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
Create the project:
"Create project Nike Monthly as Retainer with 480 hours per year"- 480 h/yr = 40 h/month — VERA divides automatically
Set billing rate (Owner): set in
22. Projects MasterdirectlyAssign PM:
"Assign @alice as PM for Nike Monthly"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% utilization)
Status: ✅ On trackReading the status
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 🚨 Critical overpace (>150%) | Burning 3× budget | Pause non-urgent work, review scope |
| ⚠️ Warning overpace (110–150%) | Trending 20–50% over | Review task breakdown, alert client if needed |
| ✅ On track (90–110%) | Right on target | Nothing needed |
| ⚠️ Warning underpace (50–90%) | Using less than planned | Reach out to client about additional work |
| 🚨 Critical underpace (<50%) | Major value unused | Immediate 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 judges each retainer by its current period in the morning summary's At a glance section, the same way the project page does. A retainer appears there when it is off course or still needs setup, and the evening reminder names it when it is 20 points or more off plan. To see a single retainer's month in detail, ask for its status (get_retainer_status).
End-of-month review
"Give me the February report"
generate_monthly_report provides a portfolio view showing all retainers with their utilization 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 utilization 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.