Harbour & Co. Creative

The Challenge

1. Revenue tracked in total with no client-level P&L — no way to see which relationships were profitable

2. Contractor costs not allocated to specific clients, making true margin invisible

3. Three retainer clients had not been repriced in 18 months despite scope expanding significantly

4. Overhead growing month over month with no clear cause identified in the books

The PrecisionPenny Solution

Harbour & Co. partnered with PrecisionPenny to restructure their chart of accounts and introduce client-level financial reporting. Within two billing cycles, the agency had a clear view of effective margin on every retainer — and the data to make decisions they had previously been making blind. PrecisionPenny:

1. Restructured QuickBooks chart of accounts for client-level revenue and direct cost tracking

2. Allocated contractor costs to specific client projects each month

3. Produced a monthly P&L per client alongside the consolidated agency P&L

4. Introduced overhead tracking by category with month-over-month variance reporting

5. Added cash flow statements to separate project revenue timing from actual receipts in the bank

Key Outcomes

Client Profitability Revealed: Client-level reporting identified three retainer relationships running at margins 20–30% below agency average — all three had been onboarded at rates that no longer reflected actual scope.

Repricing Executed: Armed with real numbers, five retainer clients were repriced over two quarters. One client declined and churned — which turned out to be the highest-impact outcome, as that client had been the lowest-margin relationship in the book.

Overhead Identified: Month-over-month overhead tracking identified $1,800/month in software subscriptions and tools that had accumulated without review — more than half were cancelled or consolidated.

CPA Savings: The first clean year-end delivered to the CPA resulted in a $600 reduction in tax preparation fees compared to the prior year.

Future Action Plan

1. Introduce quarterly margin reviews for every retainer client as a standard business practice

2. Build a minimum margin threshold into the new client proposal process

3. Track contractor utilization by client to identify scope creep before it impacts profitability