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Clients are at the heart of CharleOS. The client management system tracks relationships, retainer plans, scheduled work, and performance metrics.

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What you can do with clients

Client Profiles

Store client information, assignments, and retainer details

Retainer Plans

Manage monthly hours, pricing, and budget tracking

Schedule Work

Plan and track scheduled work for each client

Monitor Health

Track RAG status and schedule health

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Client types

CharleOS supports two types of clients:

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Retainer clients

Clients with ongoing monthly retainers:
  • Monthly hours allocation
  • Fixed monthly cost
  • Day rate pricing
  • Ongoing scheduling and capacity planning
  • Hours tracking and usage monitoring

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Project-only clients

Clients working on specific projects:
  • No monthly retainer or hours allocation
  • Quote-based pricing
  • Fixed-scope project work
  • One-time or sporadic engagement
Most clients in CharleOS are retainer clients. Project-only clients don’t have a plan assigned.

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Client information

Each client profile tracks:

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Basic details

  • Client name - Company or individual name
  • Status - Active or Archived
  • Start date - When the retainer or relationship began
  • Notes - Internal notes about the client

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Retainer & pricing

  • Plan - Monthly retainer plan (hours and cost)
  • Custom overrides - Client-specific pricing or hours
  • Day rate - Sold day rate based on plan
  • Hours allocation - Monthly hours with PM deduction applied

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Team & ownership

  • CSM - Assigned Customer Success Manager
  • Client portal users - Client team members with portal access

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Health & performance

  • RAG status - Red/Amber/Green health indicator
  • Hours usage - Allocated, logged, and remaining hours
  • Efficiency - Banked time and overage tracking
  • Schedule health - How well work is planned

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Integration

  • Slack channel - Client-specific Slack channel for notifications

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Who can access clients

Access to client features is permission-based:
RoleView ClientsEdit ClientsManage PlansSchedule Work
Delivery Team❌ No❌ No❌ No❌ No
Project Managers✅ Yes❌ No❌ No✅ Yes
CSMs✅ Yes (assigned)❌ No❌ No✅ Yes
Managers✅ Yes (all)✅ Yes✅ Yes✅ Yes
CSMs only see clients assigned to them. Project Managers, Managers, and those with multiple roles (e.g., PM+CSM) see all clients.

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Clients list

Access the clients list from the sidebar:
  • Navigate to Clients in the Work section
  • View all clients you have access to
  • Search by name or notes
  • Filter by status, CSM, or plan
  • Sort and paginate large client lists

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Client detail pages

Each client has a dedicated page with tabs:
  • Performance stat cards (Day Rate, Efficiency)
  • Hours summary for current month
  • Client information sidebar

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Quick actions

From the client detail page:

Edit Client

Update client details, plan, or CSM assignment

View Hours

Check hours usage for any month

Add Quote

Create a new quote for the client

Schedule Work

Add tasks to the schedule

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Client sidebar

Every client detail page includes a sidebar showing:

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Client info

  • Status badge (Active/Archived)
  • RAG status badge (Red/Amber/Green)
  • Plan name with “Custom” badge if overrides exist
  • Assigned CSM with avatar

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Hours summary

  • Month picker (view any historical month)
  • Allocated hours - Plan hours with PM deduction
  • Logged hours - Actual time entries
  • Remaining hours - Budget remaining (red if negative)
  • Progress bar - Visual utilization
  • Link to view all time entries
The hours summary updates in real-time as work is logged. Check it frequently to monitor budget usage.

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Client health indicators

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RAG status

RAG (Red/Amber/Green) indicates client health:
  • 🟢 Green - Healthy client relationship
  • 🟠 Amber - Needs attention or monitoring
  • 🔴 Red - Critical issues requiring immediate action
RAG status is updated from weekly RAG reports and appears throughout the system.

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Schedule health

Schedule health shows how well work is planned:
  • On Track (green) - 90-110% of monthly hours scheduled
  • Under Scheduled (amber) - Less than 90% scheduled
  • Over Scheduled (red) - More than 110% scheduled
Over-scheduled clients risk running out of retainer hours before month-end. Under-scheduled clients may have unused capacity.

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Common workflows

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Create a new client

  1. Navigate to Clients
  2. Click New Client
  3. Enter client details:
    • Name and slug
    • Start date
    • Plan selection
    • CSM assignment (optional)
    • Custom overrides (if needed)
  4. Save
The client is created with status “Active” and ready for work.

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Monitor client hours

  1. Open the client detail page
  2. Check the hours summary in the sidebar
  3. Use the month picker to view historical usage
  4. Click View Time Entries to see detailed breakdown

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Schedule work for a client

  1. Navigate to the client’s Schedule tab
  2. Review Blocks (capacity reservations)
  3. Add tasks to Planner from backlog
  4. Schedule subtasks with dates and assignees
  5. Work appears on team schedules

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Best practices

Assign CSMs

Every retainer client should have an assigned CSM for relationship management

Monitor hours weekly

Check hours usage weekly to avoid over or under-allocation

Keep RAG updated

Update RAG status weekly to track client health trends

Plan ahead

Use the 3-month schedule health view to plan capacity proactively

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Next steps

Client Profiles

Learn what information is tracked on client profiles

Retainer Plans

Understand how retainer plans and hours work

Client Schedule

Learn how to schedule work for clients

Quotes

Create quotes that convert to tasks