Vendor neutral - Consultant analysis

The Agency Systems Scorecard

A working scorecard for finance leaders weighing a system built specifically for agencies with: job costing, WIP, retainers, resourcing, against a generalist ledger. Scored across nine practitioner dimensions — quoted from what each vendor discloses in its own documentation, or what is publicly available. Not paraphrased or assumed.

7Agency-specific systems scored

9Practitioner dimensions

2of 7 publish real pricing

0of 7 disclose agentic AI

This is a different decision from leaving Xero for an AI-native ledger. Some of the systems below replace your general ledger outright; others are built to sit on top of Xero, Sage or QuickBooks and leave the ledger alone. See The Xero Exit Framework for the generalist AI-native comparison. We're also looking at whether the non-GL layers below could sit just as well on top of an AI-native ledger instead of a legacy one, watch this space.

Two roads off a spreadsheet

An agency that's outgrowing Xero and a bag of spreadsheets, generally has two roads available, not one. The first is a generalist AI-native ledger built to replace the accounting system itself, that's the comparison in The Xero Exit Framework. The second is a system built specifically for agencies, with proper job costing, work-in-progress reporting, retainer and flexible client billing and resourcing, that either replaces the ledger too, or deliberately leaves the GL alone and layers on top of whatever is running the books.

That second road doesn't get the same attention. It isn't venture-funded in the same way, it doesn't put out funding announcements, and mostly it has been running agencies for a decade or two in the background, not launched this year. But it's frequently the more direct fit, because it was built around the specific problem, job costing against an estimate, bespoke client billing, a retainer burning down against a fixed fee, a media or production estimate needing a purchase order, then paid only once the client has, rather than around being a general-purpose ledger with agency features bolted on.

We've spent close to two decades assessing platforms exactly like these for agency and professional-services clients, including hands-on implementation and direct evaluation experience with several of the names below. What follows is the same discipline as the Xero Exit Framework: read each vendor's own public pages, quote what they actually say, and flag plainly what they don't say.

— Chris Lever, Founder, Agency DNA

01 — Why this exists

The comparison nobody's funded to write.

Search for "best agency management software" and most of what surfaces is a listicle ranking whoever pays for placement, or a vendor's own "us versus them" page. Almost none of it is written from the seat that has to defend the choice afterward: a finance lead who has to know whether a system actually recognises revenue against job progress, tracks a retainer's burn rate in real time, or quietly still needs a separate accounting platform underneath it before anyone's told them that.

This scorecard covers Deltek Maconomy, Deltek WorkBook, Accountability (Counta), Advantage, Magnetic, Paprika, and Synergist, seven systems built specifically for agencies and project-based professional-services firms, against nine dimensions that decide whether one fits. Ratings are drawn from each vendor's own product pages, documentation, and review-platform data as of September 2026, read for what's actually disclosed rather than implied.

02 — Methodology

The nine questions that actually decide the fit

Unlike the AI-native ERP comparison, several of these systems are deliberately not general ledgers at all. The first question below is the one to answer before any of the others.

01Core financials

Is this a standalone general ledger you could run the business on alone, or is it an operational layer that expects Xero, Sage or QuickBooks, or an AI-native ledger to sit underneath it?

02Job costing & WIP management

Does it track cost against an estimate at job level, hold aged work-in-progress, and tie revenue recognition (in accordance with the new rules) to job progress, or just report a worked variance after the fact?

03Retainer & fee billing

Can it track burn against retainers and project fees in real time, or are these left to spreadsheets on the side, and does "billing" mean invoicing only, or scheduled and automated?

04Time capture, utilisation & resourcing

Timesheets, real-time chargeability reporting, and forward-looking capacity planning, or just a place to log hours that aren't collated or acted on until month-end?

05Procurement & production cost tracking

Purchase orders tied to specific job estimate lines, production and media cost tracking, pay-when-paid, markup and commission handling, the mechanics unique to an agency buying on a client's behalf.

06Multi-entity, multi-currency & consolidation

Can an agency group with more than one office or legal entity run consolidated accounts, with automated intercompany handling, or does "multi-office" just mean separate logins?

07Geographic & statutory coverage

Which countries, currencies and tax regimes does the vendor actually name, as opposed to a general claim of being "global"? Are their systems MTD compliant?

08AI & automation

What's actually shipped, versus what's on a roadmap slide? This is the dimension where the AI-native four and this category currently look most different.

09Indicative cost

Most of this category still sells by quote. Where a vendor publishes real numbers, that's rare, so we reckon it's worth flagging on its own.

