Agencies & creative
Your best client and your biggest client may not be the same client.
Marketing, creative, digital and design studios. Bookkeeping, payroll and business taxes built around a contractor-heavy team, retainer revenue and clients who pay on their own schedule.
What's different
What's different about agency books.
Half your team isn't on payroll
Employees, long-term contractors and freelancers doing the same work under different agreements. Worker classification is the exposure most agency owners are quietly carrying, and it is decided by how the relationship works, not by what the contract calls it.
Profit hides inside the client list
Agency P&Ls show revenue and payroll. They rarely show that two clients fund the studio and three quietly consume it. Without project-level cost, the loudest account looks like the best one.
Retainers get recognized too early
A retainer collected in January for work delivered through March isn't January revenue. Recognized wrong, every quarter starts strong and ends confusing.
You pay in 15 and collect in 60
Payroll and media buys leave on schedule; client payments do not. A profitable agency can still spend the month watching the bank balance.
What we handle
The monthly work, done for a studio.
- Employee and contractor mix reviewed, with the classification question raised before it becomes a notice
- Project and client profitability so you can see which accounts actually earn
- Retainer revenue recognized across the period the work is delivered
- Pass-through media and production spend kept out of your margin
- Utilization and effective hourly rate reported against your billable assumptions
- Semi-monthly payroll plus contractor payments and 1099 season
- Accounts receivable followed so 60-day payers don't become 90-day payers
- Business returns, estimates and the compliance calendar handled year round
Worker classification is a legal determination as well as a tax one. We flag what the numbers show and can coordinate an introduction to an independent employment attorney when the answer needs one.
Illustrative scenario
Sometimes the answer isn't another hire.
- 1The agency is at capacity and the owner is considering a hire.
- 2Client-level reporting shows the two largest accounts are the thinnest, priced at a scope from three years ago.
- 3Repricing those two changes the picture more than the hire would have — and the hire happens a quarter later, funded.
An illustration of the reporting, not a specific client outcome. Your numbers will tell their own story.
One monthly price, whole finance function.
Plans start at $1,500/month. Start with the free Financial Checkup and see where your books, payroll and contractor setup stand today.
Running crews instead? See the home services page.