Retainer: a free WordPress theme for accountants and advisers

A block theme for small professional practices, set like a well-kept engagement letter: a letterhead, a “Re:” subject line, numbered services, a schedule of fees and a signature line for booking a first call.

The Retainer theme home page: a letter laid on an ink desk with a booking button on the signature line, and an At a glance summary of fees and registration beside it. — The home page opens with the practice’s letter laid on the desk.

Retainer is being reviewed for the WordPress.org theme directory. Once it is approved, you will be able to install it free from Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme in any WordPress site.

What it is for

Before they get in touch, prospective clients want three answers: can I trust you, what will it cost and what happens next. Retainer’s patterns answer them directly.

Fees. Show how you charge (fixed fee, monthly retainer or hourly) and give a full schedule of fees.
How an engagement works. The steps from first call to sign-off, as numbered clauses or a timeline.
Registrations and memberships. Registration numbers, professional body, insurance and how to complain, laid out the way a careful client checks them.
Important information. A fine-print notice for a general advice warning, complaints and professional standards, on every page.
Insights. A calm reading layout for client updates and articles, with footnotes, margin notes and pull quotes.

Fees set as ledger lines and the engagement steps as a numbered timeline. — Fees as ledger lines and the engagement as a timeline.

Options without the clutter

Most sections come in more than one layout, with three starter pages (home, fees and about) and three letterheads.
Four style variations (Letter, Carbon Copy, Night Desk and Oxblood), two extra colour palettes and two type pairings, all mixable in the Site Editor.
Looks finished with text alone. Optional photograph patterns use images made for the theme, with no stock photos.
Loads nothing from external servers. Literata for reading and Atkinson Hyperlegible Next, a typeface designed for low-vision readers, are bundled.
Built to the WordPress.org accessibility-ready standard: skip link, keyboard navigation, visible focus and strong colour contrast in every variation.

An article in Retainer with a drop cap, a margin note, accent list markers and a pull quote. — Articles get a quiet reading layout.

Getting started

Install Retainer from Appearance > Themes > Add New Theme once it is listed.
Create a page, choose the “Practice home page” pattern and set the template to “Letter (no page title)”.
Replace the example fees, people and registration numbers with your own, then set the page as your homepage in Settings > Reading.

Support and licence

Questions or a bug? Contact Digital Advisors. Retainer is free software under the GNU General Public License v2 or later. Its fonts are under the SIL Open Font License.