Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for digital marketing agencies.
A checklist built from how digital marketing agencies work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Retainer and scope tracker
- Content calendar with approvals
- Timesheets by client
- Card spend recharge ledger
- Monthly report builder
- Renewals and account health
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For agency founders
- For account managers
- For designers and writers
- For media buyers
- For the finance person
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Retainers live, paused and ended by client
- Deliverables promised and delivered in the cycle
- Drafts waiting for client approval, by age
- Hours logged by person and by account
- Invoices raised, receipts and pending amounts
- Calendar items published late by channel
- Freelancer and vendor amounts payable
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS and email
- Payment links and gateway
- Google Drive or Dropbox file links
- Spreadsheet or CSV import of channel figures from Google Ads, Meta or Google Analytics
- Accounting package export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it show what a client was promised this month?
- Can the team update tasks and log hours from a phone?
- How are revision rounds counted?
- Will the team have to fill timesheets?
- Will numbers come from Google Ads or Meta directly?
- Can ad budgets handled for clients be tracked?
- Does it raise the monthly tax invoice?
- Can a client log in to approve work?
- Can freelancers be given access?
- What does it cost?
- How long before retainers are running through it?
- What should account managers pull together?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Scope creep goes unbilled
- Approvals are buried in chat
- Card recharges go missing
- Reports take the first week
Prefer to talk it through? See the digital marketing agencies page.