The budget carries its phases
Per client one budget with campaigns and phases, hours logged directly onto it. Plan-vs-actual per campaign emerges from the bookings, not from a second list.
Agency software: fees, third-party costs and margin on one budget.
Agencies live on fees and on other people's money running through their own books. teamspace runs both on the budget: hours, third-party costs and the fee invoice in one place, with the margin per client current to the day rather than only at the quarterly close.
The agency invoice
Fees and other people's money sit on one invoice.
No other sector bills like this: on the final invoice to the client, your own fee hours sit next to the outside money running through the books. Media, print and licences, each item with its surcharge or as a pass-through.
Honorar eigene Stunden
Konzept
38 h × 95 €
Design
52 h × 85 €
Text
16 h × 80 €
Honorar netto 9.310 €
Fremdkosten fremdes Geld
Druck · Plakate
Aufschlag
+ 12 % 4.704 €
Mediabudget
ohne Aufschlag
Durchlauf 12.000 €
Bildlizenzen
Aufschlag
+ 15 % 920 €
Fremdkosten 17.624 €
Honorar und fremdes Geld stehen auf einer Schlussrechnung, jede Position mit ihrem Aufschlag oder als Durchlauf.
The agency day
At month end, what counts is not whether work was done, but whether the budget paid off.
- "We only react now, instead of planning." Bottlenecks only surface just before the deadline, and by then the freelancers are booked elsewhere.
- "We manage the agency instead of working on it." The budget lives in Excel, the hours in one tool, the invoices in the next.
- "We find out too late whether a budget paid off." The margin per client only appears weeks after month end.
- Third-party costs get lost in receipts, and the agreed surcharge is left on the table.
teamspace brings fees, third-party costs and hours together on the budget and shows the margin current to the day.
Scope of functions
What sets agency software apart from an hours counter.
A budget sheet and a time tool together fall short on three things that matter in the agency.
Fees plus outside money
Media, print, licences and freelancers run as expenses on the budget, with a surcharge per category or as a pure pass-through, cleanly separated from your own hours.
Margin, before the budget closes
From hours, internal rates and third-party costs the contribution margin builds up continuously. The margin per client is current to the day, not only at the close.
Fees plus outside money
A budget is fees plus outside money, and at the end stands the margin.
The budget carries two worlds: your own fee hours and the outside money running through your books. It burns down across the campaign phases, and what remains at the end is the margin.
Budget 2026 · Beta GmbH
180.000 € Honorar 91.000 €
Hours on the budget
Fremdkosten 66.000 €
Media · Druck · Lizenzen · Freelancer
Marge 23.000 €
was am Ende bleibt
Konzept
Honorar
24.000 €
Fremdkosten
4.000 €
Produktion
Honorar
34.000 €
Fremdkosten
22.000 €
Media
Honorar
14.000 €
Fremdkosten
38.000 €
Reinzeichnung
Honorar
19.000 €
Fremdkosten
2.000 €
Does the budget pay off? Die Marge steht am Ende der Kampagne, nicht erst im Quartalsabschluss.
Where it fits
Why not a pure project tool?
Pure project or task tool
- Runs tasks, boards and deadlines, but knows no budget
- Hourly rates, third-party costs and margin live in Excel alongside
- Someone writes the fee invoice by hand at month end
- Whether a client pays off only shows at the quarterly close
teamspace
- Budget with campaigns and phases as the project structure
- Hourly rates, third-party costs and margin on the same budget
- The fee invoice emerges from the released hours
- Margin per client current to the day, not only at quarter end
The budget structure
The budget is the project structure, not a spreadsheet tab.
Per client one budget, per budget the campaigns and phases, per phase the tasks and hourly rates. This structure lives where the hours are logged too, so every logged hour flows straight into the plan-vs-actual of the campaign.
- Log onto budget, campaign or phase, every hour with its rate and its task.
- Plan-vs-actual per campaign builds up live from the bookings, not only at quarter end.
- The structure becomes the billing: the same bookings carry the fee invoice, the record and the margin.
“We mostly work with the budget column.”
What agencies gain
From the budget to the margin, all in one place.
Fees and outside money on one basis: the budget as a unit, the third-party costs with a surcharge or as a pass-through, and the margin per client visible while there is still something to adjust.
Budget
The budget as a unit.
