Monthly Retainer Project Template

What is a monthly retainer project template?

A monthly retainer project template is a pre-built project board designed to repeat on a schedule. Instead of recreating the same tasks, columns, and assignments at the start of every month, you set up the structure once and let the system clone it automatically when the new cycle begins.

Most agencies serving long-term clients run the same set of deliverables month after month: SEO reports, social media content, development sprints, brand updates, or campaign management. The work is predictable. The setup shouldn't take 30 minutes each time.

Melororium's Monthly Retainer Project Template works with the Recurring Projects module to auto-clone your board on schedule. The clone keeps your Kanban columns, tasks, and assignments intact, resets all task statuses to their default state, and shifts deadlines forward by the cycle length. Your team receives an automatic notification when the new project cycle is ready.

Why agencies waste hours on retainer setup

A 10-person agency running 8 retainer clients recreates roughly the same project structure 96 times a year. At 30 minutes per setup, that's 48 hours of project management overhead that produces nothing billable.

The problem compounds when different PMs handle the same client at different times. Without a locked template, each PM adds their own columns, names tasks differently, and assigns owners based on who they know. Over 6 months, the "SEO retainer" for Client A looks nothing like the one from January. Historical data becomes impossible to compare.

A recurring template enforces consistency. Every cycle looks the same. Work reports compare cleanly. New PMs onboard onto a familiar structure immediately.

How the Monthly Retainer Template works

Project structure that repeats

The template comes with columns mapped to a typical retainer workflow: Briefing → In Progress → In Review → Client Approval → Done. Tasks are pre-built with role-based assignments (Designer, Developer, Account Manager) that remap to your team when the clone fires.

Automatic cycle start

Mark any project as recurring and set the next run date. When that date arrives, the Recurring Projects module clones the full board: same columns, same task structure, same due-day offsets from the cycle start. Statuses reset to default. Team members get a notification that the new cycle is open.

What carries over vs. what resets

**Carries over:** column structure, task names, role assignments, task order, subtasks.

**Resets:** task statuses, time logged, comments, completion flags.

**Shifts forward:** all deadlines by the cycle length (monthly = 30 days, weekly = 7 days).

Time tracking built in

Every task has a built-in timer. Team members start tracking the moment they open a task — no Toggl, no separate session. Hours accumulate per task and per project. At the end of the cycle, pull a work report and generate the client invoice from logged hours.

Monthly retainer template vs. ClickUp recurring tasks

ClickUp charges $12/user/month — $1,440/year for a 10-person agency. Its recurring task feature repeats individual tasks, not full project structures. There's no native way to clone an entire Kanban board with all tasks, columns, and assignments on a schedule.

Melororium Starter at $29/mo covers Recurring Projects for teams of up to 4 users. Agency at $59/mo covers 10 users. The Recurring Projects module is included in both plans — no add-on cost, no extra integration required.