Retainers

A retainer in Runnit is one thing, not a budget you copy every month. Finance > Retainers holds the series, its calendar, one budget per period, the hours carried between periods, and how each period gets invoiced.

Reading a retainer needs Manage retainers or Manage budgets. Changing one needs Manage retainers. Drafting or running its invoice needs Draft invoices.

Create a retainer

In Finance > Retainers, choose New retainer, select the client and enter the name, cadence and first period date. Invoice excess usage is selected by default. Clear it if the agreement does not allow an extra charge, then choose Create.

Edit series terms

Before generating periods, open the retainer and choose Edit terms in Series terms. You need Manage retainers. Ended retainers are read-only.

Choose a Template budget for the same client, billing entity and currency. Its priced lines and allowance are copied into new periods. Choose Load more templates if more choices are available. With no template, new periods start empty. You can open and edit the saved template from Series terms.
Set Periods ahead to a whole number from 0 to 12.
Choose Carry forward. For hours or amounts, set the matching cap and Carry expires after (periods). A blank cap means no cap; zero carries nothing. Blank expiry means no expiry. Existing carry keeps its recorded cap and expiry.
Choose Beyond the allowance and Recover overuse. A set-rate policy needs an Overage rate per hour. If you recover excess through invoices, choose whether to add billable excess to the period invoice. These overrun controls are locked after the first consumption window closes.
Choose an Invoice policy and, when applicable, an Invoice day offset. Zero uses the chosen period boundary, positive days move later and negative days move earlier. An issue policy also needs Allow automatic issue; otherwise the run leaves a draft. Issue permissions and approval rules still apply.
Choose Save terms. Invalid values show guidance and keep the form open. A failed save retains your entries so you can correct them or retry.

Saving terms does not rebuild existing budgets. Choose Generate periods to create due periods, or Apply to future periods separately to rebuild eligible future drafts. Current periods and periods with protected activity stay unchanged.

If template choices cannot load, choose Reload templates. Your saved template and other entries are kept. Without price access, amount caps and rates stay hidden and are not replaced when you save other terms. Ask someone with price access to set a new overage rate.

Choose whether to bill excess usage

For a retainer that bills excess at a line or overage rate, you can change Invoice excess usage on its page before the first consumption window closes. It saves when changed and confirms the save. True-up is off means the agreement will not add excess to the period invoice.

Overrun terms become fixed when the first consumption window closes. Start a new retainer for different terms. Existing retainers keep their saved choice. If an older closed period missed a charge, review the agreement and existing invoices before making a separate corrective invoice. Changing the application does not add historical charges or alter issued invoices.

The calendar

Choose a cadence (weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly) and the date the first period starts. Periods are generated ahead of time as drafts, with draft budgets, so time cannot land on a period nobody has checked.

A period runs from its start date up to but not including the next one, so a day belongs to exactly one period.
A monthly retainer anchored on the 31st lands on the 30th or the 28th in short months and returns to the 31st in the next long one.
A run that was missed catches up. It generates every period that should exist, not just the latest.

Record time against a retainer

Activate the period budget and make sure its lines track time. With time tracking enabled, open My time, choose Add time or Start timer, then choose a project for the same client. In Budget line, choose the retainer line. The budget name appears under each option to help you choose the period. You do not need to create a task first. If a task already uses the retainer line, choose that task and keep From the task.

Draft, closed and archived lines cannot be selected for new time. The existing tracking, period and overrun rules still apply when you save. See Time Tracking & Planning for hours, timers and submitting your week.

Closing a period’s window

Close the consumption window records approved consumption and writes the carry ledger. It is not the financial close: the budget still needs its delivery and its invoicing.

Time still in draft or waiting for approval is reported, never written off. The page tells you how many entries are still to settle.

Carry between periods

Carry records its source period, unit, cap and expiry when first created.

Carry is consumed oldest first, so what is closest to expiring is used first.
Expired carry is skipped rather than deleted, so the ledger still explains where the hours went.
Re-closing a period supersedes only what has not been consumed. Carry a later period has already used keeps its consumption and gets a balancing entry. Corrections go to the earliest eligible open period. Periods that are closed, have recorded time, or have reserved or issued invoices stay unchanged. Repeating an unchanged close does not add another balancing entry.

The policy can carry unused hours, unused hours and overuse, an amount credit, or nothing.

Unused hours keep their original expiry when they pass through later periods. Approved work uses the oldest carried hours first, then the current period’s own allowance. The carry cap applies to forwarded and newly unused hours together for each line.

In Rollover, open Carry origins and expiry to see where each lot began, which period forwarded it, when it expires, and its allocated and remaining balance. Allocated carry belongs to a period. Expired carry remains visible in the history. Unused entitlement is excluded from Still to use and the end-settlement total after expiry. A correction to carry already used still applies, even after the original expiry.

Carry, allowance and excess hours retain up to four decimal places. For example, an allowance of 0.0050 hours appears as 0.005h; it is not rounded away or reduced by more carry than it can absorb. Carry caps accept nonnegative hours with up to four decimal places.

The Period fee under Included and excess shows the same agreed fee as the selected period’s Sold amount. Both follow that period’s budget, including an agreed zero fee. Courtesy hours and carried hours leave the fee unchanged. You need price access to see these amounts.

Adjusting a period

Choose an open period and find Period adjustments. Choose Add hours or Remove hours, enter the hours, choose the allowance line and give a reason. Select Record adjustment. You need permission to manage retainers.