Log hours directly on the budget, per campaign and phase, with hourly rates per person and role.
- Campaigns and phases as the project structure
- Hourly rates per person, role and budget
- Fixed price and T&M side by side
Third-party costs
Fees plus outside money.
Media, print, licences and freelancers as expenses on the budget, with purchase and sales price.
- Surcharge per category or pure pass-through
- Sorted as separate items on the final invoice
- Third-party costs flow into the margin per client
Margin
The margin stands while it still counts.
Plan-vs-actual and post-costing per budget show the contribution margin current to the day, not only at the quarterly close.
- Plan-vs-actual current to the day per campaign
- Post-costing: budget against actual against invoice
- Contribution margin from hours and rates automatically
The path of a budget
From brief to final invoice.
A continuous path, without exports between budget sheet, time tool and accounting: the pitch becomes a budget, the logged hours become the fee invoice.
- 1
Set up pitch and budget
The accepted pitch becomes a budget with phases, hourly rates and flat rates. Templates for typical campaign types accelerate the setup.
- 2
Distribute the creative team
Assign copywriters, designers, strategy and production, filtered by available specialism. The system reports conflicts across all budgets, and the project lead decides.
- 3
Hours during the campaign
Log hours onto the budget phase or the task, in the browser and in the app, straight after the meeting.
- 4
Third-party costs on the budget
Print, media budget, licences and travel costs land as expenses on the budget, with a surcharge per category or as a pass-through.
- 5
Bill and evaluate
Final invoice with an attached activity record, margin per client current to the day, ZUGFeRD and XRechnung without an extra tool.
What matters
Three things that make the difference.
Highlight 1
Log on the budget, straight after the meeting.
Creatives log in the browser or in the app, onto budget, campaign or task. Every hour carries its rate and its category, billable or internal.
Highlight 2
Third-party costs with a surcharge or pass-through.
Expenses carry a purchase and a sales price. The surcharge per category makes the margin visible, the pass-through runs through without a surcharge.
Highlight 3
One client, one budget, one history.
Budget, hours, third-party costs, pitches and invoices hang on the same client, maintained once and shared across the whole firm.
Third-party costs
Third-party costs on the budget: with a surcharge or as a pass-through.
The agency invoice has an anatomy of its own: fees plus outside money. You run print, media budget, licences and freelancer fees as an expense on the budget, each item with a purchase and a sales price.
- A surcharge per category, for example on print costs, makes the margin per item visible.
- A pure pass-through, where contractually agreed, runs through the books without a surcharge.
- Separate items on the final invoice, sorted and traceable, and accounted into the margin per client.
Seen in the system
Permanent and freelance heads in one plan.
An agency rarely delivers with permanent staff alone. The assignment plan shows the creative team and the freelancers week by week, with utilisation per budget. An overbooking becomes visible before the deadline burns. More on [capacity planning](/capacity-planning/).
Einsatzplan Auslastung Budgets
Kreativ-Team · Mai 2026
verplant verfügbar überbucht
KW 18KW 19KW 20KW 21
Art-Direktion
70%
90%
80%
60%
Text
50%
70%
95%
80%
Design
85%
100%
120%
90%
Produktion
40%
60%
75%
85%
Motion-Design extern
frei
50%
80%
70%
Feste und freie Köpfe in einem Plan; die Überbuchung fällt auf, bevor die Abgabe brennt.
First conversation
Let us work through one of your budgets together.
Bring a typical budget with fees and third-party costs. In the first conversation you will see how the margin emerges from hours, expenses and surcharge, and where your billing logic is reflected.
Who it is for
Which agencies get the most out of this.
teamspace suits firms that deliver creatively and want to bill cleanly on the budget. Three profiles we see especially often.
Full-service and advertising agencies
- Several budgets in parallel with one margin view
- Concept, production and media phases per campaign
- Third-party costs with a surcharge cleanly on the budget
Digital, performance and marketing agencies
- Running campaigns with plan-vs-actual per budget
- Media budgets run as third-party costs
- External creatives with their own hourly rate
PR, communications and content agencies
- Retainers with a monthly hour allowance
- Activity record per engagement at the press of a button
- Recurring invoice via serial contracts
Retainer
Activity record per retainer engagement, at the press of a button.
PR and communications offices often work with a monthly hour allowance. The activity record is mandatory, and in teamspace it emerges by itself.
