What happens when we go over the retainer?

Tracking doesn't stop and nothing is hidden. Utilization keeps counting past the commitment, and the overflow carries into the next cycle. The point is that you see it while the cycle is running, when you can still choose to raise it with the client, rather than discovering it after the month has closed.

How is a retainer different from a bank of hours?

A retainer renews. It's a recurring commitment — say twenty hours every cycle — that resets when the next cycle begins. A bank of hours is a single block bought up front that draws down until it's gone and doesn't reset. Militime models both, and a project uses one or the other.

Can different clients run on different cycle lengths?

Yes. The billing model belongs to the project, not to your workspace, so one client can run a fortnightly retainer while another runs monthly and a third is on a fixed-price build — all tracked by the same timer.

Retainer time tracking

Retainer tracking that stays honest on both sides.

Hours delivered against hours committed, updated as the work happens. The end of a cycle should be a number you both already know — not a negotiation conducted from two different spreadsheets.

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Retainer

Jun 12 – 25

0hof 20h committed

0%20h committed

1.5h left in this cycle — overflow carries into the next one.

The job to be done

What retainer tracking has to get right

Cycles, not calendar months

Retainer projects run on their own recurring cycle. A commitment that renews every two weeks is tracked every two weeks, rather than being forced into a month that doesn't match the agreement.

Overflow that carries, not vanishes

Go past the commitment and the excess rolls into the next cycle instead of being written off in silence or re-litigated by email.

One number, visible to everyone

Utilization updates as the team tracks, and the same figure goes out in a branded report in English or French. Nobody has to take anybody's word for it.

Project-specific billing

Every project bills differently. Militime already knows.

Most trackers give you one rate and call that billing. Here each project carries its own model — and the totals, the utilization and the reports follow on their own.

Hourly

Per-client and per-project rates, with date-ranged changes that apply themselves to the right entries.

Hourly

Rate changed Jun 1

$0billable

May — before the change6h × $125.00

June — after the change8h × $150.00

Date-ranged rates apply themselves to the right entries.

Retainer

Recurring cycles with live utilization: hours delivered against hours committed, and overflow that carries into the next cycle.

Retainer

Jun 12 – 25

0hof 20h committed

0%20h committed

1.5h left in this cycle — overflow carries into the next one.

Bank of hours

Sell a block up front. Every tracked entry draws the balance down, so nobody is surprised at month end.

Bank of hours

100h purchased

100hleft

0h drawn down

Every tracked entry draws the balance down as it lands.

Fixed price

One agreed fee. Militime tracks the effective hourly rate as the work lands, so you feel the squeeze early enough to matter.

Fixed price

$10,000

$0.00effective rate

0h tracked80h budget

The fee is agreed. The effective rate is what tells you how it's going.

One engine

Four billing models, one timer. You never choose how to track. You choose how the project is sold — once — and the tracking follows from there.

Questions

Retainers in Militime

: Tracking doesn't stop and nothing is hidden. Utilization keeps counting past the commitment, and the overflow carries into the next cycle. The point is that you see it while the cycle is running, when you can still choose to raise it with the client, rather than discovering it after the month has closed.
: A retainer renews. It's a recurring commitment — say twenty hours every cycle — that resets when the next cycle begins. A bank of hours is a single block bought up front that draws down until it's gone and doesn't reset. Militime models both, and a project uses one or the other.
: Yes. The billing model belongs to the project, not to your workspace, so one client can run a fortnightly retainer while another runs monthly and a third is on a fixed-price build — all tracked by the same timer.

Trust

What we can actually prove

Militime is early. Rather than invent numbers, here is who runs it, where your data lives, and what happens if you decide to leave.

Encrypted end to end

TLS 1.3 in transit and encrypted at rest on Supabase's hardened Postgres. Backups inherit the same protection.

Stripe handles every card

Subscription payments run through Stripe. Militime never sees or stores your card details.

Built and run from Montreal

Designed around Quebec's Law 25 and Canada's PIPEDA, with GDPR access, erasure and portability treated as product requirements.

Your data leaves when you do

Export every project, report and time entry as CSV or PDF on demand. Ask us to delete the account and we honour it end to end.

There are no customer quotes here yet, because we don't have permission to print any.

We'd rather leave the space empty than write a testimonial and attribute it to a job title. If you use Militime and would let us quote you by name, we'd genuinely like to hear from you.

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Bank of hours that draws down as you work Built for agencies Built for consultants & service teams

Put every retainer on the same honest footing.

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