The Best Agency Management and Time Tracking Tools

How agencies are handling the chaos – and why integration might be the missing link.

Most agencies today are juggling a stack of tools just to keep day-to-day operations ticking over. Project boards. Time trackers. Communication apps. File storage. CRMs. They each do a job – some very well – but using five or six separate platforms to run one business often leads to more confusion than clarity.

This post explores some of the most widely used tools in agency land – and why many teams are now starting to look for more integrated ways of working.

What Are Agencies Using Right Now?

Let’s be honest: no two agencies run the same tech stack. But there are familiar names cropping up time and again.

Slack

The team chat tool that needs no introduction. Quick messages, emoji replies, threads, bots – Slack is where most agency chatter lives these days.

Google Drive / Docs

Cloud-based, collaborative, and well integrated into agency workflows. Everything from creative briefs to pitch decks finds a home here.

Monday.com / Asana / Trello

Project management is often visual – and these tools make it easy to assign tasks, set deadlines, and keep a bird’s eye view on progress.

Google Calendar / Notion / Sheets

Need to track holidays, plan campaigns or map out timelines? Many agencies lean on spreadsheets, shared calendars or internal wikis to plug the gaps.

On their own, these tools are useful. Combined, they can be powerful, if used well. But when you layer in time tracking, client management, reporting, and resourcing… things get complicated fast.

The Problem with Piecing It All Together

The core issue isn’t that these tools don’t work – it’s that they weren’t really designed to work together. You end up with duplicated effort, lost context, and an ever-growing number of browser tabs.

• A task lives in one place.

• The time you spent on it lives somewhere else.

• The client’s feedback is in an email thread.

• The invoice is in an accounts system.

• The reporting is cobbled together in a spreadsheet the night before a board meeting.

Sound familiar?

This disjointed way of working can drain time, increase errors, and make it difficult for agency leaders to get a clear picture of what’s going on.

A Growing Need for Integration

There’s a quiet shift happening in agency operations. Leaders are recognising that more tools don’t equal more control – they just mean more maintenance. As a result, many are rethinking their tech stack and looking for ways to bring everything into one place.

That doesn’t mean abandoning the tools you love – Slack and Google Drive aren’t going anywhere. But it does mean choosing systems that play well with others. Or better yet, platforms that combine multiple core agency functions – project management, CRM, time tracking, and reporting –-in one place.

Is There a Better Way?

It’s no surprise that newer platforms are now emerging to address this exact issue. One such example is Wisdom – a UK-built system designed specifically for marketing, development & consultancy agencies – in particular addressing the need for effective retainer management.

Rather than being just another project management tool or a bolt-on timer, it takes a broader view of how agencies work. It brings together the essentials – tasks, time, clients, projects and reporting – under one roof, aiming to reduce friction and bring back focus.

You still get the flexibility to work your way, but with fewer tabs, fewer gaps, and a clearer picture of your business operations.

Final Thought: Focus > Friction

The best tools are the ones that stay out of the way – they support your processes without forcing you to re-learn everything. Whether you’re sticking with the apps you know or starting to explore smarter platforms, the key question is simple:

Are your tools making your agency better – or just busier?

For agencies looking to simplify operations, reduce overheads, and make better decisions based on real-time insight, it might be time to think beyond just adding another app to the stack.

Sometimes, less really is more.