tf Support · Hours, on the books
Support you can plan around.
Ongoing support works when both sides know exactly what has been agreed, what has been used and what is still owed. tf Support is how we sell it: hours booked up front, drawn against approved work, and reported back task by task.
Two models. One clear ledger.
What it is
A standing arrangement, not a standing favour.
Most support arrangements go wrong in the same place: nobody can say what is left. Work gets asked for, some of it gets done, an invoice arrives, and the conversation about whether that was the deal happens after the money has moved.
tf Support takes that conversation and moves it to the front. You buy senior capacity in advance, we agree what it is for, and every hour that comes out of it is attached to a task you approved. What is left is never a question, because it is on the report.
There are two ways to hold the hours. They differ in one thing only - what happens at the end of the month - and which one suits you comes down to whether your support work arrives in a steady rhythm or in waves.
Booked in advance
Capacity is reserved and paid up front, which is what lets us hold senior people for you rather than finding them once the request lands.
Approved before it is spent
Nothing is scheduled until you have agreed it. Hours leave the balance against work you asked for, never against work we assumed.
Visible either way
Both models report the same: every task, who did it and what it took, once a month, whether the month was busy or quiet.
Two models
A bank that drains, or a block that resets.
Same rate card, same people, same reporting. The only difference is what the calendar does to your balance at the end of the month.
Timebank
A pot of hours agreed and paid for up front, then drawn down against approved tasks until it runs low, at which point we top it up. The balance carries until it is spent, so a quiet month is not a wasted one.
- The balance
- Persists until spent
- At month end
- Nothing happens - what is left, stays
- Topped up
- When the balance runs low
- Suits
- Work that arrives in waves rather than to a rhythm
Timeblock
A fixed allocation of hours each month, reset at the start of the next one. It buys a predictable monthly shape rather than a running balance, which is what makes it easy to budget and easy to plan capacity against.
- The balance
- Resets each month
- At month end
- The allocation starts again
- Topped up
- Not needed - it renews
- Suits
- Steady, recurring work with a dependable monthly load
- Work is approved before it is scheduled, on either model.
- Overage is quoted and approved before it happens, never absorbed quietly and explained later.
Deciding
Which one is right for you?
Neither is the upgrade. They answer different questions: one asks whether your support work is predictable, the other asks whether it is worth paying for predictability. If you are unsure, say what you are running and we will tell you which we would put you on.
Timebank
Pros
- A quiet month costs you nothing extra - the balance is still there next month.
- You top up when you need to, rather than to a billing cycle.
- Good for work that arrives in bursts: a campaign, a migration, a busy quarter.
Cons
- Harder to budget as a fixed monthly line, because the spend follows the demand.
- It needs a top-up conversation each time the balance runs low.
- If the balance runs out mid-month, new work waits on the top-up being approved.
Timeblock
Pros
- A fixed monthly cost, which is easy to budget, approve and forecast.
- Capacity is reserved for you every month, with no top-up admin.
- Easier to run a steady improvement roadmap, because next month's hours are already there.
Cons
- A quiet month costs the same as a busy one.
- The allocation resets, so a light month does not bank anything for the next one.
- Less forgiving when the work arrives in bursts rather than at a steady rate.
Premium Support
The same hours, moved to the front of the queue.
Premium Support is an option on either model rather than a third model. It does not change how the hours work or what they cost to use - it changes how quickly they get used, and how much of the work you can see while it is happening.
Prioritised service
Your work goes to the front of the support queue. When two things land at once, yours is the one that moves.
A dedicated account manager
One named person who knows the estate, carries the context between requests and does not need re-briefing every time something comes up.
A dedicated Slack channel
A direct line into the team rather than a form and a wait. Quick things stay quick, and the ones that turn out not to be get logged properly.
Real-time tracking
The project, task and budget view, live. You can see where the work is and what is left of the balance without waiting for the report or asking anyone.
Every engagement, every month
A report you can check the invoice against.
Every support client gets a monthly report with a task-by-task breakdown: what was requested, what was done, what it took and what that leaves. It is the same report whether you are on a timebank or a timeblock, and whether or not you have Premium Support.
Report
What happened last month, task by task, against the balance.
Approve
You confirm the next round of work, and anything beyond the balance is quoted first.
Schedule
Approved work goes into the support pipeline with a slot, not a maybe.
Deliver
It ships, it lands on the next report, and the loop closes.
When hours stop being the answer
Past a certain volume, buying a team costs less than buying time.
Hours are the right instrument while support is something that happens alongside the main work. They stay honest because you only pay for what you use, and they stay flexible because the balance moves with you.
That stops being true at volume. Once the demand is large and steady enough that you are topping up constantly or watching a big allocation land fully used every month, you are paying a per-hour rate for something that has become a full-time load. At that point a standing team is both more capable and cheaper per unit of work, which is what tf @Scale is.
Everything Premium Support offers is standard on @Scale, and not as a generosity - an embedded team cannot function on tickets and a monthly report. The rate comes down too, because the volume and the term make that possible.
Something live that needs looking after?
Let's size the support.
Tell us what you are running and how often it needs attention, and we will tell you which model fits and roughly what it takes. If the honest answer is that you need a team rather than hours, we will say that too.