Industry

Agencies & Service
Creative & professional services.

Agencies live and die by utilization, project profitability, and cash flow timing — TMA builds the financial visibility to manage all three.

Agency Finance
Agency Dashboard · JunLive
Retainer Revenue$0+18.2%
Project Revenue$0+6.4%
Staff Utilization84.2%↑ 6pts
Client Retention91.4%↑ 3.1pts
✓ Time tracking · Project P&L · Capacity planning
Blended Rate: $184per billable hour
What TMA builds for Agencies & Service

Finance built for your business model.

01

Project-Based P&L

Revenue and costs tracked by project — so you know which engagements are profitable.

02

Utilization Reporting

Billable vs. non-billable hours tracked — so you can price and staff correctly.

03

Retainer Revenue Management

Retainers recognized correctly — not all at once when invoiced.

04

Client Profitability

Which clients are worth keeping — and which are costing you more than they're paying.

05

Contractor vs. Employee Cost Tracking

All labor costs classified correctly — critical for margin and tax.

06

Cash Flow Timing

AR and AP managed to smooth cash flow — so you're never caught short between project payments.

Common pain points

The finance problems agencies run into

Profitable revenue, negative cash flow

You're invoicing $200K a month but can't make payroll — because clients pay on 45-day terms and you're paying contractors weekly.

No visibility into project margin

You know your total revenue. You have no idea which clients, projects, or service lines are actually making money.

Revenue recognized wrong

Retainers and project milestones hit your P&L when invoiced — not when earned. Your financials are misleading.

Contractor vs. employee cost confusion

Mixing 1099 and W-2 labor without proper tracking creates tax exposure and makes your cost structure impossible to model.

How it works

Three steps to clean financials.

01

Financial Diagnostic

We map your current chart of accounts, billing structure, and reporting gaps. You get a clear picture of what's broken and what it costs you.

02

Build the Infrastructure

We restructure your books around projects, clients, and service lines. Retainer revenue gets recognized correctly. Contractor costs get classified properly.

03

Ongoing Controller Oversight

Monthly close, variance analysis, and a clean P&L by project — delivered on your cadence. You always know which engagements are worth keeping.

By the numbers

Results that speak for themselves.

0
Reports on your schedule
0
Proposal turnaround after discovery call
62+
Agencies and service businesses served
100%
Job Success Score on Upwork
Common questions

Frequently asked questions.

How do you handle billing and revenue recognition for creative agencies?

We set up accrual-basis revenue recognition for retainers, project fees, and milestone billing — so your P&L reflects what you've earned, not just what you've invoiced. We also track WIP (work in progress) for projects that span multiple periods.

Can you track profitability by client or project?

Yes — client and project profitability is one of the most common things agencies ask for, and it's something we build into the chart of accounts from day one. You'll see gross margin by client, by project type, or by team — whichever view is most useful for running the business.

Do you work with agency management tools like Harvest or Monday.com?

We can pull data from time-tracking and project management tools into your accounting system. The exact integration depends on your stack, but we'll assess it during the diagnostic and build a reconciliation process that keeps your books accurate without requiring manual data entry.

Ready to build a finance function for your Agencies & Service business?

Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll assess your current setup and outline exactly what TMA would build for you.