Retainer Profitability Calculator

A retainer is a fixed price with a monthly reset. Find out what yours actually pays per hour once the overage is counted. A fixed fee does not fall when the work rises: extra hours never reduce what you invoice, they increase the hours that invoice is divided by, so a retainer erodes by arithmetic rather than by any single bad decision. Enter one month of one retainer and this returns its net revenue, effective hourly rate, capacity consumed, the value of any work you absorbed unbilled, the hours rolling into next month, and a renewal fee that would hold your target rate. No account, no email address, and every figure stays in your browser: the arithmetic runs in the page, so nothing you type is sent to Stria, saved, or shared.

Three retainers, one word

Most disagreements about a retainer are really disagreements about which of these it is, and a calculator that assumes the wrong one gives a confidently wrong answer. This tool asks first and then changes the questions.

A block of hours each month. The fee covers a set number of hours. Consumption against that block is the number that matters, and hours past it are either billed separately or absorbed
Availability, whether or not it is used. The fee reserves capacity in your calendar. Reserved time the client did not use is what they paid for, not income you failed to earn — and a tool that calls it a loss is misleading the person who priced it correctly
A set number of deliverables each month. The fee covers an agreed output. Hours are your cost of production, so the figures worth reading are hours per deliverable and what over-delivery cost

What it calculates

Net retainer revenue. What was collected, minus direct expenses, contractor costs and payment fees. Cash rather than accounting: fee invoiced and not yet collected is excluded, and no cost is assigned to your own time
Effective hourly rate. Net retainer revenue divided by every hour worked, including hours you did not bill. An estimate of return per hour after direct costs — not a wage, not payroll, not a tax figure
Capacity consumption. Hours worked divided by hours available, where available is the included block plus anything carried in, or the reserved availability. There is no such figure on the deliverable model, because a fee for output does not name an hour allotment
Unbilled overage value. Hours past the block that were not billed separately, valued at the first rate available: your overage rate, then your target rate, then what the fee works out to per included hour. The result names which one it used, and if none of the three exists the hours are counted and deliberately not priced — an unpriced overage is not an overage worth nothing
Adjusted return. Net retainer revenue less that value: what the month returned once the work you gave away is counted
Rollover exposure. Unused hours carrying out, as the lesser of the unused included hours and your stated cap. Presented as an estimated future service obligation — delivery you have been paid for and still owe — rather than as an accounting liability, because whether it belongs on a balance sheet depends on your contract and your accountant
Renewal baseline. Expected hours multiplied by your target rate, plus the costs you entered, plus any premium you set. Expected hours default to the hours you actually worked, because that is the only capacity figure with evidence behind it. A starting point for a conversation, not a correct price

How to read the result

The diagnosis is one of five neutral labels, and the threshold behind each is printed beside it rather than left as a verdict you cannot check. On target means delivery sat inside the fee, nothing material was absorbed, and the effective rate met the target you entered. Review delivery load means the month ran past what the fee covers, or the rate came in under target. Review unbilled overage means absorbed work is worth at least 5% of net retainer revenue, or could not be priced at all. Review rollover exposure means carried hours are worth at least that same share. Insufficient information means no hours were recorded, so there is no rate to state — an unmeasured rate is not a rate of zero. There is no industry source for the 5% floor and this page does not claim one; it exists so a rounding-scale amount does not outrank a real one, and the amount itself is always shown so you can disagree.

Should unused hours roll over?

That is a commercial decision, and the only wrong answer is leaving it unsaid. An agreement silent on it produces the argument where a client who used 12 of 20 hours last month and 24 this month asserts the 8 carried, while you read them as expired — both sides reading the same sentence and finding different answers. If hours do carry, cap them and say for how long: an uncapped balance lets a client accumulate several months and call them in during one week you had already sold, which converts a fixed fee into an open-ended obligation.

What Stria does with the same numbers, continuously

This page measures a month you have already worked. The figures are worth more while the month is still running.

Set the hours a recurring fee includes, and Stria meters the time logged against that retainer for the open cycle — derived from your time entries rather than a counter you maintain
State the rollover policy once: unused hours expire, or they carry to the next cycle up to a cap. A capped policy with no cap cannot be saved, because that is the ambiguity that causes the argument
The meter flags a cycle at 80% of its hours, before it runs over rather than after
Your client can see the same hours depleting on a link with no account and no password — included, used and remaining, and none of your rates
When a cycle does run past its hours, Stria drafts the invoice for the extra time with the working shown. It is a draft you read before sending, never an automatic bill
Cycle by cycle it records what the retainer actually realised per hour, so a renewal conversation has history behind it

What it does not do: bank hours indefinitely, meter a deliverable count per cycle, or send an overage invoice without you.

Common questions

What is a healthy effective hourly rate on a retainer? Your own target, and nothing else. There is no defensible universal figure — it depends on the service, how much you subcontract, your overhead, the risk you carry and what else you could do with the capacity. The number worth watching is the trend on one retainer over several months.

Does unused retainer capacity mean I lost money? Only if the fee was sold as hours or deliverables. If the client is paying for availability, unused time is what they bought. Either way it becomes a renewal question rather than a loss this month.

Should unused hours roll over to the next month? Decide it in writing, and if they do carry, cap them. Silence is what produces the argument.

Why is my effective rate lower than the rate the fee implies? Hours you did not bill increase the denominator, direct costs and payment fees reduce the numerator, and fee invoiced but not collected never enters the calculation at all. A 3,000 retainer covering 20 hours implies 150 an hour; deliver 26, absorb the extra six, pay 90 in card fees and 150 in expenses, and the same month returns about 106.

Does this calculate my profit or what I owe in tax? No. It measures one retainer for one month on a cash basis, and excludes tax, general overhead, your own payroll, non-retainer time and every other client. That is why the headline is net retainer revenue rather than profit.

Is the suggested renewal fee the right price? It is arithmetic, not a price. A real figure also has to account for what the client can bear, what alternatives they have, and any notice period in your agreement.

This calculator provides planning estimates, not accounting, tax, legal, or financial advice.

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