The agency month-end close in 90 minutes
A repeatable close for agencies and consultancies: reconcile, bill what was delivered, chase what is owed, and read three numbers - in one sitting.
Agencies and consultancies have a bookkeeping problem that product companies do not: revenue is people's time, costs are mostly people, and both are spread across clients and projects. A close that takes a week is normal. It does not have to. This is the close our team runs for agency clients, in the order that makes it fit in one sitting.
Before you start
Set the rules once
- Every client has a project code, and every hour, expense and invoice carries one. No code, no entry.
- Timesheets are due by the last working day. The close waits for nobody's hours.
- One person owns the close. Others feed it; they do not run it.
0 to 20 minutes
Reconcile the bank and card accounts
Start with the money, not the invoices. Match every bank and card transaction to a categorised entry. With a live bank feed and rules for the recurring items, most of this is checking, not typing. The goal is a zero difference between the books and the statements, and a short list of transactions you could not place.
Do not park things in Uncategorised
An uncategorised pile is deferred work with interest. If you cannot place a transaction in two minutes, note the question for the client or the partner and move on; come back at the end.
20 to 45 minutes
Bill what was delivered
- Retainers: raise this month's invoice for every retainer client before you look at anything else. It is the most predictable revenue you have, so it should be the first out of the door.
- Time and materials: pull approved hours by project, apply the rate card, and invoice. Unapproved hours do not wait; they get chased.
- Fixed-fee projects: bill the milestone that was signed off, and record the work done but not yet billable so revenue is recognised in the right month.
- Pass-through costs: ad spend, stock images, contractors. Bill them with the mark-up agreed in the contract, on the same invoice.
45 to 65 minutes
Chase what is owed
Open receivables by age. Anything past due gets a note today: a friendly one at 1 to 15 days, a direct one with a payment link at 16 to 30, and a call at 31 plus. Agencies lose more to slow collection than to bad pricing. Put the follow-up in the calendar before you leave this step.
65 to 80 minutes
Close the people costs
- Payroll is posted with its taxes and benefits, allocated to projects by the timesheets.
- Contractor invoices are matched to a project and to the client invoice that recovers them.
- Accrue anything worked but not yet invoiced by a contractor, so the month carries its own cost.
80 to 90 minutes
Read three numbers
| Number | What it tells you | Healthy sign |
|---|---|---|
| Gross margin by client | Which relationships pay for the team and which are subsidised | No client below your floor two months running |
| Utilisation | Billable hours as a share of paid hours | Steady, with a plan for the gap |
| Cash runway | Cash today plus collectable receivables, divided by monthly commitments | Three months or more |
Write one paragraph on what changed since last month and what you will do about it. That paragraph is the close. Everything above exists so that it can be written in five minutes and trusted.
Where the time goes without a system
Most of a slow close is hunting: receipts in a phone, hours in a spreadsheet, invoices in a second tool, payroll in a third. Fewer systems, cleaner books. If you want to see how the retainer, time and pass-through billing look in one place, book a 30-minute live walkthrough.
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