Vince Dong
Table Of Contents
Summertime. Summertime. Where the living is easy…
In fact, so easy that agencies that continue to use generic software to run their agencies are spending excess time doing so and NOT enough time singing and LIVING that song that Ella Fitzgerald famously sang in 1968!
It is 2025, and I am still seeing agencies use off-the-shelf programs such as QuickBooks (QB). I mean no offense to QB because QB is terrific for inventory.
The advertising industry runs on ideas, relationships, and time — not inventory.
Yet many agencies find themselves trying to manage their business using generic software tools designed for manufacturing, retail, or service firms. It rarely works accurately and usually results in a maze of disconnected Excel spreadsheets and workaround processes.
Here Are 8 Reasons Why:
1. Agencies Sell Intangibles, Not Products
Generic platforms are built for businesses that sell physical goods or standard services. Agencies, on the other hand, sell strategy, design, media, and creative execution — things that are hard to measure and track in rigid systems. Your billing model is rooted in time, creativity, and client relationships, not widgets.
2. Projects Are Fluid, Not Linear
Campaigns and creative work evolve through client feedback, strategic pivots, and rounds of revisions. Generic project management tools assume linear workflows with fixed scopes and clear milestones. That’s not how agency work happens.
3. Time Tracking Isn’t Just Admin — It’s Core
Timesheets in agencies aren't just about payroll. They fuel billing, measure productivity, and help allocate resources. In generic software, time tracking is often tacked on or buried. In agency life, it needs to be front and center.
4. Financial Reporting Must Follow the Client, Not the Department
Traditional accounting tools track performance by internal departments. But in an agency, the real profit centers are your clients and campaigns. You need to see revenue, costs, and margins at the job level — not just in aggregate.
5. Blended Billing Needs Flexible Handling
Agencies routinely invoice for a mix of internal time, third-party costs, and media buys — with or without markups. Most software can't distinguish between pass-throughs and margin work, leading to reporting blind spots and compliance headaches.
6. The Sales Process Is Relationship-Driven
CRM tools designed for high-volume pipelines or transactional sales don’t align with how agencies win business. Retainers, referrals, RFPs, and long nurture cycles require a different kind of tracking and forecasting.
7. Agency Work Requires Collaboration Across Silos
Creative teams, account managers, and finance staff all need to operate from the same source of truth. Generic tools create silos and force teams into workarounds. Purpose-built platforms unite these perspectives and make the work flow.
The Bottom Line
Generic software can’t support the complexity of agency operations.
Not without even more generic software programs to assist. Creative work is messy, client demands shift, and margins are tight. Agencies need tools built with their reality in mind — tools that understand the intersection of creativity, service, and profitability.
Happy to discuss, preferably while we sing a little Summertime….Summertime together.
Sincerely,
Vince Dong, CPA
