How to Setup a Retainer Plan

A Retainer Plan is billing agreement with a client for a monthly remuneration. This is commonly a monthly fee to cover an agreed scope of work for the client. It often entails a set of preferential rates negotiated with the client. This help topic describes how to setup a retainer plan so that it matches the billing agreement. Once setup the actual hours spent on work within the scope of the retainer plan can be compared with the budgeted hours.

Note: For detailed notes on Analysing Retainer Plans, refer to: Client Retainer Plan vs Actual Analysis Report Notes

To Configure Retainer Data in Chase Insight:

1. Go to Setup -> Retainers.
2. On the right pane:
   • Click on the "Add" button and then select a client from the drop down list.

     

     Note: Click on the "Copy" button when a retainer is renewed. You can copy the existing retainer to the new year and then make any relevant changes.
3. Select the applicable year of the retainer agreement and the month from which the retainer agreement begins.
4. Modify the retainer title if you need this to be different from the title created by Insight automatically. If the title is changed, please include the client name and start month. This makes it easier to choose the correct retainer in report filters.

5. Select the 'Rate Card Level of Detail' choice.

   Choice	Description
   No Detail	It is possible to setup a retainer quickly without specifying a rate card. Simply fill in the total budget and total hours (the next two fields) for the total duration of the retainer. Most retainer reports will immediately be able to show the plan vs actual hours and fees. However the breakdown of planned hours into department, designation or employee cannot be shown in reports unless specified on the rate card.
   Department	Most retainer reports include a comparison of the plan to actuals by department. This option allows the plan to be input by department from the 'Setup Resource Rate Card...' button. We recommend this option to setup a retainer easily while allowing the breakdown by department to be shown.
   Designation (Job Title)	Allows hours and rates to be specified by Designation. This is necessary where rates for actual hours must be the same as those on the rate card. It is important to finalise the list of Designations in Setup > Employee, Designations prior to setting up a rate card with designations. Reports showing the breakdown by department and designation will work correctly.
   Named Employee	Allows hours and rates to be specified for specific employees or designations. Often retainer contracts specify hours for specific employees. This level of detail is sometimes required for fee recons reports. It takes more time to setup a rate card with this level of detail. In general it is easier and preferable to setup a rate card at department or designation level, where possible.

6. The 'Treat Time not on a Job as' choice specifies whether time captured for the retainer client, but not for a specific Job, should be in/outside of the retainer scope. Staff that work across multiple jobs may capture their time against the client in Chase timesheets, without specifying the job. This choice determines whether this time should be treated as part of the retainer.
7. The 'Treat blank Billing Category as' choice specifies whether a job with a blank 'Billing Category' field on the Chase Job Bag should be in/outside of the Retainer Scope. See tip below about the 'Billing Category' field on the Chase Job Bag.
8. Select the 'Actual Hours Rate' choice. This is the method used to determine the hourly rate for time logged in timesheets.

   Note: This choice mainly applies to rate cards that have been setup with Designation / Employee level of detail. The choice is mostly about which rate to use when the employee or employee designation cannot be found on the rate card.

   Actual hours rate	Description
   Find Rate on Card, else Rate is Zero when not found	Timesheet actual hours will have a rate value of zero if the employee or employee's designation cannot be found on the rate card. This is useful for spotting unplanned resources that need to be added to the rate card at the correct rate. This choice is not advised unless the retainer reports are monitored carefully for staff with zero rates.
   Find Rate on Card, else use Default Employee Rate	Default employee hourly rates will be used if no hourly rate can be found on the rate card for the employee's name or designation. This is generally the best choice to ensure that a 'best guess' rate is used for staff that cannot be found on the rate card.
   Only use Default Employee Rate, not the Rate on the Card	Ignore rates on rate card, and only use employee default hourly rate to calculate the value of the actual time on timesheets.

   Note: A rate can only be found for an employee based on their name or designation. Thus for 'No Detail' or Department level of detail retainers, the rate for actual hours will either be the employee default rate or the employee marked-up salary cost.

9. Select the 'Employee Default Rate' choice. This choice determines the Default Employee Rate to be used for the 'Actual hours rate' (see above).

   Employee Default Rate	Description
   Based on the Rate setup in "Employee Rates and Costs"	Use the employee hourly rate which is found under Setup -> Employees, Rates and Costs p.h. tab.
   Based on the Marked-up Salary Cost of the Employee (see blow)	Calculate the rate as the Salary cost p/h x Mark-up percentages. For example, say a markup of 100% for overhead costs and 20% for profit were to apply, the rate would be calculated as: Salary cost * (1 + 100%) * (1 + 20%).

10. Fill in the 'FTE hours' (FTE = Full Time Equivalent). This is the number of working hours in a year that is commonly specified in the retainer contract. This is only needed for optional input of hours as a percentage of FTE hours on the rate card. Alternately hours can be entered by month or as a total.
11. Click 'Save'.
12. To setup up the 'Resource Rate Card' refer to : Retainer Resource Rate Card

Tip

In Chase, please make the field 'Billing Category' on the Job Bag compulsory. It is essential to know whether a Job is in or out of a retainer scope, or whether there is no retainer with the client.

To Analyse Retainers

• Go to Timesheet -> Dashboards -> Retainer Client Planned vs. Actual Fees

  This dashboard shows an interactive analysis of planned fees vs. actual fees per Retainer Client

• Go to Timesheet -> Reports

  Any of the Client Retainer reports compare the retainer plan to actuals.

Setup of defaults for new Retainer Plans:

The defaults for new retainer plans can be setup by going to Setup -> Retainers, Options tab.