ManyRequests is a client portal and client requests management software for creative services.
Let's call this agency owner David. David does 400k/y, has 6 staff, 100 clients, and has built over 500 websites.
Some clients pay hourly, so he tracks time through a spreadsheet and, sometimes, “basic tracking in WHMCS,” which you know is extremely difficult and unscalable.
He can use any creative agency tool, but not all tools support hourly, fixed retainer projects or the best of both worlds. Not all project management tools are designed for agency owners, or, as someone said about Harvest, “It's just more difficult (to manage) as the (agency) operation becomes more complex.”
You need retainer management software to automate client billing, interact better, and manage all projects. In this article, I evaluate 6 creative agency tools for their ability to
- Automate recurring client work and billing,
- Provide branded client experiences,
- Track time and budget,
- Support creative workflows and
- Help with profitability analysis.
6 Retainer Management Software for Creative Agencies
A retainer management software helps you work with your clients without any complex setup that might affect the ease of working with clients. This helps you organize contract details, client projects, and every other information that forms the basis of your relationship. The following are 6 creative agency tools that can help you work better with retainer clients:
1. ManyRequests
ManyRequests is the first retainer management software on this list because of its simple CRM, project management, and invoicing & billing features embedded in one platform. It helps you improve how you manage client relationships through a white-label client portal, the client self-service feature, and a simple project management system. Here's how:
1. White-Label Client Portal
ManyRequests treat your clients like a part of your team. It lets you use your domain, logo, colors, and custom tabs to interact with them in the same portal where you'd interact with team members. Here’s an example from our client, Prontto:
This helps you onboard clients, show a video of your operations, and highlight your services so they can subscribe. The onboarding process goes like this:
- Clients show interest in your services, and you probably discuss how you can help.
- Send clients an email invite link (or a link to your portal).
- Clients create their login details.
- On the first login, clients see a welcome video, a quick portal tour, and information about your agency operations like 55Knots did here:
- Add a live chat button so they can ask you anything at any time.
- Clients can check your service catalog and make their first purchase. Each purchase/request is automatically converted into a task box so you can assign it to someone immediately. This makes it easy to create services and manage retainers and projects.
ManyRequests also has an “impersonate” feature to see what your clients, team members, or other admins see. This helps while setting access permissions for everyone in your portal.
For example, rather than duplicate the task box whenever your clients make a task request, set permissions to disallow your clients from seeing who a task is assigned to.
In the screenshot below, my clients can't “see requests assignment info,” which means they can’t see the assignee in charge of their task requests. But they can see the request status and its due date.
If you want to be sure that your permissions are in effect, use the Impersonate feature to see what they can and can’t see. It’s more like signing in as your client without actually doing that.
You can also package and sell your services through the retainer management software. I showed a service catalog three pictures ago. You can create add-ons and discount coupons to give clients an e-commerce feel to your agency's business model.
Clients can subscribe to any of your services and be automatically billed based on your contract. This feature is great for hourly, weekly, monthly, or project-based retainer services— depending on your agreement.
You can embed the service links on your website as Teamtown does, so any purchases from your website are reflected directly in your portal.
🔥 Tip: Use our client retainer agreement template to form yours.
You can also use it to set your payment structure and update this structure on ManyRequests through the Service payment structure.
🔥 Tip: read this client communication strategy to see how 55Knots properly onboard clients and make them a valuable part of their agency.
2. Project Management
ManyRequests helps you quickly assign work to team members and attach a detailed brief from Google Docs or share a file. You can use the order form to get detailed briefs or via client calls.
This creative agency tool also lets you monitor hours spent on each task to know how profitable each project is and pay your team (if you pay hourly). If you bill your clients hourly, use the start and stop feature to capture billable hours and bill for them.
Use the design markup feature to collect precise feedback from clients. Instead of trying to understand vague client feedback like "make it pop," this feature allows clients to directly leave numbered, specific comments on designs. For example, "1. Increase font size here," "2. Change this icon to match our brand guidelines." This precision — like the one below — reduces revision cycles and ensures client satisfaction:
Finally, use a single dashboard to see all active tasks, their deadlines, assignees, and task statuses.
