Two clients can have the same transaction count and require very different attention.
One keeps accounts connected, uses categories consistently, and responds to questions. Another changes cards, mixes personal expenses, uploads statements late, and asks for management reports before the books are reconciled. A flat retainer can work for either client. It should not be priced as though they are identical.
Take an illustrative $900 monthly retainer. You remember six hours of reconciliation and reporting and think the client returns $150 an hour. Then you include everything around the books:
The month took 15 hours, not six. The illustrative effective rate was $60 an hour.
That does not prove the retainer is wrong. It shows what decision is available: change the process, narrow the scope, charge for the one-off request, or reset the fee.
Scope creep often arrives wrapped in trust. “Can you quickly look at this?” “Could you make the numbers presentable for the bank?” “Can you clean up last year while you are in there?” Good client service matters. So does knowing when the service has become a new engagement.
If every request lands in one invisible bucket, the client looks profitable until the calendar says otherwise. A running total gives you evidence before the next renewal conversation.
Organize monthly close, reconciliations, reporting, client questions, cleanup, payroll follow-up, and one-off requests by client and project. The basic engagement and the exceptional work can stay related without becoming indistinguishable.
Use timers for reconciliation, review, meetings, cleanup, reporting, and support. Auto-stop catches forgotten timers. Billable and non-billable time remain separate, which helps distinguish client delivery from your own practice admin.
When a client adds another report, entity, account, or cleanup request, review the time already used. You can include it, trade it against something else, or price it separately. The key is choosing with the record open.
Compare expected and actual hours over several cycles. If a $1,200 monthly engagement consistently takes 18 hours, the illustrative effective rate is about $67 an hour. If your practice needs $95, the same 18 hours point to $1,710. This is not a suggested accounting rate. It is the arithmetic of your own target and workload.
Turn reviewed time into clear invoice lines, apply the correct client rate, create a branded PDF, and keep paid, unpaid, and overdue status visible. Routine work and added work can be described cleanly because the record already exists.
A connected record lets you answer:
The point is not to replace accounting software. Tympi is for the service operation around the work: client, project, task, time, and invoice.
Track one client through a full monthly cycle. Include document follow-up, categorization, reconciliation, reporting, questions, and exceptions. Compare the time you expected with the time you used. Then decide what to fix before another identical invoice hides another different month.
Track your next client month free
Free plan - 5 clients, 5 projects, 50 time logs, and 3 invoices per month. No card.
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