Recurring and periodic fees

Not every fee is a single lump sum. A monthly retainer, an ongoing advisory fee, a weekly site-supervision charge, these are all really the same amount, charged over and over on a schedule. Monument prices this with the Recurring Amount calculation type, and the useful part is that the total is never typed in directly. An amount and a frequency get set, and the stage's own dates decide how many times that amount actually repeats.

We'll add a monthly retainer to the Contract Administration stage of Riverside Apartments.

The total is amount times however many intervals the dates contain

A Recurring Amount item calculates one thing:

total = amount times the number of intervals in the stage's date range

The amount is what gets charged every period. The frequency says how often that period repeats. The number of intervals is never entered directly, Monument counts it straight from the task's start and end dates, counting both ends. Stretch the stage longer and it spans more periods, so the total grows on its own; shorten it and the total shrinks the same way.

That's the entire point: duration drives the fee. A retainer priced this way stays correct as the programme shifts, instead of needing to be recalculated by hand every time a date moves.

Build a monthly retainer

On Contract Administration, a four thousand dollar monthly retainer bills once for every month the stage actually runs, and four thousand dollars is the only number anyone ever types in.

1. 1

   Open the Contract Administration stage and its Revenue breakdown.

2. 2

   Add a revenue item and choose Recurring Amount.

3. 3

   Name it Monthly Retainer and set the Amount to four thousand dollars.

4. 4

   Set the Frequency to Monthly. November and December are two periods, so the total is eight thousand dollars.

   
5. 5

   Drag the stage end through February. Four monthly periods raise the total to sixteen thousand dollars.

6. 6

   Click Undo to restore the December end and eight thousand dollar total, then save the original programme.

Duration is what actually drives the total

Here's the real payoff. Because the interval count is read straight from the dates, the total responds to the programme automatically. Contract Administration currently runs November and December of 2026, two months, so the retainer totals eight thousand dollars right now. Drag the end of that bar out by two more months and it recalculates to four intervals, sixteen thousand dollars, without anyone touching the amount. Pull the bar back in and the total falls again just as automatically.

Troubleshooting

• The total reads as amount times one. A stage with no real date range yet only gives Monument a single interval to count. Give the stage its proper start and end and the count fills in correctly.
• The count is one off from what was expected. Both the start day and the end day count toward the total, so a range can include one more period than intuition suggests. Trim a day at the boundary if the count reads one too high.
• A recurring fee and a visible hours-based fee are both counting. If the retainer is meant to replace time-based revenue rather than add to it, hide the From Allocations item so the stage isn't earning both at once. See how Monument models finance.

Where this fits next

Recurring fees sit alongside the other revenue sources available per stage: the default revenue from resourcing, a flat fixed fee, or a formula. To adjust a recurring fee with a discount or a cap, layer on modifiers.