3. Billing and Payment
ManyRequests generates invoices after completing a task, so you don’t have to manually write or send invoices. It also sends payment reminders to clients for overdue invoices.
Clients can make payments through the portal with a checkout page that looks like this:
The money is deposited into your account through Stripe integration, so you don’t need a separate billing system.
You can also use the Reporting feature to see your most profitable services or highest-value clients. This helps you know which services to promote better and which client segments are most profitable for your agency’s growth.
If you need more automation to set triggers like “when this happens…do this”, use our integration with Zapier for customizations documented here.
Other benefits of using ManyRequests include:
- Multi-language support for international clients,
- Automated client onboarding,
- Custom modules through API access,
- Built-in video call capabilities.
2. Accelo
Accelo is a retainer management software that helps you manage and retain client work. It has a CRM, project management, and invoicing feature to keep client data, work on their projects, and generate invoices for completed work. Here’s a brief overview of its features:
1. Client Portal
The client-facing portal lets your clients view project proposals and quotes, approve tasks, and see all invoices. Clients can also see all active projects, project statuses, how you manage the budget, and approve anything that needs their signoff.
Accelo also lets you choose how to bill each client. You can set weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual billing cycles. You can bill clients before work starts or after completion or receive partial payments upfront for large projects, just like with ManyRequests. It all depends on your contractual terms.
2. Task Management
You can use the Tasks button to create new tasks, assign them to a team member, and set statuses as the project progresses. You can also create task templates for recurring services, trigger them after specific activities are met (or on specific dates), and use the task dependency feature to identify linked tasks to decide what to prioritize.
3. Billing and Payment
Accelo generates invoices from tracked time or completed tasks and sends automated reminders to clients for late payments. You can receive payments through ACH transfers, PayPal, or card payments (with a 3% payment fee on the latter).
However, Accelo isn't a full white-label client portal, so it doesn't function like ManyRequests. It doesn't have a markup feature, in-app client messaging with clients except through an email, or the self-service feature you may need to fast-track your operations.
3. Zoho
Zoho is on this list because of its retainer management software features, especially in billing and project management. It provides CRM, invoicing and billing, project management, and client portal features through its Zoho One ecosystem integration. Some of its features include:
1. Client portal:
The client portal is for financial transactions. Your clients can access project proposals, quotes, subscriptions, invoices, active projects, and timesheets. While functional, it doesn't have white-label or messaging features to help you communicate better with clients as work continues.
2. Project Management Feature
Zoho project management tool helps you create tasks with essential task management solutions. You can assign the task to a team member, see progress statuses, track billable hours, and share final deliverables with clients outside Zoho.
Tip: Read this guide on billable vs. non-billable hours to improve your agency’s profit.
3. Billing and Payment
You can use the Zoho Books integration to create invoices based on your completed work. You can also use it to break down the payment structure for your retainer service, say 50% in advance or bi-weekly payment. Here’s what an invoice looks like:
While Zoho is great, the client portal feature primarily handles invoices and oversees active projects. It doesn’t help your clients collaborate on projects, nor does it help them create tasks when they need your service. Also, Zoho project management is different from the Zoho invoicing tool, so you need separate subscriptions to integrate both features while using the Zoho ecosystem.
4. Scoro
Scoro is a retainer management software that can help you track conversations with a client from the pitching period till you land the client and submit the first deliverable. It also gives you visibility into your time, budget spend, and revenue to maintain healthy client relationships and know your profit. Some of its features include:
1. Client Portal & Contract Setup
Scoro does not have a dedicated client portal, but it has a customizable quote system where you can show clients project proposals. This helps you to create custom proposals per clients, manage retainers, and set billing from the getgo:
Immediately after your client confirms a Quote, you can turn it into a task.
The creating quote phase lets you set up recurring projects with predefined budgets and tasks. Once accepted by your client, the task management feature manages operations.
2. Task Management
Scoro's task management system allows you to create, assign, and track tasks within projects. You can create new tasks or projects from the project proposal dashboard.
Here, you can use the Gantt Chart to divide a project into multiple tasks, assign tasks, and set deadlines based on the availability of your team members. This creative agency tool also lets you create task dependencies and prioritize work based on their importance.
