Retainer tracker for CPA firms and accounting practices.
Accounting retainers are common for CFO advisory, monthly bookkeeping, and tax-planning clients. Staff hours are tracked in QBO Time, Toggl, or a spreadsheet — but clients have no way to see their retainer balance without calling. During busy season (January through April) this creates call volume spikes that pull staff away from the work itself. HourTab closes the loop: import your time-tracking CSV, generate a public URL per client, and let clients check their own balance whenever they want — without touching your staff’s time.
Free forever for your first retainer · no credit card.
Why accounting firm retainer tracking breaks down
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Tax season call surges overwhelm billing staff.
January through April is when accounting retainer clients are most likely to want to add scope — a new entity, a state registration, an amended return — and most likely to call first to check how many advisory hours they have left before asking. A firm with 40 advisory retainer clients might handle 80–100 of these calls across a single tax season, each one pulling a staff member away from client work. HourTab turns that call into a self-service URL check. The client looks up their own balance in 10 seconds and decides whether to add scope. No call required.
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Multi-staff billing at different rates confuses clients without a clear log.
A CFO advisory retainer at a CPA firm typically involves a senior CPA ($200+/hr), a staff accountant ($90/hr), and sometimes a bookkeeper ($65/hr) all billing against the same client engagement. The client has paid a flat monthly retainer and may not understand why the hours go faster some months than others. A line-item log showing which role spent time on which task — “Senior CPA — board meeting prep, 3h”; “Staff accountant — bank reconciliation, 2h” — makes the role mix transparent without revealing your internal rate card.
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Scope creep happens silently without balance visibility.
Accounting clients add ad hoc requests mid-cycle without realizing they’ve already consumed most of the retainer. A client who asks for help with a vendor audit in week three of the month may not know that their monthly 10 hours of advisory time were already 80% consumed by earlier meetings and deliverables. When they see the invoice with overage, they’re surprised. When they can see the running balance mid-month, they make different decisions — or have an informed conversation about expanding the retainer before the work is done.
How it works for accounting firms
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1
Create the retainer. Enter the client name, monthly hours included (e.g. 10h/mo CFO advisory), and the cycle start date. For a dollar-based retainer, convert to hours at your effective rate. If you have separate billing tiers for different service types, you can set those up as separate retainer entries or combine them into one with role notes in the description.
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2
Import your CSV from QBO Time, Toggl, or Harvest. Export your weekly time log and paste the CSV into HourTab. Each entry populates the client-facing work log: date, task description, staff member or role, hours, and updated balance. You don’t change anything about how your staff tracks time — you just add a weekly import step that takes about 30 seconds.
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3
Share the link in your onboarding email or first invoice. Drop the unique public URL into the engagement letter or welcome email. Clients bookmark it and check their own balance — before tax season calls, before adding scope, and at month-end when they’re reviewing the invoice. The balance log becomes a reference document that explains the invoice rather than creating questions about it.
One bookmarked URL replaces dozens of status calls across your client roster — especially during the months when those calls are most costly.
“Clients frequently call their accountant to ask about their retainer balance — especially during tax season when they want to add scope quickly.”
— Accounting practice management survey
One bookmarked URL replaces dozens of status calls across your client roster.
Frequently asked questions
How do accounting firms typically track retainer hours?
Most CPA firms and accounting practices track time in QBO Time, Toggl, Harvest, or a practice management platform like Jetpack Workflow or Canopy. Staff log hours internally, but clients have no visibility — they have to call or email to ask about their balance. HourTab adds a public share URL on top of your existing time tracker so clients can check for themselves, without routing through your staff.
Can HourTab show separate entries for different staff billing rates?
Yes. Each row in your CSV import becomes a line item in the client-facing work log. You can include the staff role or name in the description field (e.g. “Senior CPA — tax planning session, 2h” or “Staff accountant — bookkeeping review, 1.5h”). Clients see the mix of roles without seeing your internal rate card.
Does the client see individual line items or just a running total?
Both. HourTab shows a running balance (hours used vs. hours included in the retainer) plus a full work log with each entry. This level of detail is particularly valuable for CFO advisory retainers where clients want to see what workstreams consumed their hours — financial modeling vs. budget review vs. investor prep.
How does cycle rollover work for accounting retainers?
HourTab’s Studio plan ($19/mo) includes configurable rollover rules. You set whether unused hours carry forward to the next month, expire at cycle end, or convert to a credit. The client’s live URL updates automatically at cycle reset. This is especially useful for CFO advisory retainers where a quiet month might leave 3–4 hours unused that the client expects to roll into the next cycle.