Contractors in three time zones. One log.
Each contractor’s payout statement is computed from the same entries the invoice used, at the rate in their agreement.
Industries · Software development shops
One hundred hours. Then a decision.
A support retainer is a hundred hours to you and a flat fee to the client. Ceed keeps the hundred and holds the next.
Copperline Retail · AugustHeld
103.0 of 100 h
Thu 27 Aug · 3.0 h · Hotfix, checkout bug · Omar V.
Held for approval. 3.0 h over the client’s budget.
ApproveDecline
$18,000
the monthly retainer
100 h
the hours behind it
$180
the hour past it
$18
Ceed, this month
The hotfix. On the record.
Retainers run out and the team keeps shipping, because the bug is real and the client is waiting. Ceed logs the hotfix, holds the hours past the budget, and puts the decision in front of the lead while the fix is still warm. The work is done. Who pays for it is answered on the record.
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
3.0 h · Copperline Retail · Hotfix, checkout
- Held
Over the 100 h budget. Waiting for Dana.
- Approved
On the August invoice, at $180 an hour.
One set of hours. Everything follows.
Fractional CTO. Equity as fees.
A retainer paid half in cash and half in shares shows both on the invoice and in the record.
No timers. No screenshots.
One Slack reminder each workday with the hours left per client. Everyone sees their own hours. Ceed watches the client’s budget, not the person.
Invoice · Copperline Retail · August 2026Computed
Support retainer · 100 h$18,000.00
Approved hours past the budget · 3.0 h at $180.00$540.00
Total$18,540.00
Computed from the agreement dated 1 Jun 2026. Nothing typed.
From the field. In their words.
What dev shop owners and contractors say in public about retainers, scope and getting paid. Linked and dated. Not our words.
Said on X.
$15k retainers sound expensive until you realize some clients are willing to pay $50k/month.
We just lost a project because we couldn’t match our leads need of 400+ hours per month. That’s a $50k monthly retainer right there.
Sometimes price isn’t the barrier. Capacity is.
biggest thing that changes is you stop losing money on just your own time and start losing it across a team. when you were freelancing, scope creep cost you hours. as an agency, it costs you margin on every project across every person. most agency owners i’ve talked to don’t track margin per client until it’s already a problem — worth building that visibility from day one.
A software retainer is not a bucket of hours.
Evaluate it on how much it reduces the risk of something failing. If that failure is expensive enough, the retainer makes sense all day long.
What you are actually buying is a transfer of accountability. You no longer have to worry about it. Someone else has it.
Said on YouTube.
Said elsewhere.
- YouTubeWhy Engineers Should Consider AI Consulting (And How to Start)Hamel Husain · dev shops moving into AI engagements
- RedditAgency I subcontract through has taken 10 percent for yearsr/ExperiencedDevs · September 2024 · what sits between the contractor’s rate and the client’s
- RedditMaintenance retainers: what do you include, and how do you sell it?r/webdev · March 2026 · tiered support retainers in fifteen-minute increments
- RedditFuture of software consulting companiesr/ExperiencedDevs · May 2026 · staff augmentation against consultancies that lead
- ArticleFixed Scope MirageMartin Fowler · September 2004 · a fixed scope is fixed only if the contractor understands the requirements
- ForumAsk HN: freelance billing in the age of LLMs?Hacker News · May 2026 · hourly against milestone billing when the tools get faster
Of what you invoice. That is the pricing page.
Invoice $18,000 this month for Copperline Retail and Ceed costs $18. A month you invoice nothing costs nothing. No seats, no tiers, no minimum.
Questions. Answers.
Our tracker already emails a budget warning. What does a hold add?
The hour and the decision, both on the record. A warning is a report you read later. A held hour waits for a yes or no the day it is logged, and either answer stays in the record.
Sprints are fixed-bid. Does this only work for retainers?
It works for any agreement with hours behind it: a retainer, a capped month, a fixed fee you sized in hours. The client sees what the agreement puts on the invoice.
Our developers hate timesheets. Does a hold make them log less?
It makes the logged hour worth logging. Nothing logged disappears, and the question of who pays for it moves to a lead. One Slack message a day, under a minute.
Offshore contractors are paid per hour. Same entries?
Yes. Payout statements are computed from the same entries as the invoice.
Why a percentage rather than a seat, when revenue grows and the team does not?
Because the fee should rise and fall with your firm, not your roster. Adding a person costs nothing. A month you invoice nothing costs nothing.
From the blog: Held. Not hidden. The agreement said 40 hours. The month said 47. Other firms Ceed is for: Data and AI consultancies · IT consulting · Staff augmentation · all nineteen.