ERP for Creative Agencies | CanTicket
Creative Agency ERP

Creative Agency ERP: Track Projects, Protect Margins

CanTicket keeps creative agencies profitable by connecting briefs, budgets, time and invoicing in one place with Xero sync built in.

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Xero Compatible Native two-way integration
100%
Projects visible in one view
$18k
Avg annual invoice leakage recovered
28 days
To a profitable workflow with CanTicket
6 hrs
Saved per week on admin
The Problem

Why Businesses Like Yours Struggle With This

Running your business on disconnected tools creates gaps that cost real money. Here is what we hear from businesses before they switch to CanTicket.

Creative Project Tracking

Creative projects are notoriously hard to scope and track. Briefs evolve, revisions multiply and the original estimate bears little resemblance to what actually gets delivered. Without a system that captures every revision and every hour against the original budget, creative agencies routinely undercharge for their work and overspend their capacity on unprofitable clients.

Brief-to-Invoice Workflow

The journey from a creative brief to a final invoice involves too many manual steps in most agencies. Someone takes a brief, someone else scopes it, a project manager tracks delivery, an account manager reviews hours and finally someone reconciles it all before creating an invoice in Xero. CanTicket connects every step of that workflow so nothing falls through the cracks.

Time Tracking Adoption

Getting creative team members to log their time accurately is a perennial agency challenge. When the time tracking tool is separate from the project management tool, adoption rates are low and the data is incomplete. CanTicket integrates time logging directly into the project workflow so it feels natural rather than like extra admin work.

Features

Everything You Need, Nothing You Don't

CanTicket is purpose-built for service businesses that need real-time visibility without enterprise complexity or price tags.

Project Timeline View

Every creative project has a visual timeline showing milestones, deliverables and deadlines. Team members see what is due when, and project managers see the whole portfolio at a glance. No more chasing status updates in Slack or scrolling through email threads to find out where a job is up to.

Brief-to-Invoice Automation

CanTicket takes a creative brief from initial scope through delivery to invoicing without any manual reconciliation. Costs and time logged during delivery automatically populate the invoice so your account managers spend minutes on billing rather than hours.

Simple Time Logging

CanTicket makes time logging frictionless for creative teams. Team members log time directly against jobs from any device with a simple one-tap timer or manual entry. The data flows immediately into job costs and margin calculations without any manual reconciliation.

Xero Native Sync

CanTicket and Xero stay in continuous sync. Client records, invoice drafts, payment status and financial data move between the two systems automatically. Your accountant works in Xero, your creative team works in CanTicket, and everyone always has accurate information.

Xero Certified Integration

Creative Work Delivered in CanTicket, Accounted for in Xero

CanTicket handles the operational side of your creative agency while Xero handles the accounting. When a job closes in CanTicket, the invoice data flows to Xero automatically. Payment terms, tax codes and client details are pulled from Xero so your invoices are always accurate and compliant. Your accountant never needs to touch CanTicket and your creative team never needs to log into Xero.

  • Creative project invoices sync from CanTicket to Xero automatically on approval
  • Client and contact records maintained in sync across both platforms
  • Supplier costs and contractor invoices tracked in CanTicket and reconciled in Xero
  • Payment notifications from Xero update job status in CanTicket instantly
  • Financial reports for your accountant available directly from Xero with CanTicket data

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do creative agencies need ERP software specifically?
Creative agencies face a unique set of financial management challenges: projects are hard to scope, revisions multiply unpredictably, and time is the primary cost driver. Standard project management tools handle tasks but not financial outcomes. CanTicket is built for creative agencies because it connects briefs, budgets, time and invoicing in one workflow, giving principals visibility into which clients and projects are actually profitable.
How does CanTicket handle creative revisions and change requests?
CanTicket lets you log revisions against the original brief as either included-in-scope work or billable variations. When a client requests a revision round that falls outside the agreed scope, you create a variation in CanTicket with the estimated hours and agreed value. This keeps the original project clean and gives you an audit trail of every scope addition that can be used to support a billing conversation.
Can CanTicket track time for hourly-rate and fixed-price projects?
Yes. CanTicket supports both hourly billing and fixed-price project models, and many agencies run both simultaneously. For hourly projects, time logged by the team is converted to a billable amount at the agreed rate. For fixed-price projects, time is tracked for internal visibility and margin calculation even though the client is billed a fixed amount. The comparison of fixed price vs actual cost is where CanTicket reveals the true profitability of fixed-price creative work.
Does CanTicket work for small creative studios as well as larger agencies?
CanTicket is designed for creative businesses with between three and fifty team members, which covers most creative studios and independent agencies. There is no minimum seat requirement and the platform scales as your team grows. Small studios often find CanTicket particularly valuable because it replaces multiple disparate tools with a single platform, reducing both software costs and administrative overhead.
How does CanTicket improve invoicing speed for creative agencies?
Most creative agencies that switch to CanTicket reduce their invoicing time by more than 60%. Because all job costs, time and billing milestones are tracked in CanTicket throughout the project, generating an invoice at the end is a matter of reviewing and approving data that is already in the system rather than manually assembling it from multiple sources. The invoice is then pushed to Xero in one click, ready to send to the client.

Protect Your Creative Agency's Margins

Book a free demo and see how CanTicket connects your creative project workflow to Xero-powered accounting in one platform.

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Related Resources

ERP for AgenciesERP for Marketing AgenciesJob Costing SoftwareReal-Time Margin TrackingXero ERP Integration