- Automatically with every invoice from the logged times, with date, hours, activity and total.
- Verifiable online and dispatchable to the client for signature, editable before dispatch.
- Fits retainer and flat rate, where the allowance is billed monthly.
Scope of functions
Functions for agencies at a glance.
Included in the plan, without a module surcharge.
Budget and campaign
- Budget structures with phases and campaigns
- Hourly rates per person, role and budget
- Fixed price and T&M side by side
- Flat-rate retainer per month
- Templates for campaign types
Team and externals
- External heads with their own hourly rate
- Assignment by specialism with conflict alert
- Utilisation per creative team
- Absences taken into account in planning
- Logging in the browser and in the app
Reporting and billing
- Margin per client and budget
- Activity record per engagement
- Third-party costs with a surcharge or pass-through
- ZUGFeRD and XRechnung without an extra tool
- Post-costing per job
For every kind of agency
Advertising, design, PR and event agencies, all bill on the budget.
Whether campaign, communications, branding or event, in the end the question everywhere is fees, third-party costs and margin. teamspace adapts to the nature of your work.
Advertising agencies
Campaign budgets with concept, production and media phases.
Design studios
Branding and design with fixed-price and T&M shares on the budget.
Marketing agencies
Running campaigns with plan-vs-actual per budget and media budgets as third-party costs.
PR agencies
Retainer engagements with an hour allowance and an activity record.
Event agencies
Events with many third-party costs: venues, service providers, trades.
Production agencies
Photo, video and film production with third-party costs per production.
Publishers and editorial offices
Recurring editions with fee management and authors' fees.
Full-service agencies
Several disciplines under one roof, several budgets with one margin view.
Comparison
Excel and single tools against teamspace.
Where a continuous system differs from a budget sheet in Excel, a separate time tracker and the accounting kept apart.
Feature
Excel, time tool, accounting
teamspace
Recommended Hours logged directly on the budget
manual
Third-party costs with a surcharge on the budget
Excel
Fixed price and T&M on one budget
Externals with their own hourly rate
maintained externally
Margin per client current to the day
quarter end
Activity record automatically with the invoice
manual
ZUGFeRD and XRechnung without an extra tool
Hosting in an ISO 27001 data centre in Frankfurt
varies
Recurring
A retainer that carries on billing itself.
Monthly retainers are the quiet backbone of many PR and content agencies. In teamspace they run as a serial contract, instead of being created by hand every month.
- A recurring invoice via a time-period item: monthly, quarterly or yearly, on a fixed rhythm.
- Automatic renewal, pausing and cancellation sit on the contract; a price change optionally takes effect only from the next period.
- Flat rate and T&M side by side: the hour allowance runs as a flat rate, everything above it is billed by effort.
First conversation
We look at your budgets and your billing.
Show us a budget with fees and third-party costs. We show you where teamspace makes the margin visible and where your current setup is enough.
Why teamspace
What stands behind the software.
From Darmstadt since 1999
We have been developing teamspace in Darmstadt since 1999, self-funded and without outside capital, specialised in software for project-based professional services firms.
Hosting in Frankfurt
Operated in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt am Main, with data processing exclusively in the EU. It is the data centre that is certified, not teamspace itself.
One system for the whole budget
From the pitch through the hour and the third-party costs to the fee invoice, everything runs on one dataset. No budget sheet alongside, and one contact who knows your billing.
Case Study
From tool tangle to margin per budget.
A hypothetical worked example to illustrate how it works. Actual figures depend on the starting point, size and implementation and are not guaranteed. A typical switchover scenario: a full-service agency with 25 staff and a ring of freelancers, running budgets in Excel, hours in a time tool and invoices in accounting.
Starting point
Budgets lived in Excel, hours in a separate tool, third-party costs in receipts, invoices in accounting. At month end someone brought the figures together by hand. The agreed surcharge on print and media was sometimes left on the table, and whether a client had paid off only showed weeks later.
Solution
Hours are now logged directly on the budget, third-party costs are run as expenses with a purchase and a sales price, and the surcharge per category is stored. Plan-vs-actual and post-costing show the margin per client current to the day, the activity record emerges with the invoice, and retainers run as a serial contract.
