Agency management software: project margins, team capacity and client billing — buying checklist
From: https://www.iwantmywebsitenow.com/industry/professional/agency/
Workflow sources checked: 2026-10-02. Prices have separate capture dates.

Use this with a vendor or a builder. These are proposed evaluation tests, not claims that any product passed them.

YOUR BUSINESS
Current software:
What must work differently:
Records to bring across:
Budget and timing:

QUESTIONS TO TEST
1. Budget and margin logic
Ask: Can planned revenue, labor cost, overhead and logged time be reviewed at client and project level?
Demonstrate: Change the estimated hours on a fixed-fee job and check forecast margin before and after time is logged.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

2. Resource capacity
Ask: Can bookings reflect skill, availability, leave and likely work without promising the same person twice?
Demonstrate: Schedule a specialist on two overlapping proposals and test whether the conflict appears before both jobs are sold.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

3. Time and retainer controls
Ask: Can team members log time against the right client, scope and billing type?
Demonstrate: Log billable, non-billable and out-of-scope time against a monthly retainer; compare what becomes invoiceable.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

4. Reporting and finance handoff
Ask: Do draft invoices and profitability reports reconcile to the agency’s accounting definitions?
Demonstrate: Compare project revenue, recognized time, expenses and a credit note with the accounting export.
Observed result:
Follow-up:

DEMO SCENARIO (SYNTHETIC)
Reforecast a fixed-fee project when capacity changes
1. Create a fixed-fee campaign, a time-and-materials engagement and a monthly retainer.
2. Book two designers and one specialist against confirmed work and a likely new project.
3. Log delivery, sales and internal hours; flag a scope change before the project exceeds budget.
4. Draft an invoice and compare forecast margin with the finance team’s reporting basis.

MIGRATION
Plan a controlled data move
Import clients and contacts, active projects and scopes, budgets and billing models, unbilled time, staff cost rates and availability, leave calendars, retainers and remaining balances, expenses, invoice history, open opportunities and accounting identifiers. Reconcile margin definitions with finance and run time entry and invoicing in parallel before switching.

A POSSIBLE FIRST BUILD
Agency software cannot determine whether a project is strategically valuable or whether a team’s capacity plan is realistic. Forecasts are only as sound as your rates, time capture, overhead allocation, scope discipline and accounting policy. Apply employment, privacy and client confidentiality rules to staff data.

SOURCES
Productive agency management
https://productive.io/
Official overview of agency budgeting, project profitability, resource planning, time tracking and invoicing.

Productive billing types
https://help.productive.io/en/articles/12048976-billing-types
Official support documentation explaining fixed, time-and-materials, non-billable and percentage billing behavior.

Productive resource planning
https://productive.io/resources/end-to-end-agency-management/
Vendor guide describing agency resource planning and project profitability concepts.

Research by Don, I Want My Website Now.
A product description is not hands-on testing. Verify the plan, current price and export access before committing.