Running an agency shouldn't feel like a guessing game.
As an agency owner, you're expected to make big decisions fast. Without clear insight into your numbers, every decision is a gut call.
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Can we actually afford this next hire, or are we just busy?
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What happens to cash if two retainers churn at once?
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Is now the right time to increase my prices?
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Which clients actually have the best margins?
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Why does cash feel tight even in good months?
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How do I plan for taxes without surprises in April?
Where you stand
Three ways agency owners find out how the year went.
The difference isn't how good your bookkeeper is. It's how long you wait to learn something you could still have acted on.
Most owners we meet are living at Level 2 and believe they're at Level 3. The OS Audit tells you which one you're actually on.
AheadBehind
Level 3
Level 2
Level 1
You find out before you commit.
Tap to readYou know a client's margin before you renew them, your cash position before you sign, and whether the hire clears before you post the job. The number arrives while you can still act on it.
You find out at month-end.
Tap to readThe books close, eventually. You can see what happened 30 to 60 days ago. Good enough to file, useless for the hire you're deciding on Thursday.
You find out in April.
Tap to readThe books sit in a shoebox until tax season. You learn what the year looked like when your CPA tells you, and by then every decision is already made.
The Cost of Running Blind
Running blind costs more than any bookkeeper ever will.
For an agency doing around $1M a year, here's what deciding without real financial data typically costs. None of it shows up as a line item, which is exactly why it never gets fixed.
Where agencies lose moneyPer year
Underpriced retainersNo margin data by client means renewals get priced on intuition, 2–3 points low$25,000
A hire made one quarter too earlyWithout a forecast, "we feel busy" becomes payroll before the revenue lands$20,000
Founder hours spent on the books10 hours a month of your time, pointed at categorizing instead of clients$18,000
The April tax surpriseNo quarterly planning means the bill arrives as an emergency, not a plan$8,000
Pointed at the wrong things$70,000+ / year
Illustrative figures based on patterns we see across agency engagements. Your numbers will differ, that's the point. A free finance review tells you your actual leak.
The Agency Financial OS is a system, and every client moves through it the same way: learn it free, get diagnosed against it, then have it installed and run for you.
1
Step 1 · Read
The Agency Financial OS
Free Playbook
The complete framework, owner pay, hiring gates, cash allocation, and tax planning, free to read and use on your own.
From messy books to your first clean close, in 30 days.
Most owners stay with books they don't trust because switching feels worse. Your first month is the Foundation Month: the OS Audit plus full setup, run as a fixed sequence, and you're never the project manager.
Week 1
Kickoff & access
One call, then we take it from there, QuickBooks, bank feeds, and your prior books, connected and reviewed.
Weeks 1–2
Cleanup & catch-up
Accounts reconciled, backlog cleared, and your chart of accounts rebuilt the way an agency actually runs.
Weeks 2–3
Your OS, built
Your custom dashboard, forecast, and owner pay system, configured around your agency's real numbers.
Week 4
First monthly review
You and Logan walk through your first clean month together, margins, cash runway, and what to do next.
Your total time investment: about 15 minutes a month. Everything else is done for you.
Live Dashboard Preview
This is what clarity looks like.
Every client gets a custom Agency Financial OS dashboard, updated monthly, built around your agency's actual numbers. Here is the before and after, exactly as it happens.
BeforeYour books247 uncategorized
Uncategorized transactions247
Stripe deposits, unmatched31
Duplicate software subscriptions3 found
Owner payunclear
Revenue$142,500
Expenses, categorized$41,000
Tax set-asidefunded
Gross profit$101,500
Last reconciled: 74 days ago
Closed and reconciled. Your time: 15 minutes.
BeforeYour dashboard17 spreadsheet tabs
P&Lin your CPA's inbox
Latest report4 months old
Cash runway???
Margin by clientnowhere
Revenue
$142,500
Gross margin
71%
Allocatable cash
$187,400
Owner pay
funded
Answers: whenever you can dig them out
One link. Every number, always current.
The agency finance stack
Four layers own your numbers. Most agencies only have two.
