Top 5 Productivity Tools with Client Dashboard for Creative Agencies

You probably chat with clients via email and LinkedIn and take projects from these different platforms. This gets messy when your client lists and the volume of projects increases. 

You need a centralized productivity tool with a client dashboard that can show your clients the project/task you're working on and their statuses. It should also allow them to share feedback in the comments box without friction. 

A client dashboard is your agency's front desk. It's where your clients go to find everything they need about an ongoing project. 

I studied five productivity tools for creative agencies that use a dashboard to communicate with clients. I'll review these tools and show how ManyRequests is a better alternative for managing client communication and team collaboration efficiently. 

Features To Look For In Productivity Tools

The best productivity tools should have some of these features: 

• Interactive dashboard 

Your clients should have active control and knowledge over their projects. 

Subscribe to a tool that allows them to submit requests, track the progress of requests, send feedback, and approve each project from their end. 

An interactive dashboard can look like this: 

• White-labelling

You need a platform that allows you to customize the software interface to reflect your agency's branding.

Choose a tool that lets you customize colors, logos, and other elements. 

If you're using a centralized project management portal like ManyRequests, you can change your portal name, URL, logo, and color.  

• Easy client communication 

Creative agencies thrive on how well they communicate with clients about every detail of the project. 

Choose a tool with a built-in messaging feature so you don't have to discuss with clients on different platforms. 

• Team collaboration 

Use software with built-in messaging features, feedback systems, and file sharing that improves how your team communicates with one another. Choose one that provides an easy way to assign tasks from your clients to team members and track these requests through different stages.  

• Integration capabilities 

Choose a tool that easily integrates with other software you may need to get your jobs done. 

5 Productivity Tools with Client Dashboard For Creative Agencies 

These are some of the best productivity software for agencies. I'll discuss each of these tools based on their; 

• Client dashboard. 
• Design feature. 
• Collaboration feature. 
• Pricing. 

You can sign up for a free trial to see how they work before committing to them. 

1. ManyRequests

🔥 Best for: All-in-one client and project management for creative agencies

ManyRequests is a project management software that helps agencies consolidate different tools into one. 

It allows you to track project progress, communicate with clients, send invoices, and deliver recurring tasks to your retainer clients. 

These are features you can expect based on the requirements I mentioned earlier: 

• Client Dashboard 

ManyRequests has a self-serving dashboard that allows clients to interact with your agency. 

When clients log into their dashboards, they can see the status of their active projects, who they've been assigned to, and the due date, among other things. 

In the image above, Jeff, the client, can see each project's title, status, team members working on it, deadlines, and the day it was assigned.  

If clients want to send in new tasks or work on other projects alongside current ones, they can click “Create new requests” in the upper right corner. It'll take them to your service page.

Here's an example of what a service page looks like :

ManyRequests’s service pages let you create a listing of all the services you offer, with prices attached to them, so your clients can pick the service they need, pay for it, and fill out a request form. 

The service request form is a file for every question and clarity you need to ask your client before the project starts— it's also customizable, which means you can add or remove questions to fit your services. 

If your client, for context, picked Webflow design from the list of services in the image above, it'll take them to the request form here: 

You can keep the request form as a reference for your team to go through if they need guidance on the project. 

• Design Feature  

ManyRequests' design annotation feature lets clients and teams comment directly on the document. 

When you upload a design file, anyone with permission can click directly on specific parts of the file and leave comments. 

Each comment your client or team makes will appear as a numbered pin on the exact design spot.

It looks like this: 

This makes design revisions easy because you can track the exact parts that need to be reviewed and the comments attached to them. 

Other key features of the ManyRequests design markup tool are that you can;

• Click on the numbered annotations to comment or read the comments on the design file.  
• Have threaded conversations under each pin to maintain the context of each comment. 
• You can also mark annotations as resolved once you implement these changes. 

• You can switch between viewing all annotations or just the unresolved ones. 
• Collaboration Features

With ManyRequests, you can create tasks, have meetings, follow up on projects with your team, and talk to your clients. Each task you assign to your team members has a discussion thread to discuss information about the project.

