29 Tools for Agencies Looking to Scale: From Work Management to Finance, CRMs & More

Whether you run a marketing, digital, creative, or advertising agency, the right tech stack can help you streamline operations, improve efficiency, and boost profitability.

To help you build the ideal tech stack for your team, we rounded up our favorite agency tools for everything from work management to marketing automation to appointment scheduling.

Here are our top picks:

Work management

Work management tools offer better visibility and greater control over your project workflows and team schedules. So you can take on more clients without worrying about bottlenecks or miscommunication.

And resource planning features make it easy to boost utilization rates and balance workloads. Which leads to better margins and happier teams.

1. Scoro

Scoro is an end-to-end agency management platform. It’s built for project and resource management as well as billing and reporting.

So you can manage agency operations in one place instead of across multiple disconnected tools.

From scoping to resource scheduling to tracking results, Scoro helps you manage your entire project lifecycle. Its financial tracking tools also offer a straightforward way to forecast resource needs and revenue.

Pricing

Scoro offers four pricing plans:

• Essential: $26 per user/month (billed annually)
• Standard: $37 per user/month (billed annually)
• Pro: $63 per user/month (billed annually)
• Ultimate: Custom pricing

Try any of our plans with a free 14-day trial.

Our favorite feature

Scoro’s portfolio-level “Bookings” module lets you create both tentative and confirmed bookings, helping you manage day-to-day and long-term resource planning.

And real-time capacity insights help you make the most of everyone’s time without overbooking or causing burnout.

Take Cosmonauts & Kings. The political communications agency struggled with low billable utilization and frequent overservicing. However, after using Scoro, the agency was able to maintain 70% utilization and gain better control over client costs.

2. Monday.com

Monday is a work management platform with customizable workflows and project management tools. It helps agencies plan timelines and develop to-do lists.

Its resource management tools help you manage team workloads and assign tasks based on resource availability and skills. And its goal-focused project and exec. dashboards keep your agency focused on the big picture (e.g., quarterly initiatives).

Pricing

Monday has five subscription plans:

• Free: Two seats and three boards
• Basic: $9 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Standard: $12 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Pro: $19 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Try any paid plan for 14 days with a free trial.

Further reading: Asana vs. Monday vs. Wrike vs. Scoro: Which Is The Best Tool For Service Firms?

Our favorite feature

Monday’s automations let you reduce manual work. Easily set up rules to create timelines, assign tasks, and notify team members so everyone can work efficiently as your client roster expands.

3. Productive

Productive is another agency-focused project management tool. It has capacity planning features and also supports revenue forecasting, helping you stay on top of your profitability.

Use Productive’s time tracking to monitor team hours and how they impact project budgets. And with progress-tracking metrics (e.g., project completion rate), you can make sure you deliver every project on time.

Pricing

Productive has three pricing options:

• Essential: $9 per user/month (billed annually)
• Professional: $24 per user/month (billed annually)
• Ultimate: $32 per user/month (billed annually)

Productive offers 14-day free trials and volume discounts for agencies with over 50 users.

Further reading: Productive.io Alternatives for Agencies

Our favorite feature

Productive’s “Scenario builder” helps with project planning by simulating different potential outcomes.

Use the insights to set realistic timelines and assign team members, avoiding project delays and overwork.

Financial management and accounting

Track revenue, manage cash flow, and protect your margins and profits with financial management and accounting tools. Their automation capabilities reduce manual errors and improve accuracy—which is critical as your agency scales.

4. Xero

Xero is cloud accounting software for agencies. It’s a great tool for managing cash flow and handling both accounts payable and receivable.

Use it to generate invoices, accept payments, manage expenses, and pay bills. Since the platform works with over 21,000 global companies, it’s ideal for agencies with a worldwide footprint.

Pricing

Xero offers three plan options:

• Early: $20 per month
• Growing: $47 per month
• Established: $80 per month

Get one month free by signing up for a trial account.

Our favorite feature

Get the real-time expense and revenue data you need with Xero’s customizable reports. And track your cash flow and compare actual revenue against your targets.

