Ask HN: How do you manage client retainers? Built a tool, curious if useful

We have 15+ clients on different setups (some hourly, some fixed monthly) and were juggling Slack, ClickUp, Toggl, Stripe, and email. It became a mess to track hours, assign tasks, and keep clients updated without spending way too much time on manual updates.

We ended up building an internal tool to handle retainer tracking, team assignments, and automated client updates. It saved us a lot of time and improved communication and built trust.

Now I’m wondering if this is just our problem or something others struggle with too.

Would love to hear: • How do you manage retainers or ongoing client work? • What’s been your biggest headache? • Have you found tools that work well, or are you hacking it together with multiple tools?

For context, I set up a public version at retainkit.io

Would love to hear your mind even if you are a freelancer!

Not trying to pitch, just curious if it’s useful beyond our agency.

Thanks!