Freelancers paid from the same hours.
The freelancer’s payout statement is computed from the entries the invoice used.
Industries · Marketing and creative agencies
40 hours. Not 42.
Your $6,000 retainer is 40 hours to you and a flat fee to the client. Ceed keeps the 40 and holds the 41st.
Harbor & Vine · MarchHeld
42.0 of 40 h
Thu 19 Mar · 2.0 h · Landing page revisions, round 3 · Priya K.
Held for approval. 2.0 h over the client’s budget.
ApproveDecline
$6,000
the monthly retainer
40 h
the hours behind it
$150
the hour past it
$6
Ceed, this month
Round three. On the record.
Over-servicing is people-pleasing at the account level. A revision round here, a strategy call there, and the account that looked profitable is not. Ceed puts the extra hour in front of the account lead the moment it is logged, so the decision is on the record and the account lead is not the one saying no.
Held. Not hidden.
The hour that would push a client over budget is saved, marked, and waits for a yes or no. Nothing is billed quietly. Nothing disappears.
- Logged
2.0 h · Harbor & Vine · Revisions, round 3
- Held
Over the 40 h budget. Waiting for Dana.
- Approved
On the March invoice, at $150 an hour.
One set of hours. Everything follows.
Margin per account. This morning.
Revenue, cost and margin for every retainer, every day. The account that costs more than it pays shows before the quarter ends.
Hours from Slack. One minute a day.
One reminder each workday with the hours left per client. No timers, no screenshots. Everyone sees their own hours.
Invoice · Harbor & Vine · March 2026Computed
Monthly retainer · 40 h$6,000.00
Approved hours past the budget · 2.0 h at $150.00$300.00
Total$6,300.00
Computed from the agreement dated 2 Feb 2026. Nothing typed.
From the field. In their words.
What agency owners say in public about retainers, over-servicing and margin. Linked and dated. Not our words.
Said on X.
One client was at 126% of contracted hours. Sold 60 hours a month, consuming far more. Every single month.
The agency had a $225/hour overage clause in their MSA. It had never been enforced. Not once.
… Having an overage clause and enforcing an overage clause are completely different things. One sits in a PDF. The other requires a system.
I pulled 90 days of time tracking across 8 retainers for one agency. They planned 300 hours. They delivered 383. The clients never asked for a single thing outside scope.
… Each one feels small. They compound into a 28% hour overrun.
Hourly billing = selling time
More time = more money
Less time = less money
You’re incentivized to spend more time, not deliver better results.
Is this logical?
Net 30 is crazy but net 60 is insane …
Please pray for your freelance friends
Said on YouTube.
Said elsewhere.
- YouTubeHow Do I Raise Prices Without Losing Clients?The Futur · repricing the clients you already have
- RedditIf your retainer margin is below 25 percent, you have a discovery problemr/agency · May 2026 · 40 hours sold, 47 delivered, margin from 28 to 11 percent
- RedditManaging scope changes without the extra paperwork?r/agency · May 2026 · the addendum nobody writes, so the hour is free
- RedditTalked with 40 agency owners. None knew their real margin.r/agency · July 2026 · $180 an hour on the invoice, $146 in fact
- Article2025 Agency Pricing and Cash Flow ReportIgnition · May 2025 · 273 agencies on out-of-scope work and late invoices
- ArticleWhat is overservicingParakeeto · the most common profit leak in agencies, defined
- PodcastBuild a Better Agency, episode 567: AI commercialization strategiesAgency Management Institute · August 2026 · the billable hour as a unit of value
Of what you invoice. That is the pricing page.
Invoice $6,000 this month for Harbor & Vine and Ceed costs $6. A month you invoice nothing costs nothing. No seats, no tiers, no minimum.
Questions. Answers.
Our retainers are flat and the client never sees hours. Who sees the hold?
You and the account lead. The client sees what the agreement puts on the invoice.
We are twelve people on a time tracker and an accounting ledger. What do we stop paying for?
The timesheet spreadsheet, the retainer math, the invoice typed by hand and the month-end reconciliation. The ledger stays. Invoices and statements come out of Ceed as documents for it.
A freelancer logs six hours on an account that is already over. Is her payout held too?
Her hours are held with the account’s, on the record, and she sees it the moment she logs them, not on payday. Approved, they go on the invoice and on her statement.
Can we set a different budget per client, and change it month to month?
Each client’s budget is set in that client’s agreement, and Ceed computes from the agreement. Write to hello@ceed.so about the terms your retainers use and a person replies.
0.1% of $2.4 million is $2,400 a year. What is the catch?
There is none. No seats, no tiers, no minimum, no implementation fee. The rate never moves.
From the blog: Held. Not hidden. The agreement said 40 hours. The month said 47. Other firms Ceed is for: Software dev shops · Coaches · Management consulting · all nineteen.