Some of the ways you can collaborate with your team on ManyRequests include: 

• Real-time commenting: Team members can @mention each other when they need input on tasks in progress.

• Through internal notes (private team discussions) that clients cannot see through their portal, but are still connected to project ideas. If your team needs to brainstorm ideas before presenting them to clients, ManyRequests lets you do this on the same platform.
• Assign tasks and track them through the ManyRequests dashboard. You can assign tasks to your team members, set their priority levels so they know which to get to first, and check the project status. 

Tasks that haven't been acknowledged are to-do's. Once your team member starts working on them, they change the status to In-Progress, and it continuously changes until completion. 

• Pricing

There are monthly;

• Starter subscription: $99/ 2 team seats monthly 
• Core: $149/ 5 teams seats monthly 
• Pro: $399/ 10 teams seats monthly.
• Enterprise plan with custom pricing for a large team with over 25 members. 

There's also a discount for agencies that want to subscribe to ManyRequests' annual pricing. 

2. Productive

🔥 Best for: Agency Profitability Tracking

Productive is an end-to-end agency management system that manages and tracks the profitability of a project, budgeting, reporting, and billing in one platform.

It focuses more on the finance part of a project and clients and how well you utilize your team to complete a project. 

If your primary challenge is understanding project margins and managing your team, the system helps you see which projects and clients are most profitable, how your team uses their time, and where you might be losing money. 

For context, when team members log their hours on client projects, the software automatically calculates the real cost of that work based on employee salaries or hourly rates. 

It then compares these costs against what you're charging your clients to show your actual profit margin on each project. 

• Client Dashboard 

Productive’s client dashboard is more of a viewing portal than an interactive space. Your clients can view and track their projects, but they can only see information about projects that you allow or invite them to. 

• Design Feature

Productive is not a design collaboration tool; it only has basic design file management features. 

You can upload, store, and share design files with clients through the dashboard, but there are no real-time design annotations. 

However, Productive supports many integrations, including HubSpot, Zapier, and others. 

• Collaboration 

Productive has project spaces where team members can track their time, update task status, and communicate about project details, but these discussions are always connected to specific tasks. 

When a project manager assigns a new task, they can include the budget hours, deadline, and any relevant notes directly in the task. 

The assignee can then log their time against this task while working— and the whole team can see the progress in real-time. 

• Pricing 

Their monthly subscription fee includes: 

Essential: $11 monthly per user.

Professional: $28 monthly per user.

Ultimate: $39 monthly per user.

3. BaseCamp

🔥 Best for: Client communication and file organization

Basecamp is a project and communication hub that helps creative agencies organize projects on one page. Each project has its own space, with discussions, files, and schedules grouped together.

• Client Dashboard 

BaseCamp brings every task, project, and discussion to one page. When you log in, the software provides a homepage that displays your recent activities on all your projects. 

For each project, Basecamp organizes everything into: 

• To-Dos 
• Message Board
• Card Table
• Docs and Files
• Campfire (group chat)
• Automatic check-ins.

It looks like this: 

Basecamp communicates with your team easily. It shows you recent messages that your client left, new file uploads you need to send, and upcoming deadlines you shouldn't miss. 

When your clients log in, they'll see a dashboard that your team also sees— depending on the items you have made visible for them. All items on the dashboard are private, so you'll need to set the permission for what your clients will see. 

• Design Feature 

Basecamp has minimal design features. It offers basic file storage and preview capabilities for design files. You can formally upload and preview common design files, but there's no particular design collaboration feature. 

• Collaboration 

The core of Basecamp is its message boards and group chats— Basecamp calls it Campfire. 

You can organize longer discussions like project updates and creative briefs under Message boards and have quick team conversations on group chats like this one: 

You can also invite your clients to the discussion. Basecamp allows an All-access permission for anyone in your BaseCamp account to see and join projects. 

• Pricing 

• $15 monthly per user.
• $349 monthly for unlimited users.

