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There are so many different agency management systems so making a shortlist of the best can be tricky. You want to make the complex day-to-day operations of your agency simpler, more organized, and more productive - and need the right tool. I've got you covered! In this post I share from my personal experience managing multiple agencies, using many different agency management platforms, and share my picks of the best agency management systems.

What is an agency management system?

Agency management systems are tools that help agencies organize and manage their operations more effectively. This software acts like a digital hub, keeping track of important data, schedules, and communications all in one place.

Agency management tools are incredibly useful for streamlining daily tasks, keeping customer information organized, and improving overall efficiency. They make it easier to manage appointments, follow up with clients, and ensure that nothing important slips through the cracks. By using these systems, businesses can focus more on growth and less on juggling the details.

Overviews Of The Top 10 Agency Management Systems

Here’s a brief description of each of the agency management systems that are featured on this top 10 list.

Best for end-to-end work management

  • 14-day free trial + free demo available
  • From $26/user/month (min 5 seats)
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Rating: 4.5/5

Scoro is an agency management system designed to support businesses in managing their operations more effectively. It encompasses a suite of tools for project management, sales and customer relationship management (CRM), resource planning, time tracking, and financial management. 

The system facilitates end-to-end work management for the entire project lifecycle, from initial quotes to final invoicing. It also provides real-time insights into agency performance. Scoro's platform can also integrate with various other software, enhancing data centralization and collaboration across teams. 

Furthermore, Scoro provides insights on progress, results, and future outlook through real-time dashboards. It allows users to analyze processes, monitor risk areas, and create high-level reports with a single click.

The platform integrates with Google Calendar, Microsoft Exchange, Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Expensify, Stripe, Jira, Slack, Asana, Dropbox, PayPal, and more.

Pricing starts from $26/user/month with a free trial available.

Best for tracking one-time projects and recurring work

  • Free demo available
  • From $20/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.4/5

Accelo is a cloud-based professional services automation (PSA) platform designed to manage and improve the operations of service-based businesses. It provides an end-to-end solution that includes sales and quoting, project management, ticketing, time tracking, billing, retainers, and reporting. 

Its robust project management module allows agencies to deliver work on time and on budget by tracking track both billable and non-billable hours, and syncing team schedules. This module also facilitates the generation of detailed reports and invoices that reflect completed work, simplifying financial management and improving accuracy in billing.

Another key feature of Accelo is its advanced time-tracking capabilities, which are integrated into all aspects of the platform, from sales outreach to project execution and client service. This ensures that every minute of billable time is captured accurately, leading to precise utilization data and clear, accurate invoices. It also excels in client relationship management through its Stream feature, which captures all client communications, including messages, emails, and meetings, in a centralized location.

Integrations include Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Exchange & Microsoft Outlook, Xero, QuickBooks Online, HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, Zapier, Stripe, PayPal, Jira, Continuum, Zendesk, Microsoft Power BI, Expensify, Gusto, HubSpot Partner Portal, Practice Ignition, Google Analytics, and others.

Best for professional services businesses

  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.1/5

Kantata is an agency management system that can be used to manage everything from client relationships to workflows and project tracking. This highly customizable tool allows agencies of all sizes to streamline their operations and increase profits. In this article, we'll explain how you can use Kantata for successful agency management. 

Kantata has a range of features designed specifically for agencies, including tools for client onboarding, project planning, time and resource tracking, invoicing, contracts, communication management, and more. With these features in place, you can easily monitor your team’s progress against deadlines or budgets and track the status of clients or projects at any given time. You’ll also have access to key performance data such as team utilization rates or revenue forecasts.

Kantata's core function is to provide users with comprehensive data management solutions. It allows you to store customer information, generate reports, manage tasks and projects, track expenses, collaborate with colleagues or partners remotely, and share information in an organized way. Additionally, it offers real-time insights into customer trends and market conditions so that you can make informed decisions quickly. This makes Kantata a great solution for businesses that need to stay ahead of the competition by utilizing data-driven insights. 

