Marketing and advertising agencies
Most of what moves through your account is not yours
Media spend is billed to the client and paid to the platforms, so revenue looks enormous and margin looks thin, and "we did SAR 4m this year" tells you nothing. The two real questions are which client is profitable after freelancers and production, and whether you are funding your clients’ campaigns out of your own working capital.
- Every client is a dimension: revenue, direct costs, margin
- Recharged media spend kept separate from agency fees
- The monthly retainer invoices itself on its date
- Platform invoices in other currencies, with exchange differences recorded
The actual work
Between the client, the platform and the supplier
An agency sells time, buys services and passes spend through. Three very different money movements, usually posted into one column — after which someone asks why growth has not produced profit.
Media spend is not your revenue
What you spend on the platforms for a client passes through your account. Separating it from your fees is what turns margin into a real number instead of a misleading percentage of inflated revenue.
The monthly retainer
The monthly contract invoices itself on its date for its whole term, and its renewal surfaces before it lapses. Relying on someone to remember is why a quarter of agency invoicing goes out late.
Profit per client, not agency revenue
Every client is a dimension collecting its fees and its direct costs: freelancers, production, licences. The client that looks biggest is very often the least profitable.
Freelancers and production suppliers
A photographer, an editor, a printer, a video producer. A purchase order for each, charged to the right client, with their invoice matched against it before payment rather than disappearing into unattributed overhead.
Platform invoices in other currencies
Ad platform invoices usually arrive in dollars. They are booked in their own currency with the exchange difference recorded, reporting stays consolidated in Riyals, and the difference stays visible rather than being absorbed into rounding.
The cash gap
Platforms are paid now; the client settles in sixty days. That gap is what stops growing agencies, and aged receivables are what make it visible before it becomes a crisis.
The documents
What actually leaves the agency
Most agency clients are companies, which means most of these documents are standard tax invoices going through clearance.
- Proposal and scope of work
- Deliverables, timeline and fees, and whether media spend is inside or outside them. The document that prevents most end-of-project arguments.
- Retainer agreement
- Monthly fee, term, scope and revision limits. The recurring invoice is generated from it.
- Agency fee invoice
- A monthly fee or a project instalment. A standard tax invoice in the client company’s name, cleared before delivery. Standard tax invoice (B2B) — cleared before delivery
- Media spend recharge invoice
- What was spent on the client’s behalf, separate from your fees. Keeping it in its own document is what preserves both margin clarity and auditability.
- Production supplier purchase order
- A commitment to a photographer, printer or producer, charged to the right client and matched against their invoice.
- Credit note
- When scope changes or a deliverable is cancelled after billing. Issued electronically and linked to the original invoice. In scope for e-invoicing
Mezan products
The parts of the platform you actually need
An agency carries no stock: contracts, fees, purchasing and collection.
Mezan Core
Dimensions make every client and every campaign a profit centre, with recurring invoicing for retainers, multi-currency purchasing for platform and supplier invoices, and aged receivables.
Learn moreMezan Workflows
Approve the scope before it goes out, the production purchase order before it is committed, and any overrun on a campaign budget. Three places where agency margin leaks.
Learn moreNour AI
Platform, supplier and freelancer invoices read automatically and posted to the right client — the most repetitive manual task in an agency, and the one most likely to be left until month end.
Learn moreMezan Pay
Collect agency fees online through a payment link — mada, Apple Pay, Google Pay and cards — with the receipt posting straight to the client’s invoice.
Learn moreE-invoicing
Your fee and your media spend are not one line
Most of your invoices are standard tax invoices to companies, so they are cleared by Fatoora before they reach the client. The decision that comes first is accounting, not technical: do you recharge media spend as a line on your invoice or as a cost paid on the client’s behalf, how are invoices from non-resident platforms treated, and how are services exported to a client outside the Kingdom classified. Your accountant decides; Mezan applies it to every invoice as decided.
Read the e-invoicing page- Every fee invoice to a company is submitted for clearance and returned stamped before delivery
- Media spend recharges are presented the way your accountant specifies, then applied automatically to every invoice after it
- Invoices from non-resident platforms have their own treatment in the return — your accountant sets it, the system records it as set
- Scope changes after billing are handled with an electronic credit note, not by editing an issued invoice
Frequently asked
How do we actually find out which clients are profitable?
By charging every direct cost to the client dimension: freelancer fees, production invoices, licences, and media spend where it sits on your account. The dimension report then puts each client’s revenue beside its direct costs. The recurring result is that the biggest client is not the most profitable one.
Does the system handle platform invoices in dollars?
Yes. Purchases and invoices are booked in their own currency with exchange differences recorded, and reporting stays consolidated in Saudi Riyals. The tax treatment of services bought from non-resident suppliers is your accountant’s decision, and the system applies it as specified.
We work with clients outside the Kingdom. Is that supported?
Yes, for invoicing, currencies and collection. How an exported service is classified for tax purposes remains your accountant’s call based on the nature of the service and the client, and Mezan applies the classification you set to every invoice raised for that client.
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