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Managing a Retainer ​

The monthly cycle for keeping a retainer healthy — from setup to end-of-month review.

What makes retainers different ​

Retainers are not about hitting a project budget. They're about pacing: delivering the contracted hours within the month, neither over nor under. The client pays for a set number of hours per month. Under-delivering means they paid for value they didn't receive.

VERA tracks both directions with the same urgency.

Initial setup ​

  1. Create the project: "Create project Nike Monthly as Retainer with 480 hours per year"

    • 480 h/yr = 40 h/month — VERA divides automatically

  2. Set billing rate (Owner): set in 22. Projects Master directly

  3. Assign PM: "Assign @alice as PM for Nike Monthly"

  4. Create envelopes: The PM distributes hours across the team

    • With 40 h/month across 4 team members: ~10 h/month each
    • Envelopes on a retainer represent the plan; they are project-lifetime, not month-specific

Monthly check-in ​

Ask at any time:

"How is Nike Monthly tracking this month?"

VERA calls get_project_info (verifying it's a Retainer) then get_retainer_status and returns:

Nike Monthly — March Status
Hours logged: 18h of 40h (45%)
Days elapsed: 15 of 31
Pace: 1.2 h/day → projected 37h by month end
Forecast with allocations: 38h (95% utilisation)
Status: ✅ On track

Reading the status ​

StatusWhat it meansWhat to do
🚨 Critical overpace (>150%)Burning 3× budgetPause non-urgent work, review scope
⚠️ Warning overpace (110–150%)Trending 20–50% overReview task breakdown, alert client if needed
✅ On track (90–110%)Right on targetNothing needed
⚠️ Warning underpace (50–90%)Using less than plannedReach out to client about additional work
🚨 Critical underpace (<50%)Major value unusedImmediate outreach — client paid for work not delivered

Envelope-aware forecasting ​

Two forecast methods are shown:

Pace-based: projects forward based on how fast hours have been accumulating. Good if no envelopes are maintained.

Envelope-aware (better): hours_logged + allocated_remaining. If the team has 12 hours remaining in their envelopes, this shows you the full picture — not just historical pace.

Always prefer the envelope-aware forecast when Managers actively maintain envelopes.

Morning summary ​

VERA automatically includes retainer status in the morning summary for Managers and Owners. Critical and warning items appear without needing to ask. The morning summary shows:

  • Hours logged vs. monthly budget
  • Status emoji
  • Projected end-of-month total
  • Alert for overpace/underpace

End-of-month review ​

"Give me the February report"

generate_monthly_report provides a portfolio view showing all retainers with their utilisation and status. For retainers that underspent, it shows the unused dollar value — the value left on the table.

Multiple retainers ​

"Show me all my retainers"

get_pm_retainer_summary gives a rolled-up view of all retainer projects assigned to the PM — status, pace, and utilisation for each. Useful for a quick portfolio scan.

Common situations ​

Overpacing in week 1: The team is moving fast. Call get_retainer_status to confirm. If the forecast exceeds budget, pause non-urgent work. Check if any tasks have their own budgets that can act as sub-gates.

Underpacing at mid-month: The team hasn't logged enough. This could be under-reporting (team forgot to log) or genuine under-delivery. Either way, address it. VERA shows the unused dollar value as motivation: "You're leaving $X on the table."

Client adds scope: If the scope grows beyond what can be delivered within the monthly budget, surface this to the client. For permanent scope increases, update the hours_budget to reflect the new annual total.

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