Every agency has someone recording the past. Almost none have anyone looking at what's next. Here is the whole stack, ordered by how far ahead each layer can see.
Last yearNext quarter
Last yearFilesYour CPA files the return and keeps you compliant.We don't file taxes and we don't want to. We keep your books CPA-ready all year so your accountant has clean financials on day one, and we plan the cash for the bill before it lands.
Last monthRecordsEvery transaction categorized, reconciled, and closed.Most agencies buy this layer alone and call it done. Clean records are necessary. They just don't answer a single question you actually lose sleep over.
This monthClosesMonthly close, margin by client, cash position, surprises caught early.The controller layer. This is where a $40K margin leak gets spotted in month two instead of next April, and where you find out which client is quietly unprofitable.
Next quarterDecidesForecasting, pricing, owner pay, and the hiring gate.The layer almost no agency under $3M has, and the only one that changes a decision before you make it. This is what the Agency Financial OS installs.
Your CPA keeps this one
We Got Your Books covers these three
Most agencies stop at Records. They have clean books and still guess at every decision, because nobody is looking forward.
Know What You're Buying
A bookkeeper, a CPA, or a finance partner.
Most agencies have someone doing the books. The question is what you're getting back for it.
Offshore Bookkeeping Firm
Generalist CPA
We Got Your Books
Who does the work
A rotating team you've never met
Whoever's assigned to your file
Logan. Every account, every month.
Do they know agencies
Generic small-business playbook
One of 200 clients across 30 industries
Agencies only, retainers, utilization, and agency cash flow.
What you get monthly
Categorized transactions
Statements, eventually
Clean books plus a dashboard, forecast, and review.
Strategy included
None
Billed hourly, if you ask
Built in, pricing, hiring, cash, and owner pay.
When you have a question
A ticket queue
An invoice
You message Logan.
At tax time
Good luck
A scramble through messy books
CPA-ready books and a plan, all year.
Swipe sideways to compare
Client Results
Agency owners who got financial clarity.
Real outcomes from real agency clients, not just testimonials, actual numbers.
Time Savings
$3,750 / mo
15 founder hours back every month, worth $3,750 at their rate.
Motor Media Marketing
Return on Investment
$4,000 / mo
Ten hours back and $4,000 saved, every single month.
Lighthouse Communications
Growth Partner
Hire with confidence
Reports that guide hiring, growth, and owner pay decisions.
Commonstate Marketing
Clarity
Weekly clarity
Crystal-clear weekly financials, fully done for them.
Overline Creative
Time Savings
10+ hrs / mo
Double-digit hours back and the confidence to scale.
Live to Thrive
Partnership
Long-term partner
More than bookkeeping: a finance partner for the long run.
Mallard Agency
Free Resource
The Agency Financial OS. Free.
The exact financial framework we use with every client, hiring decision tools, cash allocation, owner pay, and tax planning. Used across $75M+ in agency cash flow.
Agency Financial OS with hiring, cash, tax, and owner pay frameworks
Weekly financial insights for agency owners
Early access to new tools and client playbooks
Get instant access
Free. Takes 10 minutes to implement the first framework.
Fit Matters
We're deliberately not for everyone.
A boutique firm only works if every client is the right client. Here's how to know before you book a call.
Built for
Marketing and creative agencies doing $300K–$3M a year
Owners who want a finance partner, one senior person on their account
Agencies making real decisions: hires, pricing, owner pay, growth
Founders done with guessing between bank logins
Not for
Pre-revenue businesses or side projects
Anyone shopping on price alone
Owners who want data entry with no reporting or strategy
Businesses outside the agency and creative services world
Step 2 · Diagnose
Every engagement starts with the OS Audit.
Before we install anything, we run your agency through all 9 modules of the Agency Financial OS, 2–3 weeks, under 3 hours of your time, and hand you the answers most owners have been guessing at for years.
Profit
How profitable am I really?
Revenue tells you nothing. Your operating margin against agencies your size tells you everything.
The Profit Benchmark
Owner pay
How much should I pay myself?
Underpay yourself for three years and you've funded the business with your own salary.
The Owner Pay Formula
Team
How much should I be spending on my team?
