Marketing & design agency software, built around E&O and multi-client / multi-brand dimension in Herald

Arkathos gives a marketing & design agency a workspace tailored to how the work actually runs — This workspace is built around juggling multiple client retainers at once — one pipeline, deliverables, proofing, and recurring billing across many brands. Arkathos tailors a marketing & design agency workspace around 6 agents: Sentinel, Treasury, Quartermaster, Scribe, Client Portal, Herald.

Compliance a marketing & design agency can't afford to miss

Watchtower tracks every license, bond, insurance policy, and continuing-education requirement for a marketing & design agency, with renewal cadences and staged reminders so nothing lapses.

• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Business entity registration + annual/biennial report, through the State Secretary of State / Division of Revenue (state business filing agency), which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a General Business License, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a DBA / Fictitious Business Name Registration, through the County Clerk, which renews every 5 years.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Local business license / business tax registration, through the City / county (local municipal business licensing or tax office), which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a AMA Professional Certified Marketer (PCM), through the American Marketing Association (AMA), which renews every 3 years.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Home Occupation Permit (home-based studio), through the Municipal Zoning Office, which has no fixed renewal cycle.
• The AMA Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) carries a continuing-education requirement of 30 hours every 36 months (30h General marketing (CEUs)).
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Sales & Use Tax Permit, through the State Dept of Revenue, which has no fixed renewal cycle.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Google Ads Certification (Skillshop), through the Google (Skillshop), which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Professional Liability (Errors & Omissions) Insurance, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a General Liability Insurance, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Meta Certified (Meta Blueprint), through the Meta (Meta Blueprint), which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Cyber Liability / Data Breach Insurance, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a HubSpot Academy Certification, through the HubSpot Academy, which renews every two years.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Professional liability / Media E&O insurance (advertising injury, errors & omissions), through the Private insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Workers' Compensation Insurance (if employees), which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a General liability insurance (includes advertising injury coverage), through the Private insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Cyber liability insurance, through the Private insurance carrier, which renews every year.
• A marketing & design agency must maintain a Workers' compensation insurance, through the Private insurance carrier / state workers' comp fund (required by state law when you have employees), which renews every year.

Everything Arkathos runs for a marketing & design agency

These are the agents set up first for a marketing & design agency — and because it's one platform, every plan includes all 16 Arkathos agents. Also included whenever you need them: Guardhouse, Courier, War Room, Armory, Marshall, Mint Warden, Vault Keeper, Watchtower, Bulletin Board.

• Sentinel — Contact & lead management, Deal / estimate pipeline, Task & follow-up tracking, SMS & email outreach, Pipeline reporting.
• Treasury — Invoicing & payment collection, Expense tracking, Accounting & bookkeeping, Business tax prep & filing, Recurring billing & subscriptions, Financial dashboards & reports.
• Quartermaster — Online booking & appointments, Calendar & availability, Events & waitlists, Automated reminders, Job dispatch & scheduling.
• Scribe — Document & contract templates, E-signature, Proposal & form builder, PDF / Word export.
• Client Portal — Branded client login portal, Project & status sharing, Invoice viewing & payment, Approvals & intake forms.
• Herald — SEO & get-found content, Social media scheduling, Email & newsletter campaigns, Brand voice & content studio, Review & reputation growth, AI-overview & directory visibility.

Your tailored marketing & design agency workspace

These are net-new, marketing & design agency-specific capabilities — not a generic CRM bolted onto your industry.

• Multi-client / multi-brand dimension in Herald (Herald): Thread a client/brand selector through Herald: per-client brand voice, separately-connected social accounts, isolated approval queues, and per-client analytics/reporting so one agency seat manages N brands without cross-contamination. This is the core agency model change Herald lacks today (it assumes a single brand).
• Retainer / recurring-billing engine (Treasury): Monthly retainer invoices, hour-bank/scope draw-down per client, scope-overage alerts, dunning, and MRR roll-up. Treasury only cuts one-off invoices today; agencies bill the same fee every month and need automatic recurring runs.
• Client-scoped project/job container (Sentinel): A project object tying client → deliverables → budget → time entries → invoices, so every retainer or one-off has a single home. Reuse the dispatch_jobs base; surface in Sentinel as the work container under each contact.
• Versioned proofing & approval rounds (Client Portal): Per-client portal upload of creative versions, threaded comments, round-by-round approval sign-off, and an access audit log. Reuse the tokenized media-sanitizer pipeline; gates deliverable acceptance before invoicing.
• Billable time → draft invoice (Treasury): Per-project timer with budget burn-down that rolls logged hours into a draft invoice line; needed for any T&M or overage-on-retainer work.