5. QuickBooks

QuickBooks is a business accounting platform for small- to mid-size agencies. With bookkeeping automations and income and expense tracking, QuickBooks has fundamental accounting features a growing agency needs.

Send invoices at scale and seamlessly accept payments. And process employee expenses faster with receipt-capture tools and expense review notifications.

Pricing

QuickBooks has four pricing plans:

• Simple Start: $35 per month
• Essentials: $65 per month
• Plus: $99 per month
• Advanced: $235 per month

Quickbooks offers a choice between a free 30-day trial or 50% off for three months.

Our favorite feature

Available with the advanced plan, QuickBooks’ revenue recognition feature gives you a more accurate look at your agency’s revenue. Use it to track your agency’s true monthly income and predict future revenue.

6. Expensify

Expensify is an expense tracking and reimbursement platform. It integrates with over 45 accounting tools and simplifies receipt tracking, travel reimbursements, and expense reports.

Use it to easily manage expense approvals and process payments, saving you time as your company grows. Plus, its global system lets you reimburse employees in their local currency—deposits are available for over 190 countries.

Pricing

Expensify has three subscription options:

• Free: For individual use
• Collect: $5 per user/month (billed annually)
• Control: $9 per user/month (billed annually)

Try Expensify with its free 14-day trial.

Our favorite feature

Expensify’s virtual cards eliminate the need to manage physical corporate cards. Set customizable spending limits and issue them as needed.  

7. Stripe

Stripe is a payment processing platform. It supports both one-time payments and subscription billing, making it useful for different agency pricing models.

Stripe accepts over 100 payment methods in its one-click checkout. This makes it easy to expand globally without worrying about fraudulent payments or limits on which currencies you can accept.

Stripe pricing

Stripe has two pricing options:

• Standard: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge for domestic cards
• Custom: Volume discounts and custom pricing

Our favorite Stripe feature

Stripe’s “Link” feature automatically (and securely) fills in payment details for clients, making the process three times faster. So you can maintain a healthy cash flow and continue investing in your growth.

Contract and proposal management

Agencies need airtight contracts at every stage of growth. Contract and proposal tools protect against scope creep, prevent legal disputes, and reduce late payments. Plus, they simplify client onboarding with automated contract generation and faster signatures.

8. PandaDoc

PandaDoc is a proposal management platform that supports eSignatures. Its visual proposal builder and templates make it easy to create custom documents. 

Plus, you can set up payment processing to automate invoicing.

Pricing

PandaDoc has three pricing plans:

• Starter: $19 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Business: $49 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Try the starter plan at no cost with a 14-day free trial.

Our favorite feature

PandaDoc’s “Rooms” lets you organize proposals, terms of service, and onboarding documents in different groups. This is great for getting stakeholders together without endless email threads.

9. Prospero

Prospero is a proposal software platform tailored to agencies. It supports agreements with single or multiple signers as well as complex service options.

Use the drag-and-drop builder to create proposals with your agency’s branding, terms, and services. Then, send proposals for eSignature and track their opening.

Pricing

A Prospero subscription costs $8 per user per month. Test it out with a 14-day free trial.

Our favorite feature

Prospero makes it easy to give prospects options in your documents. Include multiple plans or services in your proposal and let them pick the ones that suit their needs.

10. DocuSign

DocuSign is a contract and agreement management platform for enterprises. It offers templates and eSignatures to streamline the creation and approval process. 

And the platform’s activity tracking feature helps keep documents safe from unauthorized users. Which improves security and protects your agency’s bottom line as you scale.

Pricing

DocuSign has three subscription plans:

• Personal: $10 per month for one user (billed annually)
• Standard: $25 per month/user (billed annually)
• Business Pro: $40 per month/user (billed annually)

Contact sales for customized plans.

Our favorite feature

Avoid lengthy edits and deal delays with DocuSign’s web forms. Collect names and contact information before preparing documents, and then auto-fill your agreements so they’re ready to sign.

Automation and integrations

As your agency scales, automating workflows becomes crucial for saving time and avoiding costly human errors. Workflow automation tools eliminate repetitive administrative tasks and free up time for more billable work.