03 — The matrix

How the seven score, dimension by dimension

Strong — disclosed and verifiable

Moderate — partial or claims-based

Limited — a known gap

Not publicly disclosed

Applies to the indicative-cost row below. Converts at $1 = £0.7394 (mid-market, 10 Sept 2026) — the same rate used across Agency DNA's tools.

Dimension	Maconomy	WorkBook	Accountability	Advantage	Magnetic	Paprika	Synergist
Core financials	Standalone Full ERP/GL, statutory accounting built in.	Hybrid Native GL posting exists; ships official Xero/QuickBooks connectors.	Standalone Full GL; positions itself as the system of record.	Standalone Full GL, GAAP-compliant reporting built in.	Layer, not a GL Explicitly requires Xero, Sage, QuickBooks or Pastel underneath.	Standalone Full GL fused to job costing.	Layer, not a GL Explicitly "not an accounting system"; requires Xero, Sage, QuickBooks or similar.
Job costing & WIP	Strong WIP, revenue and profitability tracked by project.	Strong Cost adjustments, WIP recalculation, job-margin ranking.	Strong Named "WIP Take Up" module, multiple formal reconciliation methods.	Strong Actual-vs-quoted tracking with risk analysis.	Moderate WIP/unbilled-time visibility confirmed; no formal rev-rec method disclosed.	Moderate Budget-vs-actual confirmed; "WIP" language absent from vendor pages.	Strong Estimate-to-actual tracking; formal rev-rec is a distinct paid module.
Retainer & fee billing	Limited "Retainer" not used anywhere; billing is hourly/fixed-fee/progress only.	Moderate Dedicated retainer project type plus overage alert; no forecast-vs-actual reporting shown.	Moderate Retainer reconciliation function plus a named summary report.	Limited No "retainer" language; flexible advance/accrual billing instead.	Strong Explicit retainer module with continuous burn tracking and per-retainer profitability.	Limited No "retainer" language; recurring invoicing only.	Strong Explicit retainer billing, a worked burn example, a named retainer-focused case study.
Time, utilisation & resourcing	Strong Time/expense/absence tracking, utilisation by day/week/month.	Moderate Timesheets confirmed; "30% utilisation boost" is an unsupported marketing figure.	Strong Named utilisation report plus several other named time reports.	Strong Multi-source capture, over/under-booking and rack-rate-vs-cost visibility.	Strong Timer/calendar capture, real-time utilisation by person/project/client.	Strong Calendar-integrated capture, over/under-servicing visibility.	Strong One-click timesheets, utilisation dashboards, drag-and-drop scheduling.
Procurement & production costs	Moderate Job-linked purchasing confirmed; no media/markup specifics disclosed.	Strong Job-linked POs, VAT-aware, dedicated media-cost-split feature.	Strong PO caps, named media WIP module, direct Mediaocean/Freewheel integrations.	Strong PO/insertion-order matching, automated media orders, accrued-liability tracking.	Moderate PO workflow with markup fields; no media-commission specifics.	Moderate PO/invoice workflow with spending limits; no markup specifics.	Strong Job-linked POs, supplier/client markup rules, automated supplier-invoice processing.
Multi-entity & consolidation	Strong Native multi-company/currency/language; no intercompany detail disclosed.	Limited No WorkBook-specific consolidation documentation found.	Strong FX consolidation, automated interoffice billing, genuinely large multi-office case studies.	Moderate Multi-office reporting confirmed; multi-currency undisclosed.	Moderate Confirmed, but gated to the top (Enterprise) tier only.	Strong Explicit multi-company/currency; a named customer citing 65 countries.	Strong Dedicated multi-entity module with intercompany cross-charging.
Geographic & statutory coverage	Moderate "120 countries" claimed (G2); no specific list on vendor pages.	Limited VAT configurable at PO level; no country list.	Moderate "30+ countries" claimed; no tax-regime list.	Limited Explicitly US-centric; no VAT/GST evidence.	Moderate No explicit list; integration partners imply UK/EU/US/AU/SA reach.	Moderate Strong footprint (18 countries); only UK MTD named as a statutory claim.	Limited UK-centric; no VAT specifics or non-UK country list.
AI & automation	Moderate "Ask Dela" natural-language Q&A and AI summaries; not agentic.	Moderate "Ask Dela" AI orchestrator with an AI scheduling assistant.	Moderate MCP-based AI connector, explicitly read/analyse only.	Not disclosed No AI/agentic feature found.	Coming soon "Maggie AI" explicitly not yet live.	Not disclosed No AI feature found on the vendor's own product.	Not disclosed No AI/copilot feature found.
Indicative cost	Not disclosed Quote-based enterprise sales.	Not disclosed Quote-based.	Not disclosed No pricing page found.	Not disclosed Third-party listing suggests ~$498/mo starting, unconfirmed.	Published Solo free · Essentials from £10/user/mo · Pro from £17–£22/user/mo.	Not disclosed "Contact vendor" only, no pricing page.	Published Foundation from £300/mo min · Professional £650/mo min · Enterprise £1,600/mo min.

