Marketing Agency Profit Margins: What's Normal?
What healthy profit margins look like for a marketing agency, with realistic benchmarks for gross margin, delivery margin, and net margin, and what each number reveals about your pricing and operations.
The Financial Metrics Every Agency Owner Should Track
The financial metrics that actually matter for a marketing agency, from AGI and delivery margin to utilization and client profitability, with healthy targets for each and the reporting that makes them visible.
How to Choose a Bookkeeper for Your Marketing Agency
A practical checklist for marketing agency owners hiring a bookkeeper, covering what to look for, the signs of a poor fit, and the questions that separate agency specialists from generalists.
1099 vs. W-2 for Marketing Agencies: How to Classify Your Team
How marketing agencies should think about classifying their team as 1099 contractors or W-2 employees, the tests that determine classification, the real risks of getting it wrong, and how to structure relationships to stay compliant.
Cash Flow Forecasting for Marketing Agencies
How marketing agencies should forecast cash flow. The 13-week rolling forecast, AR timing, retainer predictability, and the discipline that prevents cash crunches in growing agencies.
Bookkeeping for Coaches and Consultants: A Practical Guide
A practical guide to bookkeeping for coaches and consultants. Revenue recognition on packages and programs, expense tracking, tax planning, and the financial patterns that separate sustainable businesses from hobby-level operations.
Retainer vs. Project Revenue: How to Track Both in QuickBooks
Most agencies track retainer and project revenue as one line. That hides everything that matters. Here's how to track both correctly in QuickBooks Online.
Why Your Agency P&L Is Lying to You
Most agency P&Ls hide the numbers that matter. Here's how generic structure and blended costs distort your picture, and what a real agency P&L should show.
How to Build Your Agency Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Online
The default QuickBooks chart of accounts wasn't built for agencies. Here's how to rebuild yours so AGI, delivery margin, and operating margin are visible every month.
How to Handle Client Ad Spend in Your Agency P&L
Most agencies treat client ad spend as agency revenue. That mistake makes your books bigger, your margins look wrong, and your business harder to run. Here's how to handle it the right way.
Bookkeeping for Marketing Agencies: What You Need to Know
Most agency bookkeeping is set up like a generic small business, and that's why your P&L is lying to you. Here's what it should actually look like.