Best Accounting Software for Advertising Agencies | Workamajig

The best accounting software for creative agencies (advertising, marketing, media, design, etc.) isn’t the typical QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, or NetSuite.

Instead, agencies should opt for an agency management system with accounting software built into its core toolset — a feature many high-quality systems provide.

As we’ve highlighted in other posts, agencies need the ability to manage finances directly within their project and campaign workflows. This enables real-time tracking, monitoring actuals vs. estimates, realizing project costs as they’re incurred. It also allows for profitability measurement throughout the project lifecycle. Without real-time cost tracking, profitability issues and budget overruns are inevitable.

Native accounting software also streamlines invoice processing, expense reporting, and reimbursement management.

Our agency management system, Workamajig, includes full GL accounting software to enhance financial management and support all standard accounting processes. Other top-rated systems offering native accounting include Advantage, Clients & Profits, and e-Silent Partner.

In this guide, we provide a detailed comparison of these solutions — highlighting pros, cons, features, and pricing — to help you find the best system for your advertising agency.

To learn more about Workamajig, keep reading or request a free demo with our team.

Workamajig

The all-in-one operating system for advertising agencies (with project, resource, client, & financial management)

Workamajig is an all-in-one agency management system to support all aspects of operations:

• Project management — planning, monitoring, and reporting on outcomes

• Client acquisition and management

• Staff management and resource optimization

• Collaboration between all stakeholders (project teams, managers, external collaborators, clients)

• Financial management and accounting

Our goal is to combine all of the software solutions agencies require so they can manage all moving parts from one system and condense their tech stack in the process. This not only improves organization and streamlines processes, but it also avoids extra software costs and blunders that stem from managing agency workflows across disparate systems.

For example, Workamajig native accounting improves real-time cost management so you’re not jumping back and forth between your project management tool, time tracking system, and accounting software (etc.) to aggregate project costs and hope you’re still within budget.

Our software solution includes personalized onboarding and training, so we can configure each instance of Workamajig according to individual agency requirements.

You’re paired with a dedicated account manager to discuss your projects, workflows, current challenges, and goals before set-up. Then, your account manager will optimize Workamajig to fit your agency’s needs. (And they’re always available post-onboarding to answer questions or adjust settings as you grow.)

We have over 30 years of experience working with all types of creative agencies, including advertising agencies, marketers, media agencies, PR teams, and full-service agencies. Workamajig packages support agencies big or small (with ten to thousands of users!).

In the following sections, we’ll review our accounting software and Workamajig’s key features. If you'd like a more in-depth walkthrough after reading, please request a demo here.

Workamajig Accounting Software

Workamajig comes with full GL-ready accounting software to support all accounting processes and best practices. It serves as a full replacement for typical tools like QuickBooks or Xero, and it works for agencies across the globe because it meets GAAP, GDPR, and HMRC compliance requirements and offers multi-company and multi-currency support.

Our accounting software includes expected features like a chart of accounts, receipt management, invoice management, and expense tracking — but it also includes advanced tools like automated client invoicing and custom financial reporting to support project profitability and your agency’s overall financial health.

Let’s review!

Chart of Accounts

First, accounting teams will have a full chart of accounts in Workamajig to record transactions and improve bookkeeping.

You can create accounts receivable (AR), accounts payable (AP), and spending accounts to track balances and cash flow in the primary accounting dashboard — improving spend visibility and cost management.

Credit Card Connector

You can also link credit card and spending accounts to Workamajig via our Plaid integration. This integration can auto-sync charges each night so users can review and map expenses. This also improves budget tracking (more on this below), as users can tag project-related charges and ensure all costs are accounted for.

Estimates & Real-Time Budget Monitoring

Workamajig boasts an automated estimating tool that calculates budgets as you build project plans and pull in resources. Managers can see labor costs, costs for vendors or media buys, and more upfront. Then, they make final tweaks to estimates before sharing them with clients.

