Accountants for PPC Agencies.
Large media budgets running through your accounts, performance-based fees, tight margins on management. PPC agencies carry serious cash flow risk. We help you manage it.
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We know how PPC agencies run.
Most accountants treat every business the same. We work only with agencies, so we already understand your model before you explain it.
Client media spend dwarfs your fees.
Hundreds of thousands in ad spend can flow through your books. We separate it cleanly so your real revenue and margin are never hidden behind the budgets.
Cash flow risk when you fund spend.
If you pay the platforms before clients pay you, timing can break the business. We forecast it carefully so you are never exposed.
Performance fees and revenue recognition.
Management fees, performance bonuses, different terms per client. We get the recognition right so your numbers hold up.
Why PPC 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 PPC 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, PPC 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 PPC agencies ask us.
Should PPC clients pay the ad platforms directly, or should the agency pay and recharge?
For most PPC agencies, clients paying the platforms directly is the safer model: your turnover stays clean fee income, you never fund a client's campaign from your own cash, and a late payer cannot leave you covering their Google bill. Recharging media suits agencies with the working capital and credit control to handle it, and some clients simply want one invoice. If you recharge, take the media money up front, without exception.
Do I charge VAT when I recharge ad spend to clients?
Almost always yes. If you buy the media in the agency's name and rebill it, that is your supply, so you add 20% VAT on the recharge even where the platform charged you no UK VAT, and your business clients reclaim it. The narrow disbursement exemption only applies where you paid purely as the client's agent, in their name, passing on the exact amount, which is rarely how platform billing actually works.
How do I protect cash flow when I pay platforms before the client pays me?
Close the funding gap from both ends: bill media in advance on direct debit, and set a hard credit limit per client so one slow payer cannot take the agency down. Then watch the exposure number weekly, meaning media you have committed to platforms minus media cash already received from clients. At serious spend levels, a few days of timing slippage is a bigger risk to a PPC agency than any tax bill.
How should performance fees and bonuses be recognised in my accounts?
Recognise them in the period you earn them under the contract, once the result is measurable, not when the client eventually approves and pays. If a bonus depends on quarterly targets, accrue it as the quarter's data confirms it. Done consistently, your monthly numbers reflect real performance, which is exactly what you need when income already swings with results.
What is a healthy profit margin for a PPC agency?
Measure it on your management fees with media stripped out of both revenue and costs; an agency with £2m of billings and £1.7m of media inside them is a £300,000 agency. On that fee income, a lean team should hold a gross margin of 70% or better and a fully salaried team 55 to 60%, with net margin after a market salary for the owner ideally 15% or more. Margins measured on billings will always look thin and tell you nothing.
We specialise across agency types.
Accountants who get
PPC 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“The support received has been invaluable for the business. Rayhaan has helped us to build a robust financial plan which has unlocked new revenue sources.”
