Retainers and project revenue
Work delivered in one month and invoiced in another distorts the picture badly. We make sure income lands in the right period, so a good month is genuinely a good month rather than an accident of invoicing.
Agencies & consultants
Accountants for agencies and consultants.
Retainers, project work, freelancers and a profit figure that actually tells you something — for businesses whose main cost is people.
Why it's different
You sell time, not stock.
Service businesses look simple on paper and are surprisingly easy to run blind.
There's no inventory to count and no obvious cost of sale, so the numbers can look healthy right up until the month a big retainer ends. Revenue arrives in lumps, work gets delivered before it gets invoiced, and the real cost of a project is buried in people's time rather than anything on a receipt.
Which means the questions worth answering — is this client profitable, can I afford to hire — need the books set up to answer them.
What we handle
The things that actually matter here
Paying freelancers and contractors
How you pay people, what you need from them, and where the line sits between a freelancer and an employee. If the off-payroll rules are relevant to your contracts, we'll tell you plainly rather than leaving you to read HMRC's guidance.
Client-level profitability
Most agencies have at least one client who feels big and earns little. With the right structure in the bookkeeping, you can see which accounts carry the business and which ones just keep everybody busy.
Subscriptions and recharged costs
Software, licences, ad spend and media put through on behalf of clients all need handling properly — both for VAT and so your margin isn't distorted by money that was only ever passing through.
Taking money out of the company
Salary, dividends and timing, explained in terms of what it means for you personally rather than in the abstract. Agreed in advance so there are no surprises in January.
Knowing if you can afford to hire
The biggest decision most agencies make is the next salary. We'll help you look at what the business can actually carry, and what has to be true for it to work.
The honest version
A profitable agency and a busy agency are not the same thing — and the difference is usually hiding in one or two clients.
Next step
Let's talk about your business.
No obligation. No hard sell. Just a conversation about how the business works, which clients are worth it, and whether we're the right fit.