For independent consultants

Retainer tracking software for consultants

RetainerMeter helps independent consultants track retainer hours, live burn, additional billable hours, and professional PDF invoices. It runs locally on your desktop, with no forced subscription and no cloud account.

Download free trial for Windows Linux AppImage See how it works

30-day free trial · no credit card · no cloud account · signed Windows installer · Linux AppImage tested on Ubuntu 22+

RetainerMeter retainer tracking software showing live burn cards, consultant hours, additional hours, and weekly time tracking

The problem

Excel was never built for this

01

You find out you're over retainer hours too late

You log hours at the end of the week and realise you burned through a client's retainer days ago. No warning, no pacing, no visibility. Just an awkward conversation about an invoice that's going to be higher than expected.

02

Invoice day is a manual reconciliation exercise

Cross-referencing a time log with a rate table, calculating additional billable hours, building an invoice in Word, hoping the numbers match. Every month, from scratch. It takes hours and introduces errors that undermine your professionalism.

03

Your data is one corrupted file away from disaster

A single spreadsheet with no versioning, no backup strategy, and no audit trail. Three years of billing history, one accidental overwrite.

How it works

From hours logged to invoice ready, without spreadsheet cleanup

Step 01

Log hours in seconds

A keyboard-friendly weekly grid lets you tab through days and clients at full speed. Autosave reduces the risk of losing edits. Copy last week's structure from the toolbar at the start of each week.

Step 02

See exactly where every retainer stands

Live burn cards update as you type. Each card shows hours used, hours remaining, risk of exceeding the retainer, and whether you're ahead or behind the expected pace for the month, so you can act before it becomes a problem.

Step 03

Open a professional invoice in one click

RetainerMeter generates a branded PDF invoice with your logo, line items, notes, retainer fee, additional hours, and tax. HTML export is still there when you want an editable archive copy. Mark invoices as sent, record payment, and track outstanding balances in the billing panel.

Watch the product walkthrough

See the core flow in about two minutes: consultant setup, client retainers, weekly hours, burn tracking, and invoice preview.

Billing proof

See the invoice before it leaves your desk

Open the billing view, preview the invoice, and confirm retainers, additional hours, tax, payment status, and export history before sending anything to a client.

RetainerMeter Billing tab beside an invoice preview showing retainer fees, additional hours, VAT, payment terms, and balance due

Features

Everything a retainer-based consultant actually needs

⚡

Live burn tracking

Burn cards update in real time as you enter hours. Pace indicators tell you whether you're ahead or behind the expected monthly burn before the month ends.

📄

Three billing models

Hourly, flat monthly retainer, or retainer with additional billable hours. Each generates the correct invoice structure automatically, with no manual calculation.

🔒

Invoice locking

Mark an invoice as sent and it locks. Correcting a prior week's hours won't silently change an amount you've already invoiced. Export counts and timestamps help you track what was generated.

⌨️

Keyboard-first entry

Tab, Enter, and arrow keys navigate the weekly grid. Undo and redo are built in. Copy last week from the toolbar when you want a fast starting point.

💾

Local-first, always

Your data lives on your machine. No cloud account, no monthly SaaS fee, no vendor lock-in. Atomic writes and JSON backup/restore help reduce data-loss risk.

🌍

Multi-currency & tax

Set your invoice currency, tax label, and tax rate per your own market. USD is the default in the demo, but EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, and other common billing currencies are supported.

Questions consultants ask

Retainer tracking, additional hours, and invoices without spreadsheet cleanup

What is retainer tracking software?

Retainer tracking software helps consultants record time against each client retainer, compare hours used with hours included, and see whether a retainer is on pace before the month ends.

Can RetainerMeter track additional billable hours above a retainer?

Yes. RetainerMeter supports hourly work, flat monthly retainers, and retainers with additional billable hours. It calculates hours above the retainer and includes them on the invoice.

Does RetainerMeter create consultant invoices?

Yes. The billing view previews professional invoices with retainer fees, additional hours, tax, payment terms, and balance due. You can export PDF invoices and HTML archive copies.

Is this cloud-based retainer management software?

No. RetainerMeter is local-first desktop software. Normal time tracking, burn cards, and invoice generation happen on your machine without uploading client data to a cloud account.

Use a retainer workflow RetainerMeter does not cover yet?

Tell me how you bill: prepaid hours, rollover rules, approval steps, quarterly retainers, project splits, or something else that does not fit the current models.

Tell me how you bill

Local-first. No forced subscription. No one else's server.

Your data stays on your machine. RetainerMeter stores app data in local JSON files. There is no account to create and no client data uploaded during normal app use; you stay responsible for protecting your device and backups.

Works offline, always. No internet connection is needed to log hours, view burn cards, or generate invoices. Update checks and downloads are the parts that need the internet.

Buy once, keep it. The $129 licence keeps your purchased version of RetainerMeter working after the trial. Price includes applicable VAT/sales tax where required. Optional maintenance covers ongoing fixes, minor improvements, compatibility updates, and reasonable support for your licensed version.

Pricing

$129 one-time purchase after a 30-day trial

Price includes applicable VAT/sales tax where required. No subscription required.

$129
One-time purchase after 30-day trial
Download free trial
Send me the desktop link
Optional updates plan: $9/month. Covers ongoing fixes, compatibility updates, minor improvements, and reasonable support for your licensed version. Major upgrades are separate optional purchases, currently expected around $49 when a meaningful new version ships. Active updates-plan customers may receive a modest subscriber discount at checkout.
No subscription required: if you stop the updates plan, your purchased version keeps working.

Download RetainerMeter
and start the trial

RetainerMeter is available now as a signed Windows installer and a Linux AppImage. No email is required to download.

RetainerMeter installs on Windows and Linux. Send yourself the desktop link and open it from your computer.

Start with the 30-day trial

Purchase and activation happen inside the app when you are ready.

Download free trial for Windows Download Linux AppImage

Need Linux? Download the Linux AppImage.

Send me the desktop link

Windows installer · 30-day trial · no credit card.

Public downloads are live for the signed release builds.