The Retainer Agreement

The Retainer Agreement

The end goal of DesignAlign is getting that signed agreement!   You should have previously entered your Retainer Fee settings in the beginning of Setting up your profile information.
  1. Explaining the Retainer Agreement to your prospective client.
    1. The Retainer Agreement you will present to your client is a formal commitment from them to compensate you for your formal design work.  
    2. Upon receipt of the Retainer Fee, you will:
      1. Visit the project site for assessment and precise measurements.
      2. Create a graphic rendering of the final project.
      3. Develop a formal quote with exact makes and models of products to be used.
  2. Exporting the Retainer Agreement.
    1. From the bottom of the Investment Template, you can click the up arrow ↑ at the bottom right of the screen or manually scroll to the top of the Investment Template screen.
    2. Once you've completed the Investment Template, be sure to click the VALIDATE button at the top to confirm all categories with quantities have a Price Level selection.
    3. At the top right of the screen, a pop-up will appear with a CREATE RETAINER button. Click the button to proceed to the New Document window.
    4. Under Type, select "Investment".
    5. Under Name, choose the appropriate Retainer Agreement form. You have the option to export a form with pricing per category or only a total project price.
      1. The advantage of choosing itemized pricing is it may be easier for your prospect to evaluate where they may want to increase or decrease their investment to match their desired investment range.
      2. The advantage of choosing total pricing only is this tool is designed to give an overall investment range for this project, and not intended to pigeon-hole each specific category to a budget.  This could avoid future disputes or conflicts with the client.
    6. The newly generated Retainer Agreement will now be displayed in another tab (may need to enable pop-ups).
    7. On the top right there is an option to download this document to your device. You can also access this document on the Attachments page within the Contact, Opportunity, or Investment page.
    8. From here you can either email this directly to the prospect or print it out for review and hopefully a signature.
  3. Now that you've submitted the Retainer Agreement to your prospect, it's time to update the status of the project.
    1. Accurately managing the status of your projects is essential to the functionality of the Dashboard and the only way you will have an accurate overview of the performance of your business within this platform.
    2. To update the status you'll need to find and go to the project's Investment page. If this was done recently, you may find it in the quick access WORKING ON panel from your dashboard. Otherwise, you can locate the Investment through the client's Contact or Opportunity page, or directly in the Investments panel from the left-hand menu.
      1. Click CHANGE STATUS...
      2. Change the status to "Accepted" to indicate the Retainer Agreement has been received by the prospect.
      3. Change the status to "Retainer Signed" once you've received the signed agreement.
      4. If you've accidentally changed the status, you can always go back in to change it back to "Open" or other desired status.
When you go back to your Dashboard, you will now see your stats reflecting this new deal properly indicated in your pipeline.


    • Related Articles

    • How do I create a Retainer Agreement?

      Once you are finished editing the Investment Analysis Template, use the Up arrow ↑ at the bottom left or scroll back to the top of the page and click the VALIDATE button to verify all categories with quantities have a Price Level selection. The ...

    • Accepting the Retainer Agreement

      Congratulations! You and your prospect have crafted an excellent Investment Analysis, and you’ve successfully turned a prospect into a client. You should now have an emailed or scanned copy of the signed Retainer Agreement in your device and have ...

    • How does the Retainer Agreement work?

      A Retainer Agreement is a contract between you and your client that clearly states exactly what you will provide them (for example a fully finished, detailed design and quote for their project). A Retainer Fee is normally required along with the ...

    • The Four Phases of the DesignAlign Sales Process

      Phase I - The Initial prospective client meeting In this initial meeting, you will introduce yourself, your company, and your unique and special way of helping your client be more involved in creating their dream kitchen or bath… the DesignAlign way. ...

    • The Investment Meeting

      Phase II – The Investment Analysis Going over the Homework Make sure to proof all of these homework sheets to confirm there are no missing dimensions, cabinet counts, photos, etc. Do the stated dimensions make sense? Does the cabinet count seem ...