4. Monday.com

🔥 Best for: End-to-end agency management 

Monday.com is a task management platform that uses visual workflows and customizable boards to help agencies organize work and collaborate with clients.

• Client Dashboard

Monday.com uses a guest-access system to share boards with clients. The highlight of this system is that clients can only see boards you've specifically shared with them. 

You control what each client can view, so you can keep your workspace private while giving your client a clear view of the project's progress.  

There's also a form-based feature where you can share custom forms with your clients via email. When clients submit their requests through these forms, they automatically turn into tasks in your workspace. 

• Design Features

You can access different templates for design projects on Monday.com— there's even a creative process template. These templates have different views, including Kanban, Calendar, and files to help you organize your work. 

While it has no annotation feature, like ManyRequests, you can still communicate and review files with clients through the Monday.com dashboard. 

• Collaboration Features

You can share real-time updates with your team. When someone comments on a design or updates a task, they can notify other team members through @mentions. 

You can also set up workflows that automatically move projects forward from one stage to the next, like in-design to approved, but this only works in the higher-tiered subscription. 

• Pricing

• Basic plan: $12 per user/ monthly 
• Standard: $14 per user /monthly 
• Pro: $24 per user/ monthly 
• Enterprise: custom pricing. 

5. ClickUp

🔥 Best for: Project management for creative agencies 

ClickUp is a project management platform that helps agencies better organize tasks and collaborate with their teams.  

ClickUp does not have a customizable client portal like ManyRequests does, but it has features that agencies can use to create client-facing dashboards to manage their team and clients.   

Here's how: 

• Client dashboard

ClickUp uses a customizable dashboard system that lets you build workspaces for your clients with widgets and cards. 

Your team can display tasks, timelines, and project status updates on this dashboard for your clients to see. But clients would need to create their own ClickUp account and join the dashboard as guests with restricted access to areas you want to share with them only. 

• Design Features 

ClickUp has AI tools that help designers work faster. Your design team can use AI on ClickUp to create design personas, user journeys, and creative briefs. The AI is built in, so they don't have to leave the platform to use it. 

There's also a markup feature to get feedback on designs. Your team can upload a design for clients or other team members to add notes and leave comments on it. 

When someone leaves a comment, you can turn that comment into a task, and if you use Figma or Invision for your design work, your files show up automatically on ClickUp. 

• Collaboration Features

ClickUp uses real-time messaging for team communication. Team members can work directly on relevant tasks and track project progress together. 

Your team can also create custom forms to gather client information and feedback— this information is usually in one place. 

You can also build different workspaces for different clients. Each of these workspaces has different views and systems, but it's important to onboard your clients so they know how to navigate these workspaces. 

• Pricing 

Free Forever for personal use: $0.

Unlimited for small teams: $10 monthly per user.

Business for a mid-sized team: $19 monthly per user.

Enterprise for large teams: custom price 

Frequently Asked Questions

Are client dashboards customizable to fit specific agency needs?

Most client dashboards are customizable. You can choose which data to show, how to display it and adjust the layout to match your agency's workflow and what your clients need to see.

What are productivity tools with client dashboards?

Productivity tools with client dashboards are software platforms that do two major things: they let agencies manage their internal work and give clients their own space to check project updates. 

Why do creative agencies need client dashboard tools?

Creative agencies need client dashboard tools to show clients their work progress without sending and receiving too many emails. 

Which features should I look for in a client dashboard tool?

Prioritize task status updates, file sharing and storage, time tracking, feedback collection, design, task management, and team collaboration features. You should also choose a dashboard that your clients can easily understand. 

Conclusion

You need two things to function better as an agency: a project management tool and a client-facing dashboard. The ideal productivity software should help you manage all projects and communicate with clients faster. 

At least, they should be able to see active projects, project statuses, give feedback and easily approve each deliverable. 

ManyRequests is an all-in-one software with client portal and project management features. It helps you assign tasks to each team member, see progress status and carry the client along throughout the project lifecycle. Sign up for a 14-day free trial run (no credit card needed) to see how ManyRequests works. 

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