Retainers, Projects and Margin per Client

The Challenge

Busy on every client, but margin unknown

The agency ran retainers and one-off projects across many clients. Time was tracked loosely, scope crept without anyone noticing, and nobody could say which clients made money until the accounts closed. Some retainers quietly ran at a loss for months.

• Time tracked loosely, so effort per client was unclear.
• Scope crept on retainers without a check.
• Margin per client was known only at year end.
• Write-offs were common and unexplained.

The Solution

One Odoo system for retainers, projects and time

We set up Odoo so retainers and projects carry their budget, time is logged against them, and margin per client and project is visible as the month runs, not after it.

• Retainers and projects with budgets.
• Time logged against client work.
• Live margin per client and per project.
• Alerts when a retainer runs over its hours.

How We Delivered

Made time logging painless for creatives

Creative teams resist heavy timesheets, so we kept logging to a few seconds and tied it to the work they were already tracking. We piloted with two client teams, tuned the retainer setup, then rolled it to the agency.

Go-live took seven weeks.

The Outcome

Margin in view and fewer write-offs

The agency now sees margin per client and project while there is still time to act, so over-serviced retainers are caught and re-scoped. Write-offs fell, and the conversations with clients about scope are backed by real numbers.