QuickBooks retainer tracking: add a live client balance to your QuickBooks time data.
QuickBooks is where many consultants and small studios do their billing — particularly those with an accountant in the loop or multiple employees. It tracks time, generates invoices, and handles payroll. What QuickBooks doesn’t do is give retainer clients a self-service way to see how many hours they have left. The client question — “how many hours do I have left this month?” — doesn’t have a bookmarkable QuickBooks answer. HourTab provides that: export your QuickBooks time data, paste the CSV into HourTab, and send each retainer client a public balance URL they can check without calling your office.
Free forever for your first retainer · no credit card.
Why QuickBooks alone doesn’t solve the retainer question
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QuickBooks time data lives inside your accounting system.
QuickBooks is your books. Giving a client access to your QuickBooks account to check their retainer balance means giving them access to your accounting software — which is not appropriate for a client who just wants to see their hours. HourTab extracts the client-visible information (balance + work log) and puts it on a separate, scoped, public URL. Your books stay private.
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QuickBooks Time is an internal tool.
QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets) tracks your team’s hours for payroll and billing. The client-facing layer — a balance page the client can bookmark — doesn’t exist in QuickBooks. HourTab is that layer. You log time in QuickBooks Time as always; you export the CSV for the relevant client and paste it into HourTab once a week.
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Monthly invoices don’t answer mid-cycle questions.
A QuickBooks invoice at month-end tells the client what they were billed. It doesn’t tell them, on day 15 of the cycle, whether they have 8 hours left or 2 hours left. That mid-cycle question is what drives retainer admin overhead. HourTab answers it with a live, always-current balance URL the client can bookmark and check without contacting you.
How it works with QuickBooks
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1
Set up the retainer in HourTab. Client name, monthly hour allocation, reset date. Two minutes.
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2
Export your QuickBooks time data. In QuickBooks (Time or the main app), run a Time Activity report filtered to the retainer client for the current cycle. Export as Excel/CSV. Paste into HourTab.
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3
Share the URL. Each retainer gets a unique public link. Add it to the engagement letter or onboarding email. Clients self-serve their balance; you stop fielding the hours-left question.
Works with QuickBooks Online, Desktop, and Time. Your accountant workflow is unchanged.
“My clients trust QuickBooks invoices for billing. They just have no way to check their hours mid-month.”
— Independent IT consultant on 5 annual retainers
HourTab is the mid-cycle layer QuickBooks doesn’t have — a public, bookmarkable balance URL your client checks themselves.
Frequently asked questions
Which version of QuickBooks does this work with?
Any QuickBooks version that can export time activity as CSV: QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or QuickBooks Time (formerly TSheets). If you can run a time report filtered by client and export it, HourTab can import it.
Does HourTab replace QuickBooks?
No. QuickBooks handles your accounting, invoicing, and payroll. HourTab adds a single client-visible layer: the retainer balance page. Two separate tools with no overlap.
Can my accountant still use QuickBooks normally?
Yes. Nothing changes in QuickBooks. You run your normal time reports and generate invoices as always. The only addition is a periodic CSV export that you paste into HourTab to update the client-facing balance.
How do I handle a client with multiple service types on one retainer?
Include a description column in your QuickBooks time export. Each line item in the HourTab work log shows the description, so clients can see which categories of work consumed their hours.
What if my retainer is dollar-based rather than hour-based?
HourTab tracks hours. For dollar-based retainers, convert using your billing rate (e.g., $3,000 retainer at $150/hr = 20 hours) and track in hours. The balance URL shows hours remaining.