In addition, Workamajig offers real-time budget tracking to monitor actuals against approved estimates and keep you on track. It notifies managers if projects or campaigns are at risk of exceeding budgets so they can jump in and course-correct before experiencing overruns.

Workamajig also provides budget drill-downs for each project and campaign, allowing you to view budgets by item, type, task, or person.

In addition, our project budget tracker includes a profitability breakdown where you can view expected ROI as projects progress. It shows expected profits when calculating estimates; then, you can monitor expected profitability as you complete tasks and move through project phases.

This lets agencies manage projects and campaigns proactively and more strategically — instead of calculating costs at wrap and hoping they’re within the initial budget, managers can realize expenses as they’re incurred and troubleshoot as needed to avoid more significant problems.

Automatic Billing & Invoicing

Workamajig also includes an automated invoicing tool to generate client invoices after projects receive final sign-off.

This saves managers from the tedious invoice-building process, which can be even more burdensome when project expenses are managed across separate systems and finance teams have to check with multiple heads to calculate all costs.

Here’s how it works:

• The invoicing tool reviews project details to pull all line items and costs.

• It follows the selected billing method (time and materials, fixed fee, media, retainer) to generate a billing worksheet.

• It routes billing worksheets to managers for review and approval.

• After managers approve the details, they can generate client invoices from these approved Billing Worksheets.

• Finally, managers can send the invoice to the client!

We also provide various customization options to give invoices a personal touch: you can change invoice formats, add brand logos or headers, and even include messages for clients.

Workamajig’s accounting system also makes the payment process easier for clients: our integration with PayFlowPro / Authorize.net allows clients to pay online, directly through the invoice, with just a few clicks. Then, finance teams can see client payments in Workamajig.

Read more: Best Creative Project Management Software with Invoicing

Vendor Invoice Management

Workamajig accounting system also lets you manage and reconcile invoices from vendors.

Accounts payable (AP) teams can add vendor invoices to our system, match them with purchase orders and projects, and dispatch vendor payments in one fell swoop. This eliminates manual file keeping, improves organization, and “modernizes” invoice processing.

Workamajig integrates with Edenred Pay and AvidXchange to support vendor payment workflows.

Receipt Management

Our accounting system also includes a receipt management module, so agency staff can instantly upload and share receipts with finance teams — instead of carrying around paper receipts and submitting them at the end of each month (hoping not to lose them in the meantime).

Finance teams can also upload receipts for vendor payments and images of payments from clients to keep an electronic record of those in our system.

Expense Reports & Reimbursements

Workamajig streamlines expense reporting by allowing agency staff to automatically generate and send expense reports — even from mobile devices!

Staff can tag charges to request reimbursements. Managers can then view these requests and easily send funds through our system.

Media Buying Integrations

Workamajig integrates with email, calendar, spending, and other accounts to unify project-related conversations and workflows. However, we also wanted to highlight our media planning and buying integrations for advertising agencies.

Workamajig integrates with Strata/FreeWheel, Mediaocean, Bionic, and GaleForceMedia so you can view and bill orders as well as track costs from media buys. This allows teams to compare budgets vs. actuals regarding media production and placement and include details of insertion orders in client invoices.

Financial Reporting Dashboard

Workamajig also has a robust financial reporting dashboard with an array of out-of-the-box reports and customizable reporting tools.

Some of our most popular financial reports include:

• Profit & loss reports (in various categories — corporate, client, project, campaign, etc.)

• Project budget analysis

• General ledger (GL) reports

• Cash projections

• Revenue forecasting
  
  

Also quite popular is our customizable Metrics Monitor, which allows you to set and track the KPIs most relevant to your agency and initiatives.

In addition, you can star reports to create a custom Favorites dashboard, where you can easily access all your commonly-used reports.

Read more: Best Creative Project Management Tools with Financial Tracking

Workamajig Agency Management System

As we mentioned, Workamajig is not just agency accounting software — it’s a complete agency management system that includes project management, team collaboration, staff scheduling, time tracking, CRM, and client management.

