The agency month-end close in 90 minutes

Agencies and consultancies have a bookkeeping problem that product companies do not: revenue is people's time, costs are mostly people, and both are spread across clients and projects. A close that takes a week is normal. It does not have to. This is the close our team runs for agency clients, in the order that makes it fit in one sitting.

Before you start

Set the rules once

• Every client has a project code, and every hour, expense and invoice carries one. No code, no entry.
• Timesheets are due by the last working day. The close waits for nobody's hours.
• One person owns the close. Others feed it; they do not run it.

0 to 20 minutes

Reconcile the bank and card accounts

Start with the money, not the invoices. Match every bank and card transaction to a categorised entry. With a live bank feed and rules for the recurring items, most of this is checking, not typing. The goal is a zero difference between the books and the statements, and a short list of transactions you could not place.

20 to 45 minutes

Bill what was delivered

• Retainers: raise this month's invoice for every retainer client before you look at anything else. It is the most predictable revenue you have, so it should be the first out of the door.
• Time and materials: pull approved hours by project, apply the rate card, and invoice. Unapproved hours do not wait; they get chased.
• Fixed-fee projects: bill the milestone that was signed off, and record the work done but not yet billable so revenue is recognised in the right month.
• Pass-through costs: ad spend, stock images, contractors. Bill them with the mark-up agreed in the contract, on the same invoice.

45 to 65 minutes

Chase what is owed

Open receivables by age. Anything past due gets a note today: a friendly one at 1 to 15 days, a direct one with a payment link at 16 to 30, and a call at 31 plus. Agencies lose more to slow collection than to bad pricing. Put the follow-up in the calendar before you leave this step.

65 to 80 minutes

Close the people costs

• Payroll is posted with its taxes and benefits, allocated to projects by the timesheets.
• Contractor invoices are matched to a project and to the client invoice that recovers them.
• Accrue anything worked but not yet invoiced by a contractor, so the month carries its own cost.

80 to 90 minutes

Read three numbers

Write one paragraph on what changed since last month and what you will do about it. That paragraph is the close. Everything above exists so that it can be written in five minutes and trusted.