Payroll is the line that quietly eats agencies. There's a ceiling for your revenue band.
The Team Cost Ceiling
Capacity
Is each team member generating enough revenue?
Feeling busy is not the same as being at capacity. One number separates them.
Revenue Per Employee
Hiring
Can I hire right now, and who first?
Hire one quarter early and you eat a year of margin. The gate names the month it's safe.
The Hiring Gate
Spend
Which software is draining my margins?
The average agency we audit finds four subscriptions nobody has opened since last year.
"Logan helped me see where my expenses were going and better organized my books. It also made it 10 times easier for me come tax time. He took the time to walk me through my expenses and offered some great suggestions to improve my business. I would highly recommend working with Logan."
Erik Allen
Founder, Erik Allen Media & Podcast
★★★★★
"Logan at We Got Your Books has been incredibly helpful to my marketing business, organizing the business finances so I can make data-driven decisions. His expertise and communication skills make him an invaluable asset and advisor for any business seeking clarity and confidence in their finances."
Josh Krause
Owner, Elevate Digital Marketing
★★★★★
"I was introduced to Logan by a friend and couldn't be more happy to have him doing our books. He asks the right questions, is thoughtful, and works really fast. He highlighted a few ways to save money I had never thought about. I definitely recommend working with Logan."
Anne Ricketts
Owner, Lighthouse Communications
About
Meet Logan Smith.
$75M+
Cash flow managed
10+
Years experience
F500
Consulting background
Before starting We Got Your Books, Logan spent 10+ years in Fortune 500 consulting and corporate finance, working with the kind of financial systems most small agency owners never get access to.
He started WGYB because he kept watching talented agency owners make expensive decisions in the dark, not because they weren't smart, but because no one had ever built them a system that made their numbers make sense. That's the whole job.
Every agency client gets direct access to Logan, no outsourcing, no hand-offs, no junior staff. You get a finance partner who knows your numbers as well as you do, and can talk through them in plain English.
We Got Your Books currently manages over $75M in annual agency cash flow across marketing, creative, and service businesses doing $300K–$5M in revenue.
We begin updating your books the moment you pass them off. Our onboarding ensures your books are fully up-to-date within the first 30 days. You'll see progress immediately, with clear financial insights delivered as we work.
You get direct access to Logan, the founder. We do not outsource any financial work, no bookkeeping, consulting, or forecasting is handled by anyone else.
We prefer QuickBooks Online for all clients. If you currently use Xero or Wave, we can discuss whether migration makes sense on a discovery call.
Onboarding requires 3–5 hours of your time. After that, we operate on a done-for-you model, typically 15–30 minutes of input per month, usually answering a question or approving something.
No, we work exclusively with service-based businesses. If you carry physical inventory, own business property or vehicles, or have substantial equipment, we likely aren't the right fit. Book a call if you're unsure.
No, we don't file taxes or provide tax advising. We do work closely with your CPA and provide reconciled, tax-ready financials that make their job significantly easier and faster.
We offer a 30-day satisfaction guarantee. If you're not completely happy, we'll either refund your payment or work to make it right.
We support US entities regardless of where the founder is based in the world. We do not currently support foreign entities.
Because strategy built on numbers you don't trust is just expensive guessing. The audit gives both of us the same clear picture before a single monthly deliverable ships. We're never advising off dirty data, because we own the books underneath the model.
Because the audit is how we'd start anyway, and a 12-month client gives us the runway to actually install the system. We'd rather waive an entry fee than ever discount the monthly rate. The rate is the rate.
That's normal. Messy books are usually why people call us. We'll tell you within the first week if anything is a genuine blocker, and it almost never is.
Agencies under $300K, businesses that want tax filing or payroll processing (we'll refer you well), and anyone looking for the cheapest bookkeeper. We compete on clarity, not price.
Under 3 hours total across 2–3 weeks, including the debrief. If you had more time than that for your finances, you probably wouldn't need us.
Ready to know your numbers? Let's talk.
30-minute call. No pressure. We'll tell you exactly what we'd do with your books and whether we're the right fit.