Hourly carry and manual hour changes affect the delivery allowance. They do not change the agreed fee or the amount sold. For example, six carried hours on a ten-hour, $2,000 period make sixteen hours available while the fee remains $2,000. Change the priced quantity through the budget when the agreement itself changes. A price change that conflicts with existing allowance reductions is refused; review the allowance before submitting that change.

The history shows what was requested and the actual allowance change. Removing 20 hours from an allowance of 10 reduces it by 10. Reverse restores that recorded change to the same line and requires a reason. Repeating a reversal returns the one already recorded.

Closed accounting periods and closed consumption windows block new changes. If later adjustments prevent an exact reversal, review the period before recording a new adjustment. Older history may show Not recorded for the actual effect; review those entries before deciding on a correction.

Record added amount and Record removed amount are informational records. They do not change the fee or an invoice. Amounts are shown only when your financial visibility allows prices.

When a period overruns

Approved time fills the included allowance first and becomes billable excess second, at the rates the entries were approved at. What happens to the excess is the series’ policy:

Policy	Effect
At the line rate	Excess is invoiceable at the line’s own rate
At the overage rate	Excess is invoiceable at the retainer’s overage rate
Absorb	Excess keeps its hours and its cost but is never invoiceable, so the margin hit stays visible
Block	The approval that would create the excess is refused

Overuse can reduce the next period, create a true-up charge, or remain unrecovered. The same excess cannot reduce the next allowance and also be billed as a true-up. The retainer states its saved choice.

A retainer funds many jobs. Tasks in any of the client’s projects can be mapped to a retainer line, and the consumption view groups the hours by the project the work was done on.

Invoicing a period

The agreed fee and the excess are invoiced as two separate things, and each can be raised only once however it is triggered: by hand, by the nightly pass or by an automation. A charge already drafted or issued says so rather than producing a duplicate. Close the consumption window before invoicing excess. If the fee was billed earlier, Invoice this period can draft the eligible true-up separately. If the terms prevent a true-up, the result explains why, even when it successfully drafts the fee.

The fee is what the period sold. Hourly carry changes the allowance without changing that fee. Unused amount carry appears as a separate invoice credit, with the same tax treatment as the fee. For example, $1,200 of carry reduces a $2,000 fee to $800 before tax. Periods shows this amount as invoice credit.

A credit can cover the whole fee, producing an invoice with nothing to pay. Excess carry stays available for a later eligible period, subject to expiry. If a re-close reduces carry already used, the correction adds a charge to a future eligible period. It does not change an issued invoice.

Voiding an invoice or crediting its sources for reissue makes those sources available again. Choosing to write off the sources keeps them unavailable.

Policies run at the start or the end of the period, with a day offset, and either draft or issue. An end-of-period policy checks for an outstanding true-up even if the fee was already billed. A start-of-period policy bills the fee; use Invoice this period or the close automation for later excess. Automatic issue needs three things: the retainer allows it, the person it runs as still holds the authority to issue, and the issue approval passes. Missing any one leaves a draft and says which.

Pause, resume and end

Pause stops generation and remembers where it stopped. Resume catches up every period that was missed.
End asks what happens to the unused balance: invoice what is outstanding, forfeit the carry, or leave it live to credit back. The outstanding balance is reported either way.
Apply to future periods rebuilds future periods from the template. It only touches periods that are still draft, untouched by a change order, with no recorded time, manual adjustments or work reserved on a draft invoice, and nothing invoiced. Financially closed periods are skipped. Everything skipped is listed with its reason. Applied carry keeps its original expiry when the budget is rebuilt. If a smaller allowance cannot absorb all overuse, the unused reduction remains available to a later period.

If pausing, ending or closing a consumption window is refused, the explanation stays in the confirmation. Your reason and any selected settlement choice stay available. Correct the problem before trying again. Cancel closes the confirmation; reopening it clears the previous error and reason.

Rates

Role-priced lines use the rate card as it stands when a period is generated. Manual prices keep the template’s entered amounts, and a later rate card edit never rewrites a period that has already been generated.

Review a period with Ru

Open the retainer, select the period, then open Chat. Ask, for example, “Show this period’s allowance, approved usage and excess.”

Where available, Ru shows a review with the period’s start, exclusive end and timezone. The table separates current allowance, approved usage, included hours and excess hours. The excess amount follows the saved overage policy and the rates recorded when time was approved. Absorbing excess can leave excess hours with no charge. Hidden amounts and unavailable outstanding-time counts stay unavailable.

The review shows up to ten allowance lines and ten recent adjustments, with whole-period totals and the number included. Scroll the table sideways to read all columns. Hour adjustments show the actual signed allowance change. Amount records are informational and do not change the hour allowance. Older unknown adjustment effects are reported as unknown.

Choose Review this retainer period to open the same period and inspect its full records. Viewing the chat review does not change allowances, close a window or issue an invoice. It does not forecast future use or calculate carry that has not yet been applied. See Finance with Ru for other questions and authorised actions.

Next step

Bill a period from Invoices, or see the retainer in the Forecast.

Help from Ru

Ask Ru to explain this workflow, inspect records you can access, or carry out supported steps when you authorise them. Your permissions and approval rules still apply. See Finance with Ru.

Overage appears in Finance Reports after you close its consumption window. It belongs to the final included day of the period. The reporting value uses the exchange rate for that day and stays unchanged if you close the same excess again after correcting exchange-rate settings.

New periods retain the template budget’s tax pricing basis and currency. A template in a different currency, billing entity or client cannot be substituted into a series. Review older pricing through Budgets.

Client portal

Clients with budget access can review visible retainer periods, approved usage, assigned rollover and history under Budgets in the Client Portal. Hours appear only when the agency enables them. Unapproved time, hidden sections and internal cost are excluded.