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10 Best Resource Management Software For Agencies In 2023

Best Agency Resource Management Software Shortlist

Here’s the shortlist of the best agency resource management software that I’ll cover in this article, with detailed summaries below:

  1. 1. monday.com — Best for marketing agencies with simple capacity planning needs
  2. 2. Productive — Best for marketing agencies that deal with frequent changes of scope
  3. 3. ProjectManager.com — Best for IT agencies that need precision tracking
  4. 4. ActiveCollab — Best agency resource management software for small teams
  5. 5. Wrike — Best for agencies that also need robust project management features
  6. 6. Ganttic — Best agency resource management software for remote teams
  7. 7. Mosaic — Best agency resource management software for visualizing the team’s workload
  8. 8. TeamGantt — Best agency resource management software for quick onboarding
  9. 9. Resource Guru — Best for international agencies with complex scheduling needs
  10. 10. Float — Best for production teams that need tiered permissions

Have you ever watched the movie “Mary Poppins”? Agency resource management software is a bit like the part where, at Mary’s request, the nursery magically cleans itself. What was once an overwhelming sea of toy soldiers, jacks, and doll furniture quickly becomes a neat and tidy scene.

In agency life, things can get messy fast. Pitches get derailed by last minute client changes, team members get pulled into new projects, and it’s easy to lose track of who’s doing what. Turnover rates can creep high when employees are overworked, or overlooked for the opportunities that best align with their skills.

Agency resource management software helps users ensure that everyone (and everything) involved in project execution is utilized in the most effective way possible. It takes into consideration divergent details about team members, budgets, and timelines and automates the scheduling process faster than you can say “spit spot”.

If your eyes are exhausted from combing through spreadsheet after spreadsheet, escape from Excel and check out our list of the best resource management tools for agencies.

How I Picked the Best Agency Resource Management Software

Curious how I chose my list of the best agency resource management software? I began by comparing a wide range of tools with positive user ratings. I asked myself how they stacked up against one another, and what stood out about each individual platform.

After choosing my long list, I narrowed it down using the selection criteria below. The agency resource management software platforms that met each of the criteria made it to my shortlist.

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best resource management software for this article:

  • User Interface: I selected software that had simple, intuitive interfaces. These tools shouldn’t require specialized knowledge to get set up, or be overly fussy or complicated in any way. The onboarding process needs to be straightforward and relatively quick so you can begin planning as soon as possible.
  • Depth of Data: When I compiled this list I tried to include tools that covered the spectrum, from more straightforward options to in-depth platforms. Some go a step beyond to also offer industry-specific functionality, extra reporting capabilities, or additional project management features.
  • Integrations: I chose agency resource management software platforms that integrate with a variety of other tools. These include those that assist with accounting, communication, project management, and client relations. Many of the tools offer integrations that are native within the platform, while some offer integrations through a third party account like Zapier, or a custom API.
  • Pricing: I picked tools that achieve a balance between cost effectiveness and value. Many of them also offer freemium plans, and free demos and trial periods. 

Overviews of the 10 Best Agency Resource Management Software

Here’s a brief description of each agency resource management software that showcases each tool’s best use case and their noteworthy features. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.

1

monday.com

Best for marketing agencies with simple capacity planning needs

Monday.com is an agency resource management software with a creative management tool built specifically for marketers.

Why I picked Monday.com: Monday.com is a flexible platform that makes it easy for marketing agencies to see projected timelines, outstanding projects, and available resources. The simple, well-designed interface is easy to learn, meaning that teams can get started planning and tracking right away. The handy workload view allows you to see team capacity and make any necessary adjustments to ownership or timeline.

Monday Marketer provides marketing-specific features built to suit industry needs. You can collect and manage creative requests, monitor projects, review briefs, and even upload digital assets. The tool also speeds up the approval process by allowing you to annotate images and videos.

Monday.com Standout Features & Integrations

Features include Gantt charts, dashboards, real-time collaboration, file management, resource management, and real-time scheduling.

