I thought this article might help clear up some confusion for anyone uncertain about implementing retainer pricing in their virtual assistant practice. Great practical information!

How To Use Pre-paid Retainer Packages In My Virtual Assistant Business

For many virtual assistants, offering a pre-paid monthly ‘retainer’ package can be a valuable option for both the VA and their clients. I offer my clients their choice of being billed on an hourly basis for actual use at the end of the month or purchasing pre-paid hours at a discount.

Read the full article here.

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Hi.. This is a great (and timely) article! I've been trying to figure out how to handle retainer accounts. Do you have to have a separate retainer bank account, or is this just your preference?

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Lisa Salem
Monarch Virtual Assistance LLC

I use the same bank account but track my retainers in QuickBooks. If the funds were going to be kept long-term (three or more months) I would open a separate, interest-bearing account. However, my retainer packages are only good until the end of the month and whatever funds aren't used are forfeited.

I ALWAYS make sure that the amount of retainer funds listed in QuickBooks are, at a minimum, in my bank account balance. Make sense?

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Thank you for posting this. I have started to Bill Retainers for a few clients and this helped me out alot.

Jessica

Thanks for posting this article! Very helpful.

Thank you! This is a great article! I was wondering about that myself. I really like the idea of giving discounts for prepaying, I think it's a great way to secure business. I also like how she explains how she bills at the end of the month. I'm just getting started, don't have any clients (yet!), and want to be sure I get all my ducks in a row before I dive in.

Years ago I worked in a law firm and had to reconcile the client trust account each month. A retainer technically isn't your money. It belongs to the client until it is billed. I think a separate bank account for retainer money keeps things on the up and up. That being said, we're probably not dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars on a monthly basis, so comingling the money may not be such a problem. I think for now I'll keep them together, but look forward to a time when a trust account will genuinely be necessary.

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&rea and Associates, LLC
"Dedicated to Helping Small Businesses Compete"

Thanks for sharing this, have bookmarked. I'm currently working on my retainer packages.

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Jessica
Pink Chilli Virtual Assistant

I am thinking of whether or not to use retainers. This is great info. Thanks.

This information is very helpful, thanks for posting!

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Karin Seifert
Seifert Virtual Solutions

Thanks for posting. Very helpful article. I will use this for future reference for sure.