My work is a mixture of:
- Per-project value based pricing (up 30% of my time, and probably a similar percentage of turnover – this has gone up significantly since I lost a big retainer in 2023).
- Hourly billing for one-off work, e.g. PHP upgrades (10% of my time).
- Retainer based on X hours per week / month (60% of my time, ongoing, with occasional ‘top ups’).
I track all of my time in 5 minute increments, whether I’m working on a retainer, fixed price project, or internal work (e.g. a blog post for my portfolio site).