How many hours does your retainer really cover?
Enter a monthly retainer, what an hour of your team's time costs and the margin you want. You'll see the hours budget the fee can afford, the overage, the real margin and the fee you'd need for the hours you actually spend. Runs in your browser, nothing is stored.
Pre-filled values are a fictional example. Replace them with your own numbers. Results are estimates based on the cost per hour you enter.
How the calculator works
Hours budget
Fee × (1 − target margin) ÷ cost per hour. Example: €3,000 × 0.60 ÷ €35 = 51.4 h.
Overage and its cost
Hours spent − hours budget (if positive), × cost per hour. Example: 62 − 51.4 = 10.6 h ≈ €370.
Real margin
(Fee − hours spent × cost per hour) ÷ fee. Example: (€3,000 − €2,170) ÷ €3,000 = 27.7%.
Fee you need
Hours spent × cost per hour ÷ (1 − target margin). Example: €2,170 ÷ 0.60 ≈ €3,617.
A retainer is only as profitable as the hours behind it.
Small requests, extra revisions and quick calls rarely make it into a spreadsheet, so overage stays invisible until the margin is gone. With opiq TEAM, your team logs work per client with one click as they go (timer, "My day" or a manual entry), and you see hours per client, team and employee, plus profitability by client.
- No screen recording, keystroke logging or location tracking
- Live team board: who is working, on break, absent or not logging
- Runs in the browser and on phones; first entry in about 5 minutes
- EU-hosted · plans from €19.90/month · 14-day free trial, no credit card
Retainer questions
How many hours should a retainer include?
Work backward from the fee: retainer × (1 − target margin) ÷ your cost per hour. Example: €3,000 × (1 − 0.40) ÷ €35 = 51.4 hours a month. If your team regularly spends more than that, the client is costing you margin.
What is cost per hour?
What one hour of your team's time costs you, not what you charge: salaries and payroll costs plus overhead (rent, software, admin), divided by the hours actually available for client work. If people have different costs, use a blended average for the people who work on the account.
What target margin should I use?
Use the margin your business needs on client work to cover non-billable time and leave a profit. There is no universal number. Pick one, use it for every retainer, and compare clients against the same bar.
What are overage hours?
Hours spent on the client beyond the hours the retainer can afford at your target margin. Overage is the most common reason a retainer that looked good when it was signed turns unprofitable: extra revisions, calls and small requests that nobody bills.
What should I do if a retainer is over budget?
Look at what the extra hours were spent on, then either agree a higher fee (the calculator shows the fee that would hit your target margin), reduce the scope, or bill overage separately. All three need reliable hours per client.
Where do I get the real hours per client?
From work logs. With opiq TEAM, employees log work per client with one click (timer, "My day" or a manual entry), so you see hours and profitability per client without spreadsheets, and without screen recording or keystroke tracking.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server.