Accountants for PR Agencies.
Retainers, project work, freelance contributors and client disbursements. PR agencies mix several revenue and cost models at once. We keep all of it clear.
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We know how PR agencies run.
Most accountants treat every business the same. We work only with agencies, so we already understand your model before you explain it.
Disbursements and recharges muddy the books.
Expenses paid on behalf of clients then recharged can distort revenue and VAT. We handle them properly so your margin is accurate.
Retainer and project income side by side.
Two models, two cash patterns. We forecast both so you can plan hiring and tax with confidence.
Freelance contributors and contractor admin.
Journalists, consultants and specialists on a project basis. We keep payments and IR35 clean so you can bring people in without the headache.
Why PR 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 PR 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, PR 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 PR agencies ask us.
What is a typical PR retainer fee in the UK?
There is no single going rate: monthly retainers run from around a thousand pounds for a narrow local programme to five figures for specialist B2B or financial PR, driven mostly by the seniority of the people on the account. The more useful discipline is pricing from your own numbers: cost the hours and people a client actually needs, add the margin the agency has to make, and check every retainer against that at least yearly. Underpriced legacy retainers are the most common leak in PR agency accounts.
How should a PR agency handle client disbursements for VAT?
A true disbursement, where you paid a cost purely as your client's agent, in their name, and pass on the exact amount, can go through outside the scope of VAT. Most of what PR agencies recharge does not qualify: media monitoring, travel, event costs and wire distribution bought in the agency's name are your costs, so you rebill them with 20% VAT on top even if the original supplier charged none. Getting this wrong in bulk is one of the most common VAT errors found in agencies.
Should recharged costs count in my PR agency's revenue?
Keep them in their own income and cost codes and strip them out before you judge the business, because recharges add pounds to turnover but almost nothing to profit. What matters is fee income, the retainer and project fees you keep, with margin measured against that. An agency doing £600,000 of fees and £150,000 of recharges is a £600,000 agency.
How do I stop retainer clients becoming unprofitable through scope creep?
Cost each account a few times a year: the hours actually going in at real salary costs against the retainer coming out. PR scope creeps in small favours, the extra press trip, the crisis weekend, the monthly report that became weekly, and none of it shows until you run the numbers per client. When an account drops below your margin floor, reprice it or reshape the scope; carrying it silently means your best clients are paying for it.
Do freelance PR consultants and journalists need to go on my payroll?
Not if they are genuinely in business for themselves: multiple clients, their own kit, control over how they deliver, paid on invoice per project. The risk is the long-running freelancer who works set days each week under your direction for years, because HMRC can reclassify that as employment and the back taxes land on the agency. Match the paperwork to reality, and review anyone who has quietly become a fixture.
We specialise across agency types.
Accountants who get
PR 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“I've been able to spend more on growing my business as a result of investing in Sidekick. Highly recommend to every agency owner that feels like they could be losing money but don't know where. We've scaled from $300k to $500k MRR while working with Rayhaan.”