As an agency, you offer your customers a variety of different high-quality services under one roof. This offers your customers various advantages – time savings, technical expertise and low personnel costs are just a few of them. However, an extensive agency portfolio is accompanied by many internal and external processes that need to be organized and optimized. An agency software can be worth its weight in gold.
In this article you will learn what an agency software is and what functions it should offer you in any case. You will get to know the advantages and disadvantages of such a tool and what it can cost you to use. Afterwards, we will give you some selection criteria that you can use to select the right agency software for you – of course, we will also provide you with a comparison of the seven best agency software.
What is agency software?
When we talk about agency software, we are talking about a complex program that can carry out all the operational and project-related processes of your company. It creates transparency, supports you in completing administrative tasks and can save you both time and money by automatically linking different service areas. By storing all customer contacts in the software, you create a better customer experience and improve coordination with your colleagues from a wide variety of areas, who are also working on projects for your customers. Most agency software can be used for MAC and Windows alike. Such software is suitable for advertising agencies of all sizes, because in every company there is administrative and project work that must be done professionally.
These are the main features of agency software
An advertising agency software can have various functions. We have compiled the most important functions that are included in most tools for you:
- Project management
- Creation of schedules
- Task management and delegation
- Creation of diagrams and evaluations
- Quoting
- Job handling
- Calculation
- Controlling
- Processing of accounting
- Preparation of the bill
- Hour recording
- CRM
- E-mail connection
- Calendar function
- Capacity planning
- Vacation
- Document management
The following additional functions, depending on the focus of your agency, can also be useful for you:
- Event management
- Media Asset Management
- Cloud connection
- Email Campaign Management
- Telephony connection
These advantages have an agency software
Now you may think that you have been able to handle the various administrative tasks and the individual project sub-steps sensibly without using an agency program. Of course, this is completely correct – you can successfully manage your internal and external projects without a tool. Nevertheless, an agency software offers you various advantages:
Uniform database: If you are working with different colleagues on a project, you should make sure that everyone has all the necessary information available at all times. Thanks to integrated CRM and project management, all parties involved always have an eye on what requirements or changes there are and which tasks still need to be completed. The networking of the different departments of your company contributes to a higher efficiency of your work.
Clear document management: In an agency software, you can store all invoices received by post or e-mail, created and received offers as well as outgoing invoices created by you. The approval process is also handled in the tool itself, so that you can act faster and more flexibly. All necessary information is stored digitally and can be viewed in case of ambiguity. By reducing the amount of work in the approval process, you save valuable time that you can invest in your projects instead.
Interaction of the different modules: An agency program offers you different interfaces to existing platforms that you may already be using. These can be e.B. DATEV, Teams or Jira. Networking saves you additional steps in the manual transfer of data, e.B accounting data or hours worked into your billing tool. In this way, you avoid the risk of transmission errors by your colleagues. Because you have all the important data directly available, you can create invoices or plan your holiday in no time at all.
Flexible working: Since most agency software is web-based or even offers mobile apps, you can work from different locations and still be connected to each other. In this way, you create more flexibility in your everyday work, which in turn can have a positive effect on your performance.
These disadvantages can have an agency software
However, with the introduction of an agency software, a negative aspect can also arise. The historically grown structures that affect your processes and program use must first be transferred to the new tool. These operations may take some time. In addition, your colleagues first have to get used to it and put aside the possibly prevailing "But we have always done it this way" in order to be able to make friends with the new software.
In addition, the acquisition costs of an agency software can be regarded as a disadvantage. However, the costs can be amortized within a very short time, as the time savings will save you more time for your current and potential customers.
How much does agency software cost?
How much an agency software costs exactly depends on the selected variant and the scope of your tool. You can tend to expect that your package will become more expensive with the increase in the scope of services. Therefore, it is advisable to take stock of your company before choosing an agency program: How much time do you need for certain processes? What bothers you about the current structures? For which tasks do you currently have no or too little time? Then you can define your pain points, i.e. the points that the tool of your choice must fulfill in any case.
