Many industries accept a retainer at the beginning of a project, matter, or engagement, ensuring that the client remains ahead on payments throughout the project. Retainers can be applied to each invoice and requested at milestones throughout the service. Or retainers can be held until the final invoice. Every retainer situation is as unique as the client. CORE allows you to create a retainer invoice and apply the retainer received toward an invoice.
In the Retainers screen in BQE CORE, simply click on the Request Retainer button. Enter the client and project (optional), retainer amount needed, and then process the request. This creates and sends out a retainer invoice to the client.
When the client pays the retainer, go to the Payments screen and enter that payment by selecting 'Apply as retainer.' This marks the retainer as received from the client. Now, the retainer is available for use on the Invoices screen while creating an invoice or by applying it later on an invoice in the Payments screen (Use Retainer pay method). This is the traditional method of accepting and using retainers in CORE. Check CORE Help Center for details.
You can also set the Auto Apply Retainers option at the global, project, or even invoice level to automatically apply the retainers on invoices, when available. Do note that this option works on the invoices if the retainer is applied to the parent project.
If you do not want to apply any retainers to the invoices automatically, then make sure not to select the Auto Apply Retainers option. If you do not want this rule for all projects, then it should be unchecked in Settings > Billing & Invoices. If you want the rule on a specific project, you can add that rule on the Projects > Settings > Assignment screen. Check CORE Help Center for details.