Retainers

A retainer — sometimes called a deposit or kick-off fee — is money collected up front to cover early work or reserve your firm’s time. Monograph lets you collect one, track it, and draw it down across later invoices.

Collect a retainer

1. From the project Overview, click Create Invoice.

2. In the Builder’s Additional Items tab, click Add Line Item → Retainer. Adjust the item name if you like (e.g. “Deposit”), and enter a description and amount.

3. In the Designer tab, toggle off Fixed Fee lines, previously billed amounts, and (optionally) the Services Through dates so only the retainer shows.

4. Click Next: Preview, then open and share it with your client.

Bill retainers on their own

Best practice is to collect a retainer on an invoice by itself, with no other charges. You can only add one retainer per invoice.

Track it

Once the retainer is paid, it appears in the project’s Financials tab (under Other Items) and as a balance summary on the Project Overview. A purple reminder box in the Builder and Designer shows how much retainer is still available to apply. Turn on Show Retainer Summary to display the running balance on later invoices.

Apply it

When it’s time to draw down the retainer:

1. Create a new invoice and go to the Designer tab.

2. Click Apply retainer.

3. At the bottom, enter the amount to apply — it’s subtracted from the total to show the Amount Due.

You can apply the whole retainer to one invoice or spread it across several. The applied amount shows between the Grand Total Due and Amount Due, so the client sees exactly how their deposit was used.

Map to QuickBooks

If QuickBooks Online is connected, map retainers to the right account under Settings → QuickBooks → Retainers, so retainer amounts land in the correct account when the invoice syncs.

Related

Create & send an invoiceThe full invoice-building flow.

Payments & remindersCollect the retainer payment online.