Streamlining Retainer Management with SuiteProjects Pro Scripting

The Challenge of Retainer Management

Professional services organizations using retainer-based billing models face unique challenges when managing prepayments. As clients provide advance payments to secure services, your finance team must meticulously track these funds, apply them accurately to invoices, and maintain a clear audit trail of all transactions. Without automation, this process can become error-prone and time-consuming, especially when:

• Multiple prepayments are made across different projects
• Partial prepayment amounts need to be applied to invoices
• Finance teams need to quickly determine remaining retainer balances
• Month-end financial reconciliation requires tracking all retainer movements

SuiteProjects Pro’s standard functionality provides the ability to track retainers through prepayment draws on invoices. However, maintaining the corresponding negative charges that reflect these draws often requires manual intervention—a process that invites errors and inefficiencies.

Automated Retainer Management Through Scripting

Top Step has developed a purpose-built SuiteProjects Pro script that seamlessly automates the creation of negative retainer charges whenever prepayment draws are applied to invoices. This solution eliminates manual steps while maintaining perfect accuracy and a clean audit trail of all retainer transactions.

How the Script Works

The “Create Charge from Retainer” script activates automatically after an approved invoice is saved, specifically monitoring changes to the Prepayment Draw field. Here’s what happens behind the scenes:

1. New Invoice with Prepayment Draw When an invoice with a Prepayment Draw amount is approved, the script automatically creates a negative retainer charge for the exact same amount, properly reflecting the use of prepaid funds.
2. Updated Invoices with Increased Draws If an existing invoice’s Prepayment Draw amount increases (for example, from $1,000 to $1,500), the script calculates the difference ($500) and creates a new negative charge only for that incremental amount, preserving the integrity of previous transactions.
3. Multiple Charge Management The script intelligently tracks all existing negative retainer charges on the project and only creates new charges for the difference between the total prepayment draw and existing charges, ensuring accurate accounting at all times.
4. Audit-Friendly Approach Rather than modifying existing charges, the script creates new charges for incremental differences, maintaining a clear transaction history that simplifies auditing and financial reconciliation.

Real-World Business Benefits

This seemingly simple automation delivers significant operational benefits:

1. Improved Financial Accuracy

By automating the creation of negative retainer charges, the script eliminates the risk of human error in manual charge creation. Every prepayment draw is precisely accounted for with corresponding negative charges, ensuring your financial records always remain in balance.

2. Enhanced Cash Flow Visibility

Project managers and finance teams gain real-time visibility into available retainer balances across projects. This clarity helps inform resource allocation decisions and supports proactive conversations with clients about renewing retainers before funds are depleted.

3. Streamlined Month-End Processes

Finance teams no longer need to manually reconcile prepayment draws with retainer charges at month-end. The script ensures these records are always in sync, significantly reducing the time spent on financial close activities.

4. Stronger Audit Trail

The script’s approach of creating new charges rather than modifying existing ones maintains a complete historical record of all retainer movements. This detailed transaction history simplifies audit preparation and provides clear documentation for both internal and external reviews.

5. Reduced Administrative Overhead

By automating a process that would otherwise require manual intervention after each invoice approval, your team can focus on higher-value activities instead of tedious administrative tasks.

Implementation Considerations

The retainer management script can be configured to match your specific business processes and requirements. Key configuration options include:

• Charge Date Handling: Determining whether charges should use invoice dates, approval dates, or specific draw dates
• Description Formatting: Customizing how charges are labeled in the system for easy identification
• Notification Settings: Optionally alerting specific team members when retainer charges are created
• Integration with Reporting: Ensuring the negative charges feed properly into your financial reporting framework

The Bottom Line

For professional services organizations managing client retainers, this SuiteProjects Pro script represents a significant opportunity to improve financial accuracy, save administrative time, and enhance visibility into prepayment utilization. By automating what would otherwise be a manual process, your team can focus on delivering exceptional service rather than managing the mechanics of retainer accounting.

Top Step has implemented this solution for numerous clients across various professional services sectors, consistently delivering measurable improvements in financial operations. The script’s flexible design ensures it can be adapted to your specific business requirements while maintaining the core benefits of automation, accuracy, and improved visibility.

If you’re interested in streamlining your retainer management processes and eliminating manual charge creation, contact us today to discuss how this script can be implemented within your SuiteProjects Pro environment.