A retainer agreement tracker your client can actually see.
Most “retainer agreement trackers” are spreadsheets your client never opens. Or portals with passwords they never remember. HourTab is a URL they bookmark. Hours used, hours left, and the work log — live. No login, no portal, no “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
Free forever for your first retainer · no credit card.
What goes into the tracker
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The agreement, translated.
You entered “20 hours/month, $150/hr, resets the 1st” once. That becomes the public page:
12 of 20 hours used · 8 remain · resets Oct 1. No re-explaining the deal every cycle. -
The work, itemised.
Every time entry shows up on the same page: date, task, hours. Your client sees where the hours went without opening an invoice. Fewer disputes, fewer “what did you work on in week 3?” emails.
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The overrun, visible.
Go over? The page keeps counting:
22 of 20 hours used · 2 over. Clients self-correct when they can see it. The tracker does the scope-conversation work you currently do over email.
“It is frustrating to be contacted by clients looking to find out how many hours they have left, or why something took more hours than usual.”
— Bonsai’s guide to freelance retainers
The tracker is the answer to that email.