Stop rebuilding every retainer invoice from last month’s spreadsheet.
RetainerRun turns your monthly recurring billing ritual into a preflight board: due clients, changed amounts, missing PO/proof links, reminder status, and paid/unpaid tracking before revenue slips.
Landing-page validation only. Billing workflow support, not tax, legal, or accounting advice.
retainerun monthly board
June billing · needs preflight
Acme Ops
Due Friday · PO changed · proof link missing
Northstar Studio
Retainer paused last month; confirm restart before sending
Maple Advisory
Sent 11 days ago; promised date not logged
Export preview
“Send 17 invoices, hold 2 for owner review, attach 8 proof links, schedule 5 reminders, and reconcile 3 promised payment dates.”
Narrow customer
Solo consultants, fractional operators, and 2–5 person service studios with 5–40 recurring monthly clients or retainers.
Paid problem
Monthly copy/paste billing creates missed invoices, stale amounts, missing POs/proof links, and slow reminders — all tied directly to cash collection.
Landing test
Join to test whether a recurring-invoice preflight board beats another spreadsheet, inbox reminder, or heavyweight invoicing suite.
Day-in-the-life pain
The work is recurring. The billing still feels handmade.
It is the first week of the month. You copy last month’s sheet, remember which client paused, hunt for the updated PO, paste a delivery link from Slack, check whether last month got paid, and write another gentle reminder. Nothing is complex enough for an enterprise finance tool — but every missed row delays cash.
Input
Paste a client-retainer spreadsheet, last month’s invoice list, payment terms, PO notes, proof-of-work links, and any paused or changed client notes.
Preflight
RetainerRun marks due invoices, changed amounts, missing PO/proof links, skipped clients, stale payment terms, reminder status, and items that need owner review before sending.
Output
A send-ready monthly billing board: invoice checklist, client-specific notes, reminder ladder, paid/unpaid ledger, and an export you can use with Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero, or plain email.
Evidence-tied features
Built for the gap between “we have recurring clients” and “did every invoice actually go out right?”
Recurring schedule board
See which retainers should be billed this week, which were skipped last month, and which clients have pauses or changed scope.
Change-from-last-month check
Catch stale amounts, missing POs, proof links, support-hour notes, or one-off credits before the invoice goes out.
Reminder ladder
Track friendly nudge, promised date, second reminder, and escalation without writing every follow-up from scratch.
Proof-link locker
Attach work summaries, delivery links, timesheet references, and approval notes next to the invoice they support.
Accounting-tool neutral
Use it before your existing Stripe, QuickBooks, Xero, PDF, or email workflow instead of migrating your whole business.
Proof and cited complaints
What the public evidence says
Hacker News · recurring invoice copy/paste
A public post describes freelancers and small service businesses rebuilding recurring invoices every month from spreadsheets and copy/paste templates, with the process breaking once the operator gets busy.
HN / Show HN · solo invoicing bloat
A solo-developer invoicing product positions itself against $20–$40/month invoicing suites packed with features one-person businesses do not need, suggesting appetite for narrower billing tools.
HN / Show HN · reminder fatigue
A freelancer-focused invoicing product says the founder spent too much time writing friendly payment reminder emails instead of doing client work.
Ask HN · freelancer invoicing workflow
Freelancers and consultants repeatedly ask how others handle invoicing, payment reminders, late fees, and getting paid faster — a persistent workflow, not a one-off annoyance.
Research caveat · Reddit blocked
Reddit was searched first, but direct fetches returned HTTP 403 in this run. This page cites only accessible sources captured in the wiki evidence file.
Objections
Why this is not another generic invoicing app.
Why not just use QuickBooks, FreshBooks, or Stripe invoices?
Use them for the invoice record and payment rail. RetainerRun is the narrow preflight layer for recurring service work: what changed, what proof is missing, what needs a reminder, and what should not be sent yet.
Isn’t this too small for software?
The buyer already has recurring revenue. One missed monthly invoice, stale PO, or slow reminder can cost more than a focused workflow.
Why not keep the spreadsheet?
Spreadsheets are fine until they stop showing which clients changed, which invoices need proof, which reminders went out, and what was promised for next month.
Will this integrate with my accounting system?
The first validation is CSV/manual-first. Early users should be able to test value with a redacted spreadsheet before any deep integration is required.
Early waitlist users get
A manual preflight of one real recurring invoice spreadsheet: due/hold list, missing-proof checklist, reminder ladder, and a decision on whether this saves enough admin time or recovered cash to become a paid workflow.
Validation, not vaporware
If your retainers are real, your billing run should not depend on memory.
Join if you can share a redacted client/retainer spreadsheet and want to see whether a focused preflight board catches missed invoices, stale terms, and late reminders before they cost you cash.
Join the RetainerRun waitlist