11. Zapier

Zapier is a popular, no-code workflow automation tool that connects to over 7,000 apps.

Use its visual automation builder to set different triggers and actions, making flows as simple or as in-depth as you need. 

For example, Zapier can automatically generate new invoices in accounting platforms like Xero when you create a new project invoice in Scoro.

Pricing

Zapier has four workflow automation pricing plans, which scale based on the number of tasks you need:

• Free: 100 tasks per month and unlimited zaps
• Professional: Starting at $19.99 per month for one user and 750 tasks (billed annually)
• Team: Starting at $69 per month for 25 users and 2,000 tasks (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Try Zapier’s professional plan with a free 14-day trial.

Our favorite feature

Save time setting up workflows with Zapier’s extensive template library. Filter them by use case (e.g., project management) or tool (e.g., Scoro) and build in seconds.

12. Make

Make is an advanced, no-code workflow automation tool that connects to over 2,000 apps. It’s especially helpful for updating databases, creating records, and exporting data.

Plus, Make’s API lets you connect to additional tools in your tech stack—including project management, analytics, and collaboration tools.

Pricing

Make has five pricing plans. Paid plans start at 10,000 operations (ops) per month:

• Free: 1,000 ops per month for individual use
• Core: $9 per month (billed annually)
• Pro: $16 per month (billed annually)
• Teams: $29 per month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Our favorite feature

Embedding AI tools in your agency’s processes helps you save time and make smarter decisions. Make’s integrations with AI tools like OpenAI and Claude let you automatically create summaries, generate content, or sort data as you transfer it between platforms. 

Email marketing and marketing automation

Email marketing automation tools help agencies follow up with prospects, nurture leads, and trigger onboarding sequences. 

With personalized workflows, you can ensure that everyone in your pipeline gets tailored messages at different stages, which improves client acquisition and supports agency growth.

13. HubSpot Marketing Hub

HubSpot Marketing Hub is a marketing automation platform with email and contact management tools. It supports both inbound and outbound emails, making it a good choice for both marketing and sales teams.

Create lead-nurturing campaigns and track every send, open, and response. And design workflows to follow up with engaged leads at specific times or after certain actions, guiding them toward a sale.

Pricing

HubSpot Marketing Hub has five pricing plans:

• Free Tools: Basic tools for up to two users
• Marketing Hub Starter: $15 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Starter Customer Platform: $15 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Marketing Hub Professional: $800 per month for three seats, plus $45 for additional seats (billed annually) 
• Marketing Hub Enterprise: $3,600 per month for five seats, plus $75 for additional seats (billed annually)

To test HubSpot’s features, sign up for the free plan.

Our favorite feature

HubSpot’s AI-powered Breeze Copilot can answer questions, summarize data, and generate content to help your team work faster.

14. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing platform with AI-powered automation tools and over 900 pre-built integrations. It’s great for managing multiple email campaigns in one place.

And it’s even better for creating automated workflows. For example, you can design a workflow to send welcome messages to new subscribers, follow up with a prompt to schedule a meeting, and then send meeting reminders.

Pricing

ActiveCampaign pricing depends on the number of contacts you have. Each plan starts at 1,000 contacts:

• Starter: $15 per month
• Plus: $49 per month
• Pro: $79 per month
• Enterprise: $145 per month

Try ActiveCampaign for free with a 14-day trial.

Our favorite feature

With ActiveCampaign’s AI-powered tools, you don’t have to be an expert at building automations. Use conversational AI to explain what you want to create so you can start automating instantly.

15. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is an email marketing platform with powerful automation and segmentation features. It’s great for promoting your agency through newsletters, company announcements, and service updates.

Plus, you can use Mailchimp’s audience segments to send emails for lead nurturing or client retention. And the platform’s audience dashboard makes it easy to monitor email opens, clicks, and subscriptions.

Pricing

Mailchimp has four subscription options:

• Free: One seat and 500 contacts
• Essentials: $13 per month for three seats and 500 contacts
• Standard: $20 per month for five seats and 500 contacts
• Premium: $350 per month for unlimited seats and 10,000 contacts

Try Mailchimp’s standard plan at no cost for 14 days.

