Now another age old question – should you charge a retainer and then hourly bill against it? Should you charge flat fee billing or value billing and get prepayments? Here is a post by Jeff Stimpson in the TaxProToday area of AccountingToday online with the retainer side of things:
http://www.accountingtoday.com/taxprotoday/news/cash-up-front-do-retainers-work67807-1.html?ET=webcpa:e9177:204199a:&st=email
Call it retainer or a upfront payment on a value bill or a flat fee bill, prepayments on future work is always smart. I try to bill anywhere from half to all of a project before I start and try to get final payment before I release efile forms or reports. (I have to admit I sometimes stray from this, especially with a client I have a history with who I know will pay the bill.)
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