Integrated or separate agency management and accounting systems?

So you’ve decided you need end-to-end agency management software. Now you have to decide what it needs to deliver. Perhaps you’re putting a functionality checklist together, which is a great approach. But hold on a minute, some agency management systems include an entire accounting system, and some don’t! How do you know which to plump for?  

In this article, we outline the key benefits of having a separate agency management and accounting system and explain why we advise agencies to choose individual systems.  

1. You get the best in class from both systems  

If you go for a separate accounting and agency management system, you can ensure both systems are ideal for your agency. You won’t have to compromise on accounting functionality, and you can use established systems that are recognised as the leaders in their field.

2. You can use familiar accounting software

There are common systems that accounting professionals use such as Xero, Sage and QuickBooks. If you have an integrated agency management and accounts system, then you’re not using one of these familiar packages and finance professionals are less likely to be familiar with how it works. They’ll need to spend time figuring this out, and if they’re an external accountant, they’ll bill you for this time. Plus, new members of the accounting team will get up and running a lot quicker if they’re using a familiar system.

3. Good systems will be robustly integrated

Synergist shows you all your project and agency financial information via live dashboard views and reports, so you have complete visibility of your projects and wider agency from within the system. It then integrates seamlessly with leading accounts systems, including Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks, for formal accounting. The data is simply pulled across, so there’s no re-entry of data required.

4. More control over who can view your agency’s accounts

Very few people within an agency need access to the company accounts. An agency management system with integrated accounting functionality should let you set permissions for who can see the accounting information. However, setting and managing permissions will never be as secure as having a completely separate system.  

Having separate systems also means you only need to pay for the few people who need access to the accounting system.

5. More integrations to relevant third parties

You’ll want your accounts system and agency management system to integrate with your accounting system and other third-party software. For example, you’ll want your accounts software to integrate with HMRC’s Making Tax Digital scheme and your chosen bank's online banking. While combined systems can provide some of these integrations, they provide a far wider selection of integrations if you’re using one of the leading accounting systems. They can also update them more rapidly to ensure they continue to function.

In the same way, this allows us to focus on developing integration with relevant software such as Microsoft 365.

6. Focused product development  

Further to the point above, every provider has a finite amount of time that they can spend on product development. So, you want that time to focus on the areas that will make a difference to you. You don’t want the development time to be spent keeping the accounting side in line with the mass market accounting systems when these are available for relatively little cost due to their economies of scale. You want development that's focused on continual improvements on the agency management side, as this has the power to help give your agency a real competitive advantage. 

In summary...

Core functions within agency management need to sit together and share data to give you a crystal-clear view of project and agency financials. But you don’t need to make sacrifices on your accounting system.