Work · Agency
One system for a Shopify agency of 33 people.
An operating system for Superco, a Shopify Plus agency, that runs retainers, finance, people, client reporting and company knowledge from one place.
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Retainers, money and people, tracked in spreadsheets
Before
Superco sells monthly retainers and fixed-scope projects, so it lives or dies by hours. Time was logged in Jira but tracked in Excel: a projects control workbook with a tab per client, a resourcing plan, revenue recognition and a monthly work-in-progress variance, rebuilt by hand each month. Client updates were written one email at a time, overdue invoices sat in Xero until someone looked, and renewals, reviews and holidays lived in people's heads and inboxes.
What we built
One portal that every member of staff signs in to with their Superco Google account. A retainer ledger sits at the centre and flags a project as over budget the moment its balance turns negative. Around it sit finance, with the budget compared with Xero every morning, HR, client reporting, contracts, events, a company wiki and one search across all of it. Jira and Xero stay where they are. The portal reads from them and is where people act.
[Client quote, one or two sentences.]
What the team uses every day
Retainer ledger
Hours allotted, hours worked by Jira epic and issue, the balance carried forward and any write-off, for every retainer, every month. Overruns flag themselves.
Client reports
A report for each project covering the previous, current and next sprint, invoices and retainer hours, sent from Superco's own address. It is skipped when there is nothing to report.
Budget against Xero
The year's budget compared with actuals read from Xero every morning, with variance, status and outlook for each line, and accounts with no budget line flagged.
Team plan and HR
Each person's work against their available hours, plus holidays, sickness, one-to-ones and reviews with due dates.
Contracts and client actions
A register of every contract and its renewal date. Renewals, quarterly reviews and payment chases each have an owner and a due date.
Wiki, events and search
The company wiki, events with replies and one search across people, wiki, events, clients, goals and chat.
What it replaced
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Retainer hours | A projects control workbook, a tab per client | A ledger that flags overruns automatically |
| Resourcing | A resourcing plan spreadsheet | Each person's work against their available hours |
| Budget and actuals | Monthly variance and revenue sheets | Actuals read from Xero every morning |
| Client updates | Written one email at a time | Sent from a template, and skipped when empty |
| Overdue invoices | Found when someone went looking in Xero | One report to the team, grouped by project |
| Renewals, reviews and holidays | People's heads and inboxes | An owner and a due date for each |
Who uses it and what it connects to
- People
- All 33 staff, signing in with Superco Google accounts. Sensitive actions, such as writing off hours, are limited to named people.
- Jira
- Projects, sprints and hours by epic and issue synced on a schedule. Issues that run over their estimate get a comment, at most once a day.
- Xero
- Invoices on each project with links back to Xero, overdue invoices flagged, and actuals read every morning for the budget.
- Sign-in, a Drive folder for each project, and Gmail for client reports and the overdue-invoice report.
- AI assistants
- Superco's chat assistant can look up clients and site performance through a connection to the portal.
- How it was built
- The first version was in use within weeks of starting in October 2024. Finance, HR, contracts and reporting were added in phases as the agency grew.
More work
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