Hours, tasks, and invoices that finally line up
Most small agencies can't say which clients make money, because the answer is split across four tools. Tasks sit in Asana, hours in a timesheet app, deals in HubSpot, and invoices in Xero. We connect them so each job's hours, tasks, and billing line up. Then client updates can say whether a job is on budget, and the director can see which retainers pay their way. Pricing decisions stay with you.
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Connections a small agency gets the most from
Hours against jobs
Timesheet hours matched to each Asana or monday.com project, so you see time spent against the retainer.
Deals into projects
A won deal in HubSpot creates the project with the scope already attached, so nothing is retyped.
Invoices against work
Xero invoices linked back to each client's project, so unbilled work shows up before month end.
Client numbers in one place
Social and ad results from Meta Business Suite gathered beside each client's project for reporting.
Where the picture splits
Ask a studio director whether their biggest retainer is profitable and you’ll often get a pause. The tasks are in Asana. The hours are in a timesheet app, if people logged them. The original scope is in a HubSpot deal. The invoices are in Xero. Each tool is fine on its own, but the answer sits across all four, and pulling it together by hand takes a day nobody has.
How the tools get connected
Connecting your tools (the industry calls it data pipelines) means moving information between the apps you already use, so they line up without anyone retyping. For an agency, we match hours to each project, link won deals to the projects they became, and tie invoices back to the work. Once the numbers sit together, an AI helper can do more with them, like adding a budget line to a client update or flagging a retainer that’s running over.
The gap Saltbush is still living with
We work with Saltbush Studio, a six-person design agency in Fremantle. An AI helper drafts the Friday update for each of its twelve retainer clients from the week’s tasks in Asana, and all twelve now take the director under an hour. The part that didn’t resolve is budget. The updates can’t say whether a job is over budget, because hours are tracked in a separate app that isn’t connected yet. That’s the gap this service closes.
The limit worth knowing
A connection only moves what’s recorded. If the team logs hours on Friday from memory, the numbers will be rough. Apps also change how they share data, so we check connections in our monthly time and fix them when they break. And the numbers won’t tell you how a client relationship feels, which matters as much as the hours.
If you can’t say which clients pay their way, get your AI Starter Plan and tell it which tools you use.
Related
Read about our Connecting your tools service, and how we help small teams in marketing and creative agencies.
Small teams we work with
How a solo business coach gathers enquiries from three places into one list each morning
How a six-person cafe gathered its catering orders into one sheet and missed none in two months
How Still Water Day Spa lifted its rebooking rate from 31% to 44% in three months
Common questions
Why does connecting tools matter for a small agency?
Will this change how my team logs time?
Is client data safe?
What does it cost?
What won't it tell me?
See which clients make you money
List the tools your agency uses for tasks, time, sales, and invoices. Get your AI Starter Plan and you'll see which connection to make first.
Get your AI Starter Plan