Retainers [Guide]
New Retainer Setup | Linking Projects To Retainers | Select Retainers For Billing | Generate Invoices | Resources
A retainer is a contractual fixed billing arrangement between you and your client. The set billing amount may include labor and expenses. Any labor and/or expenses that fall outside of the agreement would be considered "extras", and would be available for invoicing to the client. In Workamajig, the included and/or extras, are based upon Service and Purchase/Expense/Media items.
Retainer Billing allows you to quickly generate a client invoice(s) for these agreements. Projects are setup, as usual, in Workamajig. You need only identify the project as being included in the Retainer agreement. Once associated with the Retainer, you will continue to track the project as usual via the project budget and the various Traffic management screens. However, for billing information, it is recommended that you use the Retainer: Status screen or another custom report to see a true overall picture of the agreement.
NOTES:
- Retainers in Workamajig are NOT based upon quantity or amount, you are billing based on how the retainer is setup and not the project(s) directly. An alternative method to Retainer Billing would be Advance Billing. Alternatively, you can run custom reports for hours logged against projects linked to the retainer in that time period.
- All transactions that are included as part of the retainer are Marked As Billed when you generate an invoice. Keep this in mind if you happen to delete the invoice, the transactions do not get undone. You would have to manually go to each project and edit the transaction back to being billable.
- Transactions that are not included in the retainer are treated as Time and Materials and as such you are billing those actual transactions.
New Retainer Setup
1. From Menu > Billing > Today Billing Click the + sign to add a new Retainer.
2. Fill out the following fields
- Client: select a client that this retainer belongs to.
- Title: enter a descriptive title for this retainer. This title is also used when generating an invoice as the line description for the retainer.
- Description: To further define the retainer
- Offices: If you are using offices pick the correct office from the drop-down
- Start Date: select date from when this retainer is effective. This date will mark the "anniversary" date when the retainer is available for invoicing the Retainer amount. NOTE: The system will not generate retainer invoices prior to this date. Billable labor and items are available at any time for invoicing. However, the Retainer amount is only available for invoicing on or after the "anniversary" date.
- Frequency: select how often the retainer amount should be added to an invoice. Choices are Monthly, Quarterly or Yearly. Extra amounts are available for invoicing at any time, regardless of this setting.
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Number of Periods: enter how many times the retainer amount should be generated. Ex. a 1-year monthly retainer would have the setting of Frequency=Monthly and Number of Periods= 12. After the final period, no more retainer amounts will be available for invoicing. However, Extra amounts will continue to be available for invoicing.
NOTE: Max number of periods: 30 Yearly>>120 Quarterly>>360 Monthly - Amount per Period: enter the Retainer Amount to be invoiced each period. No currency symbols nor commas are necessary.
- Cost Per Period: enter in the cost per period to better populate figures in Revenue Forecasts.
- Currency: If using Multi Currency, then a currency must be selected per the multi currency setup.
- Sales GL Account: select GL account you would like the Retainer amount to Post to. This field is required
- Billing Manager: If you use Billing Worksheets as part of your review process, this option allows you to choose a specific user who can approve the billing worksheet, even though they do not have the security right to add and edit client invoices.
- Invoice Approved By: select an approver for this retainer invoice. This will be defaulted onto the invoice when retainers are generated.
- Contact: You can choose which contact from the client will be the primary you are working with on this retainer
- Invoice Template: You can decide which template to be the default when billing the client
- Layout: Leave Blank
- Include Labor/Expenses: If checked, all Services/Roles and Expenses will be considered a part of the Retainer amount. Approved labor transactions in the project will be Marked as Billed. Any expense item not selected will be considered Extras and placed on an invoice according to the selected Extra Line Format. If Unchecked, all expense items are considered Extras. NOTE: Orders are not considered expenses so can NOT be Marked as Billed.
- Invoice Extras Separate: If checked, all Extras will be placed on a separate invoice according to the selected Extra Line Format. If unchecked, all Extras will be included as a separate line(s) according to the select Extra Line Format. NOTE: As the original Retainer amount has already been agreed upon, it is recommended that you check this so only the Extra amount faces any Client approval issue.
- Extra Line Format: select how you would like extras for the retainer added to the invoice. Choices are One Line or One Line Per Project.
3. Choose the Included Services and Expense Items.
Example of your Service or Item list.
Linking Projects To Retainers
It is not necessary to have your retainer connected to a project. However, if you wish to do this change the billing method on the project you wish to associate to "Retainer" then choose which retainer to link it to. NOTE: you are able to associate multiple projects to a single retainer. The Retainer amount billed each period is not reflected in the individual projects. Only "extra" transactions would be shown as billed in the project. All included transactions are marked as billed. For reporting purposes, Project P&L (multi) will reflect the billing in a "No Project" line.
Select Retainers For Billing
From Menu > Billing > Today Billing. Look under To Bill As Of Date, and click on Retainer.
To Bill As Of Date - There are 2 dates that are important to pull the retainers. The To Bill As Of Date will initially drive both the Through Date and the Invoice Date. They can be individually set after you open the Retainers panel.
This screen is designed to mass generate Client Invoices for your client Retainers.
The key option here is the Through Date. The Through Date is used to pull the unbilled labor and expense amounts, as this will grab all transactions up to that date and process them based on what is included or not in the Retainers setup. From there it will mark all the included transactions As Billed with the date of the Invoice.
The Invoice Date on the Select Other Options panel is used to determine if a retainer is to be billed and calculate the retainer amount.
Retainers with either amount (Unbilled Labor or Expense Amounts and Retainer Amounts ≠ 0) will be billed.
Select Other Options
The matching Retainers available to be billed will be displayed in the Retainers panel. To further filter your retainers, click on the ...
Parent Client: select to filter for a specific Parent Client.
Office: select to filter for a specific Office.
Invoice Date: select a specific Invoice Date. The Invoice Date defaults to the Bill As Of Date.
Generate Invoices
Select the Retainers you want to bill, then press Generate.
Billing Options
Once you click Generate, this opens the Billing Options panel.
Invoice Date: select the date of the Invoice. This defaults to today's date.
Posting Date: select the date the invoice is posting. This defaults to today's date.
One Invoice Per:
- Retainer - This will generate one invoice for each retainer.
- Client - This will generate one invoice for all retainers for that client.
- Parent Client - This will generate one invoice for all retainers for that Parent Client.
Create as Approved: Select this option if you want to create all of the invoices as Approved. Otherwise, the invoices will be generated in an Unapproved status.
Once you generate the invoices, the invoices will be available in the Today Billing > Invoices. You can either submit the invoices for approval or print/email the invoices, depending on the status of the invoice.
Mass Updating Services and Items to be included or excluded
You can add or remove multiple services or items on multiple retainers at once using Views. For example, if you have added new services or purchasing/media items in System Setup and want them included in all active retainers.
Global Search > Views > Billing > Retainers or from Main Menu > Billing Today > Views > Retainers
- Search and filter the view of retainers you want to mass change
- Select the retainers you want to update with the box to the left of the view
- Select Update Retainer Fields and check ‘Items/Services’ and whether you want to add or remove, and select which services or items, based on the radio button selections.