Kayabyte

Tracking retainer hours in HubSpot: StopWatch, PSOhub, a spreadsheet or Retainer Wallet

By Kayabyte

If you sell prepaid hours and use HubSpot, there are four realistic ways to keep the balance. Here is what each one does, from the vendors’ own pages. Full disclosure: we built Retainer Wallet. StopWatch and PSOhub facts were read on 10 November 2026 from their HubSpot Marketplace listings and PSOhub’s own website; prices and plans change, so confirm them with the vendors.

The comparison

Spreadsheet StopWatch (Thread Integrations) PSOhub Retainer Wallet (ours)
What it is A file you maintain Time tracking on HubSpot records Project management and PSA tool connected to HubSpot Prepaid hours and time tracking inside HubSpot
Time logged Typed in Timer and manual sessions on contacts, companies, deals, tickets Calendar, plugins, mobile, timesheet; also on Service Hub tickets Timer and manual entries on tickets, deals, companies
Prepaid balance and draw-down You build the formulas Not mentioned on its listing Retainer contracts are listed; its help centre describes a retainer line as an amount invoiced on a schedule with time logged against it as Used Yes, oldest block first, with overage
Rollover and expiry By hand Not mentioned Marketing articles mention rolling hours; confirm with the vendor Expire, full or capped, per retainer
Balance visible on the HubSpot record No Time Log records; no balance on its listing Not stated on the listing Company properties and card
Low-balance trigger By hand Not mentioned Not stated Company status property for workflows; Pro: one top-up deal
Client statement Yours to design Not mentioned; billing amounts per rate on Unlimited Invoicing (Essentials: basic) CSV and printable page (Pro)
Invoicing Yours No invoice generation per the listing Yes No
Price (as listed) Free Free for up to 3 nominated users; Team and Unlimited have 14-day trials, no prices on the listing Listing: Essentials USD 25 a month with a 30-day trial; website: per user per month in euro, billed annually Free (1 user, 3 retainers); Starter USD 29 per month; Pro USD 59 per month; 14-day Pro trial
Rating on HubSpot Marketplace Not applicable 3.9 from 16 ratings, 900+ installs, HubSpot Certified 4.5 from 52 ratings, 600+ installs Not listed there yet

A spreadsheet

Free, flexible, and fine for a few clients. It drifts from what happens in HubSpot, nobody on the team sees the balance on the ticket or company, and warnings need a person. Good first step if you have fewer than five retainers and one person who owns it.

StopWatch

A time tracker, HubSpot Certified, with a Free plan for up to 3 nominated users. Per its listing it separates billable and total time, lets people add sessions after the fact, has timesheets, and on the Unlimited plan calculates billable amount, cost and margin from rates and offers workflow timers, an API and webhooks. Its listing does not mention retainers, budgets or prepaid balances. Pick it if you need broad time tracking and timesheets and you will keep balances elsewhere.

PSOhub

A project management and professional services tool with a HubSpot integration, a quoting tool that can create a project when a quote is accepted, budgets and contracts, and invoicing. Its pricing page names Retainer among the contract types. Its help centre describes a retainer contract line as a fixed amount invoiced on a schedule, with time logged against it shown as Used; a prepaid hour bank with draw-down and rollover is described in its blog but we could not confirm it in its documentation, so ask them for a demo. It needs a PSOhub subscription and its own project and timesheet workflow, which is a bigger commitment than an app on your HubSpot records. Pick it if you want full project delivery, resourcing and invoicing and are happy to run it beside HubSpot.

Retainer Wallet

Built for one job: prepaid hours against client companies inside HubSpot. Cards on tickets, deals and companies, a timer, draw-down from the oldest block, rollover rules, a balance status you can build workflows on, and on Pro priority multipliers, one top-up deal and client statements. It does not invoice, approve timesheets, sync to accounting or have a client portal, and it has no Marketplace ratings yet. It installs directly from our site. The data stays in our database on Cloudflare in Europe, and is deleted when you disconnect.

Which should you use?

These can be combined, for example StopWatch for timesheets and Retainer Wallet for the client balance, but then time is logged in two places, so most teams choose one.

More detail

FAQ

Does StopWatch track retainer balances? Its HubSpot Marketplace listing describes time tracking, billable and total time, timesheets and billing amounts. It does not mention retainers or prepaid balances.

Does PSOhub support retainers? Its pricing page lists Retainer contracts and its help centre describes retainer contract lines that are invoiced on a schedule with time logged against them. Ask PSOhub whether a prepaid balance with rollover fits your contract.

Is a spreadsheet enough to track retainer hours? For a few clients, yes. It stops working when several people log time and when you want warnings or the balance on the HubSpot record.

Is Retainer Wallet on the HubSpot Marketplace? Not yet. It installs from kayabyte.dev/hubspot/retainer-wallet/.

Questions or corrections: support@kayabyte.dev. HubSpot is a registered trademark of HubSpot, Inc. StopWatch and PSOhub are trademarks of their owners. Kayabyte is an independent developer and is not affiliated with HubSpot, Thread Integrations or PSOhub.