Ask any agency or consultant, and they’ll tell you that acquiring new clients is far more expensive than retaining existing ones. If your team isn’t actively managing ongoing client work or focusing on client satisfaction, it will eventually show—especially in your cash flow. This lack of structure affects client satisfaction and ultimately your revenue.
In fact, acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an existing one.
To improve retainer agreements and manage retainers efficiently for creative agencies, here’s a compiled list of the top retainer management software to help you handle recurring client work and maintain long-term client relationships.
10 Smart Retainer Management Software for Billing
Here’s a quick comparison of the top retainer management software to help you choose the right fit based on key features, additional features, pricing, and user ratings.
| Tool | Best Feature | Primary Use Case | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Docs, Templates, Time Tracking, Dashboards in one workspace | Retainer management + project execution in a single, collaborative platform | Free forever; Customization available for enterprises | |
| Accelo | Full quote-to-cash lifecycle with client portals | Automating retainer billing, tracking, and client operations end-to-end | Custom pricing |
| Scoro | Financial dashboards and margin tracking | Agencies managing budgets, forecasts, and profitability alongside retainer projects | From $23.90/month per user |
| Paymo | Live time tracking + recurring invoicing | Linking billable hours to automated retainer invoicing with task tracking | Free; Paid from $5.90/month |
| FunctionFox | CEO Desktop + retainer budget tracking | Creative teams handling recurring clients with a focus on hours, scope, and reporting | From $12/month per user |
| Toggl Plan | Team timelines with capacity and visual scheduling | Small teams coordinating workload across retainer projects with clarity | Free; Paid from $10/month per user |
| Hubstaff | Time tracking with productivity monitoring | Office-based teams tracking hours, activity, and budget on retainers | Free; Paid from $5/month per user |
| Wrike | Advanced permissions + AI + risk prediction | Enterprise teams needing secure and scalable retainer workflows | Free; Paid from $10/month per user |
| Zoho Projects | Task + budget tracking with AI assistant | Small teams needing affordable time + task + invoice tracking | Free; Paid from $4/month per user |
| Proposify | Proposal creation + analytics + eSignature | Sales and client teams managing proposals, renewals, and retainer presentations | From $29/month per user |
What Should You Look for in a Retainer Management Software to Strengthen Client Relationships?
Choosing the right retainer management software can help you build those tricky long-term client relationships and create a seamless workflow.
The biggest struggle when dealing with repeat customers is that all information is laid out on spreadsheets, making it difficult to make informed decisions. So, ideally, look for features that simplify retainer billing, improve cash flow management, and reduce administrative tasks tied to ongoing client work.
Here’s what to prioritize for winning client retention strategies:
✅ Track retainer budgets, monitor retainer usage, and establish a payment structure while setting alerts for unused hours or approaching limits
✅ Integrate time tracking with invoicing to automatically generate bills for completed tasks
✅ Automate the invoicing process with support for different retainer models, including fixed price or evergreen retainers
✅ Access real-time insights with dashboards showing usage, performance, and client data
✅ Offer a client-facing portal for improved transparency and to enhance client satisfaction
💡 Pro Tip: Struggling with unpredictable income as a consultant? How Do Retainers Work for Consultants shows you how to secure steady, recurring revenue with the right retainer setup.
The 10 Best Retainer Management Software
How we review software at
Our editorial team follows a transparent, research-backed, and vendor-neutral process, so you can trust that our recommendations are based on real product value.
Here’s a detailed rundown of how we review software at .
The best retainer management solutions integrate with your project management tools, automate time tracking, and provide real-time insights into retainer usage.
Here are 10 tools that deliver all of that—and more.
1. (Best for efficient retainer management and seamless team workflows)
Integrating your retainer management software with your project management system is critical. Yet, many agencies still face gaps when key information is scattered across tools.
bridges that divide by transforming your project management workspace into a fully functioning retainer management hub within one platform. Here’s how all the features come together.
Align your team with Docs
Each retainer period should reflect updated services, deliverables, pricing, and retainer terms to ensure alignment between your team and the client. Docs makes creating, revising, and sharing retainer agreements from your workspace easy.
You can connect each Doc to relevant tasks and timelines for context-rich collaboration.
Standardize your processes with Templates
Once your retainer model is structured, you can build Templates for onboarding, service packages, or project plans. This method standardizes workflows across clients, reduces manual effort, and helps your team focus on delivering rather than setting up.
