This free monthly retainer delivery checklist is for agencies, consultancies and fractional or outsourced teams that bill a client the same fee every month. It runs once a month for each retainer: open the month with an agreed allowance and priorities, plan and assign the work, check the burn at mid-month, handle out-of-scope requests with the client’s written agreement, deliver and check the work, then reconcile hours, approve the summary and invoice, and send them. In the last month of each quarter a health review asks whether the retainer still fits. A dropdown at the start switches between tracking an hours bank and tracking fixed deliverables.
The retainer agreement decides what the client is buying. This checklist is about the month after it is signed, when that agreement has to survive real requests, real people and real timesheets. How you run the month depends on which model you sold, because each one goes wrong in a different place.
| Model | The client pays for | Track every month | Where it goes wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours bank | A block of hours at a blended rate | Hours used against hours sold, by person and task; carry-over under the rollover rule | Hours roll over without a cap, or busy months run past the block and nobody says so until the invoice |
| Fixed deliverables | A defined set of outputs each month | Each deliverable delivered, deferred or swapped; effort per deliverable against the estimate | Revisions and “quick extras” inflate the effort while the fee stays the same |
| Availability | Priority access to a team or expert, used as needed | Response times, requests handled and the time they took | A quiet month looks like money for nothing, a busy one looks like a bargain the client expects again |
| Value-based | An outcome, or a share of a measured result | The agreed measure, the baseline and the work that moved it | The measure is not agreed precisely, so every month starts with an argument about the number |
Hybrids are common, such as a fixed core of deliverables plus a small hours bank for ad hoc work. The checklist’s dropdown has a Hybrid option for these, which shows both the hours and the deliverables tracking tasks; availability and value-based retainers can use the deliverables branch and report their measure in the month summary. Whichever model you sold, three things decide whether it survives: an allowance both sides can see, a written route for work outside it, and someone who checks the numbers before the invoice goes out.
Seven phases run one retainer month from opening to invoice. The retainer type decides which tracking tasks appear at mid-month, the change-request tasks appear only when out-of-scope work was requested, and the quarterly health review appears only in the last month of a quarter. The summary and invoice need the account director’s approval before they reach the client.
Owned by the account manager. Answer two scope questions here: the retainer type (Hours bank, Fixed deliverables or Hybrid) and whether this is a quarter-end month.
The two hours tasks are shown for an Hours bank or Hybrid retainer, the two deliverables tasks for Fixed deliverables or Hybrid. The last task asks “Were any out-of-scope requests received?” and a Yes shows the Phase 4 tasks.
Shown only when out-of-scope requests were received. The client’s written agreement is recorded as an attachment; it is not an approval step, because the client works outside the checklist.
The account director’s approval of the summary and invoice halts the checklist. Nothing is sent to the client until it is Approved.
Shown only in a quarter-end month. Owned by the account director.
Most retainer problems are timing problems. The overrun nobody mentioned until the invoice, the request agreed on a call and never written down, the timesheets filled in from memory on the last day. A fixed rhythm catches each of these while it is still cheap to fix. Shift the dates to suit your billing cycle; keep the order.
Confirm the allowance and carry-over, close out last month’s loose ends and agree the ranked priorities with the client in writing.
Tasks, owners and dates booked against capacity, the client’s review dates in the diary and the month plan sent.
Hours or deliverables against plan. Warn the client at the agreed threshold, not after it, and log anything outside scope while the request is fresh.
Quality check, delivery, revision rounds counted against what the retainer includes, and written sign-off on finished work.
Everyone’s time in by the cut-off, so the reconciliation uses real numbers rather than estimates.
Apply the rollover rule, write the summary, get the account director’s approval and send the summary with the invoice.
Effective rate, scope drift and burn trend over three months, then a recommendation to the client before the renewal date forces one.
Keep the performance report separate. The month summary in Phase 6 says what the team did with the allowance. Results such as traffic, leads or coverage belong in the client’s performance report, which has its own data checks and its own approval; the Agency Monthly Client Reporting Checklist covers that run.
Schedule the template to start on the first working day of each month for every retainer client, with the account manager, delivery lead and billing contact already assigned from the role fields. Nobody has to remember to open the month.
Out-of-scope requests appear as tasks only when they happen, and the client’s written agreement is attached before work starts. The invoice stops at the account director’s approval, and the audit trail shows who agreed what.
A dropdown shows hours tracking, deliverable tracking or both for a hybrid, so one template serves every retainer. Share a read-only, white-labelled link so the client can see the month’s progress under your brand.
CheckFlow is not time-tracking, accounting or agency management software. It runs the monthly routine around them: the allowance, the checks, the change requests and the sign-off. Recurring checklists explain how scheduled runs work, and the guide to marketing agency client onboarding covers setting the retainer up properly in the first place.
The invoice from Phase 6 can feed your Monthly Invoicing & Billing Run Checklist. When the quarterly review points to the end of the relationship, the Client Offboarding Checklist handles the exit, and the Contract Renewal Reminder Checklist makes sure the renewal date never arrives unannounced.
Run every month the same way. Open it by confirming the allowance and agreeing ranked priorities in writing, plan the work against capacity, check hours or deliverables at mid-month and warn the client early if the burn is high, handle anything outside scope with written agreement before starting, then lock timesheets, apply the rollover rule and send a short summary with the invoice. Every quarter, step back and ask whether the retainer is still the right size and price.
Only as far as the agreement says, which is why it should say something. Common choices are no rollover, rollover capped at a number of hours, or rollover that expires after a month or a quarter. Unlimited rollover tends to build a bank of hours the client expects to spend all at once, usually in your busiest month. Whatever the rule, apply it the same way every month and show the carry-over on the summary, so it never surprises either side.
Log the request, compare it with the agreed scope, and give the client options before doing the work: absorb it this once, swap it for something planned, bill it as overage, or quote it as a separate project. Get the choice in writing, even a one-line email, and attach it. The problem is rarely one request; it is the tenth small one that nobody wrote down. If the same kind of request comes every month, raise it at the quarterly review as a sign the retainer needs resizing.
When the agreement says. Many agencies bill the monthly fee in advance, at the start of the month it covers, and bill any agreed overage in arrears once the hours are known. Whichever way you do it, reconcile timesheets and apply the rollover rule before the invoice is raised, and have someone senior check it, because correcting an invoice after the client has queried it costs more goodwill than getting it right first time.
Divide the fees billed over a period by the hours your team actually worked on the account, including the hours nobody billed, and compare the result with your target hourly rate. That effective rate falls quietly when revisions, meetings and small favours go unrecorded, so it only works if everyone logs their time to the retainer. Review it quarterly alongside scope drift and the burn trend, and reprice or resize before the renewal rather than at it.
14-day free trial, no card required. The Business plan is $10 per user per month after the trial. Full details at checkflow.io/pricing.
