Agencies & professional services
Retainer, project and pass-through, told apart
Three kinds of money arrive looking identical in a bank feed. Owwyl separates them nightly, so margin is a number you can read rather than one you reconstruct at quarter end.
What the close has to get right
01
Retainer is not project is not service
Three revenue accounts, because they behave differently: retainer is predictable, project revenue is lumpy, and mixing them makes a forecast that is confidently wrong.
02
Contractor cost sits in cost of sales
Freelancers delivering client work are cost of delivery, not overhead. Filed as overhead, every project looks more profitable than it is.
03
Tools split from subscriptions
Production tools and stock assets bought for delivery are separated from the software the business runs on. One scales with the work; the other does not.
04
Client travel and meals stay their own lines
Both carry tax treatment that a single travel bucket destroys, and both are the first thing anyone questions.
When it is not sure
It holds the row.
A payment to somebody who has never been paid before is held, not auto-filed. A new contractor and a misdirected transfer look the same to a bank feed and very different at year end.
The template
21 accounts, ready on the first night
This is the actual chart of accounts Owwyl creates for agencies & professional services — not an example. Rename anything, add anything, delete what you do not use. The ledger is yours.
Revenue
Cost and expense
Owwyl also closes the books for
Close tonight on your own numbers.
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