💡 Pro Tip: If you want to ensure legal protection for consultants and clients, ’s Consulting Agreement Template is the way to go.
This consulting template standardizes terms related to scope, payments, and responsibilities, helping reduce misunderstandings and setting the foundation for a smooth, professional relationship.
Track your team’s input with Time Tracking
With your workflows in place, it’s time to monitor hours spent on ongoing client work. ’s Time Tracking feature logs hours directly within tasks, helping you automatically generate invoices that reflect actual effort.
This step is critical for ensuring that clients pay for completed work—and that no unused hours are missed.
Prevent burnouts with Views
You’ll want to redistribute leftover time or bandwidth as contracts evolve or close. ’s Workload and Box View lets you rebalance your team’s time, avoiding gaps in productivity and keeping your retainer projects staffed efficiently.
Break down tasks and share feedback with Tasks and live collaboration
Once your projects are live, use Tasks to break down each deliverable, assign dependencies, and prioritize work across the retainer period. Since every task is connected to your Docs, timelines, and time logs, your team always knows what’s next.
With resources aligned and tasks underway, you’ll need to ensure everyone stays connected.
Whether it’s your internal team, freelancers, or clients, ’s collaboration tools—live editing, task comments, and real-time updates—support consistent communication across all ongoing work.
Get 360-degree project progress with Dashboards
Lastly, as the work progresses, visibility becomes essential. Dashboards provide real-time insights into retainer usage, deliverables, time tracked, and status updates—helping you demonstrate value and improve client satisfaction.
Here’s a quick guide to use Dashboards for maximum output.
for freelancers is another helpful way of organizing client projects, managing ongoing deliverables, and staying in control of your freelance workflows. From intake forms to time tracking and automations, freelancers can simplify every part of client work without toggling between tools.
💜 Bonus: Brain Max: Supercharge retainer ops with Talk to Text
Turn every client touchpoint into billable clarity. With Brain Max on desktop, use Talk to Text to capture client calls, standups, and voice notes, then instantly:
- Create tasks with assignees, due dates, and linked retainers
- Draft meeting minutes, SOW updates, and monthly retainer summaries
- Auto-generate action items for overage approvals and renewal prep
- Append time entries to the right client/project while you speak
Result: cleaner handoffs, accurate billing, and faster month-end reports—without living in spreadsheets.
best features
- Draft, revise, and share retainer agreements using Docs, with task and timeline linking
- Create custom Templates for retainer projects, onboarding flows, and service delivery
- Use built-in time tracking to log hours, avoid unused hours, and ensure accurate invoicing
- Collaborate in real time with clients and contractors through Docs, Comments, and task sharing
- Visualize retainer usage, delivery timelines, and performance with customizable Dashboards
limitations
- Can feel overwhelming for small teams without dedicated onboarding
- Setup for complex retainer workflows may take time initially
pricing
free forever
Best for individual users
Free Free
Key Features:
unlimited
Best for small teams
$7 $10
Everything in Free Forever plus:
business
Best for mid-sized teams
$12 $19
Everything in Unlimited, plus:
enterprise
Best for many large teams
Get a custom demo and see how aligns with your goals.
Everything in Business, plus:
* Prices when billed annually
The world’s most complete work AI, starting at $9 per month
Brain is a no Brainer. One AI to manage your work, at a fraction of the cost.
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ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews)
What users have to say about ?
A G2 user says:
2. Accelo (Best for automating the entire quote-to-cash lifecycle)
One of the greatest challenges in retainer management is unifying every stage of the client lifecycle—scattered tools for quoting, disconnected project tracking, delayed invoicing, and messy spreadsheets for retainer usage.
This fragmentation wastes time, increases errors, and makes it harder to deliver consistent value to retainer clients.
Accelo solves these issues with a true quote-to-cash platform that centralizes everything—from initial proposals and retainer agreements to task execution, time tracking, and billing.
Explicitly designed as a consultancy software for service businesses, Accelo combines operations, delivery, and finance so your team can manage ongoing client work in one place.