The two published-pricing cells above use simple per-unit or minimum-subscription figures for the currency toggle (not full worked totals); see each vendor's own pricing page for the complete tier breakdown.

04 — The seven, in the round

Where each one earns the call, and where it doesn't

Deltek Maconomy · Enterprise project ERP

Deltek Maconomy

Not agency-first by Deltek's own segmentation — a full standalone ERP built for professional-services firms broadly (consulting, architecture and engineering, IT services) that agencies also use at scale.

120+countries implemented (G2)

18,000+employees at WPP alone

Strong WIP, multi-entity and utilisation depth (native multi-company/currency, People Planner capacity forecasting). Deltek's own marketing steers agencies toward its sister product, WorkBook, instead; Maconomy's flagship agency-scale reference is WPP, running Maconomy Core across 5,500+ users in Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, India and China. Pricing not disclosed, quote-based.

Best fit when A large professional-services group, agency or otherwise, needs enterprise-grade multi-entity depth and can absorb an enterprise sales and implementation cycle. Watch for: no "retainer" language anywhere on Maconomy's public pages — billing is framed as hourly, fixed-fee or progress only; a real gap against agency-native alternatives.

Deltek WorkBook · Deltek's agency product

Deltek WorkBook

Deltek's actual agency-specific system — "used by marketing, advertising, and creative agencies of all sizes, from global networks to independent shops."

3named enterprise agency customers (Ogilvy, We Are Social, TMP)

£10–70no published price — quote-based

Strong job-costing, WIP and procurement depth, including a dedicated feature for splitting media costs across invoice lines. Ships official Xero and QuickBooks connectors alongside its own GL, suggesting many customers pair it with a separate ledger rather than run it as the sole system of record.

Best fit when A marketing, advertising or creative agency wants Deltek's depth without Maconomy's broader professional-services framing. Watch for: no public documentation of multi-entity or multi-company consolidation, despite being marketed to "global networks" — confirm directly with Deltek if that matters for a specific deployment.

Accountability (Counta) · Agency-native

Accountability

Built by agency CFOs, for agencies, and it reads that way — the most formally-documented WIP mechanism of the seven.

54offices, 26 countries (Grayling case study)

4.1/5G2, 13 reviews

A named "WIP Take Up" module with multiple reconciliation methods tied directly to the GL, plus direct Mediaocean and Freewheel integrations for automated media-supplier cost handling — functionality none of the other six disclose.

Best fit when A multi-office agency group wants a purpose-built GL with genuinely strong media-cost and interoffice-billing automation. Watch for: no pricing published, no Xero-migration case study found despite large multi-office references (Grayling, Cowan).

Advantage · US media-buying native

Advantage

The oldest name here (since 1977) and, alongside Accountability, the most media-buying-native of the seven.

1,000+agencies served since 1977

3.0–4.2/5G2 vs. Capterra — diverge meaningfully

Standalone, GAAP-compliant GL with automated insertion-order matching, automatic accrued-media-liability tracking, and vendor-side order acceptance. Acquired by Simpli.fi. No AI or automation feature of any kind found on its public site as of September 2026.

Best fit when A US ad agency, PR firm or media-buying outfit wants deep media-procurement mechanics in a standalone GL and doesn't need international statutory coverage. Watch for: explicitly US-centric — US-based support hours, only a US sales-tax integration, no VAT/GST evidence anywhere; no public pricing (a third-party listing suggests ~$498/month starting, unconfirmed).

Magnetic · PSA layer, not a ledger

Magnetic

Explicitly not a ledger, and says so itself: "For your accounting ledger, Magnetic syncs directly with Xero, Sage, QuickBooks or Pastel."

4.4–4.6/5G2 (76 reviews) / Capterra (36)

£10per user/mo starting (Essentials)

The clearest, most explicit retainer-burn tracking of any system researched — continuous burn visibility with per-retainer profitability built into the core product. The only one of the seven with fully public, tiered pricing, including a free Solo tier.

Best fit when An agency wants to keep Xero, Sage or QuickBooks as its ledger and layer on genuinely strong retainer and utilisation management above it. Watch for: multi-entity support is confirmed gated to the Enterprise tier only; its AI feature, "Maggie," is explicitly "coming soon" rather than live. One confirmed migration case study (Hoorah Digital) came from WorkBook, not Xero.

