Monthly budgets

A budget is a dollar amount a client's change requests are measured against each month. Nothing about payment changes – tasks are still priced and paid one at a time – but you and your client both see how much of the month is used, and a task that arrives after the budget is spent says so.

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Monthly budgets

Setting a Budget

Budgets are set per project, so one client can have one and another can carry on paying per task:

  1. Open the project and go to Actions → Billing
  2. Click "Set a monthly budget" under your hourly rate
  3. Enter the amount and pick the day of the month it renews on
  4. Click Save
The Billing panel of a Squarepaste project with the monthly budget editor open: a $400 amount and a “Renews on the” menu set to the 1st
A budget is an amount and the day of the month it renews on.

The renewal day defaults to the 1st, which makes the budget a calendar month. A client whose agreement started on the 15th can renew on the 15th instead, and the month then runs from the 15th to the 14th. The pencil beside the figure opens the same editor later, and "Remove budget" inside it takes the budget off again.

What Counts Against It

Each task counts in the month it was created, at its cost:

  • A Fixed cost task counts as soon as you give it a price
  • An Hourly task counts once you apply its tracked time; time tracked but not yet applied is included in the figure too, so the bar never jumps when you apply it
  • A No cost task counts nothing, and a cancelled task is left out

Tasks from earlier months are not in the figure. When the renewal day comes round the bar starts again from zero.

The Bar

The budget sits above the task list on the project's Tasks tab, in the widget on your client's Squarespace site, and in the client portal. It is one line and one bar: the amount used so far, the budget, and when it resets.

The Tasks tab of a Squarepaste project showing a budget bar reading $35.00 of $200.00 this month, prepaid and renewing Dec 14, above a task marked Covered
The budget sits above the task list: how much of the month is used, and when it resets.

Hover over the bar and it separates into three parts, with a key in place of the figure: Paid, Unpaid and Leftover. Unpaid is priced work the client has not paid for yet, plus any hourly time that has not been priced. The same bar, in a smaller form, sits on each project card on your dashboard and the Projects page, so you can see at a glance which client is close to their budget.

The budget bar on hover, split into Paid, Unpaid and Leftover with an amount beside each
Hover the bar for Paid, Unpaid and Leftover.
Two project cards on the Squarepaste Projects page, each with a small budget bar: $35 of $200 prepaid and renewing Dec 14, and $0 of $400 resetting Dec 1
On the Projects page, every project with a budget carries a small bar.

Over Budget

Nothing stops a client raising a task once the month's budget is spent. The request is the thing you want captured, and a client who cannot raise it in the widget sends it by text instead. What changes is how it arrives: the bar turns warm, and the task carries an "Over budget" label so you know it needs a decision before any work starts.

A project over its monthly budget: the bar reads $335.00 of $200.00 with an Over budget note, and the newest task carries an Over budget label
Past the budget, the bar turns warm and the task that crossed it is labelled.

You have two choices on an over-budget task, both on its card:

  • Price it anyway. Give it a Fixed or Hourly cost and request payment as you would for any task. The client accepts by paying.
  • Hold to next month. One click sets the task's due date to the day the budget renews. The task stays open and the client can still read and reply to it; it just waits for the next month.
An open task card in Squarepaste for a $300 wholesale ordering page, with Mark resolved, Hold to next month and Request payment buttons along the bottom
An over-budget task can be priced and requested, or held until the budget renews.

Prepaid by the Client

Some clients would rather pay the budget up front each month than pay task by task. The switch under the budget in Billing turns it into exactly that: a monthly plan the client starts on Stripe, billed to their card and paid to your own Stripe account.

The Billing panel of a Squarepaste project: $95.00 per hour, a $400.00 a month budget that renews on the 1st, and a “Prepaid by the client” switch turned off
The budget under the hourly rate, with the switch that turns it into a prepaid plan.
  1. Switch on "Prepaid by the client"
  2. Enter your client's email and click "Send the offer"
  3. They open the link in the email, review the plan and start it with their card
The page a client opens from the offer email: a care plan for Juniper & Oak Florals, $200.00 each month with $200.00 of changes included, anything beyond priced per request, and a Start plan button
What the client sees: the amount, what it covers, and a Start plan button that goes to Stripe.

Until they start it, the budget works as before. Once it is running, three things change:

  • Tasks that fit in what is left of the month show "Covered" instead of a Pay button. They are already paid for, so there is nothing to request.
  • A task that takes the month past the budget is priced per task, exactly as it is without a plan, or held to next month.
  • The month follows Stripe's billing date rather than the renewal day you chose, and the bar says "Prepaid" with the date it renews.
The Billing panel with a running prepaid plan: $200.00 a month prepaid by the client, the switch on, and a note that it renews Dec 14 and that tasks that fit in the month are covered
With the plan running, Billing shows the renewal date, and the amount is edited by ending the plan.

While the plan is running the amount cannot be edited, because it lives in Stripe. To change it, end the plan and offer a new one.

Ending a Prepaid Plan

Either side can end it. Your client cancels from the same page they used to start it; the plan runs to the end of the month they have paid for, nothing is charged again, and the project goes back to paying per task. You end it by switching "Prepaid by the client" off in Billing, which stops the subscription immediately. If a monthly payment fails, Stripe retries it for about a week and emails your client; the bar says so, and tasks stay covered while it retries.

Tip: Set the budget before the client's first request of the month, not after. The bar only counts tasks created from then on, so a budget added halfway through a busy month starts with a figure that leaves out the work already done.

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