Cadence
You Run Advisory Retainers. Your Retainer Client Management Software Should Know That.
Cadence tracks ongoing engagements: monthly billing, session notes, and client action items organized the way a consultant actually works.
Start Your First Engagement Free
Use Cadence free for your first client engagement. No credit card until you're ready to add a second.
HoneyBook, Dubsado, 17hats, Bonsai — every major client CRM in this space is built around the same model: a project starts, work gets delivered, the project closes. That model works well for photographers and wedding vendors. For a fractional CFO, an executive coach, or an independent consultant billing on monthly retainers, it breaks at the first screen.
The moment you try to set up a "project" for a client you have billed every month for two years, the mismatch becomes concrete. Dubsado asks for a project name and an end date. There is no end date. The engagement continues as long as the retainer does. So consultants do what they always do: they abandon the CRM and go back to Google Docs for notes, a separate Stripe subscription for billing, Notion for action items, and a calendar tool for scheduling. Four tabs open before every client call.
Cadence is retainer client management software built for the advisory billing model. Monthly retainers, client portals, session notes, and action item tracking live in a single engagement record — not spread across four separate tools.
Why Every CRM for Consultants and Coaches Gets This Wrong
The tools in this space were designed around an assumption: the client relationship has a project scope. Proposals lead to contracts, contracts authorize deliverables, deliverables trigger final invoices. For creative service businesses, that model maps cleanly onto their actual work.
For B2B advisors, coaches, and fractional executives, the client relationship has no scope document and no delivery date. It has a retainer amount, a monthly billing cycle, and a series of sessions where work happens in conversation. The CRM assumption baked into every competing tool — that you will eventually "close" this engagement — is wrong for how advisory businesses operate. So the software fights you every month. You find workarounds. The workarounds accumulate until the system becomes too fragile to maintain, and you strip it back to spreadsheets and email.
Cadence starts from the opposite assumption: the engagement is ongoing until the retainer ends. Every feature is built around that premise.
Introducing Cadence
Cadence organizes each client as an ongoing engagement rather than a project. Monthly billing runs on autopilot. Meeting notes attach directly to action items that carry forward from session to session. Each client logs into their own portal and sees exactly where their engagement stands. You manage everything from a dashboard that shows retainer status, billing dates, and open tasks across all your active clients at once.
What You Get — $79/month
Recurring retainer billing — Set each client's billing amount and monthly date once. Invoices generate and send automatically; payment status updates in real time so you know who has paid before you pick up the phone.
Client engagement portal — Each client gets a private workspace showing their meeting notes, open action items, shared documents, and upcoming billing. They log in with their own credentials; you control what they see.
Linked session notes and action items — Write notes from each session inside Cadence and tag action items inline. Each item has an owner and a due date and stays attached to the engagement record until marked complete. Nothing falls through between calls.
Fractional executive client portal view — The client-facing workspace shows each client only their own engagement. No other client names appear. No internal billing details. No firm-wide data visible to anyone who should not see it.
Engagement dashboard — One screen showing all active retainers: billing status, days until next invoice, open action items per client, and the date of the last session. Built for someone running three to eight advisory relationships at once.
Engagement agreement and onboarding flow — A templated engagement letter with e-signature, a welcome email, and a client portal invite send in one step from a new engagement record. A new client is live in under 30 minutes.
Document collection with deadlines — Request specific files from a client, set a due date, and track what has arrived. Cadence sends a reminder automatically before a session if something is still outstanding.
Renewal tracker — Each engagement record carries a renewal date. Cadence surfaces approaching renewals 30 days out with a checklist so you have the conversation before the client starts wondering whether to continue.
Why $79/month
A fractional executive billing three clients at $4,500/month each carries more than $160,000 in annual retainer revenue. The alternative to Cadence — Dubsado plus Notion plus Stripe plus Calendly — costs $50/month in subscriptions and 45 to 90 minutes per client per month in manual bridging work. At $200/hour, that time costs more than $500/month. Cadence at $79/month covers the billing for three clients, with room to grow to ten. The Team plan at $149/month adds up to five advisors and 25 engagements, with individual account views so each advisor sees only their own clients.
Who This Is For
You bill clients on monthly retainers and the relationship does not have a defined end date.
You have tried Dubsado or HoneyBook and spent more time fitting your work into their project model than the software saved you.
You manage between two and eight concurrent client engagements and need visibility across all of them from one screen.
Your clients ask follow-up questions about what was discussed in the last session and you want a shared place to point them to.
You onboard a new client and currently send four separate communications: engagement letter, first invoice, calendar link, and document folder.
You want to have the retainer renewal conversation proactively, with 30 days of lead time, not when your client's payment fails.
The Engagement Integrity Guarantee
If Cadence does not cover every step of your advisory client lifecycle — engagement agreement, recurring billing, session notes, action items, client portal, and renewal tracking — contact us within 60 days for a full refund. No forms, no conditions.
In 30 Days, You'll Have:
- Every active retainer billing on autopilot, with payment status visible before each client call
- A shared client portal for each engagement where notes and action items live between sessions
- Session notes from every call linked to specific action items with owners and due dates
- A single dashboard showing billing status, upcoming invoices, and open tasks across all your clients
- A new client onboarding flow that takes 30 minutes from signed agreement to live portal access
- Outstanding document requests tracked automatically, with reminders sent before each session
- Renewal dates surfaced 30 days in advance so you enter every renewal conversation prepared
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Cadence work as a CRM for consultants and coaches who charge by the hour rather than a monthly flat rate?
Yes. You can configure each engagement with a flat monthly retainer, an hourly rate with a monthly billing summary, or a prepaid block of hours that Cadence tracks against usage. The client portal and session notes work the same way regardless of billing structure.
Cadence vs Dubsado for consultants: what is the actual difference?
Dubsado is built around projects with a start date, deliverable, and close date. Every workflow — proposals, contracts, final invoices — assumes a project arc. Cadence is built around ongoing engagements with no close date. There is no "project" object. The primary record is the engagement, and everything: billing, notes, action items, documents, and renewal dates attaches to it.
How long does setup take and what does onboarding look like?
Most advisors have their first client engagement live within 30 minutes. You import or create a client record, configure the retainer billing, add an engagement agreement from the template library, and send the client portal invite. The client receives login credentials and sees their workspace the same day.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
You can export all engagement records, session notes, action items, and client contact data as a CSV or PDF archive at any time. If you cancel, you have 30 days of read-only access to download everything before the account closes.
What it is: Retainer client management software built for consultants, coaches, and fractional executives who bill monthly.
What you get: Recurring billing, client portals, session notes, action items, document collection, engagement agreements, and renewal tracking.
Price: $79/month for up to 10 engagements; $149/month for teams of up to 5.
Catch: Cadence is built for ongoing advisory retainers. If your work is project-based with a defined deliverable and end date, one of the creative freelancer CRMs will serve you better.
Guarantee: Full refund within 60 days if Cadence does not cover your full client lifecycle.
Start Your First Engagement Free