A retainer is an upfront, often recurring fee a client pays to reserve your time or secure ongoing access to your services. Unlike a one-off deposit tied to a single project, a retainer keeps the relationship “on” — the client pays on a schedule, and you hold capacity for them.
Retainer vs. deposit: what’s the difference?
People use these words interchangeably, but they solve different problems. Getting them straight makes your billing cleaner and your conversations with clients easier.
- A deposit is a one-time, partial payment collected up front against a specific estimate or project — say 50% before you start a website. It reduces the final balance owed on that one job.
- A retainer is a recurring fee that reserves your time or guarantees ongoing service, billed on a repeating cycle (usually monthly). It isn’t tied to one deliverable; it’s tied to the relationship.
The simplest test: if the client is buying one outcome, you want a deposit. If they’re buying continued access month after month, you want a retainer.
A real-world example
Imagine you’re a marketing consultant. A client wants you available for strategy calls, light copy edits, and ad tweaks every month. You don’t want to quote each tiny task, and they want to know you’ll pick up the phone. So you agree on $1,500/month for up to 10 hours of work. That $1,500 is a retainer. It bills automatically on the 1st, the client’s card is charged, and neither of you has to think about it. If a big one-off project comes along — a full rebrand — you’d quote that separately as an estimate, possibly with its own deposit.
Tip: Spell out what the retainer covers (hours, scope, response time) in your estimate or invoice notes. A retainer that “reserves your time” still needs a clear boundary so both sides know when extra work becomes a separate bill.
How Fee-Lion handles it
Fee-Lion has two ways to bill a retainer, depending on whether the fee covers a set number of hours.
A flat monthly fee is a recurring invoice with auto-pay: one line for the retainer amount, a monthly cadence, and the client’s saved card charged each cycle. See Set up a monthly retainer with recurring invoices.
A fee that covers a bank of hours is a retainer under Invoices → Retainers:
- Choose New retainer, pick the client, and optionally tie it to one project.
- Set the fee and the hours it covers each period, for example $1,400 for 10 hours a month.
- Choose a rollover rule (none, capped, or expiring after a number of periods) and an overage rate.
- Save. The fee bills on schedule through a recurring invoice, and billable time logged for that client draws the bank down.
Hours past the bank are billed at your overage rate, either on the next retainer invoice or as a separate draft. Owners and admins are emailed at 80% and 100% of the bank, and the client can see their remaining hours in the portal.
You’ll set sensible defaults — payment terms, tax, and your deposit percentage — once under Settings → Preferences, and every recurring invoice inherits them. That keeps your retainers consistent without re-entering the same details each time.
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