Flat fee. Hours behind it.
An uncontested matter at $4,500 is fifteen hours only you know. The client sees the fee. You see the hours, and the sixteenth waits for a decision.
Industries · Law firms
The retainer is twenty hours. The twenty-first waits.
A $7,000 retainer at $350 an hour is twenty hours only the firm knows. Ceed keeps the count in tenths, holds the hour that would cross it, and computes the invoice from the engagement letter.
For law firms of two to fifty lawyers. The trust ledger stays where it is. Ceed never holds client money.
Greywater Marine · August · litigation retainer, 20 hHeld
21.5 of 20 h
Thu 20 Aug · 1.5 h · Opposition to motion to compel, second draft · Tomas R.
Held for approval. 1.5 h over the retainer.
ApproveDecline
$7,000
the monthly retainer
20 h
the hours behind it, at $350
$350
the hour past it, with the client’s yes
$7
Ceed, this month
The pre-bill tells you last. The hour tells you first.
The pre-bill lands on the fourth business day. The billing partner reads that an associate worked 28 hours on a 20-hour retainer. Eight come off to make the bill work, and the client hears nothing. The hours were real. The write-down was quiet.
“You look at the time entries. Three hours drafting, two hours revising, one hour on calls. You think: ‘That’s too much for this matter.’ So you knock off two hours before the bill goes out. Nobody asked you to. The client didn’t complain.”
Amy Coats, law firm bookkeeper, in Attorney at Work, June 2026.
Ceed counts every tenth against the retainer as it is logged, associates and contract attorneys included. The hour that would cross 20 waits for the billing partner that day. The client hears about the extra work that week, from you, before anything is invoiced.
This morning · Fri 21 Aug5 matters
Greywater Marine · retainer, 20 h1.5 h held
Pemberton Estate · flat fee, 15 h3.0 h left
Thistlewood Dental · guidelines budget, 40 h9.5 h left
Larch & Sons Roofing · retainer, 10 h0 h left
Redfern Logistics · flat fee, 8 h2.0 h approved
Every matter’s budget, every morning. Visible to the partners and whoever they name.
Held. Not hidden.
The hour that would push a client over budget is saved, marked, and waits for a yes or no. Nothing is billed quietly. Nothing disappears.
- Logged
1.5 h · Greywater Marine · Opposition to motion to compel
- Held
Over the 20-hour retainer. Waiting for Miriam.
- Approved
On the August invoice at $350. The client said yes on Friday, before the filing.
One set of hours. Everything follows.
Guidelines budget. Approval first.
A corporate client’s guidelines pay nothing above budget without written approval. The hour that would cross it waits, so approval is asked for before the work, not after the invoice is cut.
Contract attorneys. Same record.
A contract attorney’s hours count against the same retainer. Her statement is computed from the entries your invoice used, at her rate, never at the client’s.
Invoice · Greywater Marine · August 2026Computed
Litigation retainer · 20 h at $350.00$7,000.00
Approved hours past the retainer · 1.5 h at $350.00$525.00
Total$7,525.00
Computed from the engagement letter dated 3 Mar 2026. Applied against trust by your practice management system. Ceed holds no money.
From the field. In their words.
What lawyers, billing managers and firm owners say about the billable hour, the pre-bill, retainers that run dry and getting paid. Linked and dated. Not our words.
Said on X.
Everyone screaming about it being the partner’s responsibility to write off those entries is missing the entire point of my post.
… A mentor used to always say “make sure the client sees the value you provide before the bill hits their inbox.” I have had clients sing my praises after receiving an invoice where I billed 16 hours on their deal in a single day. I have also seen clients complain about a 0.3 charge for a phone call.
Lots of lawyers are freaking out today. And stressed to the max. Why? For many, it’s fiscal year end. And that means collections.
… Partners with outstanding bills will be getting pinged daily (hourly) on the status of collecting. Emails from the CFO, managing partner, practice leaders, etc. will be hitting their inboxes constantly. The partners will feel exposed and micro-managed. … The choice between accepting reduced bill amounts or having zero collections adds a layer of complexity and stress.
… One day I’ll tell the story of cutting 500 hours off my annual total to appease a firm realization rate. (Still hit my bonus bc it’s Law 2025)
Had one Fortune 100 client require individual time entries for each act with over 200 time codes. And “emails to/from client” or “conferences with client” were not billable. Suffice it to say we had a lot of time entries “Analyzing” and “Assessing” things…
Said on YouTube.
Said elsewhere.
