Cost-Capped Hourly Rate: New Feature for Monitoring Hourly Case Budgets
3
minute
05/05/2026
Zoltán Kéri
In hourly engagements, the discrepancy between the agreed budget and actual expenditure typically becomes visible only at billing - by then, the extra work has already been completed, and the firm is either forced to negotiate retrospectively or write it off as a loss.
Flowyer's new Cost-Capped Hourly Rate feature continuously indicates where the engagement stands relative to the budget for all hourly cases.
How does it work?
When editing the case, a new field appears under hourly billing: Agreed Hours - this is where the budget agreed with the client is entered.
On the case page, a color-coded progress bar shows usage: green 0–49%, yellow-green 50–74%, orange 75–99%, red over 100%. The responsible party also receives email and internal notifications at the 50%, 75%, and 100% thresholds, once per threshold. If the budget is modified later, notifications restart based on the new value.
Warns but does not block
The system never disables time entry. The actual time spent can still be recorded - firstly because the work is still done, and secondly because this forms the basis of the firm's capacity planning.
However, the portion above the budget is not automatically billable. The billable amount aligns with the budget, while the extra work remains visibly separated in the system for internal administration, not for the client.
Concrete example
Agreed hours 10, hourly rate 30,000 HUF + VAT, time spent 15.5 hours.
In the Summary, the “Time Spent" column shows 15.5 hours, the “Billable Time" 10 hours. The last, partially exceeding record is automatically cut to the budget, with an orange ⓘ icon: “Agreed budget: 10 hours. The budget is full - only X hours from this record are billable (time spent: Y hours)."
The billable amount is 300,000 HUF, not 465,000 HUF. The 5.5 hours of overtime is retained as an internal capacity record for pricing similar future cases.
When to use
For engagements where the client wants to know in advance what to expect:
company formation and modification engagements; out-of-court settlements, agreement drafts; real estate transactions, contract drafting.
For one-time fee or monthly retainer cases, the field does not appear.
Activation
When editing the case, select the Hourly option under billing method, enter the budget in the new Agreed Hours field (e.g.,
20), and save. The progress bar and notifications will work automatically from then on.Summary
In hourly engagements, the risk is rarely the fact of exceeding, more often its retrospective detection. The Cost-Capped Hourly Rate feature eliminates this blind spot - without restricting the recording of actual work performed.
With Flowyer's Cost-Capped Hourly Rate feature:
✓ Color-coded progress bar and automatic notifications at 50%, 75%, 100%
✓ Time entry is never blocked - actual time spent can still be recorded
✓ The portion above the budget is not automatically billable
✓ Tooltips on cut records show the exact status
✓ Notifications restart upon modification
If you are already a Flowyer user, the Agreed Hours field is available when editing the case under the hourly billing option. If you are not yet using Flowyer but are interested in how to keep your hourly engagements transparently within the agreed budget, contact us!
