The hours are totaled
The moment the month's logged time crosses the retainer's included hours, the workflow prices the excess at the overage rate written into the retainer record.
Run your agency on InventDB SOAR.
Clients, projects, logged time, invoices and retainer documents in one engine, run by an AI that shows you the SQL and waits for your approval, at a flat monthly price per instance.
The console
Four pages run the clients.
InventDB SOAR's console is Store, Operate, Analyze and Report. On an agency they look like this.
Store
Types for clients, projects, time entries, invoices, retainers and proposals; each retainer record holds the rate, the included hours and the renewal date, and SOWs, briefs and decks attach to the client, searchable by their contents, so "retainers with a rush surcharge clause" finds the right documents.
Operate
A workflow watches each retainer's month: when logged hours cross the included cap, it totals the overage at the retainer's rate, drafts the client note, and waits; nothing reaches a client until the account lead approves it.
Analyze
Ask in plain English for profitability by client, revenue against logged cost; for time logged but not yet invoiced, and for whom; or for who is near their retainer cap this month. Every answer shows the SQL it ran.
Report
The agency brief renders at 8:30 AM: projects due this week, retainers over their hours, and the money sitting in unbilled time and overdue invoices; open it any time for the live numbers.
The overage
What happens when a retainer goes over.
Unbilled overages are the money agencies lose quietly. Catching one is a single workflow, and every step it takes lands in the audit trail.
The workflow drafts the note
It writes a client note and an overage summary for the account lead: which projects drove the hours, and what the extra amount comes to.
You approve before it sends
The draft waits. You read the exact note, then send it over Gmail with a 15-minute call slot offered from your calendar.
Nothing slips to next month
The flag, the draft, your approval and the send are all logged against the retainer, so the overage is billed in the month it happened.
What it is, and what it is not.
InventDB SOAR is the workspace for clients, projects, time and retainers. It is not a certified accounting package or a payroll system: the invoices and figures it drafts are yours to carry into whatever your accountant runs, and your data exports anytime as standard SQL and open JSON.
The sample app
The same pattern, coming soon on a real engine.
Our first sample app, coming soon, is a property business, but its shape is the one this page describes: an ordinary web app on top, with data, sign-in, permissions, workflows and reports all served by one InventDB engine. An agency sample is next on our list.
Source on GitHub
The whole app, public on GitHub: clone it, point it at your own engine, or hand it to your AI builder as a starting point. Coming soon.
Replit and Emergent
The same app as a fork-and-run copy in your browser, and as a version generated from a prompt against the engine's API spec. Both coming soon.
Demo sign-in
A read-only demo account that reads everything and changes nothing. Coming soon.
What it costs.
InventDB SOAR is priced flat per month: Business plans from $108/mo with the AI credit bundled, Personal from $54/mo. Request the free tier and we confirm it by email, so you can load a month of time entries and watch a retainer flag first; no card needed.