Since every project has a budget attached, you can compare estimated costs and actual costs using the project information section in every project. This is quickly done if your assignees use the time-tracking tool to clock their times in and out.
3. Billing and Payment
Scoro lets you convert quotes and completed tasks into invoices. You can also use its embedded payment feature to accept payments without using third-party tools.
However, Scoro does not have design proofing or markup features. While clients can log into the app to confirm quotes or project proposals, it doesn’t have the self-service feature that allows clients to make specific requests based on your agency’s service catalog. Also, the user interface may seem imposing and could take time for the team to learn and set up.
5. Teamwork
Teamwork is another retainer management software that can help agencies control budgets and monitor project statuses. It has a real-time budget monitoring feature and automates administrative tasks to help you achieve profitable client relationships. Some of its features are:
1. Client Portal & Contract Setup
Teamwork has a customer portal where you can share specific project details with clients and set permission levels based on what you want them to see. However, clients can’t request tasks; they can only see project status, communicate with you, and see updates as they happen.
The customer portal also lets you create retainer agreements, set budgets for each project, and use other features to track spending.
2. Task Management
Teamwork's task management system lets you easily create, assign, and track tasks. You can also create task dependencies to filter through priorities. Aside from this, you can use the time tracking feature to log active work hours and the resource management feature to see team capacity and assign tasks based on their workload.
3. Billing and Payment
Teamwork is great at managing complex budget setups in your retainer agreement. You can roll over unused budget to future billing periods or distribute overspending across multiple timeframes as seen here:
You can also automate budget decisions with Teamwork and see how money is spent every step of the way. This gives you clear reports on retainer performance and helps re-align how you allocate money.
However, it doesn't have a markup tool besides the essential markdown tool in its Notes. This means you may not get nuanced design feedback as you would using ManyRequests’ markup tool.
6. Forecast
Forecast is an AI-driven retainer management software that merges project tracking and billing in one app. It helps you visualize retainer periods, automate financial tasks, and optimize resource allocation. Here’s how the creative agency tool works:
1. Client Portal & Contract Setup
Forecast does not have a dedicated client portal or extensive white-labeling options. However, you can customize all retainer projects from beginning to end. You can set up retainer projects, specify how long it’ll last based on the contracts, write the client’s fees, track actual costs against this fee, and compare the costs across different periods.
You can also use the Forecat app to see a visual timeline of each retainer period's start and end date, a dashboard showing all active contracts, and a breakdown of the hours spent on each project. This gives a nuanced understanding of everything that’s happening in your agency.
2. Task Management
Forecast uses AI and historical data to estimate how long tasks might take your team member to finish. This can help predict delivery dates and plan capacity based on workload.
It also has features to help you divide retainer periods into milestones and tasks, so everything happens in segments, depending on your services. Like other creative agency tools, it has a time-tracking feature to see active working hours and generate invoices or pay your team members based on hours worked.
3. Billing and Payment
Forecast automates retainer billing based on logged timesheets. This helps you create automatic invoices and completely understand your overall revenue. It also helps you predict when you might be at risk of losing money based on the budget set for each project through its alerts and monitoring features.
However, setting up and customizing your agency’s specific workflow takes time. Also, although it has many features to play around with, it doesn’t have a markup feature to get precise client feedback for specific design-related tasks.
Conclusion
Based on this review of 6 creative agency tools, here are my recommendations with reasons:
One, choose ManyRequests if your agency sells its services in a productized and packaged way. You'll get a client portal under your domain name, create service packages clients can buy directly, and use the design annotation tool for precise feedback. Your clients can track their retainer hours, send direct messages, approve work, and request new work all in one branded space. ManyRequests combines Slack, Clockify, Asana, QuickBooks, and email into one platform.
Two, choose Forecast if you want its AI features to predict how long a task will take to complete, divide retainers into milestones, or use AI in the project management process.
Third, choose Zoho if you want a specialized retainer billing structure. You'll connect retainer payments directly to your accounting integration, track time using Zoho Projects, and create a basic client-facing interface so clients can view and pay invoices. This works when retainer management is just part of your broader business needs.
Whatever your choices are, there's only one way to know if it's the best choice. Try ManyRequests for 14 days, without paying a dollar, to see if it's what you need— no credit card is required. Sign up here.
