Overview of Retainer Budget Type

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

• Overview of Retainer budgets

• Creating a Retainer Project
• Reviewing Retainer Periods
• Adding new periods
• Managing 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.

Overview of Retainer budgets

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.
• Planned values represent values for all task estimates falling within period dates, regardless of phase dates or if tasks appear under "Tasks with no phase".
• In Retainer Tracking, there are fields which reflect the time estimated on tasks. These fields provide a check if estimated work is in line with the period targets.
  • For Fixed Price retainers this is “Planned T&M Price”.
  • For Fixed Hours and T&M retainers, this is “Period Plan”.
  • “Rem. Period Plan” and “Rem. T&M Period Plan” reflect the remaining amount of time on unfinished tasks.
• Distribution on periods is determined by the hours from task estimates which are evenly distributed over company working days, as defined in Default working hours in Admin > Company Details.
• Time registered on tasks will appear on periods as:
  • Actual Billable Time Spent to Date or Time Entries. 
• 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

1. 1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
   2. Select All Projects from the dropdown
   3. On the Projects page, click New Project, or click Create from anywhere in the platform and select Project.
   4. Fill in the name field and, optionally, the other fields. 
   5. Click on the More settings dropdown button.
   6. Under Budget Type select Retainer. 
   7. 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.
   8. Select whether the project should pre-create periods. It is possible to create periods manually later from the project itself. 
   9. If Yes is selected, set the number of periods that should be pre-created in the field next to it.
   10. Change/Edit the dates of the periods from the calendar button.
   11. Click Save and Continue.

Updating an existing project type

To change an already existing project to a Retainer Project

1. 1. Click on Projects in the top bar,
   2. Select All Projects from the dropdown.
   3. Locate the project you wish to update to Retainer. 
   4. In the left side panel, click Settings.
   5. Select Financials. 
   6. From the Settings - Financials page, in the Project Budget Type section, click on Change Budget Type.
   7. Select Retainer, complete the Period Billing and Budget type, and then click Change.

Reviewing Retainer 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. 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:

• Retainer Status Chart is at the top of the page
• View Retainer Totals next to the retainer status chart
• Select from All Periods, Past Periods, Current Periods, and Future Periods to view the periods displayed below Retainer Status Chart. 
• Periods will always be sorted chronologically with the earliest being first.

Retainer Status Chart

The retainer status chart reflects a series of data points as shown below. The function of each data point is defined is defined in the following chart. 

Retainer Totals

An at-a-glance view of the retainer's totals. 

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. 

Adding new periods

Periods may be added to Retainer projects during the initial project setup. It is also possible to add new periods to existing retainer projects as long as the project is still ongoing and not in the Halted or Done stages.

To add a new period

1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown. 
3. Open the project you wish to add a new period to. 
4. In the left side panel, click Retainer Tracking.
5. Click on the New Periods button that can be found in the left-hand corner of the page.
6. Select the number of periods that should be created.
7. Click on Add.

Managing periods

Each period contains an actions menu giving users control over individual period management as needed. These actions include Lock period, Unlock period, Create invoice, Change period target, Download Time reported and Delete. 

Locking periods

Once a period's dates have passed or its target has been met, the period may be locked. 

To lock a period

1. Go to Retainer Tracking.
2. At the far right of the period, click the three dots to open the period's actions menu. 
3. Select Lock Period. 
4. Toggle the option that best fits the desired action that will happen when locking the period. 
   1. For details on the options available when locking periods see the Rolling Over, Subtracting or Splitting Periods section of this article. 
5. Click Confirm. 

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. Retainer tracking accounts for that surplus or deficit which may be rolled over to a future period, subtracted from a future period, or split across all future periods. The differences between these three options are as follows:

Unlocking periods and reverting rolled over or subtracted values

If a period has been locked, it is possible to unlock it and revert any previously rolled over or subtracted amounts. The rolled over or subtracted values will revert back to the original period from which the surplus/deficit came from. 

To unlock a period

1. In Retainer tracking, locate the locked period to unlock. 
2. On the far right of the period, use the three dots to open the period's actions menu. 
3. Select Unlock period. 
4. Revert previously rolled over/subtracted values window will open. 
5. Within this window, the total of the previously rolled over or subtracted value will display at the top, and identify the period in which the value was rolled over into or subtracted from.
6. Select Revert Amounts or Don't Revert Amounts. 
   1. Revert Amounts will revert the rollover to the original period it was rolled over from. 
   2. Don't revert amounts will not revert the originally rolled over value. The rollover will remain in the period it was rolled over into. 
7. Confirm the selection. 
   
   
   

Create invoice

It is possible to create invoices directly from retainer periods. Periods do not need to be locked in order to create invoices. It is also possible to create future period invoices, thus why periods are not required to be locked in order to invoice. 

To create an invoice from a retainer period

1. In Retainer Tracking, locate the period to invoice. 
2. On the far right of the period, use the three dots to select Create invoice. 
3. In the Create invoices window, complete the form as needed. 
4. Click Create invoices.
   

To bulk create invoices for future dated retainer periods

1. In Retainer tracking, use the tick boxes on the left of each period to select the periods to invoice. 
2. Select Create Invoices from from the bulk actions menu at the bottom of the page.
3. In the Create invoices window, complete the form as needed.
4. Click Create invoices. 
   
   
   

Change period target

It is possible to change an individual period's target in Retainer Tracking. The period must be unlocked in order to change it's target value. 

To change a period's target

1. In Retainer tracking, locate the period whose target value needs to be changed. 
2. If the period is locked, unlock it by selecting Unlock period from the three dots at the far right of the period. 
3. Once the period is unlocked, select Change Period Target. 
4. In the Change Period Target window, enter the new target price or target hours value.
5. Click Update. 
   

Download Time reported

Each period contains a list of all time registrations made on tasks falling within the period. It is possible to export a CSV of the time registrations for review outside of the retainer project. 

To download time reported

1. In Retainer tracking, locate the period to download time from. 
2. On the far right of the period, use the three dots to select Download Time reported. 
3. Locate the file in the browser's downloads folder. 
4. Open the file and review/manage as needed. 

Deleting periods

It is possible to delete a period if necessary. The option to manage any rolled over or subtracted values will appear before the period is deleted. Deleting a period is final and cannot be undone. 

To delete a period

1. In Retainer tracking, locate the period to delete. 
2. On the far right of the period, use the three dots to select Delete.
3. In Delete Period window, click Confirm to acknowledge the action. 
   
4. In the next Delete Period window, determine how to handle any rolled over or subtracted values that may have already been rolled over or subtracted when the period was locked. 
5. Click Confirm to delete the period. 
   

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

1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown. 
3. Open the project you wish to extract period date from. 
4. In the left side panel, click Retainer Tracking.
5. Click on the download button that can be found in the upper left-hand corner of the page.