1
System instead of five separate tools
0
Third-party costs without a stored surcharge
Plan-vs-actual live
Margin per client, not only at the quarterly close
From the hour to the invoice
The fee invoice emerges from checked hours.
At the end of the period the project lead releases the budget's hours. From the released, billable hours, the flat rates and the third-party costs the fee invoice emerges, without anyone carrying anything back and forth between tools.
- Release per budget or period: first checked, then fixed, then released for the fee invoice.
- The activity record attaches automatically to the invoice that the times flow into, ready as an appendix for the client.
- ZUGFeRD and XRechnung emerge directly in the system, and the hand-over to DATEV runs via the certified interface.
What comes together on one budget.
Hours, third-party costs and billing hang on the same dataset. Reports emerge from the same records, not from parallel lists.
- 1
- Budget instead of four tools
- 2
- Worlds on the budget
- 1999
- developed in Darmstadt
- Frankfurt
- Hosting in the EU
hours, third-party costs, CRM and invoice
your own fee and outside money
5 POINT AG, self-funded
ISO 27001 certified data centre
Security
Client data stays in Frankfurt.
An agency's budgets and campaigns hold confidential things: strategies, budgets, unseen drafts. teamspace processes this data exclusively in the EU.
- Hosting in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt am Main. It is the data centre that is certified, not teamspace itself.
- GDPR-compliant with a data processing agreement; encryption via TLS, storage in the data centre encrypted.
- In GoBD mode, released invoices and receipts remain audit-proof for ten years.
- The contracting party is 5 POINT AG, a German public limited company headquartered in Darmstadt.
What agency software has to do
Budget, hours and third-party costs on one data basis.
Agency software is an application that runs an agency's budget, hours, third-party costs and fee invoice on one data basis, so that at month end the margin per client is visible rather than three weeks later. Fees emerge from hours on creative, strategy and production tasks, plus flat rates and the outside money running through the books.
This includes the shifting ring of externals: the copywriter, the motion designer and the illustrator log their hours at their own rate alongside the permanent staff, in the browser, without insight into internal figures. So the margin shows how much comes from your own work and how much from bought-in work. teamspace is not a merchandise management system in this; what is run is the budget, not a warehouse.
Areas at a glance
What agency software brings together in one place.
Seven areas mesh on one data basis, from the pitch through the hour to the paid invoice.
Project management
Budget, campaigns and phases as the project structure, with plan-vs-actual per campaign.
Learn moreTime tracking online
Hours directly on the budget or on the campaign phase, in the browser and in the app.
Learn moreInvoicing software
Fees, flat rates and third-party costs as items, ZUGFeRD and XRechnung.
Learn moreActivity record
Per retainer engagement automatically from the logged hours, with totals.
Learn moreCRM software
Clients, budgets and the contact history in one place, from the pitch to the job.
Learn moreMulti-project management
Several budgets in parallel, utilisation and margin across all clients.
Learn moreTicket system
Client enquiries and correction loops as tickets, the effort logged and billed directly on the client.
Learn moreRelated areas
Three areas the agency leadership steers with.
Anyone running several budgets in parallel needs the view across all clients: utilisation, margin and free heads. These three areas mesh directly for steering.
Multi-project management
Several budgets in parallel, utilisation and margin across all clients in one view.
Read moreProject controlling software
Plan-vs-actual, contribution margin and post-costing per budget, current to the day from the hours.
Read moreCapacity planning
Plan the creative team and freelancers, see bottlenecks weeks ahead.
Read moreFirst conversation
Let us work through one of your budgets together.
Bring a typical budget. In the call you will see how the margin emerges from hours, third-party costs and surcharge, and where your billing logic is reflected.
Terms
Six terms from the agency day.
Terms that keep coming up on the budget.
- Budget
- A client's budget for a period, in teamspace the project structure with campaigns and phases. Hours and third-party costs run directly onto it.
- Retainer
- A monthly flat rate for a fixed hour allowance. Time used is covered, the overflow is billed by effort, and the activity record emerges automatically.
- Third-party costs
- Money running through the agency's books: media, print, licences, freelancers. In teamspace run as an expense on the budget, with a purchase and a sales price.
- Pass-through
- A third-party cost item without a surcharge, simply passed on. In contrast to the item with a surcharge per category, which carries a margin.
- Pitch and brief
- The competition for a budget and the client's task definition. In teamspace the accepted pitch becomes a budget at a click.
