The Operating Report
Research on running client work · From Optivation
Everything we've published
7 pieces so far, in reverse chronological order. Briefings ship weekly. Summaries and benchmarks fill the gaps in between, and a flagship report lands each quarter.
2026
- SUMMARY25 JUL
Two datasets, one squeeze: US payment delays widened this quarter
Xero puts the average wait to be paid at 28.8 days and climbing; QuickBooks puts 59% of small businesses on at least one 30-day-overdue invoice, up twelve points. What both mean for an agency.
- BENCHMARK13 JUL
What each agency pricing model actually earns
Hourly billing carries the widest adoption and the thinnest margin; value-based pricing the reverse. Why the five-point gap is real and the causal story usually told about it is not.
- REPORT02 JUL
The Agency Economics Report 2026
The 2026 numbers on agency economics in one place: margin, utilisation, overhead, pricing, growth, retention, and AI spend, each sourced and segment-labelled.
- BRIEFING30 JUN
Agency ops signals for small teams — Jun 2026
Five Q2 2026 agency ops signals: record-low billable utilisation (66.4%), retainers outlasting projects, the AI-discount request, and entry-level billable cuts.
- BRIEFING10 JUN
Capacity & hiring signals for small agencies — Jun 2026
Five capacity and hiring signals for agencies of 2–15: the utilisation gap already on payroll, the accelerating subcontractor shift, AI augmentation surfacing in tracked hours, the 5–8 person over-booked crunch, and WIP as the early-warning metric operators miss.
- BRIEFING25 MAY
Agency ops this week — five signals
Inaugural briefing covering 2026 SaaS pricing pressure, AI integration in agency workflows hitting 87%, tool consolidation savings of $2–3K/year, Forrester predictions on agency repositioning, and the Productive.io 2026 guide refresh.
- SUMMARY25 MAY
Four reasons agencies are leaving best-of-breed time-tracking in 2026
A synthesis of four industry sources from Q1–Q2 2026, with a four-question diagnostic for agencies trying to decide whether their own stack is part of the pattern.