Paprika · Longest-established, PR/creative-heavy

Paprika

The longest-established brand of the seven, with the deepest creative/PR client roster — one case study customer has run it since 2002.

18countries, 30,000 users, 7 offices

0reviews on Capterra — unusable for comparison

Standalone GL fused to job costing, with a real multi-country/currency footprint and named clients including Dentsu, Ketchum, M&C Saatchi and Iris Worldwide. One specific statutory claim: UK Making Tax Digital compatibility.

Best fit when A creative or PR agency with genuine international offices wants an established, standalone GL with a long track record in the sector. Watch for: no "retainer" or "WIP" terminology appears anywhere on its own site, despite serving heavily retainer-based clients — those capabilities, if they exist, aren't publicly documented; no integrations page found; no pricing published.

Synergist · PSA layer, UK-centric

Synergist

The most explicit retainer-billing documentation of the seven, with a named case study built around it: a PR agency client stating "around 70% of our work is retainer-based."

500+agencies, 15,000+ users (vendor-stated)

£300per month minimum (Foundation tier)

Like Magnetic, explicitly "not an accounting system" — integrates with the longest named list of accounting platforms of any vendor here (Xero, several Sage editions, QuickBooks, MYOB, Microsoft Dynamics, AccountsIQ). The other vendor here with fully public, tiered pricing. Recently became part of Banyan Software Group.

Best fit when A UK-based agency, especially a retainer-heavy one, wants the deepest published retainer-management evidence of the seven, layered on an existing ledger. Watch for: UK-centric positioning, no VAT specifics or non-UK statutory claims found; no confirmed Xero-to-Synergist migration case study, though several spreadsheet-to-Synergist stories exist.

05 — The dimension that separates this from the AI-native four

Vertical depth now, AI later, or the reverse

Not one of these seven systems discloses agentic AI capability today. The closest are Deltek's "Ask Dela" (natural-language Q&A and AI-generated summaries, shared across Maconomy and WorkBook), Counta's MCP-based AI connector (explicitly read-and-analyse only, with an unusually candid caveat that "people still need to review and approve important decisions"), and Magnetic's "Maggie," which is marketed as "coming soon" rather than shipped. Advantage, Paprika and Synergist disclose no AI feature at all. Compare that to the four AI-native platforms scored separately, where agentic posting and governance is the central question. The trade a buyer is actually making: proven, purpose-built depth on job costing, WIP and retainers today, against a generalist ledger's head start on AI, which is real, but is also a general-purpose ledger's feature set adapted to agency work rather than the reverse.

06 — Questions we get asked

Straight answers, no vendor spin

Which of these actually replaces Xero or Sage, and which sits on top of it?+

Maconomy, Accountability, Advantage and Paprika are standalone general ledgers, they replace the accounting system outright. Magnetic and Synergist explicitly say they are not accounting systems and are built to sit on top of Xero, Sage, QuickBooks or similar. WorkBook sits in between: it has native GL posting, but Deltek also sells official Xero and QuickBooks connectors for it, which suggests many customers run it alongside a separate ledger rather than as the sole system of record.

Which one has the best retainer management?+

Magnetic and Synergist, on current public evidence, disclose the most explicit retainer-burn tracking of the seven, and Synergist has a named customer case study built specifically around it. Maconomy and Advantage don't use the word "retainer" anywhere on their public pages at all.

Which one has the deepest media-buying and production-cost handling?+

Accountability and Advantage, both with automated media-supplier integrations (Mediaocean and Freewheel for Accountability) and accrued-media-liability tracking, features none of the other five disclose in the same depth.

Do any of these compete directly with Light, DualEntry, Rillet or Campfire?+

Not really, they're a different kind of decision. The AI-native four are generalist ledgers positioning to replace Xero across any multi-entity business. These seven are built specifically around agency workflows, job costing, retainers, media buying, and several of them (Magnetic, Synergist, arguably WorkBook) are designed to complement a ledger like Xero rather than replace it. An agency could plausibly end up choosing from both lists for two different problems.

Why is pricing missing for five of the seven?+

This category still sells mostly by quote, consistent with mid-market and enterprise software generally. Only Magnetic and Synergist publish real tiered pricing on their own sites; the rest require a demo or sales conversation to get a number, and any third-party pricing estimate found for the others (e.g. a Capterra listing for Advantage) is flagged as unconfirmed rather than treated as vendor-stated.

07 — Go deeper

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