For your industry
BizTools for Australian Service Agencies
Service agencies live and die on three numbers: utilisation, charge-out rate, and gross margin per project. Everything on this page is built for AU service agencies — calculators that pressure-test those three numbers, plus the software and structure decisions that come with the growth stages.
On this page
- Calculators for charge-out rates, employee cost, utilisation.
- Honest accounting software comparisons (Xero vs MYOB).
- Plain-English guides for staffing, BAS, structure, payroll.
- Affiliate-disclosed partner recommendations.
Calculators
Calculators for agencies actually use
Built for the decisions you make every week — pricing, quoting, costing, GST, payroll.
Calculator
Employee Cost Calculator AU
Estimate the true cost of an AU agency employee — wages plus super, leave, workers comp, on-costs.
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Calculator
Billable Utilisation Planner
Work out the utilisation rate your team needs to hit per role to make the unit economics work.
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Calculator
Hourly Rate Calculator
Set agency charge-out rates that cover cost, target margin, and account for non-billable time.
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Calculator
Service Pricing Calculator
Build defensible project prices from cost + overhead + margin (not market guess).
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Calculator
Cash Flow Runway Calculator
Check how long your current cash covers expenses if revenue softens.
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Calculator
Contractor vs Employee Cost
Compare the total cost of bringing on a contractor vs an employee for the same scope of work.
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Guides + comparisons
Practical reading
Plain-English explanations + honest software comparisons for your persona.
Head-to-head
Xero vs MYOB
The two dominant AU accounting platforms. Pricing, payroll, integrations — which fits your agency.
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Comparison
Best AU invoicing software
Hnry vs Rounded vs Xero vs MYOB — still useful even for early-stage agencies before payroll lands.
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Guide
Single Touch Payroll explained
What STP is, what to report, deadlines, and which software handles it.
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Guide
Sole trader vs Pty Ltd
When the agency structure change pays off (usually earlier than founders think).
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Guide
Employee vs contractor (AU)
Cost + classification + when each makes sense for agency scope.
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Guide
Pricing services profitably (AU)
Framework for building defensible prices from cost + margin, not market guess.
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Recommended tools
Software AU agencies actually use
Once you're past sole-trader and adding staff, the accounting + payroll stack matters more than the invoicing UX. Xero and MYOB own this space.
Xero
Accounting software for growing businesses
The most widely used cloud accounting platform in Australia — invoicing, GST, payroll, BAS, and integrations with most banks and POS systems.
MYOB
Accounting + payroll for Australian SMBs
Long-running Australian accounting platform with strong payroll, single-touch payroll lodgement, BAS, and inventory features for established small businesses.
Hnry
Sole trader tax + invoicing on autopilot
Australian sole-trader service that handles invoicing, GST, BAS, income tax, and super so you can stop juggling spreadsheets at quarter-end.
See the head-to-head: Xero vs MYOB for AU agencies →
BizTools.au may earn a small commission if you start a paid plan after clicking an affiliate link. The commission does not change the price you pay and does not influence which tools we recommend — see our disclaimer for the full version.
FAQ
Common questions
- What's the realistic team-cost ratio I should target?
- Most healthy AU service agencies run team costs (salaries + on-costs + super) at 50-60% of revenue, with gross margin per project at 50-65% after direct delivery cost. Use the Employee Cost Calculator to build up the salary + super + leave + workers comp number, then divide expected billable hours into it to get the true per-hour cost — that's what your charge-out rate has to clear with margin on top.
- Xero or MYOB for an AU agency?
- Xero is the default — it's what almost every AU accountant uses, has the biggest integration ecosystem (Stripe, HubSpot, time trackers), and scales cleanly. MYOB usually only wins for agencies where payroll is the dominant workflow (e.g. agencies with 15+ staff on AU awards). See our Xero vs MYOB head-to-head for the full picture.
- When should we move from sole trader to Pty Ltd as an agency?
- Usually sooner than you think. The moment you hire your first employee, sign a customer contract with material liability exposure (e.g. anything advisory), or your founder profit consistently exceeds ~$120k, the Pty Ltd math starts winning. Below that the admin overhead usually wipes out the tax saving.
- What utilisation rate should our team hit?
- Industry rule of thumb for AU service agencies: senior delivery 60-70%, mid 70-80%, junior 75-85%. Anyone in 'leadership' (founders, account leads) is usually 30-50%. Use the Billable Utilisation Planner to work backwards from your target margin to see what utilisation rate that actually implies per role.
Disclaimer
A note on the recommendations
Important note
BizTools.au is designed to make business numbers easier to check, but calculator outputs still need judgment and real-world context.
- Calculator results are general estimates only and depend on the figures entered.
- Examples and summaries are provided for general information, not legal, tax, accounting, payroll, or financial advice.
- Before relying on a result for a real decision, check your assumptions and get qualified advice where needed.