Retainer billing and subscriptions for agencies
AgencyPro bills retainers as recurring services. You set the price per period and what each period includes, the client subscribes through your portal or an order form, and Stripe or PayPal charges every renewal. Clients update their own payment method in the portal, so an expired card does not need a call from your team.
Retainer billing at a glance
- A retainer is a recurring service with one or more pricing tiers. Periods: weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually or annually.
- Each tier sets a price per period and, on Pro, the hours or credits included in that period.
- Optional trial days, a monthly request limit (maximum requests per calendar month) and rollover of unused hours or credits.
- Stripe and PayPal handle the recurring charge. Clients see their subscriptions and update their payment method in your portal.
- Fixed-fee recurring services are on every plan. Hours-based and credit-based retainers need Pro ($79/mo).
How retainer billing works in AgencyPro
A retainer in AgencyPro is set up as a recurring service. The service defines the price per period, what the client gets each period (a number of requests, hours or credits), and the limits that protect your team. When the client subscribes, the payment processor charges each renewal and the period's allowance resets.
Billing and scope live in the same record. The hours, credits or request cap the client paid for this period is the number your team works against, and the portal checks request limits and credit balances when the client submits work.
This page covers the payment side. For one-off project invoices, see agency billing and invoicing. For how retainer work is submitted, queued and delivered, see retainer request management. For credit balances, top-ups, deductions and expiry, see prepaid credit billing.
What you can configure on a retainer
These are the settings on a recurring service and its subscriptions in AgencyPro today.
Give one retainer several tiers, each with its own period and price. A client can pick monthly at one price or quarterly at another. Supported periods are weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually and annually.
On Pro, a tier can include a set number of hours or credits each period. Turn on rollover to carry unused hours or credits into the next period, or leave it off so they expire when the period ends.
Cap the number of requests a client can submit per calendar month, and limit how many can be open at once. Add free trial days before the first charge for clients who want to test the working relationship.
Connect Stripe to charge cards, ACH bank transfers and digital wallets on each renewal. PayPal subscriptions are supported where configured. AgencyPro adds no transaction fee on top of the processor.
Your team can pause, resume or cancel any subscription and move a client to another tier. Clients see their active subscriptions in the portal, update their payment method, and pause or cancel when you allow it.
When a retainer is billed by invoice, it follows the same collection rules as the rest of your billing: pre-due, due-date, overdue and final-notice reminders with a payment link, plus optional late fees after a grace period.
Set up a retainer in four steps
Using the hours-based content retainer from the example below. A fixed-fee social retainer on Basic follows the same steps with the Standard pricing type.
Go to Services > Create Service and choose Recurring. For the content retainer in the example below: name it "Content Retainer", list what is included (blog posts, newsletter, edits) and turn on Show in Catalog so existing clients can find it.
Choose the Time based pricing type (Pro) and add two tiers: Monthly at $3,000 with 20 hours, and Quarterly at $8,400 with 60 hours. Enter the package total, not an hourly rate. Fixed-fee retainers on Basic use the Standard type with a price per period.
Tick "Allow unused hours to rollover", leave the trial off, set Max number of current Requests to 2 and leave Max number of Requests per month empty for unlimited. Save, and the service is ready to sell.
The client picks the monthly tier in your catalog or on an order form and pays $3,000 by card through Stripe. The subscription renews on the same date each month, the 20 hours reset (plus any rollover), and the client can update the card from the portal.
Renewal and payment behavior
- Renewals: Stripe or PayPal charges the tier price on each renewal date. Included hours or credits reset for the new period, plus anything rolled over.
- Trials: with trial days on, billing starts when the trial ends. A payment method is collected up front so the first charge can run automatically.
- Cancelling: a subscription can cancel at the end of the current period (the client keeps access until then) or immediately.
- Pausing: a paused subscription stops new requests for that service until it is resumed.
- Duplicates: a client cannot buy a second active subscription to the same recurring service; they manage the existing one instead.
- Overage: hours-based tiers do not bill automatically for hours worked beyond the package. Check the timesheet and invoice extra time separately.
