Free Agency Retainer Proforma Invoice Template & Generator
An agency retainer proforma has to keep apart three kinds of money a client's procurement team treats very differently: the fee that buys a fixed number of hours each month, the media budget that passes through at cost, and the outside production costs reconciled to actual. It names the period, the included deliverables and hours, the overage rate, the management fee and the spend it is calculated on, and the PO number every later invoice has to quote.
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| Description | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly agency retainer | 1 | $6,500.00 | $6,500.00 |
| Production allowance | 1 | $1,200.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Media-spend estimate | 1 | $5,000.00 | $5,000.00 |
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Use-case checklist
What to include in a agency retainer proforma invoice
Procurement approves a number, not a scope, and the PO they cut becomes the ceiling every later invoice must fit under. Blend $28,500 of retainer fee with $18,000 of pass-through media and the client either issues a PO treating the whole $52,140 as agency fee, which distorts their marketing budget and your revenue reporting, or issues one for the fee alone and leaves the agency funding the media flight on its own card by week two. The management fee compounds it, because 8% of planned spend and 8% of placed spend are different numbers and a document that does not say which turns quarter-end reconciliation into a negotiation. Overage behaves the same way: hours run over quietly, and the hours nobody approved in writing before they ran are the ones that get written off.
- agency, client, period, and proforma number
- retainer services, deliverables, and included hours
- overage, media, production, and outside-cost basis
- amount, currency, tax, PO, and payment
- validity, agreement reference, and proforma status
Example starting lines
| Description | Qty | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly agency retainer | 1 | $6,500 |
| Production allowance | 1 | $1,200 |
| Media-spend estimate | 1 | $5,000 |
Complete it cleanly
State retainer period, service scope, included deliverables or hours, overage rate, media and outside costs, currency, tax basis, PO requirement, payment, validity, and preliminary status.
How to make an agency retainer proforma invoice in 6 steps
Open the proforma invoice generator
Start from this page so the proforma invoice opens with fields and sample lines already set up for marketing, creative, public relations, and digital agencies. No account is needed to create or preview.
Enter both parties
Add your business name, address and contact details, then the customer name and address exactly as they should appear on the record.
Add the agency retainer lines
Replace each sample line with the real work or goods. Make sure the document shows agency, client, period, and proforma number, retainer services, deliverables, and included hours, overage, media, production, and outside-cost basis.
Check the figures
Totals calculate as you type. Confirm quantities, rates, any tax line and the final total against your own records before you send anything.
Set the reference and dates
Give the proforma invoice a unique number and the correct date so it can be traced later and matched to related documents.
Review and download the PDF
State retainer period, service scope, included deliverables or hours, overage rate, media and outside costs, currency, tax basis, PO requirement, payment, validity, and preliminary status. Preview is free; a PDF download costs $4.99, or is included with Unlimited.
Worked example
A Q4 retainer with a media pre-fund the client's PO has to cover
Fennmark Creative Group quotes Northline Outdoor Co. for the October to December 2026 retainer on Sep 18, 2026: three monthly retainers, a paid media flight running Oct 15 to Dec 15, and one product shoot. Northline's procurement team needs the proforma before it will raise PO NL-2026-1188.
- Retainer fee, 3 months at $9,500.00, Oct to Dec 2026
- $28,500.00
- Included each month: one campaign concept, 8 social assets, 2 email builds, one performance readout, 60 hours reported monthly; overage beyond those 60 hours is approved in writing before the work runs and billed on that month's invoice
- $165.00 per hour
- Paid media pre-fund, placed at cost on Northline's behalf, flight Oct 15 to Dec 15
- $18,000.00
- Media management fee, 8% of placed spend, quoted here on the planned $18,000.00
- $1,440.00
- Production allowance, half-day product shoot with a 12-month web license, reconciled to actual invoices
- $4,200.00
- Proforma total for the quarter (no sales tax applied in this example; whether fees, pass-through media and production are taxable differs by jurisdiction, so confirm yours with a tax adviser)
- $52,140.00
- Due before work begins Oct 1, 2026: month one retainer $9,500.00, the full media pre-fund $18,000.00 and the management fee $1,440.00
- $28,940.00
- Due Nov 1 and Dec 1, 2026: retainer only, $9,500.00 each
- $19,000.00
- Production allowance, invoiced on reconciliation to the actual production invoices once the shoot delivers, so the schedule accounts for the full quarter
- $4,200.00 at reconciliation
- Purchase order to be quoted on every invoice; proforma valid through Sep 30, 2026
- PO NL-2026-1188
The management fee floats with what is actually placed. Place $14,200.00 of the $18,000.00 and the fee is $1,136.00, leaving $3,800.00 of pre-fund to refund or carry. Say which on the document.
When this document is the right choice
Use this proforma invoice to show an expected transaction before a final invoice exists. A proforma invoice is a preliminary commercial document, not a final tax invoice or proof that payment is due. Replace it with the final invoice when the transaction is confirmed.
Frequently asked questions
The client's PO came back for $28,500, the retainer only. Can we still place the media?
Not against that PO. It covers three months of fee and nothing else, so the $18,000.00 media pre-fund and the $1,440.00 management fee have no authorization behind them and AP will reject invoices that exceed the PO line. Send a revised proforma showing the three buckets separately with the total the PO needs to cover, and get either an amended PO or a second one for pass-through costs before the flight starts.
Only $14,200 of the $18,000 media budget gets placed. Is the 8% fee on planned or actual spend?
Whichever the proforma states, which is exactly why it has to state one. On actual spend the fee is $1,136.00 rather than $1,440.00, a $304.00 difference, and the $3,800.00 of unplaced pre-fund is either refunded or carried into the next flight. Write the basis and the treatment of unspent money next to the media lines. Agencies that leave both blank end up defending the fee and the balance in the same quarter-end call.
October ran 74 hours against the 60 included. Do those overage hours belong on this proforma?
No. This document prices the period ahead, and 14 hours at $165.00, or $2,310.00, is work that already happened. Overage belongs on the invoice for the month it was worked, supported by the time record, and only for hours the client approved in writing before they ran. The proforma's job here is to publish the rate and the approval rule in advance, so nobody meets $165.00 an hour for the first time inside a dispute.
Do unused included hours roll into the next month?
Only if you say so, and the proforma should say the same thing the signed agreement does. Many retainers expire hours at month end because the agency holds capacity whether or not the client uses it; others let a capped number carry one month forward. Put the rule beside the included-hours line, because a client assuming twelve unused October hours are banked for December will plan a campaign around hours you never agreed to hold.
At quarter end Northline asks us to substantiate the media pre-fund. What belongs in that pack?
Enough for their finance team to tie every dollar of the $18,000.00 back to something a platform issued. That usually means the platform billing export covering the exact flight window, Oct 15 to Dec 15, 2026, sitting next to a reconciliation that shows spend actually placed, the management fee recalculated on that placed figure, and the remaining balance either refunded or carried into the next flight. Name the ad account IDs the spend ran through, because a client who cannot see the account has no way to check the number. Agree the format at the start of the quarter rather than the end, and file the pass-through invoices against PO NL-2026-1188 so AP can match them without asking twice.
More proforma invoice templates
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