer project and it is the overall target that should be reached. This target is depicted by a thin blue line that goes across the chart. The target will have a different form depending on the period budget type selection. Under fixed price, the target will be a price whereas under fixed hours and time and material it will be hours. |
Period Target |
This is the target that each period has. A period's target could be different than the default period target. Each period's target can be edited while the period is still unlocked. |
Subtracted Price/Hours | Depending on the period budget type, the option to view either the subtracted price or hours will be available. This option will reflect the price/hours that were taken away from a future period. |
Rolled Over Hours/Price |
This will reflect the rolled-over price/hours that were added to future periods. A period may go over or under its target before it is locked. Locking a period that has gone over or under allows for that surplus/deficit to be rolled over to future periods. |
Planned Time/Price |
This will reflect the originally planned time or price for the period. The planned time or price derives from the estimated hours of that period's corresponding phase on the scoping page. |
Time Entries/Actual Revenue |
This will reflect the time entries or the actual revenue of the periods' corresponding phase on the scoping page. Time entries and actual revenue derive from the hours registered on tasks under the phase that corresponds with the period. |
Retainer Totals
From here it is possible, at a glance, to receive an overview of the retainers' totals.
The information presented here is as follows:
Data Point | Function |
Total Project Target |
This will reflect the total project target. The total number is derived by multiplying the original sum by the number of periods in the project. (5.000$ times five periods for example). If the period's target is changed and it is different from the original target this will be reflected in the total. |
Total Actual Revenue/Total Hours Registered |
This will reflect the total price that has been accumulated in the project or the total amount of hours registered. In both cases, the number will derive from the number of hours registered in the tasks of the project. |
Dates |
The start and end dates of the periods. This will show the start date of the first period and the end date of the last period. |
Periods | This will reflect the number of periods that this project has. |
Default Period Target | This will reflect the default period target as it was set at the creation of the project. |
Average Price/Hours per Period |
This will reflect the average price or hours per LOCKED period. The result is obtained by adding the actual revenue or time entries for the locked periods and dividing the sum value by the number of locked periods. |
Conflicted Time/Price |
This will reflect an amount that was not factored into a period. This will be the result of ignoring a rollover of hours or price over a subtraction. |
Navigating Across Retainer Tracking & Page Breakdown
In Retainer Tracking, it is possible to navigate across the different periods by selecting one of the options that allow you to focus on a specific group of periods. This is based on the dates associated with each period. Those options are:
- All Periods: Will show all periods on the periods' page.
- Past Periods: Will show only past periods.
- Current Periods: Will show only those periods that are currently running.
- Future Periods: Will show only future periods.
Retainer Tracking Breakdown
The periods themselves contain a little information all of which is shown differently. To view this information, expand on a period by clicking anywhere on the periods' line. The view will look like this.
Once the period is expanded, the following information will be available.
Data point | Details |
Chart |
The chart will show a breakdown of the total price of time entries or total time entries by day during the duration of the period. |
Graph | The graph will show how far, percentage-wise a period is. |
Totals |
To the right of the graph are the totals. Totals will show the hours registered on a given period or the actual revenue that the period has accumulated. In both cases, the period will look at how many hours were registered in the corresponding periods' phase. |
Tasks | Below the chart is the list view. This will show all of the tasks that the project team has registered time on. The tasks shown will belong to the corresponding phase of that period. The period will only show time registrations that fall under that period's start and end date. |
Changing Period Dates
It is possible to change a period's dates while that period is unlocked.
To change period dates
- Go to Retainer Tracking.
- Click on either the start date or end date of a period on that period's overview live.
- Select the new start and end date.
Locking Periods
It is also possible to lock a period once it has passed or each target has been reached.
To lock a period
- Go to Retainer Tracking.
- Click on the three dots that can be found at the end of each period's overview line.
- Select Approve & Lock Period.
Rolling Over, Subtracting, or Splitting Periods
Locking a period that has not met each target or has gone over its target leads to a surplus or deficit of hours/price. To that end, the platform allows for that deficit or surplus to be either rolled over to a future period, subtracted from a future period, or splitting. The differences between these three options are as follows:
Option | Function |
Rolling over to the next unlocked period | If the team has not utilized the full amount set for a period, the surplus can be rolled over to the next unlocked period. |
Splitting rollover across all future periods |
It is also possible to split the surplus across all of the future periods that are unlocked. Choosing this will make locking the period undoable. It will not be possible to unlock the period again after splitting. It will still be possible to add time registrations to the period through conflicts, but conflicts will similarly be split across all unlocked future periods. |
Subtracting from the next unlocked period | If the team has gone over the amount set for a period, then it is possible to subtract that amount from the next unlocked period. |
Splitting subtraction across all future periods. |
It is also possible to subtract from all future periods to split the subtraction equally. Choosing this will make locking the period undoable. It will not be possible to unlock the period again after splitting. It will still be possible to add time registrations to the period through conflicts, but conflicts will similarly be split across all unlocked future periods. |
Adding New Periods
It is possible to add new periods to a retainers project at any given time so long as the project is still ongoing and not in the Halted or Done stages.
To add a new period
- Click Projects in the top bar.
- Select All Projects from the dropdown.
- Open the project you wish to add a new period to.
- In the left side panel, click Retainer Tracking.
- Click on the New Periods button that can be found in the left-hand corner of the page.
- Select the number of periods that should be created.
- Click on Add.
Exporting the Retainer projects periods
It is possible to extract a retainer projects periods tab as a CSV so that it can be shared outside of Forecast.
To extract a retainer projects periods
- Click Projects in the top bar.
- Select All Projects from the dropdown.
- Open the project you wish to extract period date from.
- In the left side panel, click Retainer Tracking.
- Click on the download button that can be found in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
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