Accelo best features
- Manage retainer agreements, quotes, and project scopes in one place using client portals and pipeline tools
- Automate retainer billing, expense tracking, and recurring invoices with full visibility into retainer usage and financials
- Monitor team capacity and resource allocation with utilization insights
- Track time with intuitive logs and timesheets, ensuring every billable hour is accounted for during the retainer period
- Access real-time insights with built-in dashboards that help forecast workload
Accelo limitations
- Steep learning curve, especially during onboarding and configuration
- Minimum seat requirements make it less ideal for very small teams
- Interface can feel cluttered when managing multiple client workflows
Accelo pricing
- Professional Plan: Custom Pricing
- Business Plan: Custom Pricing
- Advanced Plan: Custom Pricing
Accelo ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (520+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (170+ reviews)
What users have to say about Accelo?
A Capterra user says:
3. Scoro (Best for financial visibility in retainer projects)
One of the hardest parts for agencies handling retainer agreements isn’t tracking time—it’s tracking money.
That’s where Scoro stands out: this software integrates project management and financial control into one system, giving users full visibility into revenue, costs, and time spent before the invoice ever goes out.
Instead of juggling spreadsheets and tools, Scoro helps you build quotes, assign tasks, track time, and generate invoices—all while comparing planned budgets to actuals in real time.
Scoro best features
- Track billable hours with manual and real-time time tracking, synced across tasks and retainer clients
- Build quotes that automatically convert into structured projects with defined budgets and timelines
- Monitor financials using customizable dashboards and real-time reports for costs, margins, and retainer usage
- Forecast workload and revenue with tools for financial planning, resource availability, and profit tracking
Scoro limitations
- Steep learning curve, especially during onboarding
- Pricey for small teams and freelancers
- Reporting and advanced financial tools are restricted to higher-tier plans
Scoro pricing
- Core: $23.90/month per user
- Growth: $38.90/month per user
- Performance: $59.90/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Scoro ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (400+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (230+ reviews)
What users have to say about Scoro?
A G2 user says:
4. Paymo (Best for seamlessly linking time tracking to retainer invoicing)
Managing retainer projects often means battling fragmented workflows—especially when time tracking and invoicing are handled in separate tools.
This disconnect leads to inaccurate billing, missed hours, and cash flow delays. Paymo stands out by tightly integrating time tracking, task execution, and retainer billing into a single, clean interface.
Unlike most retainer management software, Paymo’s built-in timer connects directly to invoicing, allowing you to track time, assign billable rates, and automatically generate recurring invoices without switching platforms.
Paymo best features
- Link billable hours to invoices using a live time tracking widget across desktop and mobile
- Automate retainer billing with recurring invoices, estimates, and tracked expenses
- Visualize timelines and task dependencies using Gantt charts, task lists, and project planning tools
- Collaborate on tasks, share files, and request visual feedback through integrated proofing tools
- Enable flexible resource allocation using workload views, employee scheduling, and leave tracking
Paymo limitations
- Lacks deep CRM features for tracking long-term relationships for client management
- Onboarding may be slow for non-technical teams due to its layered functionality
- Limited suitability for large enterprises or highly specialized industries
Paymo pricing
- Free
- Starter: $5.90/month per user
- Small Office: $10.90/month per user
- Business: $16.90/month per user
Paymo ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (590+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (690+ reviews)
What users have to say about Paymo?
A Capterra user says:
5. FunctionFox (Best for creative teams managing retainers with limited overhead)
FunctionFox tackles common retainer challenges by offering a streamlined system designed specifically for creative professionals who need clarity across time tracking, budgeting, and project updates.
Whether you’re dealing with fixed-fee service packages or monthly retainer fee billing, the platform provides detailed retainer usage tracking.
FunctionFox also comes pre-loaded with built-in timesheets and automated reminders to help you stay ahead of the retainer period and prevent unused hours from being wasted.
FunctionFox best features
- Track billable and non-billable time accurately using timesheets and stopwatch-based time tracking
- Monitor and report on retainer usage, budgets, and actual hours with CEO desktop insights and detailed reports
- Centralize team communication with project blogging and internal notes
- Simplify project oversight with project templates, resource allocation views, and real-time status tracking
- Send estimates and generate invoices based on completed tasks or predefined retainer structures
FunctionFox limitations
- Limited third-party integrations and no open API for custom workflows
- No Agile-specific tools like Kanban or Scrum boards
- Learning curve for teams unfamiliar with standalone retainer management software solutions
FunctionFox pricing
- Classic: $12/month per user
- Premier: $18/month per user
- In-House: Custom pricing
FunctionFox ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.3/5 (50+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (190+ reviews)
What users have to say about FunctionFox?