The agents and tabs you get

Sentinel for a marketing & design agency surfaces Overview, Contacts, Tasks, Chat. Treasury for a marketing & design agency surfaces Financial sheet, Invoices, Pipeline, Draft estimate, Chat. Quartermaster for a marketing & design agency surfaces Calendar, Bookings, Availability, Chat. Scribe for a marketing & design agency surfaces Documents, Templates, Tasks, Chat. Client Portal for a marketing & design agency surfaces Intakes, Routing, Settings, Chat. Herald for a marketing & design agency surfaces Brand voice, Compose, Approvals, Schedule, Analytics, ✦Studio, Chat.

Frequently asked questions

best software for a marketing and design agency

Most agencies stack a project manager (Wrike, Asana), a CRM, a reporting tool (AgencyAnalytics), and design apps (Figma, Canva). All-in-one platforms like Arkathos fold CRM, scheduling, invoicing, payroll and marketing into one flat-priced system.

do i need a crm for my marketing agency

Not mandatory, but strongly advised once you juggle several clients. A CRM centralizes contacts, leads, and communication history so details stop getting lost across inboxes and spreadsheets. Arkathos includes a built-in agency CRM with no per-seat fees.

how much should a marketing agency charge per month retainer

Most agencies bill roughly $1,000-$5,000/month retainers; boutique or specialist firms charge $150-$300/hour. About 38% of agencies favor retainers over hourly or project pricing for predictable recurring revenue.

how to make automated client reports for a marketing agency

Connect each client's ad and analytics accounts to a dashboard tool, build one branded template, then duplicate and rebind data per client and schedule white-labeled PDF delivery. Common tools: AgencyAnalytics, DashThis, Swydo.

best proposal and invoicing software for creative agencies

Popular picks: Proposify for polished proposals, HoneyBook and PandaDoc for all-in-one proposals plus contracts and invoices, FreshBooks or QuickBooks for billing. Arkathos bundles proposals, invoicing, and payments with the rest of agency ops at flat pricing.

how do agencies track billable hours across multiple clients

Use time-tracking software that assigns each entry to a client and project, splits billable vs non-billable, sets rates per client or team member, and one-click converts logged hours into itemized invoices. Review utilization weekly.

how much does agency management software cost per month

Wide range: basic tools $25-$99/month, mid-market suites $150-$500/month, enterprise higher, often plus per-seat and setup fees. Flat-rate platforms like Arkathos avoid per-user pricing so costs don't balloon as your team grows.

how to run a marketing agency with multiple clients

Standardize onboarding, run all client work through one project manager, centralize files, automate reporting, and track time and profitability per client weekly. Consolidating CRM, scheduling, invoicing, and payroll into one platform cuts tool-sprawl and manual handoffs.

how do i pay 1099 contractors and freelancers at my agency

Collect a W-9 before paying, track payments per contractor, and file 1099-NEC forms. The reporting threshold rose from $600 (2025 payments) to $2,000 for 2026 payments; NEC forms are due early February. Arkathos automates W-9 collection and 1099 filing.

What licenses and insurance does a marketing & design agency need?

Arkathos tracks 18 items for a marketing & design agency, including Business entity registration + annual/biennial report, General Business License, DBA / Fictitious Business Name Registration, Local business license / business tax registration. Each renewal and expiration is monitored in Watchtower with staged reminders.

What continuing education is required for a marketing & design agency?

The AMA Professional Certified Marketer (PCM) carries a continuing-education requirement of 30 hours every 36 months (30h General marketing (CEUs)). Watchtower logs hours by category and flags shortfalls before the deadline.

Which Arkathos agents does a marketing & design agency get?

Arkathos tailors a marketing & design agency workspace around 6 agents: Sentinel, Treasury, Quartermaster, Scribe, Client Portal, Herald.

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