Introduction to retainers
Retainers are subscription-like work agreements that allow clients to work with developers for ongoing or recurring tasks. Retainers are set up with a recurring price and duration that repeat automatically at the end of the set timeframe.
Codeable retainer feature should be used for tasks such as routine WordPress updates/upgrades, security audits, speed optimizations, SEO projects, and custom plugin/theme updates.
Get started with a retainer
Once you have a recurring task in mind, you'll need to hire an expert and agree with them on the details and the monthly price upfront. After both parties are on the same page and are okay with the scope of work and total cost, the expert will create a retainer task for your specific task in our application.
Note: we're already working on the possibility for you to pick and create a retainer task right from the beginning. For now, you'll need an expert to create one for you.
Once an expert has created a retainer task for you to fund, your workroom will show a banner at the top of the screen prompting you to fund the recurring subscription:
As an illustration, if a retainer is initiated (funded) on April 16 and follows a monthly billing schedule, it will automatically be marked as completed on May 16. On this date, the expert will be paid for their services during the period of April 16 to May 16, and you will also be charged for the upcoming month's work on the same day.
Update the payment method
Clients can update their bank card information on an active retainer through a link provided by the support team. This eliminates the need to create a new retainer.
If you need to change the bank card on an active retainer, please let the support team know as soon as possible. We'll be happy to help you change the card.
Change the billing cycle
We can help to change the billing cycle. Please get in touch with the support team.
Pause Payment Collection
We can help you pause the payment collection. Please get in touch with the support team.
Cancel a retainer
You first need to click "VIEW ALL TASKS" to view the retainer, and then you will see the "CANCEL" button.
You can also ask your expert to cancel the retainer task. It will not affect your expert getting paid for the current retainer you've paid, and you won't be charged again after the retainer is canceled.
Payment failure and automatic cancellation
If you can't fund your newly created retainer task or your ongoing retainer task payment is failing, we suggest you contact your bank or card company, which will help you pre-authorize the transaction. And please also let them know this is a monthly recurring payment.
After you contact your bank, either fill in your card information again if it's a newly created retainer or wait till Stripe attempts to process the transaction again in a few days after the first attempt (you can contact the support team to know the exact retry date). When the retainer payment fails five times, it will be canceled automatically, and your expert needs to set up a new retainer task for you.
If you still can't fund a retainer task, you can move this forward using regular additional tasks instead of retainers. Your expert needs to create additional tasks for the regular maintenance work, and you mark the previous period's additional task as complete and fund the new one.
Warranties for Retainers
Retainers have the same 28-day warranty as regular projects and additional tasks. It's basically the same as an additional task, except it's automatically funded and marked as complete each month.
To give you an example, if a retainer begins (is funded) on say April 16, then it will automatically mark itself as complete on May 16 and automatically charge for the next month on May 16... then the process repeats until canceled or payment fails 5x in a row and automatically cancels itself out.
There are no contracts or lock-in periods; you may request to cancel the retainer anytime. If work is done and delivered to you and you're happy with the quality, then we can provide a partial refund for the time remaining and not used. And if any bugs are found in the work delivered, then they will be covered by the 28-day warranty period, just like a normal task :)
And if you have any follow-up questions, contact us in support; we'll be happy to help!