Example: an hours-based content retainer
A hypothetical 5-person content agency on Pro sells a content retainer with two tiers: monthly at $3,000 with 20 hours included, and quarterly at $8,400 with 60 hours included. That is $150 per included hour on the monthly tier and $140 on the quarterly tier.
Rollover is on. In October the client uses 14 of 20 hours, so 6 hours carry into November and the client starts the month with 26. If rollover were off, those 6 hours would expire when October's period ended.
The agency's own AgencyPro bill: Pro is $79/mo with 1 seat, plus $20/mo for each of the other 4 people, so $79 + 4 x $20 = $159/mo. To price your own tiers, try the retainer pricing calculator.
Which retainer model fits your agency
All three bill a set price each period. The difference is what the client gets for it and how you protect the team from overuse.
| Model | Client is charged | Each period includes | Best for | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed fee with a request cap | Set price each period | Up to N requests per month, M open at once | Design, content or social retainers sold by output | Basic and up |
| Hours-based retainer | Set price each period | N hours per period, optional rollover | Development, consulting and support retainers | Pro and up |
| Credit-based retainer | Set price each period | N credits per period; each request costs credits | Mixed deliverables with different effort levels | Pro and up |
Still choosing between a retainer and project pricing? Read retainer vs project pricing and the guide to retainer agreements.
When AgencyPro is not the right fit for retainer billing
Every month's bill is different
A recurring service charges a set price per period. If your “retainer” is really time and materials billed in arrears, with a different total each month, one-off invoices fit better than a subscription.
You need revenue recognition or deferred revenue schedules
AgencyPro bills and collects. It does not produce accounting schedules for prepaid retainers. Your accountant will still work from your accounting software.
Your clients pay by wire against a PO on net-60 terms
Automatic card and PayPal renewals are the main benefit here. If enterprise clients only pay by bank transfer after procurement approves each invoice, you will mostly be recording manual payments, and the subscription tooling adds little.
You only need hours-based retainers on Basic
Included hours and credits are Pro features. On Basic you can sell fixed-fee retainers with request caps, but not hour or credit balances.
“The ability to package, sell, and manage subscriptions directly makes workflows incredibly efficient and scalable.”
Frequently asked questions
Retainer billing, subscriptions and plan availability.
Weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually (every 6 months) and annually. Each pricing tier has its own period and price, so the same retainer can be offered monthly and quarterly side by side.
Yes, if you turn rollover on for the service. Unused hours or credits then carry into the next period. With rollover off, they expire when the period ends. Hours-based and credit-based retainers are on Pro and Plus.
Clients see their active subscriptions in your portal and can update their payment method there. They can pause, resume or cancel when you allow it. Your team can always pause, resume, cancel or change the tier from the subscription screen.
Stripe Connect handles recurring charges by card, ACH bank transfer and digital wallet. PayPal subscriptions are supported where you have configured them. In both cases AgencyPro charges no transaction fee; you pay the processor standard fees.
Yes. Each recurring service can have trial days before billing starts. It suits subscription-style offers where a new client wants to see the first deliverables before the first charge.
Fixed-fee recurring services, subscriptions and invoicing are on every plan, starting with Basic at $39/mo. Hours-based and credit-based retainers, time tracking and recurring auto-requests need Pro at $79/mo. Seats are extra: 5 people on Pro cost $79 + 4 x $20 = $159/mo.
In the request queue. Retainer clients submit requests through the portal against their recurring service, and the request limits on this page decide how many they can submit each month. The retainer request management page covers statuses, assignment and recurring auto-requests.
Explore more features
Billing and invoicing
One-off invoices with payment links, reminders, late fees and tax rates.
Retainer request management
Ad-hoc requests, monthly request limits, statuses and recurring auto-requests (Pro).
Productized services
Package retainers and one-time offers in a catalog with order forms, add-ons and coupons.
Comparing tools? See retainer management software for agencies. For cash flow tactics, read deposits, retainers and agency cash flow.