Features include analytics, billing/invoicing, customer management, data import, data export, file transfer, Google apps integration, third-party plugins/add-ons, resource management, software integration, API, budgeting, dashboard, data visualization, expense tracking, forecasting, multi-user, project management, timesheets, time management, collaboration support, workflow management, batch permissions & access, calendar management, CRM integration, Gantt charts, notifications, scheduling, task scheduling/tracking, report & compliance, and campaign management

Integrations include other business apps like CRM, HCM, and financial software. On top of the M-Bridge platform, Mavenlink provides several pre-built integrations with these tools: Expensify, G Suite, Xero, Salesforce, Netsuite, Jira, Hubspot, Slack, Concur, Dynamics 365, Qualtrics, Quickbooks, and Sage Intacct.

Kantata offers pricing upon request and a free demo.

Best robust and scalable agency management software

  • 7-day free trial
  • From $20/user/month
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Rating: 4.6/5

Screendragon is an agency management software designed to manage projects, people, processes, and profitability in one place. It is easy to use and offers powerful customization. The world’s top agency groups like Omnicom, WPP, and IPG rely on Screendragon to power their agency operations.

Screendragon is seamlessly integrated offering project management, workflow management, resource management, and forecasting, time-tracking, budget management, and asset management. The tool is highly configurable, giving users the ability to customize forms, dashboards, templates, workflow rules, permissions, notifications, reports, and even the terminology used on the platform.

Screendragon’s integrated budget module enables users to build SOW’s and estimates, as well as forecast future revenues and resourcing needs. Reviews and approvals are made simple with features for visual proofing, real-time collaboration, version control, and granular permissions. Screendragon’s advanced automation capabilities facilitate the secure and efficient approval of assets and can adapt easily to support scaling agencies. Intuitive task management allows users to switch between Kanban boards, interactive Gantt charts, and list views.

Screendragon offers native integrations with ERP systems such as SAP and PeopleSoft and can integrate with thousands of apps through Zapier like Slack, Trello, Google Drive, Office 365, and Microsoft Dynamics. It also has an open API, allowing custom integrations with any solution.

Screendragon starts from $20/user/month with a one-off implementation fee, and a free demo is available.

Best all-in-one agency management system with sales and invoicing tools

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $9/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.7/5

Productive is a well-rounded agency management software with a stack of powerful functionality that gives you the tools and data you need to keep an agency running smoothly. The tool was built by a team with a decade of experience in founding, managing, and scaling a software development shop, so it's especially well-suited to digital agencies.

The tool's features fully satisfy my criteria for agency management tools. You'll find client and prospect management in the Sales Pipeline (manage deal flow, get sales organized). The Resource Planning feature, time tracker, and task collaboration tools fit the criteria for resource and project management that I look for in an agency tool or platform.

Billing and invoicing can also be managed straight from the tool, along with useful reports on profitability and costs to help with finance management. The reporting feature actually goes quite a bit beyond that, with real-time reports on margins, utilization, and a whole lot more—including reports on individual employees' or contractors' history with the company, salary report, etc.

Productive's integrations include Zapier as well as Jira, Open API, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Exact.

Productive costs $9/user/month (billed annually). They also offer a fully-featured, free 14-day trial.

Best for managing projects, clients and team in one place

  • Free trial available
  • From $10/user/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

Bonsai is a comprehensive business management software tool that integrates various solutions for managing different aspects of a business. It offers features such as client management, project management, financial management, proposals, contracts, forms, time tracking, file sharing, and collaboration, making it ideal for agencies looking for an all-in-one solution for their needs.

Bonsai's strengths in agency management come from its integrated approach to facilitating agency needs through the entire process, from lead to invoice. The platform efficiently captures and tracks leads and seamlessly syncs with CRM, allowing for prompt follow-ups. For proposals, it offers customizable templates and analytics to track client engagement and feedback. Additionally, projects and tasks can be assigned to different clients, and users can invite teammates and contractors to client projects to manage tasks together and ensure delivery is on time and within budget.

