What is a Retainer?

A retainer is a fee paid to secure services. Typically, it is used in a pre-bill or deposit type situation. Retainers can be defined either at the contract level or the posting level. You apply the retained amount to the customer invoice by determining one of the following retainer types:

• F (First): This option is prepaid and the credit is issued as costs are accumulated.

• L (Last): This option is issued as a credit on the last invoice. You do this once by manually changing the retainer status on Retainer Parameters (BR02.1) to Apply to next (3), when the last invoice for the contract is issued.

• S (Specific): This option is driven by a table you define on Retainer Detail (BR02.2). For example, you can apply the retainer to the first four invoices by entering 25 in the Percent field for each retainer code. You define a retainer code for each line of the detail record. If you have multiple retainers, you can define a retainer sequence. Retainer detail is required only if you use the Specific option.