Solutions · Agencies & services firms
Forecasting that speaks agency.
Retainers, media commission, pass-throughs, utilization, and project margin from real timesheets. The IVOS models agency economics natively and helps answer the questions that actually run the business.
Revenue models
Six ways agencies bill. All first-class.
Gross billings and net agency revenue are separated at the contract level, amendments and milestones are tracked through the lifecycle, and recognition follows ASC 606 / IFRS 15.
Monthly recurring AOR and retained relationships — the backbone of agency revenue, modeled as recurring commitments.
Revenue as a % of client media spend, with media and production pass-throughs separated from net revenue so margin is never distorted by pass-through dollars.
Hourly project billing driven by rate cards and actual hours — with realization (bill rate vs. cost rate) computed, not assumed.
SOW work recognized on completion %. Project overruns show up as margin-eroding instead of being smeared across the book.
Outcome and incentive fees, probability-weighted so the forecast reflects what you'll actually collect.
Composite contracts — retainer + media + performance — modeled per obligation, with ASC 606 / IFRS 15 recognition.
An agency month in IVOS
From timesheets to board pack — one governed loop.
Here's how a 120-person agency runs its month: actuals land, the book of business is planned, the base forecast locks, the risks get stressed, and the leadership gets a defensible story.
Ingest the month
API connections for data ingestion and AI flags anomalies — outliers, sign-flips and duplicates before they pollute the forecast.
Plan the book of business
Contracts by revenue model, rate cards with loaded cost (salary + benefits + delivery overhead), and a workforce pyramid with utilization targets and hiring pipeline.
Compute the locked base
Net revenue → delivery cost → gross margin → SG&A → EBITDA, down to a 13-week cash view with weeks of runway.
Stress the risks that keep you up
Delta-only scenarios against the locked base. Lose the top client, rates compress 4%, the pitch lands.
Communicate the story
Four-factor variance decomposition (volume, rate, utilization, mix) explains why numbers moved. Audience-tailored narratives — CFO, CEO, COO, Board — export straight to a PPTX board pack with charts and KPIs.
Every scenario is a controlled set of assumption deltas against the locked base — comparable, attributable, and reversible.
“What assumptions get me to $5M EBITDA?” · “Grow revenue $2M without hiring more than 5 people.”
AI-generated scenarios propose specific assumption deltas for review and application. Nothing changes without your approval.
Built for the operating reality
The visibility agencies lack.
Project margin from timesheets
Per-project direct cost and over-serviced retainers and overrunning SOWs surface immediately.
Utilization & the staffing pyramid
Headcount progression, attrition, and understaffing risk flagged before they bite.
Client concentration risk
Largest-client % of revenue tracked as a first-class KPI.
13-week cash forecast
Weekly ending cash with DSO/DPO working-capital bridge, shortfall flags, funding gap, and weeks of runway.
Grounded AI narratives
Variance commentary and board narratives generated from computed figures with deterministic fallback.
Governance built in
Draft → Review → Locked approval workflow and immutable locked forecasts.
Always-on KPIs
30+ metrics your operators already argue about.
Utilization, realization, effective bill rate, revenue per billable head, gross and EBITDA margin, DSO drift, cash runway, client concentration, capacity gap — computed from the same governed model, so everyone discusses the same numbers.
Utilization tracked against target, by practice and level
Rolling cash view with runway and liquidity risk score
Variance factors — volume, rate, utilization, mix — explaining every move
Board pack export with narratives, charts, and KPI matrix
Run next month's close through IVOS.
Bring one entity, one planning cycle, and your real timesheets — we'll show you the margin picture your spreadsheets can't.