Users can also easily set automated workflows that can be customized for each client or project. This comprehensive suite ensures that agencies can manage their client interactions from initial contact to project completion effectively.

Furthermore, Bonsai simplifies the billing process with features like automated invoice creation, recurring invoices, and the ability to accept payments through various channels directly through the platform. The software even has a time-tracking tool for users to record time spent on individual tasks or projects directly, which can be seamlessly integrated into invoices, ensuring accurate billing based on the recorded work hours.

Bonsai integrates with Gmail, Google Calendar, Zapier, Slack, QuickBooks Online, Calendly, ClickUp, Trello, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Xero, HubSpot, and more. 

Bonsai starts at $10/user/month with a free trial available.

Best for scheduling agency resources

  • 14-day free trial + free demo available
  • From $7/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.2/5

Hub Planner is a web-based project management tool that allows you to schedule tasks and resources for projects.

Why I picked Hub Planner: It offers a range of features that make resource management easier for agencies. The tool provides real-time insights into team utilization, capacity, and availability, allowing you to efficiently allocate resources and prevent overbooking. Additionally, the tool offers customizable reporting features that allow you to quickly identify and address any resource-related issues.

The thing I like the most is that you can schedule unassigned work, which is perfect for all those projects where you are unsure of the mix of external contributors and employees that you will use.

Hub Planner Standout Features & Integrations

Features include resource scheduling, time tracking, customizable reporting, project budgeting, resource management, PTO planning, reporting, skills matching, task management, templates, drag-and-drop scheduler, project budgets, approval flow, and smart scheduler.

Integrations include DIY options via the Hub Planner API and webhooks. Additionally, you can access thousands of apps using a Zapier account.

Best software for creative teams and agencies

  • Free plan available
  • Starts from $35/month
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Rating: 4.4/5

FunctionFox offers three different plans with features that range from basic time tracking and estimating, to project scheduling and gantt charts, to customized project intake forms. FunctionFox can support teams with five or five hundred members.

FunctionFox is entirely web-based and compatible with all up-to-date browsers, so users on both Mac and PC can work together seamlessly. FunctionFox allows for team collaboration through project scheduling, allows allocation of specific tasks through action assignments and to-do lists, and facilitates communication through the project blog. Another great feature is the availability tool, which project managers can use to monitor team capacity and utilize everyone’s time effectively.

FunctionFox is easy to use and made even easier with the tutorials and support provided. They offer dedicated onboarding and all customer support is unlimited, ongoing, and included in the subscription cost. Their website also includes a help center, and there are detailed help files included within the software itself.

Pricing for the FunctionFox Premier plan starts at $50 per month.

Best agency management system for invoicing and managing expenses

  • Free plan available
  • From $12.49 project-planning/user/month (billed annually)
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Rating: 4.2/5

Nutcache is an agency management tool designed to organize all aspects of your daily processes. With this software, you get a toolbox of color-coded schedules, task organization queues, and data reporting.

Nutcache supplies the standard Gantt chart tools, which visually track and organize agency tasks with drag-drop-and-click editing techniques that require minimal training to learn. You can also use the software for Agile or Scrum project management, depending on agency preferences. This simple flexibility makes Nutcache a solid agency management software for small or large teams alike.

Nutcache offers time logging tools where users can log, track, and invoice time and expenses in a way that lets agency managers know where project money is going. Unlike a lot of other integrated solution options, Nutcache also has features to create, customize, and manage unlimited invoices.

App integrations for Nutcache include Dynacom Accounting, PayPal, 2Checkout, Stripe, Authorized.Net, QuickBooks Online, Google Sign In, Google Drive, GitHub, Slack, and hundreds of other apps through Zapier.

Nutcache costs from $6/user/month with a 'Pro' plan that requires 5 users.