Integrations include Slack, Jira, GitHub, Excel, Dropbox, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Typeform. Further integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 6745

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)

2

Productive

Best for marketing agencies that deal with frequent changes of scope

Productive is an agency resource management software that provides real-time capacity insights.

Why I picked Productive: Marketing agencies are accustomed to changes of scope. Sadly, trial by committee dilutes and diverts creative strategy, and changes often need to be made quickly, at the eleventh hour. Productive makes it easy to view available resources and create an environment of team collaboration to complete the project.

Filters enable you to zoom in on specific views by team member, teams, and budgets. Heat maps and capacity indicators help you see when anyone is overbooked. And Productive’s “insights library” gives you a micro and macro overview of current and future utilization for capacity planning. 

Productive Standout Features & Integrations

Features include billable utilization by person, capacity insights, booking insights, scheduling, placeholders, vacation requests, and operations analytics. 

Integrations include Quickbooks, Jira, Xero, Exact, Slack, Harvest Import, Fortnox, and Personio. More integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 28

14-day free trial

From $20/user/month

3

ProjectManager.com

Best for IT agencies that need precision tracking

ProjectManager is an agency resource management software that helps users make detailed resource plans.

Why I picked ProjectManager: ProjectManager places IT agencies in better control of their schedules, resources and costs. Real-time resource management allows you to balance team workload, cost-tracking features help you stay within budget, and dynamic plans enable you to incorporate resource management into your larger project plan.

Additionally, you can assign tasks and view the hours worked by team members to better understand capacity levels. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to reassign tasks and make sure everyone remains productive. You can also make accurate estimates of planned costs, set hourly rates, and track time on timesheets. 

ProjectManager Standout Features & Integrations

Features include Gantt charts, project portfolios, Kanban boards, dashboards, reports, task lists, workflow automation, and team collaboration.

Integrations include Slack, Trello, Jira, Excel, MS Project, and Office 365.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 76

30-day free trial

From $16/user/month

4

ActiveCollab

Best agency resource management software for small teams

ActiveCollab is an agency resource management software that uses a simple interface to help you allocate resources.

Why I picked ActiveCollab: ActiveCollab has in-depth planning features, helpful financial estimate features, and detailed resource planning dashboards. You can manage teams across projects, track time on tasks, and issue invoices according to billable hours.

The interface is simple and straightforward while still providing ample functionality. New users will find it easy to learn the platform and establish a system that works for their team. You can quickly begin to maximize utilization without the risk of burnout, remaining on time and on budget too.

ActiveCollab Standout Features & Integrations

Features include work management, team collaboration, time management, resource management, business profitability, and multiple task views.

Integrations include DropBox, Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Wrike, Slack, Hubstaff, TimeCamp, Quickbooks, Xero, Braintree, Stripe, and PayPal.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 80

14-day free trial

From $6.25/user/month (free up to 3 users)

5

Wrike

Best for agencies that also need robust project management features

Wrike is a cloud-based project management solution with advanced resource management features and has dozens of ready-to-go resource management templates to maximize your resources every day.

Why I picked Wrike: You can set priorities, optimize performance, and align team goals with organizational goals. Using Wrike, you can accelerate resource planning by quickly estimating the resources required for a particular project and requesting the necessary job role resources.

Additionally, it is possible to optimize a team’s workload and easily assign backlogs based on a team member’s availability and strengths, which helps boost team performance and prevent burnout. Wrike also allows you to track how long a team member works on their tasks, real-time expenses to stay ahead of runaway budget, keep projects profitable and maximize team performance using pre-built reports.

You can use also make use of templates to get quickly started, such as product roadmap, OKR, communication plan, incoming requests and approvals, complex project with phases, and Kanban templates.

Wrike Standout Features & Integrations

Features include pre-built templates, custom request forms, interactive Gantt charts, visual proofing, workflow automations, time tracking, project portfolio management, dashboards, resources view, workload charts, effort allocation, resource assignment, time tracking, and timesheets.