• The Workamajig project management suite includes the full range of tools you see in a standalone system: templates, project intake forms, project planning tools, task management, Kanban boards, and a real-time project monitoring dashboard.
  
  Our project monitoring dashboard promotes more strategic project management. It features visually friendly, customizable Gantt charts and sends alerts about at-risk projects. We even highlight at-risk projects with yellow or red warnings so managers can easily see where they need to intervene.
  
  

• Workamajig offers user-friendly collaboration tools (for internal and external project stakeholders) that include file sharing, commenting, internal proofing, and version history. Our system also includes a handy tool to compare file versions side by side, making it easier to spot changes between iterations or choose between designs.
  
  We also provide tools for project teams to manage review processes and limit feedback rounds so staff members don’t end up in endless loops with clients or exceed budgeted time allotments.

• Workamajig’s resource management module includes a staff scheduling dashboard, native time tracking (conveniently located on task cards), and team productivity reports.
  
  This combination of tools allows managers to:

• • Monitor workloads and bandwidth and strategically schedule team members.

  • Track project hours (down to the task/service level) and calculate labor costs in real time.

  • Review hourly reports across various categories, measure billable hours, and see where staff spends their time.

All of which helps agencies optimize resource utilization and keep their staff happy.

• Workamajig includes a native CRM with Kanban boards to manage your sales pipeline and see opportunities through close. We also provide a variety of sales reports so you can measure earned vs. lost opportunities and dig into the details. You can learn more about the types of clients or opportunities you win (and which ones you lose) and use those insights to refine your targeting techniques and sales strategies.
  
  Our CRM stores contact information for easy access to client details and work histories.

Check out a brief demo of Workamajig below:

To learn more about Workamajig, contact us for a free demo.

Further reading: The Best Project Management Solution for Creative Agencies

Alternative Advertising Agency Management Systems with Native Accounting Software

Advantage

Advantage is a popular cloud-based agency management software that aims to connect and automate the entire agency workflow. The brand typically appeals to advertising, media, and digital marketing agencies — currently working with over 2K advertising agencies — because it offers in-built media planning and buying via Simpl.fi.

Advantage’s comprehensive feature set enhances organization, visibility, and control throughout the project lifecycle. Its accounting system stores financial data in the context of project activities, allowing for easy tracking of project costs, comparison of actuals to budgets, and improvement of future project budgeting.

Users praise the software for its robust toolset, customizable user interface, flexible integrations, and helpful customer support.

Positive reviews also commonly mention Advantage’s accounting software. They note the advanced billing and invoicing tools as time-savers and mention the helpfulness of Advantage’s budget tracking. However, reviews also warn that Advantage’s accounting system is not the best for multi-company or multi-currency accounting.

Users note a steep learning curve with Advantage and say the navigation and functionality are not intuitive. Although Advantage provides one-on-one training to support onboarding, you should still expect long implementation times.

Notable Features

• Media accounting software

• Billing & invoicing

• Estimates

• Budget Monitoring

• Financial reporting

• Revenue forecasting

• Project management

• Resource management

• Collaborative tools like proofing & reviews

• Time tracking

• Media planning & buying — including broadcast buying, digital buying & media reporting

• Risk analysis & burn rate tracking

• Reporting dashboard (to analyze project performance, financials, staff hours, etc.)

• Mobile app (for Android)

Pricing

Advantage offers custom quotes based on agency requirements. (Reviews suggest it falls on the expensive side.)

Read more: Best Advantage Software Alternatives for Creative Teams

Clients & Profits

Clients & Profits (C&P) is an on-premise agency management software that allows users to manage people, projects, media, and money in one place.

The software combines project management, resource management, accounting, and financial management and also boasts a suite of media planning tools (note: C&P does not offer media buying like Advantage but integrates with many media buying platforms).

C&P’s accounting software offers several benefits — for example, it:

• Lets users view and monitor agency financial data within project and campaign workflows, which makes it easy to track project costs and see how actuals compare to budgets.

