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

• Essential facts about retainer projects

• 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

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

If you wish 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 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:

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:

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. 

Changing Period Dates

It is possible to change a period's dates while that period is unlocked. 

To change period dates

1. Go to Retainer Tracking.
2. Click on either the start date or end date of a period on that period's overview live.
3. 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

1. Go to Retainer Tracking.
2. Click on the three dots that can be found at the end of each period's overview line.
3. 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:

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

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.

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.