Contracts
Contracts, retainers, and agreement workflows.
How-to guides 7
- Create a contractCreate the right agreement type, scope it to a client or project, and capture its commercial, renewal, document, and signing terms.
- Manage recurring client billingCreate a non-retainer billing schedule, move billable periods to Ready, generate draft invoices, send them, and record payment.
- Monitor the Retainer PortfolioUse the Retainer Dashboard to spot active retainers near their limit, in overage, or projected to exceed capacity.
- Schedule, backdate, and preview plan changesChange a retainer plan going forward or correct open historical periods, using the contract’s period boundaries and impact preview.
- Set up a recurring subscription contractUse a Subscription-behavior contract for recurring flat or seat-based services, then create its client billing schedule.
- Track client authorizations and their limitsRecord POs and budget approvals, see forecast vs. actual, and understand how each client's cap is enforced when invoices are sent.
- Use Contracts Commercial OpsWork the cross-client queues for billing readiness, authorizations, SOWs, renewals, and scheduled billing.
Concepts 9
- Contracts: module and record layoutKnow which Contracts tab to use and how an individual contract separates commercial terms, billing, retainers, files, and settings.
- How time entries become retainer usageEligible billable time is routed by client and project scope; pending time affects current burn and unallocated time stays informational.
- Overage billing modesHow extra hours bill once the included allocation and rollover are used up.
- Period lifecycle: open, close, reopenRetainer periods follow the contract anniversary, move from Open to Closed, and can be reopened for controlled corrections.
- Plan groups: organize tiered offeringsGroup related plan tiers under one offering, like the Stripe Product → Price model.
- Plan versions and contract safetyEvery plan edit creates a new immutable version. Existing contracts stay on the version they were created with until you explicitly switch them.
- Rollover hours and how they expireUnused hours can carry into the next period within a cap. Rollover is consumed before current-month hours and expires after one period — no compounding.
- Service retainer plans, explainedHow service retainer plans, versions, contracts, and periods work together so monthly usage and billing stay accurate.
- Term-length discounts and commitment rulesAuto-apply a discount when a contract picks a longer commitment, and control whether mid-commitment switches are allowed.