Our favorite feature

Mailchimp’s partner program helps you grow your agency as you serve clients. Get leads, earn commissions, and get access to extra training and tools.

Reporting and analytics

Agency reporting is essential for tracking profitability, monitoring resource utilization, and improving operations as you scale. With centralized data, leaders can make more informed decisions that support the company’s health and growth.

16. Scoro Reports

As we mentioned before, Scoro offers nearly 50 customizable reporting templates, so it’s easy to monitor (and improve) your profitability, sales pipeline, client base, and projects.

For example, the “Revenue” report helps you make sure you’re bringing in enough to reach your profit margin goals. And with the “Utilization” report, you can track utilization rates and find ways to maximize billable time.

Pricing

A number of Scoro’s reports are available on all subscription plans.

Our favorite feature

Our customizable, real-time dashboards keep key metrics front and center. You can quickly create dashboards for different roles, from individual contributors to executives. 

Further reading:

• Executive Dashboard Examples For Professional Services
• Project Management Dashboard Examples to Maximize Project ROI

17. Power BI

Power BI is Microsoft’s data visualization and business intelligence tool. Its AI-powered features turn raw data into graphs, charts, and reports in seconds. And it can aggregate data from almost any platform, creating a single source of truth for your agency.

And, as a Microsoft product, it plugs into Microsoft apps. So it’s easy to connect with tools you’re already using (like Outlook or Teams).

Pricing

Power BI offers four pricing options:

• Free
• Pro: $10 per user/month
• Premium: $20 per user/month
• Embedded: Custom pricing

Try Power BI at no cost by signing up for a free trial within Microsoft Fabric.

Our favorite feature

The platform’s “Embedded” option lets you embed client-facing dashboards in your agency’s apps. This allows you to demonstrate concrete results and help your agency stand out to prospects.

18. Tableau

Tableau is an advanced analytics and data visualization tool. It pulls data from virtually any marketing, sales, or operations platform and puts it on customizable dashboards.

Create different charts to track revenue and profitability for internal use. And set up client dashboards to monitor campaign performance.

Pricing

Tableau offers three editions (Tableau, Enterprise, and Tableau+), each with unique pricing. The Tableau and Enterprise editions both have standard monthly subscription options, while the Tableau+ edition has custom pricing only.

Sign up for a free trial of Tableau to test the platform at no cost.

Our favorite feature

Get business insights faster with Tableau Pulse. This AI-powered feature gives personalized summaries of your chosen metrics. So you don’t need to dig through individual reports.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Strong CRM platforms are key to client acquisition. By centralizing communications, sales pipelines, and deal tracking, these tools can shorten sales cycles and help your agency grow faster.

19. HubSpot CRM

HubSpot’s CRM tool has built-in sales and marketing automations. Use its contact and lead management features to visualize your sales cycle so you can close deals faster. And build custom pipeline stages and touchpoints that reflect your prospects’ unique journeys.

Between HubSpot’s CRM, email tools, and meeting scheduler, you can easily track agency leads, handle follow-ups, and book calls from a single dashboard. This makes it ideal for growing agencies.

Pricing

HubSpot CRM is integrated into the HubSpot Marketing Hub and offers the same subscription options.

Our favorite feature

HubSpot’s deal pipeline automatically records touchpoints, qualifies prospects, and reports on timelines. Sales teams can use the data to build and optimize sales playbooks, helping you track buying signals, nurture leads, and sign more of your ideal clients.

20. Salesforce

Salesforce is an advanced CRM for sales and operations. This enterprise tool organizes prospect and client data, builds email templates for lead nurturing, and tracks leads through sales stages.

It automatically suggests the next steps to keep leads moving through your pipeline. And its dashboards give you real-time insights into team performance and agency health.

Pricing

Salesforce has two pricing plans:

• Starter Suite: $25 per user/month (billed annually)
• Pro Suite: $100 per user/month (billed annually)

Try Salesforce for free with a 30-day trial.

