The short version
Define the agreement before the first request. Record time on the day. Review exceptions every week. Talk before 80 per cent. Use real work, not memory, to set the next volume.
1. Before the first ticket
Write down the five answers that prevent vague discussions
A maintenance retainer sets an allowance of work over an agreed period. Keep the dates, allowance and covered work available to the team, even when they are already in the contract.
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Volume
The number of hours or days purchased, including the hours-per-day convention. Five days at seven hours is not the same agreement as five days at eight hours.
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Period
A start date and end date. Without them, remaining time can quietly turn into an assumed rollover.
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Scope
The work covered, exclusions and the point at which a request should become a separate project or quote.
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People
Who can request work, who prioritises, who approves and who receives the record.
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Overrun
The warning threshold, the person to contact and the choices available when the balance becomes tight.
The contract remains authoritative. This checklist only keeps its operating rules visible.
2. During the retainer
A time entry should still make sense three weeks later
“Development, 4 hours” states the quantity but not the reason. A useful entry gives the request and result: “Correct shipping-cost calculation and check three test orders, 4 hours.”
Log time while the work is fresh. Rebuilding the week on Friday introduces round numbers, misses short interventions and turns the record into a memory test.
Too vague
Various corrections
5 h 00
Understandable
Contact form: stop duplicate submissions and test notifications
5 h 00
3. Every week
Review exceptions instead of recalculating totals
Schedule a weekly review. Look for blank descriptions, open requests without an owner, work outside the period and tasks that should have become a separate quote.
- Does the time match the work performed?
- Has a request grown since its first estimate?
- Is consumption approaching the agreed warning point?
- Will an exceptional intervention distort the next estimate?
4. Before the threshold
A warning at 80 per cent still leaves room for a decision
On a ten-day retainer at seven hours per day, 80 per cent means 56 hours used and 14 left. That can be enough to finish a small job, reprioritise the rest or agree an extension.
A useful note can stay calm: “The 70-hour retainer is 82 per cent consumed, with 12 hours 36 remaining. The two open requests represent about nine hours. Should we keep the rest for urgent work or also take request X?”
Eighty per cent is not a universal rule. Agree the threshold and what happens next.
5. At renewal
Use real work without treating every hour as recurring
Begin with contractual consumption, then isolate work unlikely to repeat: an exceptional migration, a supplier incident or old technical debt. Keep this internal reading separate from the client record.
Look at request frequency, the share of urgent work and the margin left at the end. The right volume does not have to land exactly at zero. It should cover predictable work and leave an explicit buffer for surprises.