- Reddit“Flat-Fee” Trap: How are you guys tracking actual profit vs. time spent without going insane?r/LawFirm · February 2026 · 69 comments · nobody logs time on work that is “already paid for”
- RedditIf you hate billable hours, tell me why.r/Lawyertalk · June 2026 · 198 votes · a flat-fee associate still entering hours nobody uses
- RedditWritten off timer/biglaw · November 2024 · 57 votes · a first year told a partner wrote off “a good bit” of their time
- RedditEvergreen Clause (Retainer)r/LawFirm · January 2025 · an associate paid on collections asking for replenishment before hearings
- RedditHandling Unpaid Client Invoicesr/LawFirm · February 2026 · “alert you when the uncollected time and costs is approaching the remaining retainer”
- RedditBilling in Insurance Defenser/Lawyertalk · January 2025 · 30 comments · “It’s the partner’s job to cut your time as needed”
- LinkedInEvergreen retainers are one of the most effective financial controls a law firm can put in placeSophia Pichardo, billing and compliance manager, Zimmet Law Group · September 2026 · “loses much of its value if the firm waits until the trust balance reaches zero”
- LinkedInWrite Downs and Rip OffsMurray Gottheil, retired lawyer · October 2025 · dedicated to every associate whose time was written off
- XI didn’t go to law school to become a bill collector@chris_kratovil, Christopher Kratovil, Dykema · June 2019 · bills out on time, collections in by year end
- XGive me the worst line you’ve ever seen in outside counsel billing guidelines@ItsMattsLaw, Matt Margolis · April 2026 · the thread Rod answered above
- ReportLaw Firm Billing Efficiency and Write DownsThomson Reuters Institute · 2023 · partners write off over 300 hours of their own time at the pre-bill, 43% because the time “exceeds the partner’s expectations”
- ReportLegal Trends Report: law firm benchmarksClio · 2025 · of an eight-hour day, 3.0 hours billed, 2.6 invoiced, 2.4 collected, and a 93-day median lockup
- ArticleLaw Firm Write-Offs: What Your Leakage Is Trying to Tell YouAmy Coats, Attorney at Work · June 2026 · $47,000 of write-offs in one quarter, traced to late invoices and scope changes
- ArticleShould law firms use evergreen retainers?Ohio Bar Liability Insurance Company · April 2026 · the clause: “If the trust account balance falls below the agreed minimum, Client agrees to replenish”
- ArticleThe 20% Problem: Why Outside Counsel Budgets Keep Breaking, and Why More Discipline Will Not Fix ItKen Callander, Legaltech Hub · June 2026 · “80% of matters go over budget”
- GuidelinesGuidelines for Outside CounselUniversity of California · “If Counsel invoices exceed the current budget estimate amount, an updated budget will be required before any new invoices will be paid”
- PodcastNo More Billable Hours: The Move To Value-Based, Results-Based PricingThe Un-Billable Hour, Christopher T. Anderson with Shaun Jardine · September 2024
- PodcastPutting Profits First. Make Profits a Decision and Priority, not a Leftover.The Un-Billable Hour with Ben Hockema · May 2026 · “Law school teaches the law, not the practice of law”
- PodcastCounselLink’s Kris Satkunas on Rising Legal Spend, Law Firm Rates, and the Future of Value-Based PricingThe Geek in Review · April 2026 · “Billing rates keep going up aggressively. AFAs have marginal adoption.”
- TalkRichard Susskind on “The End of Lawyers?”Berkman Klein Center at Harvard · May 2009 · 70 min · the talk that opened the end-of-the-hour argument
Of what you invoice. That is the pricing page.
Invoice $7,000 this month for Greywater Marine and Ceed costs $7. A firm invoicing $300,000 a month pays $300. No seats, no tiers, no minimum.
Questions. Answers.
Our retainers sit in trust. Does Ceed touch the trust account?
Never. The trust ledger, the reconciliation and the withdrawal stay in your practice management system and your bank. Ceed counts the hours against what the retainer covers and holds the hour that would cross it. The replenishment request goes out before the work, not after.
Three of our clients require LEDES invoices with task codes. Does Ceed produce them?
Not today. Ceed computes the invoice from the engagement letter and puts it out as a document for your ledger. The LEDES file stays with the system that makes it now. Write to hello@ceed.so with the client’s guidelines and a person replies.
When an hour is held, does the client see anything?
No. The hold is yours. The client sees what the engagement letter puts on the invoice, and hears about the extra work from you, before it. If the client’s guidelines want written approval above budget, you ask while the hour waits, not after the bill is cut.
Half our matters are flat fee. Why would we count hours on them?
The fee is fixed for the client. The hours behind it are the budget you priced it with, and Ceed keeps that number. The client sees the fee. You see the hours, matter by matter, and which fees were priced too low.
Our contract attorney is paid $125 an hour and billed at $300. Whose statement shows what?
Her statement is computed from the entries your invoice used, at her rate. It never shows the client’s rate. A held hour stays off both until the billing partner decides.
From the blog: Held. Not hidden. The agreement said 40 hours. The month said 47. Other firms Ceed is for: Advisors · Accounting and fractional CFOs · Management consulting · all eighteen.