Examples of our work
- 01 -
Optimising operations & restructuring
for a multi-disciplinary agency
The challenge
A medium-sized development, marketing, and print agency in the North of England struggled with resource planning, accountability and communication, making scaling difficult.
Without clear capacity visibility, staffing was reactive, causing over- and under-resourcing. Lacking financial insight, they couldn’t set commercial goals, breakeven points, or revenue targets.
With no structured reporting, leadership lacked data for decision-making, and inconsistent productivity tracking led to further inefficiencies.
Our approach
Optimised resource planning
Improved hiring and contractor decisions.
Restructured staffing
Identified inefficiencies and supported reorganisation.
Improved leadership reporting
Delivered clear, data-driven insights.
Enhanced productivity tracking
Standardised time tracking and reporting.
Strengthened communication
Built escalation framework for collaboration.
Established financial visibility
Implemented reporting to track breakeven points and set revenue targets.
The results
- Staffing restructure saved £20K/month, reducing bloat and improving planning.
- 100% timesheet utilisation in 3 months, up from two users, boosting productivity tracking.
- Smarter hiring and contractor use cut costs and optimised resources.
- Stronger leadership oversight improved board-level decision-making.
- Clearer communication reduced delays and misalignment.
- Improved financial insight enabled leadership to set revenue targets, track breakeven, and plan growth.
- 02 -
Establishing revenue recognition for a
global e-commerce agency
The challenge
A UK-based e-commerce agency serving both small vendors and large online retailers lacked a structured revenue recognition process, making it difficult to forecast revenue or track project progress.
Monthly accounts were based solely on invoice dates, with no deferred income or WIP tracking.
Senior managers and department heads were making staffing and financial decisions with no clear data, leading to overstaffing in some areas and resource shortages in others.
Our approach
Implemented deferred income, WIP & revenue recognition processes
Embedded a structured process to track project progress and align revenue forecasting with actual work.
Training & adoption
Trained senior leaders and teams to accurately track and report project progress.
Optimised resource allocation
Used deferred income insights to identify overstaffed departments and supported leadership in implementing a targeted restructure.
Implemented cash flow planning
Replaced the inaccurate process with a structured model, improving financial visibility and reducing short-term, reactive decisions.
The results
- Full transition to deferred income based revenue recognition within three months, providing real-time revenue forecasting.
- £45K/month in cost savings from restructuring, improving profitability within four months.
- New short and long-term cash flow process improved financial visibility, eliminating the hand-to-mouth cycle and enabling smarter planning.
- Automated deferred income and revenue recognition tools provided instant visibility into profitability, over-servicing, and revenue risks, allowing issues to be tackled sooner.
- 03 -
Providing structure & financial clarity for
a .NET development agency
The challenge
An agency in the North of England struggled with a large team of developers operating without project management support, leading to inefficiencies, frustration, and high staff churn.
Financial reporting was in disarray, while they wanted to move from invoice-based accounting to WIP, the lack of project managers meant accountants had no real project data, making deferred income reporting unreliable.
Developers, left to self-manage projects alongside their build work, felt overworked and unsupported, leading to declining quality and high turnover within the team.
Our approach
Built a Project Management Office
Worked with leadership to define a structured PM function and hire specialist project managers to oversee live projects.
Connected the PMO to finance
Integrated PM into the agency’s financial processes, ensuring accurate progress reporting for deferred income based revenue recognition.
Rebuilt revenue reporting
Established their first accurate WIP-based financial process, eliminating reliance on incorrect deferred income estimates.
Developer support and retention
Provided structure and leadership, allowing developers to focus on build quality.
The results
- First fully functional deferred income-based revenue recognition process established within three months.
- Deferred income reporting became accurate, improving financial forecasting.
- Developer churn reduced by a third in the first year, increasing stability and morale.
- Higher-quality project output as developers could focus on building, rather than self-project managing.
- 04 -
Reducing firefighting & boosting billables
for a large SEO agency
The challenge
A large SEO agency in the South East was grappling with siloed teams, fragmented delivery and a lack of cohesion across departments.
Strategy was continually de-prioritised in favour of business-as-usual, and no single process or system existed to align teams around shared priorities.
Backlogs across departments were unmanaged and inconsistent, making it difficult to understand progress or plan effectively.
The result? Too much firefighting, duplicated effort and a culture of reactive delivery.
Our approach
Introduced Sprint-based delivery
Implemented a tailored version of Scrum to suit the agency’s structure, creating a regular Sprint cadence that brought rhythm and focus to delivery across all departments.
Created a unified backlog
Consolidated scattered and inconsistent Jira backlogs into a single source of truth, improving visibility, planning and prioritisation across the agency.
Aligned siloed teams
Facilitated cross-functional Sprint planning sessions to break down walls, align on goals and give strategic initiatives the space to progress.
Trained a Scrum Master
Mentored and upskilled an internal team member to take ownership of the new delivery model, embedding accountability and ensuring the process would be sustained beyond our involvement.
The results
- 40% reduction in admin time for core delivery teams, freeing up space for more strategic and billable work.
- Increased billable hours due to clearer prioritisation and fewer blockers.
- Ad-hoc firefighting significantly reduced thanks to a central backlog and accountable Scrum Master role.
- Morale improved across teams, with better communication, collaboration and a noticeable uplift in culture.
- A repeatable sprint cadence is now in place, creating structure, visibility, and focus across the agency.
- 05 -
Clarifying profitability for a social media
influencer agency
The challenge
This mid-sized, London based social media agency was operating with high volumes of in-and-out costs, but with no structured processes to manage them.
Invoices weren’t tracked by project, making it impossible to assess profitability at client or campaign level. Cost control was non-existent, cash flow forecasting was unreliable and revenue planning was skewed by poorly timed or untracked expenses.
To add to the pressure, no one was completing timesheets, so there was no clear view of utilisation, capacity, or whether staffing levels matched the agency’s delivery demands.
Our approach
Introduced financial clarity
Introduced cash flow forecasting, giving the founder visibility on commitments and confidence in spending.
Improved cost control
Identified process gaps, introduced structured expense management and delivered immediate savings.
Established profitability tracking
Linked project costs to revenue and set up deferred income based on labour and media spend to improve performance visibility.
Boosted operational accountability
Streamlined payroll and rolled out timesheets, enabling visibility of utilisation and delivery costs.
The results
- £30K+ in savings uncovered within the first month through better process and oversight
- New visibility on project profitability via cost-tracked invoicing and deferred income
- Improved cash flow confidence, enabling the founder to make informed investment decisions
- Timesheet adoption achieved across all delivery staff, unlocking accurate resource and profitability analysis
Get in touch
Wrestling with growing pains or just too much on your plate? We’re here to listen first, untangle things second. We'd love to hear from you.