Agency reporting software: what to measure
The reports a small agency should run every month, from who owes you to profit by client and utilisation, and what agency reporting software needs.
Spodus team
Published 3 min read
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Key takeaways
- Six reports cover most of what a small agency needs to know each month.
- Profit by client needs two inputs most agencies skip, cost rates and logged time.
- Reports are only as good as the records under them, so they belong in the system the work runs in.
Agency reporting software shows an agency how the business is doing: what clients owe, how fast they pay, what revenue repeats every month, which clients make money and how much of the team's time is billable. For a small agency, six reports cover most of it, and they work best when they read the same records the work and the invoices live in.
This guide is about reporting on your agency. If you are looking for a tool that builds marketing reports for your clients from their ad and analytics accounts, that is a different kind of software.
The six reports a small agency needs
| Report | The question it answers | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Who owes you | Which invoices are open, and how late? | Invoices and payments |
| Days to pay | Which clients pay late, and by how much? | Payment dates |
| Recurring revenue | What do retainers bring in each month? | Retainer contracts |
| Profit by client | Which clients make money? | Invoices, logged time, cost rates |
| Utilisation | How much of the team's time is billable? | Logged time, weekly capacity |
| Pipeline | Is there enough work coming? | Deals with values and close dates |
Run them on the same day each month. One month of numbers tells you little. Three months show a direction.
Profit by client: the one most agencies skip
Most agencies know revenue by client. Few know profit by client, because it needs two things they do not collect: time logged against each client's work, and a cost per hour for each person. The client profitability guide shows how to set both up.
Once you have them, the report usually shows the same pattern. One or two clients take far more hours than their fee pays for, often on a retainer that has not been re-priced. That is the client to re-scope or re-price first.
Utilisation without the guilt
Utilisation is hours logged divided by the hours a person is available. Billable utilisation counts only billable hours. A figure near one hundred percent is not a goal: it leaves no room for sales, training or a sick day. Track the trend per person and per team, and act when it moves a long way in either direction.
What to look for in agency reporting software
- Reads your own records. Reports built on exports go stale the day after.
- Links to the detail. Click a number and see the invoices or hours behind it.
- Periods and comparison. This month against last month, this quarter against last.
- Respects permissions. Cost and margin are for owners, not the whole team.
- Exports. A CSV for the spreadsheet you still keep.
How Spodus does it
Spodus has these as ready-made reports: Who owes you, Days to pay, Recurring revenue, Retainer forecast, Profitability by client and project, Utilisation and Effective hourly rate, plus pipeline reports such as Weighted pipeline and Won and lost, and support reports such as Response times. Each one has a period, a comparison with the previous period where it makes sense, links from each number to the records behind it, and a CSV export. Cost and margin show only to owners and admins, and need a cost rate set for each person. Profitability is on the paid plans.
They are fixed reports with filters, not a report builder. For your own layout, build a dashboard from the card library. Clients do not see any of this; they see their own invoices and projects in the client portal.
See Spodus for agencies, or read about agency operations software.
Questions, answered
- What is agency reporting software?
- Software that shows an agency how the business is doing: what clients owe, how fast they pay, recurring revenue, which clients and projects make money, and how much of the team's time is billable. The phrase also covers tools that build marketing reports for clients; that is a different job, done by tools that connect to ad and analytics accounts.
- Which reports should an agency run every month?
- Who owes you, days to pay, recurring revenue, profit by client, utilisation and the sales pipeline. Together they answer whether cash is coming in, whether it is coming in from work that pays, and whether there is enough work coming next. Look at them on the same day each month so the changes stand out.
- How do you measure profit by client?
- Take what you invoiced the client over a period, then subtract the cost of the work: each hour logged on their work times that person's cost per hour, plus expenses for that client. Divide the profit by the revenue for the margin. Without logged time and a cost rate per person, you can only guess.
