Accountants for Creative Agencies.
Project-based income, milestone billing, work in progress and a roster of freelancers. Creative agencies have lumpy revenue that most accountants struggle to model. We do not.
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We know how creative agencies run.
Most accountants treat every business the same. We work only with agencies, so we already understand your model before you explain it.
Lumpy project revenue makes cash hard to read.
Big projects land, then quiet months follow. We forecast around your pipeline and milestones so cash never catches you out.
Work in progress and milestone billing.
Revenue earned but not yet invoiced distorts your real position. We track WIP properly so your numbers reflect the work actually done.
Freelance and contractor heavy delivery.
Designers, writers and producers in and out by project. We keep payments, IR35 and costs clean as the team flexes.
Why creative agencies
need a specialist.
A generalist keeps you compliant. A specialist makes the numbers work as hard as you do.
Proactive tax planning.
Agency income is rarely smooth. We plan ahead across the year so creative agencies are not overpaying tax or scrambling at year end.
Financial strategy that scales.
Payroll, freelancers, pricing and margin. We help you grow without the profitability quietly slipping away underneath you.
Real-time agency insight.
Monthly management accounts and fractional CFO support, so you always know your margin, your runway and your next move.
One system. Two levels. Get to the end game.
The foundation keeps your books clean, your tax planned and your numbers understood. The next level turns them into growth: sharper pricing, stronger margins, cash you can forecast. Run both, and exit planning becomes the end game: a buyer-ready business that’s yours to sell at full value. Sidekick gets you there, from day one.
The
foundation.
Bookkeeping, tax planning, accounts, VAT and management reports done properly, on time, in plain English.
The
next level.
Financial infrastructure, strategic clarity and hands-on advisory built specifically for agencies. We install the systems, deliver the insight, and stay on it.
Both levels build towards the same destination: a business that’s commercially attractive and buyer-ready, whether you sell in 1 year or 5. We help you build towards it from day one, so when the offer comes, you keep more of it.
When the numbers are clean and the strategy is right, creative agencies grow with confidence. That is the work.
Results that speak for themselves.
Here’s what changed when we built the financial layer underneath, in the numbers and in their words.
We've always got the information we need to make decisions quickly ... We've saved £10k in taxes since working with Sidekick. They're not your usual accountant.
Rayhaan is brilliant. Highly responsive & up for tackling complex challenges. We had an unreasonably tricky business model which he rose to the challenge of handling. I feel confident in our numbers with his expertise at hand.
Everybody wants clarity. My stress levels have decreased and I'm able to operate at a higher level, the biz is performing much better as a result.
See where your agency stands.
Two quick self-checks, no jargon: how you compare with the most profitable agencies, and what tax you could be leaving on the table.
Do you know your agency’s numbers?
Six lines of your monthly P&L. See how you compare with the most profitable agencies, in pounds, not percentages. Free · 90 seconds · Instant result.
How much tax is your agency overpaying?
Eight quick questions with figures you already know off the top of your head. Corporation and personal tax estimated together. Free · 90 seconds · Instant result.
What creative agencies ask us.
How do I account for a project that is only part finished at year end?
Through work in progress: you recognise the share of the project fee actually earned by year end, based on stage of completion, even if the invoice has not gone out yet. Money invoiced ahead of the work runs the other way and sits as deferred income until you deliver. Get both right and the accounts show what the agency really earned, which matters for your tax bill and for any lender or buyer reading them.
How should deposits and milestone billing be handled for VAT and tax?
VAT is due when you receive the deposit or raise the invoice, whichever comes first, so a 50% deposit taken in March carries VAT in March even if the work runs to June. For profit and corporation tax, the deposit only becomes income as you earn it, so it sits as deferred income until the work is done. Milestone billing is the right structure for big projects; just make sure the milestones front-load enough cash to fund the delivery.
How do I keep project margins visible when delivery is mostly freelancers?
Commit the freelance costs against the project the day you book them, not when the invoices arrive weeks later. Track each project as fee minus freelancers, production costs and a share of delivery salaries, and review the margin at completion against what you quoted. Agencies that skip this consistently underquote the next job, because the last one looked more profitable than it really was.
How do I manage cash through the quiet months between big projects?
Know your monthly outgoings, keep a floor of three months of true runway and treat six as the target, because that is what lets you turn down bad-fit work in a quiet spell. True runway means the bank balance minus the VAT, PAYE and corporation tax already owed, which is routinely a quarter of what you can see. Then forecast from the pipeline at honest probabilities and invoice deposits the moment a project is signed, not when it starts.
We had a big year and now face a big tax bill. What can we do?
First, know the shape of the bill: corporation tax is 19% on profits up to £50,000 and 25% from £250,000, with marginal relief in between, so a spike year can push you into a more expensive band. Employer pension contributions are one of the cleanest levers, deductible for the company with an annual allowance of up to £60,000 per person, and unused allowance from the previous three years can sometimes be carried forward. Timing helps too: bringing planned kit and committed costs forward before year end trims the taxable profit of the spike year.
We specialise across agency types.
Accountants who get
creative agencies.
We're not right for every agency, and the call is how we both find out. Pick a time and book straight into the team's calendar.
Book a call“Rayhaan and the team have made scaling my agency simple. Before working with them I never knew how much I was actually making, what my margins were or the most effective route to grow. When you're a one man band you can get away with that, but if you really want to scale your agency you need to make decisions based on data. Rayhaan and the team make that easy whilst guiding us on the best path forward.”