Our favorite feature

Einstein, Salesforce’s AI technology, transforms sales workflows. It can write emails, summarize sales calls, and prompt sales teams to take specific steps to close deals faster.

21. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a pipeline-focused CRM. It helps agencies track all deals and data, like win probability and anticipated close dates. It also tracks recurring revenue so you can keep an eye on your cash flow.

And with Pipedrive’s automations, sales teams can cut out manual tasks like scheduling calls. Plus, the platform’s AI-powered sales assistant offers tips and updates to make the sales process smoother.

Pricing

Pipedrive has five subscription options:

• Essential: $14 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Advanced: $39 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Professional: $49 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Power: $64 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: $99 per seat/month (billed annually)

Test any of Pipedrive’s plans with a free 14-day trial.

Our favorite feature

Take sales emails off your team’s plate with Pipedrive’s AI email generator. It creates personalized follow-up emails automatically, helping you avoid missed opportunities as you grow.

Messaging and internal communication

Connect and collaborate virtually with tools that support both real-time and async communication. The right messaging app can help you improve, not compromise, productivity as your agency grows.

22. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is an enterprise communication and collaboration platform. It’s great for setting up virtual meetings, video calls, and sending messages to team members.

You can also create spaces for everyone to work together using Microsoft apps. Teams can co-author documents, update databases, and fine-tune presentations in real time.

Pricing

Microsoft Teams has three pricing plans:

• Microsoft Teams Essentials: $4 per user/month (billed annually)
• Microsoft 365 Business Basic: $6 per user/month (billed annually)
• Microsoft 365 Business Standard: $12.50 per user/month (billed annually)

Try any plan for free with a one-month trial.

Our favorite feature

Microsoft Teams’ “Rooms” is a smart choice for hybrid agencies. It makes it easy to set up hybrid meetings, letting everyone contribute and ask questions no matter where they’re located.

23. Slack

Slack is a team messaging app. Its channel-based setup lets you organize conversations by department, team, project, or topic. And you can invite both internal team members and external clients to join.

With over 2,600 app integrations, Slack’s automations speed up work. Plus, Slack’s AI helps users catch up on conversations and find project or client information quickly.

Pricing

Slack has four subscription options:

• Free: One workspace and 90 days of message history
• Pro: $7.25 per user/month (billed annually)
• Business+: $12.50 per user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise Grid: Custom pricing

There’s no free trial. But the free plan lets you test Slack’s features at no cost.

Our favorite feature

Slack’s virtual meeting feature “Huddles” lets you instantly hop on a voice or video call within the platform. So you might not need a separate virtual meeting tool.

Appointments and scheduling

Automated scheduling improves client experiences and eliminates the need for back-and-forth emails. And appointment scheduling tools free up your time so you can focus on higher-priority work.

24. Calendly

Calendly is an appointment scheduling tool. This simple yet effective tool lets you create different types of meetings (e.g., discovery calls and client check-ins).

Since it syncs with most major calendar apps, Calendly automatically reflects your real-time availability. So when you share booking links with prospects or clients, they can book a time that works for both of you.

Pricing

Calendly has four pricing plans:

• Free: One seat and one event type
• Standard: $10 per month for one seat (billed annually)
• Teams: $16 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Paid plans include a 14-day free trial.

Our favorite feature

Calendly’s “round robin” scheduling and call routing functionality is great for agency sales teams. Request information from prospects (e.g., industry or company size) and set up custom rules to distribute leads fairly. So appointments land on the right person’s calendar.

25. Acuity Scheduling

Acuity Scheduling is a customizable scheduling tool. It creates branded scheduling pages where prospects can select different services and book meetings.

Its calendar syncing and rescheduling features let people book based on your real-time availability. And its payment options let you automatically charge for agency services, like consulting strategy sessions.

Pricing

Acuity Scheduling has four pricing plans:

• Emerging: $16 per month (billed annually)
• Growing: $27 per month (billed annually)
• Powerhouse: $49 per month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Standard (non-enterprise) plans include a seven-day free trial.

