Free tool · for bookkeepers & virtual assistants
Retainer Rate Calculator
A monthly retainer looks like a good rate on paper: the fee divided by the hours in the agreement. The month you actually worked tells a different story, because the client's fee also paid for the time spent chasing receipts, the invoice follow-ups, and the extra request that was never in the scope. This free calculator is one spreadsheet tab that counts all of it. Enter one client's monthly fee, the hours the retainer includes and the rate you aim for, then log the month's work, marking each entry as retainer work or unbilled admin, and each piece of retainer work as in scope or out of scope. It works out what that client really paid you per hour (the client's effective hourly rate), how far that sits from your target, how many hours ran past the block, and a Healthy, Watch or Reprice verdict. It opens on a worked month for an invented bakery client so you can see a filled-in example before you type over it.
Take it with you — free, no signup
Direct download. No email, no account — just the file.
What it does
- Takes one client's monthly fee, included hours and your target hourly rate, plus any monthly cost you want to charge against that client.
- Gives you a log for the month where every entry is marked retainer work or unbilled admin, and retainer work is marked in scope or out of scope, so the time that is easy to leave unrecorded has a place to go.
- Divides the fee by every hour you logged, admin and out-of-scope work included, to show the client's effective hourly rate.
- Compares that rate with your target in dollars per hour and as a percentage, and gives a Healthy, Watch or Reprice verdict at a threshold you set.
- Shows how many hours of retainer work ran past the included block, and what the fee leaves after the costs you entered.
- Ships pre-filled with one month for the paid workbook's own fictional bakery client, so nothing opens blank. Every name and figure in it is invented.
- Opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice: no macros, no signup, and nothing saved anywhere but your own copy.
Related reading
Own it, don't rent it
When one client and one month is not the whole picture
This calculator looks at one client for one month. The full workbook runs your whole practice, up to 20 clients over a six-month window: it carries each client's unused hours forward under that client's own rollover rule, prices the hours that run past what's available at that client's overage rate, and shows where scope creep is eating the fee. It rolls effective rate up by service line so you can see which kind of work pays, turns your recent real usage into a renewal fee and included hours you can defend, tests whether a new client fits the hours you have left and at what fee, and works out a monthly tax set-aside from what you collected, net of expenses. Twelve connected tabs, a start-here guide, a retainer terms and renewal playbook, and a one-click Google Sheets copy.
A file you buy once: no app account and no subscription. Keep it in Excel or make your own Google Sheets copy.
Not advice: this calculator does arithmetic on the figures you enter. It is not tax, accounting or legal advice, and it does not tell you what to charge. The example client is fictional. Free to use; please don't resell or redistribute.