Retainer tracking for architecture firms and solo architects.
Architecture retainers are common for long-horizon owner’s rep relationships, ongoing design advisory, and master planning. The challenge: billing spans months across principal, project architect, and intern hours, and clients who’ve paid a monthly retainer want to know what they’re consuming — not just at month-end, but mid-cycle when they’re about to request another review meeting or a round of drawing revisions. HourTab gives them a live link that shows their running balance and every entry that affected it, updated weekly as you import your CSV.
Free forever for your first retainer · no credit card.
Why architecture retainer tracking breaks down
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Long project timelines make monthly consumption opaque.
A 12-month owner’s representative retainer with monthly resets leaves clients wondering mid-cycle how much advisory time they’ve consumed. Some months are heavy — a schematic design review week, three rounds of contractor meetings, a city council presentation — and some are lighter. Without a live balance, clients can’t tell whether they’re on pace or burning through their allocation. They either under-request out of anxiety or over-request and get surprised by an overage. A live URL removes that uncertainty and lets clients make informed decisions about how to use their remaining hours each month.
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Multi-role billing is difficult to explain without a detailed log.
Principal hours at $200+ per hour, project architect at $120, and intern hours at $65 all bill against one client retainer — and clients notice when a month looks expensive without understanding what drove it. An itemized work log with role descriptions (“Principal — client presentation, 3h”; “Project architect — drawing revision, 4h”; “Intern — code research, 2h”) shows the role mix clearly. Clients understand why the month looked the way it did without needing a rate-card negotiation or a phone call with the project manager.
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Phase-based consumption patterns need context, not just numbers.
Some months in an architecture advisory relationship are meeting-heavy (schematic design review, client presentations, contractor bid walks), while others are documentation-heavy (drawing sets, specification writing, permit coordination). A client who sees a month where 18 of 20 retainer hours were consumed by meetings might question the billing — but when the work log shows those meetings and their purpose, the pattern becomes clear. A live balance with detailed entries communicates why this month looks different from last month, proactively answering the question before it becomes a phone call.
How it works for architecture firms
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Set up the retainer. Enter the client or project name, monthly hours included in the advisory agreement (e.g. 20h/mo principal and staff combined), and the cycle reset date. If your retainer includes separate hour pools for principal time vs. staff time, you can track them as separate retainers per client — or combine them and note roles in the entry descriptions.
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Import CSV from Toggl, Harvest, or your project management software. Export your weekly time entries for the client from whatever platform you use — Deltek, Monograph, Harvest, or Toggl — and paste the CSV into HourTab. Each entry appears in the client-facing work log: date, role, activity (e.g. “Principal — site visit, 2h” or “Project architect — drawing review, 3h”), and balance remaining.
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Share the URL with the client at contract start. Drop the unique public link into the engagement letter or first meeting follow-up email. The client bookmarks it and checks their balance before requesting a new meeting, a drawing revision, or a contractor RFI response. They see each entry — principal meeting, document review, site visit — with hours and running balance. Scope conversations happen with shared information, not surprises.
A live URL changes the mid-cycle dynamic: clients see what’s been consumed and make scope decisions with full information, not at month-end when the invoice arrives.
“Clients on architecture retainers often don’t know how much of their monthly allocation they’ve used until they receive the end-of-month report — by then, scope decisions have already been made.”
— AIA practice notes
A live URL changes the cycle: clients see mid-month, make scope decisions with full information.
Frequently asked questions
How do architecture firms typically structure retainer billing?
Architecture retainers are most common in owner’s representative relationships, ongoing design advisory, and master planning engagements. The client pays a monthly fee covering a set number of principal and staff hours. Time is tracked internally in Toggl, Harvest, Deltek, or Monograph, but clients typically only see a summary at month-end. HourTab adds a live URL so clients can see the running balance and work log mid-cycle.
Can I show different entries for different project phases?
Yes. Each CSV row becomes a line item in the client’s work log. Include the project phase in your task description field — “Schematic design review, 3h” or “Construction administration — site visit, 2h” — and clients see the phase breakdown across the month. This is especially useful for multi-phase advisory retainers where the mix of activities varies month to month.
Does HourTab work with Deltek, Monograph, or ArchiOffice?
Yes, via CSV export. Deltek Vantagepoint, Monograph, and ArchiOffice all support time entry CSV exports. Export your entries for the relevant client, import into HourTab, and the client-facing balance URL updates automatically. Your existing project accounting workflow is unchanged — HourTab only adds the client-visible layer.
How do I handle overage when a client consumes all their retainer hours mid-month?
When the client’s balance reaches zero, the HourTab URL shows zero remaining hours and flags that hours are now billed at the standard overage rate. This gives you a natural talking point: the client saw the balance approaching zero, so the overage conversation is expected rather than surprising. HourTab’s Studio plan also lets you set up email notifications at configurable thresholds (e.g. 80% consumed).