- Contribution margin
- What remains of the fee after deducting the labour costs and third-party costs, the margin per client and budget. In teamspace current to the day from the logged hours.
Further sectors
Solutions for other professional services firms.
teamspace comes for five sectors. Here are the four alongside the agencies.
Management consulting
Days of clever minds, utilisation across teams and the fee invoice.
Industry pageIT service providers
Project and running operations, every hour on the right contract.
Industry pageSystems house
IT service provider with trade: hardware and licences alongside the service.
Industry pageAn honest read
Which agencies teamspace fits, and which not.
Fits less well
- Pure task or board teams without budget and margin logic.
- Merchandise management and trade with warehouse and stock.
- Production and manufacturing with material scheduling.
- Single seat without a team, budget or billing.
Fits well
- Agencies that run fees and third-party costs such as media, print and licences on one budget.
- Creative, digital, performance and PR agencies with budget and retainer models.
- Firms with a pool of permanent and freelance staff, hourly rates per role and a margin per client.
- Agencies from the small team up to several hundred staff.
Frequently asked questions on agency software
How do we run budgets with different billing logics?
Per budget several models run side by side: fixed price per campaign, billing by effort for changes, flat-rate retainer per month. Each item carries its model, and the final invoice accounts for all components correctly.
Can we run media budgets and third-party costs on the budget?
Yes. Media budget, print, licences and travel costs are captured as expenses on the budget, each item with a purchase and a sales price. Some carry a surcharge per category, others run through without a surcharge. The margin per client accounts for these costs by itself. More on invoicing software.
How do we work with external freelancers?
You run external staff with their own hourly rate alongside the permanent staff. They log their hours via the browser, without insight into internal figures. More on multi-project management software.
How do we calculate hourly rates per role?
You store hourly rates per person, role and budget, each with a validity period. On the fee invoice the right rates apply by themselves, and the contribution margin emerges from the internal rates and the logged hours.
Do we see the utilisation of the creative team?
Yes. The assignment plan shows permanent and freelance heads across all budgets, with leave and absence accounted for. Bottlenecks and overbookings become visible weeks ahead. Assignment filters by available specialism and reports conflicts; the project lead makes the choice. More on capacity planning.
Can we run several clients and brands in parallel?
Per client one budget, per budget several campaigns and brands as phases or subprojects. Several budgets run in parallel with a shared margin view. Existing budget tables can be taken over on switchover via Excel import. More on project controlling.
Do we still need a budget sheet and a time tool alongside teamspace?
No. teamspace covers budget, hours, flat rates, third-party costs and the fee invoice in one application. Existing budget tables can be taken over on switchover via Excel import.
What does the activity record look like for retainer engagements?
With every invoice that hours are billed on, the activity record emerges automatically from the logged times, with date, hours, activity and totals. Before dispatch it is ready to check and to sign. More on activity record.
Where is the data stored, and how about ISO 27001?
teamspace runs in an ISO 27001 certified data centre in Frankfurt am Main, with processing exclusively in the EU. It is the data centre that is certified, not teamspace itself. The contracting party is 5 POINT AG headquartered in Darmstadt; released receipts remain audit-proof in GoBD mode.
From what agency size is teamspace worthwhile?
Sensible from about five staff. teamspace grows with the agency, from the boutique with its own brand to the mid-sized agency with several sites, without data migration on an edition change.
What sets teamspace apart from PM tools like Asana or Trello?
PM tools cover tasks, boards and deadlines, but no budget structures, hourly rates, third-party costs, margins and invoices. teamspace links projects, times, resources, billing and reporting in one system, with the building blocks an agency needs for steering.
Is teamspace an ERP system or agency software?
Both. teamspace is agency software with an integrated ERP core: the operational work (budgets, hours, campaigns, third-party costs) and the commercial reporting (margin, contribution margin) live on a shared data basis. Merchandise management with warehouse and stock is deliberately not the focus.
Can individual modules be used, or only everything together?
Modular by design. You start with core functions such as projects, time and invoice and add CRM or the ticket system later. Licence per activated module and user, without later additions triggering a data migration.
First conversation
Agency software reviewed in 15 minutes.
In 15 to 30 minutes we discuss your budget structure, your creative workflow and your billing. You hear a clear read on whether teamspace fits your fee and third-party cost business.