The challenge
When I joined the agency, the team relied on a server-based legacy media-management system they had largely abandoned in favour of Excel and Google Sheets. All day-to-day work happened in spreadsheets, and data was only re-entered into the legacy system when it was time to invoice clients - creating duplicate work, errors and delays. Meanwhile, the owners wanted to move to Xero for more flexibility with external accountants, but the legacy system couldn't integrate with it, and previous finance controllers had never found a way through.
- Operational work done in spreadsheets, then re-keyed into the legacy system just to invoice.
- A server-based tool that couldn't feed into Xero, blocking the move to modern cloud accounting.
- Around £30k a year in server and licence costs, with little value realised.
- Any fix had to match how people already worked - without adding more tools or complexity.
My approach
1. Clarified the business needs
I met the two owners to understand their objectives: modern, flexible finance tooling, better visibility of financial performance, and the ability to use Xero so they could choose from a wider pool of external accountants. Crucially, any new approach had to be simple enough for non-finance users and fit the existing way the team worked.
2. Structured requirements gathering (SRS-style)
I brought together five key stakeholders - the two owners, a finance assistant, a client director and an insights & analytics manager - and ran focused sessions to capture functional and non-functional requirements, then organised them into:
Must-haves:
- Integration with Xero
- Ability to upload txt/csv files, not just manual entry
- Ability to create campaign plans
- Ability to track campaign costs
- Multi-level access for different user types
Desirable:
- Scheduling and sharing campaigns with external users
- Approvals workflows
- Booking and tracking social media costs
This became a concise, SRS-style requirements document that served as the reference point for assessing every option.
3. Appraised and selected the solution
I identified four potential options - Prisma, Bionic Media Planner, NetSuite and Paprika - and coordinated discovery sessions and demos with each vendor. I scored every option against the must-have and desirable criteria, weighing functionality, usability, integration, cost and implementation effort. None met all of the core requirements at an acceptable cost and complexity.
I then presented leadership with a clear options comparison - do nothing, adopt a SaaS tool, or build a tailored in-house solution - and recommended building a custom Excel/VBA bookings tool integrated with Xero, based on fit, user familiarity and total cost of ownership. The owners approved it.
4. Designed and built the solution
I designed a VBA-based bookings tool in Excel that mirrored how the team already planned and tracked campaigns, while structuring the data so it could feed straight into Xero for billing and reporting - supporting campaign planning, cost tracking, multi-level access and csv/txt export.
5. Executed the migration and change
- Migrated the trial balance, contact data and all outstanding client and supplier invoices from the legacy system into Xero.
- Implemented automated bank feeds in Xero to cut manual entry and speed up reconciliations.
- Defined new processes for billing, expenses and reporting around Xero and the Excel/VBA tool.
- Because the team already lived in Excel and Sheets, there was no new platform to learn - just clear instructions and light-touch guidance to support adoption.
The results
- £30k annual saving by removing the legacy system and the on-premises server needed to run it.
- Greater efficiency from Xero's automated bank feeds and structured data from the VBA tool, significantly reducing duplicate entry and manual reconciliations.
- Real-time visibility for owners and key managers through centralised financial data in Xero.
- Better employee experience - staff submit expenses via an app and work in tools they already know, with no clunky legacy system to maintain.
- Requirements-aligned outcome - every must-have and several desirables delivered, without the cost and complexity of the SaaS alternatives.
The right answer wasn't the most expensive tool - it was the one that fit how people already worked and connected cleanly to Xero.