Retainer Billing

A retainer is a flat monthly fee you charge a client to reserve a set number of hours. Any hours beyond the included allowance are billed as overage on the same invoice, so your client gets one document and one payment each month.

Retainer billing is available on the Solo and Team plans.

Setting up a retainer

1. Open a client’s detail page and select the Retainer tab.
2. Click Set up retainer and fill in:
   • Monthly flat fee. The fixed amount you charge each month.
   • Hours included per month. How many hours the flat fee covers.
   • Overage rate per hour. The rate you charge for hours beyond the included allowance.
   • Start date. The first day of the retainer. If it falls mid-cycle, your first invoice is prorated.
   • Billing day of month. The day your billing cycle turns over, 1 to 31. Pick the day that matches your client’s payment run. Day 31 bills on the last day of shorter months.
   • Billing timing. In advance bills the flat fee at the start of each period, with the previous period’s overage on the same invoice. In arrears bills the flat fee and overage together after the period closes. This choice is fixed once the retainer is created; to switch, end the retainer and set up a new one.
   • Auto-draft invoices. On by default. When on, Kiaro drafts the invoice on your billing day. When off, you invoice manually and Kiaro reminds you when a period is waiting.
3. Click Set up retainer.

The Retainer tab then shows a live card with the current billing period, a progress bar of hours used against the period’s allowance, and your estimated invoice total.

How billing works

Each billing period runs from one billing day to the next. On the billing day, Kiaro drafts one invoice (when auto-draft is on):

• In arrears: the period that just closed, flat fee plus any overage.
• In advance: the upcoming period’s flat fee, plus any overage from the period that just closed.

All billable time in a settled period is marked as invoiced when the draft is created. You get a card on your home page when a draft is ready. Review it and click Send when you are happy with it. Nothing is sent automatically.

Invoicing manually

Click Invoice now on the retainer card to draft the next invoice yourself:

• If a period is waiting to be billed, the draft is created immediately.
• If nothing is due yet, Kiaro asks before billing the upcoming period early. An early invoice carries the flat fee only; overage stays on the clock and rides on the next invoice.

This is handy when a client’s payment team needs the invoice on a specific date, or when you want to bill a mid-month start right away.

If you skip a period, a reminder appears on your home page a few days after the period was due, naming the client and the waiting period. It disappears as soon as the period is invoiced, whether you did it manually or Kiaro drafted it.

Starting mid-month

If a retainer starts mid-cycle, the first invoice covers the partial period at a prorated flat fee, and the included hours are prorated by the same ratio. The draft is fully editable, so you can switch it back to the full fee before sending if that is what you agreed with your client.

Changing the billing day

You can change the billing day at any time from Edit. The change applies after the last billed period; if it leaves a gap shorter than a full month, that gap is billed once as a prorated transition invoice, and the new cycle continues from there.

All time counts

Every billable hour logged across any project under the client counts toward the period’s total. There is no per-project allocation, so you do not have to decide which project a given entry belongs to.

Unused hours expire

Unused hours do not roll over. The allowance resets at the start of each billing period.

Pausing, ending, and editing

• Pause. No invoices are generated while a retainer is paused. Time logged during the pause stays uninvoiced and can be billed manually. When you resume, billing picks up from the next billing day; invoice any waiting periods before pausing.
• End. The retainer stops generating invoices and moves to your past-retainer history. If overage from the final period is still unbilled, Invoice now drafts one last overage-only invoice.
• Edit. Use Edit on the retainer card to change the flat fee, included hours, overage rate, billing day, or auto-draft setting. Changes apply to invoices created after the edit.

You can keep one active retainer per client at a time. Once a retainer is ended, you can set up a new one with updated terms.

Asking the assistant

The AI command bar can report a client’s retainer status. Ask something like “Show retainer status for Acme” and Kiaro returns the current period, hours used against the allowance, any overage accruing, the estimated invoice total, and when the next invoice is due.