Our favorite feature

Screen clients before appointments with Acuity Scheduling’s client intake forms. Build your own custom form with relevant questions and add them to your appointment scheduling workflow. This way, you can better prepare for client calls—or know in advance if a prospect isn’t a good fit for your agency.

Documentation and knowledge management

Consistent operations and transparency become even more critical as your agency scales. Knowledge management and process documentation tools help everyone follow the same workflows. And make sure they can quickly access the information they need to do their jobs well.

26. Coda

Coda is a collaborative workspace. It has over 600 integrations, letting you connect your entire tech stack. And it lets you create interactive documents with embedded workflows.

Plus, you can manage project timelines and tasks, briefs, meetings, objectives and key results (OKRs), and even bug trackers—all in one place.

Pricing

Coda has four pricing plans:

• Free: Basic features and collaborative docs
• Pro: $10 per month/Doc Maker (billed annually)
• Team: $30 per month/Doc Maker (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Our favorite feature

Scoro’s Harv Nagra, a former ops director and host of “The Handbook: The Agency Ops” podcast, swears by Coda. He loves that it’s an easy place to start and very similar to Notion. 

But while Notion charges per user, Coda doesn’t—making it a more affordable choice for many teams.

“Coda has a very attractive price,” Harv explains. “You only pay $10 per month for any individuals that need to create new docs or pages. All editors and viewers are free.”

27. Confluence

Confluence is Atlassian’s connected workspace platform. It’s great for organizing agency standard operating procedures (SOPs) and knowledge bases using a combination of pages, whiteboards, databases, and spaces.

Brainstorm and complete projects asynchronously or in real time. Easily share data and make sure everyone has what they need to do their jobs.

Pricing

Confluence has four subscription plans with team-based pricing:

• Free: 10 users with limited whiteboards and automations
• Standard: $650 per year for up to 10 users
• Premium: $1,225 per year for up to 10 users
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for 801 or more users

Try any of the paid plans with a seven-day free trial.

Our favorite feature

Confluence uses Atlassian Intelligence to extract insights from raw data, convert notes into documents, and summarize different forms of content. By streamlining manual tasks, the AI helps growing teams focus more on high-impact work, such as refining client strategies and building relationships.

28. Loom

Loom is a screen recording tool. It records your screen, webcam, or both to create video walkthroughs and async check-ins. It’s great for global agencies and remote teams.

It makes it easy to give nuanced feedback or instructions to team members and clients. Plus, with Loom’s editing features, you can quickly fix errors or remove filler words.

Pricing

Loom has four pricing plans:

• Starter: Free for 25 videos, each with a five-minute time limit
• Business: $15 per user/month (billed annually)
• Business + AI: $20 per user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Loom offers free 14-day free trials for paid plans.

Our favorite feature

Available on the Business + AI plan, Loom AI automatically adds titles, chapters, and summaries to your screen recordings. It also identifies action items to help your team complete follow-up tasks faster.

29. Scribe

Scribe is a process documentation tool. It automatically creates SOPs and turns them into step-by-step guides.

As Scribe records your workflows, it takes screenshots and adds instructions for each step. So your team or clients can easily replicate your process. And you don’t need to walk people through it individually.

Pricing

Scribe has four subscription options:

• Basic: Free for up to 10 documents
• Pro Team: $12 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Pro Personal: $23 per seat/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

While Scribe doesn’t offer a free trial, the basic plan offers a free way to test the platform.

Our favorite feature

Group multiple SOPs together with Scribe’s “Pages” feature. Easily build dedicated landing pages for onboarding new hires, training clients, or using a new tool.

Manage your growing agency with Scoro

There are tons of agency tools to choose from.

But agencies that want to scale need tools that automate routine processes, integrate with existing tech stacks, and support global growth. So your team can focus on providing top-notch client services and building relationships instead of manual tasks. 

Take Butcher & Gundersen, a brand design agency that’s used Scoro since 2016. 

Thanks to automated employee time tracking, in-depth reporting, and integrations with Xero and Mailchimp, our agency software saves the company over 240 hours each month.

See how Scoro can transform your agency with our 14-day free trial.