A G2 user says:
📮 Insight: A third of our respondents say they’re especially interested in using AI for skill development. For instance, a non-technical team member might want to generate the basic code for a webpage with AI’s help.
In these scenarios, AI performs best when it understands your work context—and that’s where stands out. As the all-in-one work platform, ’s AI is aware of your projects and can suggest tailored actions or even handle tasks like generating code snippets with ease.
💡 Pro Tip: Want to boost your credibility and stand out in a competitive consulting market? Consulting Certifications to Build Your Career, along with ongoing support, highlights the most recognized certifications to elevate your expertise and establish client trust.
6. Toggl Plan (Best for small teams that need simple visual planning and timeline clarity)
When small teams deal with overlapping deliverables, here’s a common scenario that takes place: you might know what needs doing—but not when, by whom, or how it affects the rest of the team.
Toggl Plan is built to solve this exact problem by offering a visually appealing work planning tool that prioritizes timelines, availability, and task ownership.
Unlike traditional retainer management software or task trackers, Toggl Plan simplifies coordination with team timelines, availability views, and drag-and-drop schedules.
Toggl Plan best features
- Visualize workloads using team timelines and drag tasks across the calendar to reassign or reschedule in seconds
- Track team availability and leave schedules with the Capacity view to prevent burnout and improve utilization
- Manage tasks with boards and recurring schedules, complete with milestones and segments for different phases of work
- Share read-only timelines with clients or stakeholders for full visibility without cluttering internal workflows
- Integrate with Toggl Track and Google Calendar to keep planning and time tracking connected
Toggl Plan limitations
- No task dependencies, which limits critical path tracking
- Lacks financial tracking or invoicing features found in retainer management tools
- Customization options for complex workflows are limited compared to enterprise tools
Toggl Plan pricing
- Free
- Starter: $10/month per user
- Premium: $20/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
Toggl Plan ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5 (40+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,570+ reviews)
What users have to say about Toggl Plan?
A Capterra user says:
7. Hubstaff (Best for office-based teams needing time tracking + productivity monitoring)
When projects run long or team productivity drops, it’s rarely due to a lack of effort—it’s usually a lack of visibility.
Here’s how Hubstaff solves that: Built for desk-based and remote teams, this tool combines time tracking, activity monitoring, and project budgeting to give managers a clear window into who’s working, when, and how effectively.
Hubstaff makes it easy to bill accurately, approve timesheets, and trigger payroll through integrations like Gusto or QuickBooks.
Hubstaff best features
- Track time across desktop, mobile, Chrome extension, or kiosk, with settings to prevent manual edits
- Capture activity levels, blurred screenshots, apps, and URL data for productivity insights
- Use project budgets and billable rates to control costs and notify managers when thresholds are reached
- Manage overtime, breaks, and time-off with configurable compliance settings
- Integrate with tools like QuickBooks, Gusto, Trello, Asana, and 30+ others for invoicing and automation
Hubstaff limitations
- Mobile geofencing doesn’t prevent clock-ins outside of work zones
- Scheduling lacks project/task-level detail and doesn’t detect overlapping shifts
- No biometric or facial verification for time clock validation
Hubstaff pricing
- Free
- Premium: $5/month per user
Hubstaff ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (1,380+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (1,540+ reviews)
What users have to say about Hubstaff
A G2 user says:
8. Wrike (Best for teams needing enterprise-grade admin and project security controls)
If you’ve ever managed a large project with multiple moving parts, you know how quickly things can spiral—missed updates, unclear responsibilities, and too many tools in the mix.
According to Gartner, this is probably why the business considers around 80% of IT projects failures.
Wrike helps organize chaos. Teams that need strong oversight, such as marketing departments, ops teams, or those in regulated industries, will appreciate the admin controls and security features.
Wrike best features
- Manage projects with Gantt charts, Kanban boards, calendars, and dynamic reports
- Write scopes with AI, predict risks, and summarize discussions
- Customize dashboards with detailed analytics and automation triggers
- Set granular user permissions, IP restrictions, SSO, and two-factor authentication
- Integrate with 400+ tools, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce, Slack, and Power BI
Wrike limitations
- Real-time document editing requires external software and lacks native collaboration
- Premium integrations (e.g., QuickBooks, Salesforce) are only available on high-tier plans
- Add-ons like Wrike Lock and Datahub increase the overall cost significantly
Wrike pricing
- Free
- Team: $10/month per user
- Business: $25/month per user
- Enterprise: Custom Pricing
- Pinnacle: Custom Pricing
Wrike ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (3,800+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (2,790+ reviews)
What users have to say about Wrike?
A Capterra user says:
9. Zoho Projects (Best for small teams needing affordable task + budget tracking)
Most project managers are stuck in loops of sticky notes, spreadsheets, and “just one more quick status meeting.”
Despite all this, Zoho Projects may feel like a refreshing change.
Designed with simplicity, it packs in essentials like task dependencies, time tracking, and visual project views—without a steep learning curve.
What makes it stand out? It’s budget-friendly (just $4/user), easy to learn, and even has a built-in AI assistant named Zia to help you manage deadlines and surface insights.
Additionally, it seamlessly integrates if your team already utilizes other Zoho tools, such as CRM or Books.
Zoho Projects best features
- Assign multiple users per task with dependencies and subtasks
- Gain data insights and scheduling suggestions from Zia, the AI assistant
- Automate recurring tasks and approvals with Blueprint workflows
- Track time, project budgets, and resource utilization with visual dashboards
- View projects across Kanban, Gantt, and calendar formats for flexibility
Zoho Projects limitations
- Phone support and 24/7 assistance are locked behind premium add-ons
- Most third-party integrations are limited to Zoho’s ecosystem
- Custom Fields and roles are only available on the Enterprise plan
Zoho Projects pricing
- Free
- Premium: $4/month per user
- Enterprise: $9/month per user
Zoho Projects ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.1/5 (2000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (800+ reviews)
What users have to say about Zoho Projects?
A G2 user says:
10. Proposify (Best for sales teams who need polished, trackable proposals)
If you’ve ever scrambled to put together a last-minute proposal in Google Docs and wondered if the client even opened it, Proposify might be of help.
This software is designed for modern sales teams that want to create sleek, on-brand proposals that impress, and track every interaction down to the second.
Additionally, Proposify provides visibility into the complex world of proposal follow-ups. You’ll know who opened it, which section they lingered in, and when they signed.
Proposify best features
- Track client interactions with document analytics like view time, section visits, and repeat opens
- Create sleek, interactive proposals with embedded images, videos, and pricing tables
- Collect legally binding eSignatures directly within proposals
- Monitor proposal statuses and close rates via metrics dashboards and pipeline views
- Build from a library of customizable retainer agreement templates or create your own from scratch
Proposify limitations
- Limited customization when working with templates
- Editing proposals can feel clunky for teams used to full design control
- Basic plan has strict usage caps (e.g., five opens/month)
Proposify pricing
- Basic: $29/month per user
- Team: $49/month per user
- Business: $65/month per user
Proposify ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.6/5.0 (1,100+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5.0 (290+ reviews)
What users have to say about Proposify?
A G2 user says:
💡 Pro Tip: Want to turn your expertise into a full-time consulting career? How to Become a Consultant walks you through every step to land clients, build credibility, and drive real impact.
Here are three additional tools used by agencies and consultants for ongoing client w/ork:
- Bonsai: Offers retainer contracts, time tracking, invoicing, and tax management all in one streamlined platform
- HoneyBook: Supports client intake, retainer contract templates, automated workflows, and recurring retainer payments for ongoing services in one client flow platform
- FreshBooks: Delivers an accounting and invoicing tool with built-in time tracking and automated recurring billing features for managing retainers smoothly
Retain Clients Easily With
You can probably tell now that retainer management is the backbone of sustainable client relationships and predictable revenue, especially when dealing with a recurring client.
helps you achieve that.
From drafting and updating agreements with Docs to tracking billable hours and visualizing usage with Dashboards, every part of the retainer lifecycle is accounted for—seamlessly, in one place.
And it’s not just about retaining clients. As Shikha Chaturvedi, Business Analyst at Cedcoss Technologies Private Limited, put it in her review:
Start managing retainers the smarter way—sign up for today.
FAQs
It’s a tool that helps agencies, consultants, and service providers manage ongoing client relationships by tracking budgets, automating invoices, and ensuring recurring work is billed accurately.
Consultants, marketing agencies, law firms, creative studios, and freelancers who work with ongoing client contracts.
A retainer ensures a client has reserved access to consultants, marketing agencies, law firms, creative studios, and freelancers who work with ongoing client contracts.
Everything you need to stay organized and get work done.
