If you could choose one benefit from a business management tool that you value the most, what would it be?

It could be the variety of features it offers, its ease of use, its integration with other tools, customer service, pricing flexibility, or its ease of use.

It is difficult to pick just one benefit. You’d like your agency management platform to have all the above.

This article will discuss whether it is possible to use one tool to manage your entire agency, or if you need multiple integrations to obtain the data you need to propel your agency forward.

Option 1 – Running Your Agency in One Core Tool

You need to have access to real-time data, regardless of whether you are a project manager, head of operations, or CEO of an agency. This means that all the important KPIs to keep your agency profitable are revenue, profit margins and utilization, forecasting, forecasting, and other similar.

You need to be constantly looking for the right tool or a combination of tools that can simplify complex projects, make timelines and tasks clearer, and align your team members.

The question is, can an agency use only one tool to manage its business? Perhaps a better question would be: What essential features should an agency have in a management tool?

Agency management can be described as a mix of sales, operations, HR, client servicing, and production. Project management (any type of creative work, from copywriting to development), financial forecasting and accounting, and many more.

Option 2 – Multiple Integrations

Many business tools specialize in time tracking, project management, and sales management. But, how can you consolidate data when these features aren’t all connected?

This is where integrations are useful. A tool that is specialized in one area and can be integrated with hundreds of apps is great. The problem is still: How do you get your clients, colleagues, and accountants on the same page? Although it may seem easy to move from one task to the next, eventually you will lose focus.

This is how it works: Task management on one platform, and time tracking on another. Trying to track budget management and projects using Gantt charts-like tools or spreadsheets can lead to wasted time and creative energy. A big problem is obtaining consolidated data.

Using Productive to Create One Scalable Agency Tool

Productive helps agencies achieve their full potential. Its goal is to replace multiple spreadsheets with one tool to manage and scale profitable agencies.

It provides a comprehensive view of your company through seven core features.

• Sales

Productive allows you to set up your agency’s sales funnel in stages. This will allow you to push deals toward closing and show you where your potential clients are standing at a glance. It’s easy to convert a closed deal into a project, and all data is kept in one place.

• Time Tracking

Productive makes time tracking simple by providing multiple methods: you can track your time daily, weekly, or via calendar integrations. You can also get accurate data in Productive because the hours tracked are linked to your agency’s project budgets, services, reporting, and billing.

• Resource Planning

In agencies, operations, and resource planning are essential. Productive Scheduling allows you to see a detailed overview of your resource utilization, as well as financial forecasting. You can also predict hiring plans by using the Scheduling feature. Productive automatically indicates employees who have requested time off as unavailable in Scheduling. This makes it easier to plan work.

• Budgeting

Productive’s budgeting feature allows you to see a complete view of all your clients’ project budgets, and track the status of each budget. You have the option to add columns, and custom fields, and filter data according to your needs.

• Project Management

Agency work focuses on delivering services using project timelines. These are broken down into smaller tasks assigned to different colleagues with deadlines and time frames. Productive allows you to set up your projects in different views, such as You can view your projects in different views (e.g., Board view, Tableview, or Timeline view) and collaborate with colleagues, contractors, and even clients.

• Reporting

Your agency can track time and expenses into Productive to get real-time information that will help you make data-driven decisions. You can access over 50 agency-focused insights or create your reports.

• Billing

Productive allows you to choose between budgeted amounts and recurring fees. You can also track time or expenses to create invoices quickly and send them to clients. Your accounting department can quickly take care of billing after each project is completed. All your data is stored in one place.

To use one core tool or integrate it with other tools?

It is impossible to do all the work for your agency with one tool. This is because agencies often provide marketing services in Las Vegas that require specialized tools. Depending on the size of your agency, the type of agency you have, and where your agency is located in the world, certain tools can streamline and automate the work of your agency.

Productive can be integrated with many popular finance and business management tools such as:

• Popular Calendar Tools – Google Calendar and MS Outlook

The greatest benefit to synchronizing your calendars with Productive is the ability to have those events automatically tracked in Productive.

• Accounting tools for Xero and QuickBooks. Exact, Visma economic.

Productive’s integration with Xero and QuickBooks, Exact, and Visma economic allows you to export and copy invoiced amounts easily from one tool to another for further processing.

• Jira

You can connect Jira and Jira if your agency is used to doing a lot of development work.

• Zapier and Custom Intl

Productive’s API allows you to fill in any gaps your business may have. You can also use Productive’s API to connect to specific apps.

• Slack

Last but not least, Productive and Slack go hand in hand. Task and project management can be streamlined through Slack towards Productive and vice versa. You can receive Productive notifications through Slack or quickly reply to comments in Productive from your agency’s Slack.

Another option is to sync your Slack status and your Productive organization’s calendar so that your time off status and calendar event are the same.

One Core Agency Management Tool with a Few Key Inclusions

It’s easy to see that although you can find one core management tool for agencies, you will need to create a few other integrations depending on which type of agency you have. These integrations usually aim at specific markets and include widely-used communications and organizational tools like Slack or Google Suite. For more information, please visit our top brand agencies or best digital marketers agencies in Los Angeles for startups article.