Integrations in Wrike include 400+ pre-built native integrations, like the most popular file management software from Microsoft, Google, and Dropbox, along with sales and marketing software from Salesforce and Marketo.


This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 2544

Freemium version available

From $9.80/user/month

6

Ganttic

Best agency resource management software for remote teams

Ganttic is an agency resource management software that allows users to allocate resources from multiple locations and time zones.

Why I picked Ganttic: For agencies with teams spread out across the globe, Ganttic makes it easy to create schedules that include collaboration across time zones. You can filter availability results based on locations and departments, client and project requirements, team member certifications and skill sets, time zones, budgets and salaries.

Scheduling changes in Ganttic are sent out as an automatic alert, and push notifications make sure the team is aware. Reports can be automated so that as soon as a project wraps, you’ll be ready to analyze and use the data to plan more accurately for the future. 

Ganttic Standout Features & Integrations

Features include drag-and-drop scheduling, automated reporting, CSV import, customizable views, capacity planning, and equipment management.

Integrations can be accessed through the custom API, or by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4 33

14 days free trial

From $25 month/20 resources/ unlimited users

7

Mosaic

Best agency resource management software for visualizing the team’s workload

Mosaic is an agency resource management software built for advertising agencies. 

Why I picked Mosaic: Mosaic is a highly visual platform that uses well-organized Gantt charts and heatmaps to display metrics like utilization, role demand, profit, and team workload. You can forecast demand by role and then compare each role’s capacity. This way, you’ll know exactly who you need to hire, and when to start recruiting.

Mosaic seeks to mitigate scope creep by recapturing additional services and adjusting budgets. Real-time budget visibility helps to ensure that every project remains profitable. You can even integrate Mosaic with your existing financial software to access new insights.

Mosaic Standout Features & Integrations

Features include budget and time tracking, dashboards and reporting, workforce management, AI, automation, forecasting, and real-time visibility.

Integrations include BST Global, Deltek, Oracle, Unanet, ADP, Asana, Clockify, HubSpot, Quickbooks, and Salesforce. 

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 14

30 days free trial

From $9.99/user/month (billed annually)

8

TeamGantt

Best agency resource management software for quick onboarding

TeamGantt is a flexible agency resource management software that allows users to quickly set up and track projects.

Why I picked TeamGantt: TeamGantt specializes in task planning tools and resource management charts. Within the platform you can also track team availability and workloads, as well as chat and tag team members and create customizable alerts.

It’s important to have every team member on the same page when you’re scheduling, and TeamGantt addresses this challenge by providing users with a “read-only” URL that’s shareable. From inside their cloud-based resource management solution, you can manage physical assets in addition to people, while viewing resource availability across all active projects at once.

TeamGantt Standout Features & Integrations

Features include drag-and-drop scheduling, unified project views, workload management, team collaboration, portfolio reviews, and automated reports.

Integrations include Slack, Trello, and Dropbox, and further integrations can be accessed through their API or by connecting a paid Zapier account.

30-day free trial

From $24/manager/month

9

Resource Guru

Best for international agencies with complex scheduling needs

Resource Guru is an agency resource management software with a simple UI and powerful, customizable features.

Why I picked Resource Guru: It provides you with a lot of control over how you interact with the scheduling features. With resource availability, you can set default and normal availability patterns, and exceptions for special circumstances. When booking clashes arise, you can place a booking on a waitlist. Additionally, custom fields let you categorize users in any way you prefer.

In settings, you can choose custom filters to focus on the resources you’d like to see. Resource Guru also includes a leave management system, making it easy for managers to approve requests with an understanding of upcoming workloads.  

Resource Guru Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, resource management, leave management, project scheduling, equipment management, meeting room booking, capacity planning, and project forecasting reports.

