Interface365 for Agencies & Services

A complete setup guide for marketing agencies, design studios, dev shops, and any services business that sells projects, retainers, or SOWs. Built for the unique double-cycle of sales then delivery.

1. Component utility matrix

Decide fast: do you need everything Interface365 ships with for your kind of agency or services business? The honest breakdown — what's critical, what's nice-to-have, and what you can safely skip.

Sections 2–7 below explain the configuration. Section 8 covers the retainer-vs-project distinction — agency-specific. Section 9 covers AM commission tracking. Section 10 explains how Interface365 fits alongside the rest of your tools (Asana, Harvest, QuickBooks, etc).

2. Overview

Agencies face a unique challenge no other industry has: the deal doesn't end when you win it. Closing a project means starting a project, and most CRMs collapse after that point. Three structural realities to model:

• Two parallel cycles. Sales pipeline (lead → proposal → won) is one motion. Project pipeline (kickoff → active → completed) is another. Both need tracking, often by different people.
• Retainers vs projects. A monthly retainer behaves nothing like a fixed-scope project — different pricing, different cadence, different success metrics.
• The ongoing relationship. Existing clients are 80% of revenue for most agencies. Tracking expansion, renewals, and referral potential post-delivery is where margin lives.

Interface365's Projects module is the differentiator here — it's a separate entity (not just a deal) that tracks active engagements after the sale closes.

3. Recommended pipelines (you'll need two)

Sales pipeline

For tracking inbound inquiries through to signed contract:

Project pipeline

For tracking active engagements after the contract is signed. This uses Interface365's Projects module (entity_type=project), separate from deals:

4. Custom fields cheatsheet

On the deal record

On the project record

5. Activity types

The defaults cover most logging. Add these agency-specific types under Settings → Activity Types:

• Discovery call — initial scoping with prospect
• Scope review — internal scoping session
• Stakeholder kickoff — formal project kickoff with client team
• Status update — weekly/biweekly client check-in
• Deliverable review — when work is presented for feedback
• Renewal call — retainer renewal conversation
• QBR — quarterly business review for ongoing accounts

6. Lead statuses + tags

Lead statuses (under Settings → Lead Statuses):

• New — fresh inbound
• Brief Awaited — asked for brief, waiting for response
• Qualifying — discovery in progress
• Proposal Sent — pricing delivered, awaiting decision
• Postponed — not now, revisit in 60–90 days
• Disqualified — wrong fit (budget, scope, timeline)

Recommended tags:

• Past Client (green) — has worked with you before, referral candidate
• Referral Source (blue) — actively sends you leads
• Strategic (purple) — high-value relationship, treat with extra care
• Retainer (gold) — ongoing engagement
• One-off (gray) — single project, no expansion expected
• RFP (red) — formal procurement process, longer cycle expected

7. End-to-end workflow

A week in the life of an agency Account Director juggling sales pipeline + 8 active projects.

8. Retainer vs project — handling the difference

The biggest agency-specific challenge is modeling the two engagement types cleanly:

Project (fixed scope)

• Use the Projects module with explicit start_date + end_date
• Track budget_hours vs hours_used
• Move through stages: Onboarding → Active → Review → Wrapping Up → Completed
• Set deal field engagement_type = Project for reporting

Retainer (ongoing)

• Use a long-running Project with renewal_date set to month-end of contract
• Track retainer_monthly instead of project_value
• Stay in Active stage indefinitely (or use a custom Retainer Active stage)
• Tag the project with Retainer for filtering
• Set up monthly QBR tasks via recurring task automation

9. Account Manager commission management

For agency AMs who own deal origination + ongoing retainer health, commission is how comp aligns with renewal-driven economics. Most agencies pay a smaller % than SaaS or consulting (5-8% vs 8-12%) but split it across project + retainer with different rules. Interface365 doesn't ship a comp engine — model the data here so payout is unambiguous.

The four-field setup on Deal

Add these custom fields under Settings → Custom Fields → Deal:

Worked example — Helio engagement from the walkthrough

• Project value = $85,000 (Brand $35K + Web $50K)
• Retainer total = $36,000 (3 × $12K)
• commission_rate_project = 6%
• commission_rate_retainer= 6%
• AM project comp = $85K × 6% = $5,100
• AM retainer comp = $36K × 6% = $2,160
• Total AM comp = $7,260 (paid on first project invoice + SOW signing)
• Referral payout (Glow Naturals · 5% of project) = $4,250

Three saved views every agency needs

• "My commission this quarter" — saved view filtered to account_lead = me AND status = won AND closed_at >= quarter_start, columns include project_value, retainer_total, commission_earned. Each AM gets their own.
• "Referral payouts due" — admin-only saved view filtered to referral_payout_pct > 0 AND commission_payout_status IN (pending, project_paid). This is what bookkeeping reconciles each month — referral fees are how agencies build their referral engine.
• "Renewal exposure" — pivots active retainer projects by renewal_date within the next 60 days. AMs review weekly to schedule renewal calls before the contract drift kills the relationship.

10. Where Interface365 fits — alongside, not against, your studio's stack

Most agencies run a stack: a CRM for pipeline + relationships, a project tool for execution (Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Notion), a time-tracking tool (Harvest, Toggl), an accounting/invoicing tool (QuickBooks, FreshBooks), and a docs library (Google Drive, Notion). The real question isn't "Interface365 OR HubSpot?" — it's "where in my stack does Interface365 live?"

Interface365 is positioned as the system of record for pipeline, deals, projects (sales-side), and renewal-tracking. We're not trying to replace your daily project execution tool, your time-tracker, or your invoicing — we're trying to be the deal + relationship hub that the rest of your stack reads from.

The "alongside" pattern (most agencies $500K-$10M revenue)

This is exactly what walkthrough Step 12 demonstrates — engagement-won out via webhook to Slack + QuickBooks + the Asana project workspace. The tools don't fight; they each do what they're best at.

When Interface365 alone is enough

• Solo or 2-5 person studios — Interface365 + Google Drive + QuickBooks is the entire stack. Day-to-day project work happens in Interface365's task lists. Add Asana or ClickUp once delivery scales past what tasks can track (typically 10+ active projects).
• Hybrid services businesses — agency + consulting + advisory all on one CRM. Generic building blocks mean one tool covers all three motions, where HubSpot + a separate PM tool would cost 3× more in seats.
• You want to own your data layer — Interface365 has clean APIs + webhooks. Agency comp models, multi-AM splits, referral economics, retainer-vs-project distinctions — all configurable on top.

When to pick something else outright

• HubSpot agency partners running on HubSpot Pro+ — if your agency sells HubSpot implementations, you almost certainly run on HubSpot's own CRM as part of the relationship. Interface365 doesn't compete here; you eat your own dog food.
• Agencies needing media-buying / paid-ad attribution — paid-media agencies often need direct integration with Google Ads / Meta / TikTok Ads APIs for attribution + budget tracking. Built-for-paid-media tools (e.g. AdvertiseMint Studio, Triple Whale agency tier) do this natively. Interface365's API can pull those numbers in via webhook but it's a build-vs-buy decision.

Bottom line: think of Interface365 as the deal + relationship system of record for agencies that want clean separation between pipeline (what's about to close) and execution (what the team is actually doing today) — and let your other best-of-breed tools own the day-to-day work.

11. Next steps

Ready to set this up? Start your free trial and follow the steps above. Most agencies have both pipelines configured within a few hours.

Need help mapping your specific service mix or retainer structure? Email hello@interface365.ai — we'll send back a custom configuration plan within 48 hours.