Month-end. Two retainers went way over their hours.

The problem

At month-end the hours are in the timesheet, the fees in a spreadsheet and the client's “quick fixes” in an email. Working out which retainers ran over means putting the three back together by hand.

In the video: “Month-end. Hours in the timesheet, fees in a spreadsheet, and the client's "quick fixes" in an email.”

How PlexiDesk handles it

In PlexiDesk, the retainer review gets one desk. A desk is one canvas for one piece of work, and the video tours three of its widgets:

1. Every client's hours

   In the video: “Every retainer, hours sold against hours used.”

   A Table widget lists every retainer with hours sold and hours used as columns, so the ones that ran over can be sorted or filtered to the top.

2. The change request

   In the video: “Those "quick fixes", written up as a change request.”

   A Custom block is a form you lay out yourself. Here it turns the “quick fixes” into a change request with the fields you need, filled in like a record.

3. What you decided

   In the video: “And what you decided, and who's doing it.”

   A Page widget records what you decided and who is doing it, with to-dos you tick off.

When something else comes up

In the video: “Then the new pitch needs you. Switch desks, nothing to rebuild. The review waits where you left it.”

The other job gets a desk of its own, so switching does not mean packing anything away. In the video, “Month-end retainer review” stays exactly as it was while “Bramble Ridge pitch” is open. Open desks sit side by side as tabs in the open items strip, a click apart, and Resume writes a short note on where a desk stands for when you come back to it.

Month-end on one desk. The pitch on another.

Try it

Try an agency account manager deskThe interactive demo builds a ready-made desk for this kind of work in your browser. Nothing to install.

Or set up the desk yourself from a template: each one lists the widgets it needs and how to set it up in PlexiDesk.

• Desk template

  Agency client review desk: results, budget and next year's proposal

  A desk for a quarterly or annual client review: the year's results in a table, the budget in a spreadsheet, a chart of what worked and the proposal and deck built from the same evidence.

Related reading

• Blog

  Keep clients updated without writing another status email

  Give clients a window instead of a report: when to use a live view, a snapshot or a copy they can use, and what to keep off a client-facing desk.

• Blog

  One workspace per client: people, mail, files and notes together

  Set up a home for each client with the people involved, just their mail, the emails worth keeping, the files and a conversation that stays with the work.