In addition, you should add a "Nice to have" column to your checklist, in which you enter the services, which you would also like to map with a tool, if the price framework allows it. But you can rest assured – there is a suitable agency program for every company size, both in terms of scope and price.
You should pay attention to these criteria when choosing your agency software
To find out which software is an ideal fit for your company, you can use some of the following criteria to compare the agency software:
- How many projects can be processed in the software?
- How many members can use the tool?
- What vulnerabilities that you have identified can you fix with the problem?
- To what extent can existing workflows be adopted?
- Are there any special features to consider regarding your customers and suppliers?
- Which interfaces to other programs do you need?
- Is the software suitable for the MAC or Windows operating system?
In addition, you can inquire with friendly entrepreneurs which software they use for their work. Based on their experience, you can assess whether the agency software meets your requirements.
These are the 7 best agency software
We've scoured our software categories the Internet to put together the seven best agency software for you.
easyJOB
The all-in-one tool easyJOB combines common agency processes with project management, controlling and CRM on one platform. Furthermore, you can quickly and easily record your times, prepare your accounting by filing incoming and outgoing invoices and use areas for your personnel management and resource planning. Various interfaces also ensure great flexibility of the agency software.
easyJOB Costs
The costs for easyJOB depend on the size of your agency and the desired tool scope. You can request your individual compilation on the company website.
Awork
The project management tool awork combines many functions for your individual project planning. You can plan your resources, create your own Kanban boards, use task management and record your working hours. Timelines and list overviews help you to keep track.
Awork Costs
The premium version of Awork costs you 10 € per month and User:in and the Enterprise version 15 € per month and User.
KBMpro INTRO
KBMpro INTRO is a powerful project and job management tool that includes up to 700 modules. It offers you a central address database and an associated contact management, resubmissions for your tasks, individual salutations of your customers as well as the possibility to archive customer documents and monitor your budget. With KBMpro INTRO you always keep track of the status of your time management and can document your working hours and evaluate the profitability of your jobs. In addition, you can flexibly create calculations, offers and invoices and manage payments.
KBMpro INTRO Costs
The agency software costs you 9 euros per user and month.
Troi
The agency program Troi links your project acquisition with project management and various reports. This allows your company to review and optimize its use of resources. You can divide jobs into different project tasks, create contacts and create calendar entries, as well as record your hours, obtain approvals and plan personnel resources. In addition, you can export your booking data without much effort and link it to DATEV via an interface.
Troi Costs
Via the company website you can have your individual offer created.
deals&projects
The deals&projects software offers you automations for recurring projects and invoices, customizable templates and simple time recording. In an integrated CRM, the contact history with your customers is stored and can be viewed at any time. In addition, you can use it to process your accounting and define different discount groups or use one of the numerous interface functions.
deals&projects costs
The agency software costs you 29 euros per month and user.
PROAD
The agency software PROAD supports you in all important processes and tasks that arise in everyday agency life. It can work cloud- or server-based and is hosted in Germany. In addition, it offers you extensive functions from the areas of project control, controlling and administration. This includes capacity and vacation planning as well as to-do lists, time recording and budgeting.
PROAD Costs
On the company website you can put together your individual PROAD package.
Moco
The cloud-based software Moco offers you extensive possibilities for your project management. This includes the generation of reports, project administration, creation of invoices as well as time recording and the use of Kanban tools.
Moco Cost
Moco costs 9 Euros per month and user. From a company size of more than 50 users, you can ask for a flat rate on the website.
A software that combines your extensive services
Agency software can help you save time and money by allowing you to focus more on your customers. No matter how big your company is right now, an agency program can help any company optimize their projects and streamline your internal processes. After a short familiarization phase, you will be able to convince your colleagues of the advantages of the new software for your agency.