Integrations are available by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 173

30-day free trial

From $3/user/month

10

Float

Best for production teams that need tiered permissions

Float is an agency resource management software that helps production teams schedule, track, and forecast team workload.

Why I picked Float: Float allows you to set security requirements and access levels on projects, so that you can choose who can see, edit, and approve tasks. Guest users can be added via a shareable link, but sign-on is secure and consists of restricted domain logins, and alignment with compliance standards.

Float lets you set custom work hours and assign custom tags for items like skills and location for easy and accurate resource search. It’s easy to create new projects, and very quick to assign tasks to the team. Real-time reporting keeps track of project budgets and resource utilization, enabling you to accurately forecast capacity.

Float Standout Features & Integrations

Features include activity timeline, multi-project planning, forecasting, automated reports, task splitting, and capacity management.

Integrations include Jira, Asana, Teamwork, Trello, and Slack. Further integrations can be accessed by connecting a paid Zapier account.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 1067

30-day free trial

From $7.50/user/month

The 10 Best Agency Resource Management Software Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
monday.com

Best for marketing agencies with simple capacity planning needs

14-day free trial + freemium plan available

From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats) Visit Website
2
Productive

Best for marketing agencies that deal with frequent changes of scope

14-day free trial

From $20/user/month Visit Website
3
ProjectManager.com

Best for IT agencies that need precision tracking

30-day free trial

From $16/user/month Visit Website
4
ActiveCollab

Best agency resource management software for small teams

14-day free trial

From $6.25/user/month (free up to 3 users) Visit Website
5
Wrike

Best for agencies that also need robust project management features

Freemium version available

From $9.80/user/month Visit Website
6
Ganttic

Best agency resource management software for remote teams

14 days free trial

From $25 month/20 resources/ unlimited users Visit Website
7
Mosaic

Best agency resource management software for visualizing the team’s workload

30 days free trial

From $9.99/user/month (billed annually) Visit Website
8
TeamGantt

Best agency resource management software for quick onboarding

30-day free trial

From $24/manager/month Visit Website
9
Resource Guru

Best for international agencies with complex scheduling needs

30-day free trial

From $3/user/month Visit Website
10
Float

Best for production teams that need tiered permissions

30-day free trial

From $7.50/user/month Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best agency resource management software list:

  1. Kantata

    Best agency resource management software for comprehensive all-in-one coverage

  2. Function Point

    Point - Best for design studios seeking to track and improve profitability

  3. Runn

    Best agency resource management software for drag-and-drop resource allocation

  4. Zoho Projects

    Best agency resource management software for balanced workload allocation

  5. Smartsheet

    Best agency resource management software for advanced workflow automation

  6. Teamwork

    Best agency resource management software for long-term forecasting

  7. Forecast

    Best agency resource management software for AI functionality

  8. Parallax

    Best agency resource management software for consolidating project + resource management

  9. Schedule It

    Best agency resource management software for scheduling client bookings + work shifts

Agency Resource Management Software FAQs

When choosing the best agency resource management software for your team, it’s helpful to understand the primary benefits and use cases. Let’s take a look at a few of the most frequently asked questions about resource management software.

Learn more about Agency Resource Management

Within an agency, effective resource planning can contribute to so many positive outcomes:

  • Mitigates the risk of team burnout (and keeps employees happy!)
  • Keeps an eye on expenses to ensure you stay on budget
  • Helps manage scope creep and maintain profitability in the face of change
  • Equips your team to take on new opportunities for growth without sacrificing work/life balance

To learn more about agency resource management, don’t miss these awesome articles from our subject matter experts:

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By Hermann Fink

Hi! I'm Hermann Fink Fuentes, a technology enthusiast and chronic researcher. I've been in project management for over a decade, both as a technical lead for global corporations like Hewlett Packard, and as an entrepreneur. I'm constantly looking for tools that can help improve productivity, boost efficiency, consume as little budget as possible, and help shorten project completion timelines. Join me as I search for the perfect tool and share some content along the journey!

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