You manage an agency. You manage teams, projects, clients, sales, delivery, reporting, billing… And sometimes you wonder: is all this really profitable?
The truth is, many agencies go on instinct. Or blindly. Lack of time, lack of tools, or simply lack of good indicators.
So we’ve decided to make your life easier. Here are the 11 essential KPIs to regain control of your business, ask the right questions… and get concrete, quantified, actionable answers.
Financial KPIs
1. Total sales
What you take in each month, that’s the base. But it’s only the beginning.
Rising sales are always reassuring. But beware: a single figure never tells the whole story.
What to follow:
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By month, quarter, year
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By type of offer or project
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By comparing with N-1 (to anticipate seasonal troughs)
The pitfall: resting on good sales while margins plummet. Stay clear-headed.
2. Sales per employee
A good indicator of your collective efficiency. And of your future margins.
It’s simple: if your sales don’t grow in proportion to your workforce, you dilute your profitability.
How to calculate it :
- Total sales ÷ number of productive employees
To aim for: between €100,000 and €130,000 per year per employee in an agency.
Below that? It’s time to review your pricing, your workload or your projects.
Gross margin
The figure that turns a “beautiful project” into a “real profit driver”.
It measures what you earn after paying the people who deliver the project, but before fixed costs. In short, it’s the operating margin.
Key thresholds :
- 60%: top
- 40 to 60%: correct
- <40%: caution, danger
Systematically tracked by project. It’s your best field performance radar.
Available cash
The most basic KPI… but also the most vital.
We’re talking about your real cash flow. The kind that lets you sleep soundly (or not). The kind that absorbs unforeseen events, late payments and slumps in activity.
To be continued:
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Weekly, not quarterly
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With an easy-to-read dashboard
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Projected (current cash + remaining cash – future expenses)
Tip: also monitor your WCR (working capital requirement) to anticipate future tensions.
Operational KPIs
Occupancy rate (or load)
A busy schedule, yes. But not at any price.
This KPI measures time actually sold versus time available.
Too low = under-utilization. Too high = risk of burn-out and drop in quality.
Health target: between 75% and 85%
To be monitored: by employee, by team, by week
The right reflex: cross-reference with the project margin rate. A busy employee who is poorly assigned remains unprofitable.
Profitability per customer
Because a good customer isn’t just a name on a slide.
Some customers monopolize your best talents for a meager margin. Others challenge you little but pay off handsomely.
Analyze :
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Time spent vs. sales generated
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Overall margin rate
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Cost of reminders, meetings, unforeseen events
Concrete action: categorize your customers (A-B-C) to prioritize your energy where it really pays off.
Project management KPIs
Profitability by project
Spoiler: it’s not always the most visible that pays off.
A highly visible project may require weeks of work for a modest return. Conversely, a discreet but well-defined project can be highly profitable.
Measure :
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Sales vs. actual time spent
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Cost of resources mobilized
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Variances between budget and actual
Objective: to identify champion projects… and those that should never be accepted again without reviewing their scope.
Breakdown of projects by type
An unbalanced portfolio is a house of cards.
Too many complex packages? Too many small, low-margin projects? Too many repeat business but no new customers? Analyze your mix.
Follow us :
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% recurring vs. one-shot projects
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% of fixed-price projects vs.
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% strategic vs. opportunistic customers
Why it’s key: because the stability of your agency depends as much on your projects as on your cash flow.
Remainder to be billed
All work deserves to be paid for. But you still have to bill for it.
Sometimes… too much time passes between the end of a project and the sending of an invoice. The “Remainder to be invoiced” indicator alerts you to forgotten work-in-progress.
To be followed each week:
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By customer
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By mission type
A simple reminder: an unbilled job completed = one month less cash.
Sales KPIs
Quotation conversion rate
A good way to judge your sales effectiveness – and the clarity of your offers.
Sending 10 quotes to sign a project is tiring (and worrying). A good conversion rate means a well-qualified pipeline and a proposal that hits the nail on the head.
Target: >30%
To be tracked: by sales rep, by type of offer
If you’re not there yet: re-read your proposals, adjust your targeting, or shorten your cycles.
Average selling time
How long does it take you to sign a deal? The answer can hurt a lot.
A sales cycle that takes too long ties up your sales force, undermines your forecasts and delays your collections.
To measure :
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Number of days between 1st contact and signature
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By project type
Tip: track down bottlenecks (e.g. waiting for a quote, internal validation on the customer side) and automate what can be done.
What you don't measure controls you
Don’t let yourself be led astray by impressions or approximations. The right KPIs give you the power to make informed decisions.
The trick is not to get lost. That’s why we designed Furious: a cockpit designed for agencies, enabling you to monitor all these indicators in real time… without Excel files, without re-entering data, without headaches.
Want to see what stress-free flying looks like?
Request your free demo. And take back control.
