For independent consultants
RetainerMeter gives you live burn tracking, professional PDF invoices, and clearer control over every client retainer — all running locally on your desktop, no forced subscription, no cloud account.
Windows first · Linux AppImage tested on Ubuntu 22+ · planned 30-day trial · invoices in EUR, USD, GBP, and more
The problem
You log hours at the end of the week and realise you burned through a client's retainer days ago. No warning, no pacing, no visibility — just an awkward conversation about an invoice that's going to be higher than expected.
Cross-referencing a time log with a rate table, calculating overage, building an invoice in Word, hoping the numbers match — every month, from scratch. It takes hours and introduces errors that undermine your professionalism.
A single spreadsheet with no versioning, no backup strategy, and no audit trail. Three years of billing history, one accidental overwrite.
How it works
Step 01
A keyboard-friendly weekly grid lets you tab through days and clients at full speed. Autosave reduces the risk of losing edits. Copy last week's structure from the toolbar at the start of each week.
Step 02
Live burn cards update as you type. Each card shows hours used, hours remaining, overage risk, and whether you're ahead or behind the expected pace for the month — so you can act before it becomes a problem.
Step 03
RetainerMeter generates a branded PDF invoice with your logo, line items, notes, retainer fee, overage, and tax. HTML export is still there when you want an editable archive copy. Mark invoices as sent, record payment, and track outstanding balances in the billing panel.
Features
Burn cards update in real time as you enter hours. Pace indicators tell you whether you're ahead or behind the expected monthly burn — before the month ends.
Hourly, flat monthly retainer, or retainer plus overage. Each generates the correct invoice structure automatically — no manual calculation.
Mark an invoice as sent and it locks. Correcting a prior week's hours won't silently change an amount you've already invoiced. Export counts and timestamps help you track what was generated.
Tab, Enter, and arrow keys navigate the weekly grid. Undo and redo are built in. Copy last week from the toolbar when you want a fast starting point.
Your data lives on your machine. No cloud account, no monthly SaaS fee, no vendor lock-in. Atomic writes and JSON backup/restore help reduce data-loss risk.
Set your invoice currency, tax label, and tax rate per your own market. EUR is the default in the demo, but USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, and other common billing currencies are supported.
Your data stays on your machine. RetainerMeter stores app data in local JSON files. There is no account to create and no client data uploaded during normal app use; you stay responsible for protecting your device and backups.
Works offline, always. No internet connection is needed to log hours, view burn cards, or generate invoices. Update checks and downloads are the parts that need the internet.
Buy v1 once, keep it. The €79 licence keeps RetainerMeter v1 working after the trial. Optional maintenance covers ongoing fixes, minor v1 improvements, compatibility updates, and reasonable support.
Pricing
Simple v1 pricing, optional maintenance, and no forced subscription.
Join the private launch list while signing, licensing, and final release checks are completed. No account, no credit card, and no download until the build is ready.
Public downloads are paused until signing and final release checks are complete.