• Gives users a real-time view of agency finances. Users can track all billable work and expenses and make informed decisions about their projects and processes.

• Has features like automated invoice creation, recurring invoices, and the ability to accept payments through various channels — streamlining the invoice process and helping agencies get paid faster and more efficiently.

Clients & Profits offers solutions for advertising agencies, designers, and marketers, with affordable packages and pricing for all agency sizes. (They primarily work with small and mid-size agencies but offer custom packages to support scalability.)

The customer support team offers personalized onboarding and training to configure the software to your requirements and help you learn the ropes. They even provide consulting to guide marketing strategies, project planning, and process optimization.

As an on-premise solution, C&P is popular for teams that require (or prefer) self-hosted software. However, this has downsides: You have to download and install the software locally and then deal with regular software maintenance and updates.

Users also report that C&P’s software can be clunky, with an outdated user interface. (But you can preview the platform on the Clients & Profits site, where they offer a visual tour and online demo.)

Notable Features

• Accounting software

• Automatic billing & invoicing

• Vendor invoice management

• Financial reporting

• Integrations with bank and credit card accounts & media planning systems

• Project request forms & project planning

• Project management & monitoring — request forms & project planning tools, such as task management

• Resource management — team management with live scheduling & time tracking

• Collaborative feedback tools for project teams & clients

• Portfolio management

• Workflow automation

• Adobe XD plugin

Pricing

Clients & Profits offers C&P Agency for advertising agencies. You pay per user, and Clients & Profits charges different rates for different roles:

Clients & Profits also offers inexpensive rates for freelancers ($9/month) to access the platform and time-tracking tools.

Read more: Clients & Profits Software: Reviews & Alternatives

e-Silent Partner

e-Silent Partner offers a cloud-based or on-premise agency management software for creatives — popular with advertising agencies, marketing teams, media and publishing companies, PR firms, and more.

This all-in-one platform combines project management, time tracking, team collaboration, media planning, customer relationship management (CRM), billing & invoicing, accounting, and business intelligence. e-Silent Partner also includes advanced automation to handle routine, low-margin tasks throughout the project life cycle, helping to create agency-wide efficiencies.

e-Silent Partner’s accounting software is multi-company, multi-office, multi-taxation, and multi-currency capable. It allows users to manage and analyze finances in various categories and provides a robust financial reporting dashboard where users can create and save custom reports. Reviewers commonly praise e-Silent Partner’s P&L reports, budgeting, and revenue forecasting.

While e-Silent Partner is noted as user-friendly, and reviewers commonly mention the helpfulness of its customer support team, they also warn of an initial learning curve and longer implementation times.

Features

• Project management

• CRM and client management

• Resource planning and utilization reports

• Team collaboration tools, like file sharing, commenting, and version history

• Time tracking

• Budget tracking

• Media management dashboard

• Integrations with Strata media buying software

• Accounting software

• Financial management

• Billing and invoicing

• Business intelligence reporting — including key metrics monitors and customizable reports

• Process automation

• Mobile app (for iOS and Android)

Pricing

e-Silent Partner does not list pricing on its site; you must contact their team for a quote.

Getting Started

Workamajig is an all-in-one agency management tool to:

• Support all areas of operations — from client acquisition to project management and accounting.

• Simplify project and campaign management by allowing teams to oversee all pieces of the puzzle in one place.

• Enhance visibility, control, and decision-making through the whole project lifecycle.

• Unite project stakeholders under one roof — improving organization and remote collaboration.

• Automate repetitive (non-billable) admin tasks to free up time for more value-adding work.

We provide personalized onboarding to configure Workamajig to your agency’s unique needs.

As your agency evolves, your account manager will work with you to ensure Workamajig can support your ongoing goals and initiatives.

Request a free demo to learn how Workamajig can support your advertising agency.

Related reads:

• Best Advertising Agency Management Software
• Best Media Accounting Software
• Best Media Agency Management Software