Agency software: budget, hours and margin in one cloud.

What agency software needs to do

In advertising, digital and PR agencies, fees emerge from two sources: hours on creative, strategy and production tasks, plus retainers or fixed prices for clearly bounded deliveries. An agency software has to link both worlds, without budget tables in Excel, hours in a separate app and invoices in a third.

teamspace brings budget, campaign, hours, third-party costs and fee invoicing into one cloud platform. Hours that a designer logs on a campaign flow automatically into the budget margin, the utilisation reporting and the final invoice at period end.

Budget instead of Excel: the central data structure

In teamspace the budget is not an Excel sheet but the central project structure. Per client one budget, per budget several campaigns or phases, per phase tasks and rate cards. This structure lives in the same data foundation as time tracking. What this means in practice:

• Plan-vs-actual per campaign in real time, not just at quarter end.
• Fee preview before period close, based on released hours.
• Margin analysis per client, with drill-down to the individual entry.
• Forecast to quarter end, based on pipeline and running budgets.

More on the logic at project management software and project controlling software.

Freelancers and externals in the same pool

Growing agencies rarely deliver with full-time staff alone. Copywriters, illustrators, developers and strategists often join as externals or freelancers. teamspace runs internal and external staff in the same resource pool, with cleanly separated rate cards, availabilities and assignment logic.

Skill matching suggests the right person on free capacity, based on skills (Adobe stack, Figma, web frontend, business-fluent English) and seniority. Margin reports show how much of the bottom line comes from internal hours and how much from external delivery.

Third-party costs on the budget: print, media, licences

Classic agency invoice setup: fees plus pass-through costs. Print costs, media budget, licences, travel costs and expenses must be cleanly tracked on the budget, with margin surcharge or flat surcharge depending on contract logic. teamspace allows:

• Expenses per item with sales price and purchase price (for margin).
• Receipts as photo via the mobile app.
• Flat surcharges per category (e.g. +12 % on print costs).
• Pass-through without surcharge when contractually agreed.

On the final invoice, third-party costs appear as separate line items, correctly sorted and traceable.

Activity record on retainer engagements

PR agencies, communications offices and content studios often work with retainer contracts: monthly retainer for a defined hour budget. The activity record is mandatory. teamspace produces it per client on demand, with date, hours, activity description and totals. PDF layout configurable, multilingual, with optional signature field.

More on activity record.

E-invoicing for large clients

From 2025 many large clients require e-invoices in ZUGFeRD or XRechnung format. teamspace produces both without an extra tool and without interface upkeep. Dispatch happens straight from the application, with automated dunning and payment matching from the bank statement.

More on e-invoicing.

Reviewed in the requirements check

Wondering whether teamspace is the right agency software for your business? In a 15- to 30-minute call we look at your budget structure, creative workflow and billing. For more on the integrated modules, see project management, time tracking and invoicing software.