Applying a retainer to an invoice

This is done from the regular invoice you want to pay down — not from the retainer itself.

1. Open the invoice and choose Record Payment.

2. For payment method, select Apply Retainer.

3. Pick the source pool. Workroom shows the available balance in each — Products retainer, Services retainer, General retainer — plus a Total retainer available across all of them. It auto-selects whichever pool actually has funds.

4. Enter the amount to apply (any amount up to the balance available, capped at the invoice's balance due — partial application is fine).

5. If your amount is larger than the selected pool but still within the combined total, you'll see a cross-pool notice ("This applies funds across pool types…"). Confirm if that's intended.

6. Save.

What this does

• It records a payment on the invoice, reducing its balance due like any other payment.

• It draws down the retainer(s), increasing Disbursed and lowering the remaining Balance.

• Workroom draws oldest retainer first on the project, preferring the matching pool, and writes a disbursement entry for each retainer touched. The invoice then shows as a Linked chip on the retainer, and an "Applied to <invoice>" entry appears in the retainer's activity feed.

Guardrails when applying

• Can't over-apply. A Products or Services draw can't exceed the combined available balance; a General draw can't exceed the General bucket. If you try, you'll get: "Insufficient retainer balance. Available: $X…" No draw can exceed what was actually funded.

• Must have a project. The invoice has to belong to a project (retainer draws are project-scoped).

• Needs paid funds. If nothing's been received yet you'll see "No paid retainers available to draw from on this project."