Best agency management tool for Gmail users

  • 14-day free trial
  • From $6/user/month
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Rating: 4.5/5

Yanado Task + Project Management coordinates agency projects and tasks within Gmail. It's designed to help agencies manage their sales pipeline and boost sales productivity with email templates and email tracking, and by automating basic and repetitive tasks.

You can use a Kanban board to track agency operations and keep your team accountable by visualizing and monitoring deadlines, milestones, and dependencies. The tool offers to-do lists that are pretty easy to create, plus you can also make tasks directly from emails. Something great about this tool is the shared inboxes feature which lets you assign or pass-on emails and then manage them like tasks.

Agencies with busy online profiles to navigate will appreciate being able to create unlimited posts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram using this software.

Native integration with Slack is available and hundreds more integrations can be accessed through Zapier or their REST API.

Yanado Task + Project Management has a free plan. Paid plans with additional features start at $6/user/month.

The Best Agency Management System Comparison Chart

Here is a table you can use to compare all the tools we just covered in the overviews.

Tools Price
Scoro From $26/user/month (min 5 seats)
Accelo From $20/user/month (billed annually)
Kantata Pricing upon request
Screendragon From $20/user/month
Productive From $9/user/month (billed annually)
Bonsai Agency Software From $10/user/month
Hub Planner From $7/user/month (billed annually)
FunctionFox Starts from $35/month
Nutcache From $12.49 project-planning/user/month (billed annually)
Yanado From $6/user/month
Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Agency Management Options

Digital advertising agencies may struggle to find the right complete software solution, so here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for handy agency systems, check these out.

And you can also check out these tools often used in agency settings:

How I Picked The Best Agency Management Systems

What am I looking for when I perform agency platform reviews? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:

User Interface (UI)

Is the interface intuitive to navigate, user-friendly, and does it have aesthetic appeal?

Usability

How steep is the software learning curve and does the company offer adequate training resources, like tutorial videos and FAQs/forums?

Integrations

I look at how the software connects to other cloud-based apps. These could be email marketing software, marketing automation platforms, and lead management solutions. Therefore, I lay out the information on pre-built, custom, and third-party integrations.

Pricing

Is the price fair, transparent, and flexible? Does the tool offer a free demo or trial so that users can try before they buy?

Agency Management System FAQs

Find answers to common questions other people ask about this topic.

What is an agency management system designed for?

An agency management system is designed to cover a variety of things, like:

What are the key features in an agency management system?

These are a few of the must-have features when shopping around for this kind of tool.

  • Job/Project Costing – Can the tool capture hours and costs, estimate and do budgeting, and handle purchasing with mark-ups and purchase orders?
  • Online Timesheets – Does the software have a web browser-based timesheet and expense entry system? Is it easy to enter, approve, and pay expense claims?
  • Pipeline Management – Can the software help with the automation of attracting new leads and potential customers and report on and review the process of converting them into paying customers?
  • Review and Feedback – Does the software allow clients to adequately engage with and provide feedback across the project pipeline process? Is the feedback loop easy to navigate and does it offer actionable insights?

What are the benefits of using an agency management software?

Agencies across the board may be drawn to management systems because they increase control and organization while also saving time and allow them to improve internal and external customer relationships. For example, it can be very time-consuming to go back and forth with a new client or potential customers on a new project to get all the necessary information before the work can truly begin.

In fact, 67% of agency respondents noted this initial information-gathering phase to be difficult or very difficult. Mandatory forms, the automation of onboarding, and quick proposal building are a few ways agency management systems can simplify and quicken this process, boost productivity, and improve the customer experience.

agency management system tool logos list

What's Next?

Are there any great project management tools for digital marketing agencies that you would add to this list? You can deepen your understanding of the topic by looking at 10 ways to integrate agile in your digital agency.

Related tool lists:

You can also get more support for managing a successful agency in both The DPM School online course (which teaches you how to manage digital projects) and in our Membership program where members get access to mentorship from digital project management experts, project templates, workshops, and more.

Ben Aston
By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. I'm a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut!