Planning

Am I letting someone else slip to save this one?

A plan for the week that knows which retainer hours expire first, re-plans itself when a client fire lands, and shows you who still has slack and who doesn't.

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Suggested work

Northwind Legal

6h left, 3 days to bill them

The Tuesday it was built for

Four clients. A pay-for-work retainer with 10 hours left and two weeks to use them. A pay-for-access retainer that ends in 10 days. A project with a hard deadline in three weeks, and another that's loose until next week.

Then one of them has a fire, and it eats today and probably tomorrow.

The question isn't whether to help. You help. The question is what it costs the other three, and nothing on your desk answers it. A calendar shows you the blocks you just blew through. A time tracker shows you the hours after you've spent them. A spreadsheet shows you whatever you last remembered to type into it.

Quivva answers it. The 10 expiring hours move to the top because they're the ones that turn into lost revenue if they slip. The pay-for-access retainer keeps its light daily touch so the client still feels covered. The hard-deadline project gets what's left. The loose one waits, and you can see that it's safe to wait. If it isn't safe, you see that too, and you have the conversation on Tuesday instead of the apology on Friday.

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What the plan knows that your calendar doesn't

Retainer hours are perishable. Milestone hours are not.

Unworked retainer hours die when the period ends. A milestone pays the same whenever the work happens. Quivva scores both on one pressure curve, so the expiring hours always come first and the deadline that can wait, waits.

Slack you can see

Every retainer and milestone shows how much room it has left before the window closes. When something takes a hit, you know at a glance whether it has slack to absorb it or whether you have just made a promise you cannot keep.

Re-planning costs nothing

The plan is rebuilt every time you open it, from what is still owed and what is still available. Change your hours, track a fire, skip a day. It re-ranks. There is nothing to drag around.

Ahead of pace gets out of the way

A retainer you have already front-loaded asks for less this week, not the same flat number. It does not vanish either. It glides down to what is actually left and gives the hours back to whoever needs them.

Your real capacity, not your hoped-for capacity

You plan for 30 hours a week. Quivva shows you the 12-week median for each weekday and offers to plan around that instead. Sometimes uncomfortable, always useful.

What you cannot fit

Quivva is honest about the work it could not place. Better to see it on Monday than discover it on Thursday.

Planning questions

Why not just time-block my calendar?

Time blocks are a plan for a week that does not happen. A blocked calendar is destroyed by 10am the first time a client calls, and then every block after it is wrong and nobody re-plans it. Quivva does not put blocks in your calendar. It re-computes the week from what is still owed and the hours you still have, every time you look, so the plan is right at 10am too. It is the difference between a schedule and a schedule that knows what it is for.

Does it schedule my calendar for me?

No. Quivva plans your available hours, it does not book meetings. You tell it how much time you have each day and it decides what deserves that time.

What if my week changes?

That is the point. Track the fire, change your available hours, or just skip a day. The plan re-ranks from what is left. It is a suggestion, always, and you can ignore it.

How does it decide what comes first?

Each retainer and milestone gets a pressure score from how many hours are left against how much capacity remains before its window closes. Retainer hours expire at the end of the billing period, so a retainer with 6 hours left and 3 days to go outranks a milestone due next month. Rate breaks ties. A cheaper retainer that is about to expire beats an expensive one that is comfortable.

Does non-billable time count?

Yes, against your capacity. Hours that are not tied to income are still hours you cannot spend twice. Business development gets its own protected slice per week, so it does not get squeezed out by whoever is loudest.

Try it free, then subscribe.

30 days: Free trial. Full access, no card required.
$15/mo: Or $144 a year. Cancel anytime.
5 min: To set up your first retainer.

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