Retainer Tools for Independent Bookkeepers.

Monthly retainers are steady income until a client's transaction volume grows and your fixed fee doesn't. Track each client's included hours, overrun and unbilled admin, see the effective hourly rate the fee really pays, and price the renewal from real usage — in one workbook you own.

Is your retainer still paying what you quoted?

A bookkeeping retainer is a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope, and the effort behind it tracks the client's transaction volume: more bank lines to categorize, more receipts to chase, more reconciliations to clean up. The fee stays put while the hours climb, so a client who was profitable at signing can drift below your target rate without any single month looking wrong. The numbers that show it are hours worked against hours included, and what the fee divided by every hour you spent actually comes to.

What does a retainer workbook track that a rate calculator doesn't?

The Bookkeeping & VA Retainer Workbook tracks each client's unused and overrun hours from month to month under that client's own rollover rule (none, next month only, or carry with a cap), prices the overrun in dollars, and turns your recent real usage into a renewal fee and included hours you can defend, so a renewal never cuts what an included hour costs. Its effective rate divides the fee by all the retainer work (out-of-scope requests included) plus unbilled admin, because it is your time either way. It is one workbook for Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice, with a Start Here guide and a Retainer Terms & Renewal Playbook PDF. You buy it once and keep it — no subscription.

Where should you start if you want to try it free?

Run one client through the free Retainer Rate Calculator — no signup. Enter the fee, the included hours and the hours you worked, split into retainer work in scope, retainer work out of scope and unbilled admin, and it returns an effective hourly rate against your target with a Healthy, Watch or Reprice verdict. It covers one client and one month; the paid workbook is for the whole book, with rollover and renewals.

What should you read first?

Definitions first: what a retainer is, what scope creep is and what effective hourly rate is. Then the walkthrough, how to price a monthly retainer. Working as a virtual assistant rather than a bookkeeper? See the sibling hub, tools for virtual assistants.